Guilty Sparks

by General Rage

Fleeing from the glassing of Reach in the belly of the Pillar of the Autumn, the crew of the SR-2 Normandy find themselves stranded with their UNSC allies on a strange Forerunner constructed ring world called Halo with the Covenant hunting them. But Halo holds a secret, one deadlier than both the Covenant and Reapers combined... and it's hungry.

21. A Day at Heritage Fields

Chapter 20: A Day at Heritage Fields

August 9th, 2185

It was no easy task sneaking into the worst planet in the galaxy, at least not for a regular person. For the Shadow Broker it was at least doable. Within the false wall of the inside of a crate within a transport frigate, Liara's team was spirited into batarian space. Their ship soon headed in for a landing on Khar'shan, touching down in a storage facility within the city limits. Moments after their crate was unloaded an unmarked vehicle pulled up to it. The driver got out, knocked six times on the container as Liara had instructed and they quickly piled out.

"Are you Drothen?" Liara asked him.

"Yeah, put your equipment in the back and stay quiet," he told her. "Ferrying aliens on Khar'shan is a felony offence on par with treason. That's a charge we can ill-afford."

Everyone did as told, although Nel hesitated when she noticed that the truck they were climbing into had wheels.

"You don't have a hover transport?" She asked Drothen

"Do I look like I'm a Merchant?" He irritably asked in return. "Get in the damn truck already, before one of the dock workers sees you."

Nel shrugged and climbed in, earning some stares from the others.

"Most of my contacts are among the worker caste," Liara explained to her. "They're just slightly above slaves within the caste system."

"What makes them higher than slaves?" Nel asked.

"They're actually paid," Vik explained. "Not much, but just enough to distinguish them. They do all the work that's too tedious for merchants, but not labour intensive enough for a slave. After all, slaves can't learn to drive or be given access to a vehicle. They'd escape and you can't have that, can you?"

Nel sat down as the vehicle jerked forward and began to move.

"Still, a truck with wheels? No shuttle?" Nel asked wondering. "We couldn't get a shuttle?"

"Only merchant class and up are permitted to fly shuttles within city limits," Liara informed her. "Even if the worker caste could do that, they're not nearly rich enough to own a shuttle. Besides, this is the least conspicuous way to get to the safe house just outside the city walls."

No one could really see said city, being stuck inside a windowless vehicle. They did have a monitor that let them see a rather grainy image of the outside though, but that was it.

"Where exactly are we?" Kayap asked.

"The Hegemony's capital city," Liara replied. "While much of Khar'shan consists of various conflicting states, they're all united under the banner of the Hegemony. Which is centered here, Kronshengya, the biggest city on Khar'shan."

As the truck made its way through the streets, the team kept their eyes on the monitor. They could see the vague outlines of many buildings, but very few lights.

"Kinda dark, isn't it?" Wrex asked.

"Hegemony leadership tends to save most of its electricity for the higher caste sectors of the city," Vik told him. "We're in the slums, where the slaves and slightly higher workers live in squalor. They're not going to waste money powering this place."

"So we're going to be stuck in a dark little crappy apartment for the rest of the night?" Nel asked.

"No," Liara assured her. "We have some place a bit more secluded."

---

It was another hour of travelling before they made it to the location. In the middle of the woods, tucked behind trees and brambles, was a small cabin. It was around twenty years old at least and looked it. The little house had a flat roof and was spaced out into four sections. It was constructed from colonial shack pieces, the same used on many worlds to create quick little shelters in the wilderness. These ones had been welded together to create a home away from home. It would be where Liara's team would reside for the duration of their stay on Khar'shan.

Drothan brought them inside and showed them around.

"I stocked the kitchen with some dextro food I smuggled in," he began. "There are two bedrooms to the right and a bathroom close to them. There are only four beds though, so some of you are going to have to sleep on the couch or something. The study, kitchen and main lounge take up the rest of the house. Don't stain the carpets by the way. They're new... and expensive."

"So this is your place?" Wrex asked.

"It was my great uncle's before he died and I inherited it," Drothan said as they looked around. "I think it was about all he owned. He hated the city, too much pollution and crap he said. He didn't like people either. Not sure why he liked me, maybe it was because I was the only one who went hunting with him. Point is it makes a good place to hide out and let the heat wear off after jobs. We're close enough to civilization for it to be sustainable, yet far enough away to keep people from snooping around."

Kayap hobbled across the floor, sniffing at the air through his mask, his olfactory filters picked up some rather strange sensations.

"Bit musty, isn't it?" He asked.

"That would be my uncle, he had a strong stench and it lingers," Drothan explained. "It comes and goes, don't worry."

Saya looked over the walls of the living room, noting the stuffed animal trophies on display, mostly Khar'shan native species of course. One could recognize the vicious Spined-Slizzerback and Grunlek. The pointed reptilian snout of the former was opened wide, with both its tongues sticky out. The gnarley maw of the latter was pulled into a menacing frown, parts of its mane hanging down from the plaque and its six nostrils still flared as if it was still sniffing for prey.

Nel looked at one of the pictures, doubtlessly portraying the image of the uncle while he was alive. He was standing over a fresh kill of an Alpha Varren, his boot pressed on the creature's throat.

"So you sure the police never come out here?" Nel asked the batarian as she kept staring at the picture.

"Not once," Drothan assured. "They don't care about the countryside, not with so many people to keep tabs on within the city walls. If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't be living here half the time. You don't want to get caught on this planet doing anything illegal."

"Cops like using the shock stick a little more than usual or something?" Nel asked half-joking.

"Criminals within Hegemony jurisdiction are stripped of caste and turned over to slave labour," Vik quickly explained as he walked past Nel towards the study's door. "Supposedly, the law applies to all castes, but it rarely happens to anyone within the Merchant Class or above. That's how they keep the slave population stable, finding worker caste batarians who have broken some law. Then they put them to work with no pay."

Nel eyed the quarian as the door to the study swished open and he entered.

"Quarian knows the score it seems," Drothan told her. "Best listen to him if you want to know what you're in for."

"Yeah, whatever," Nel grumbled, her eyes eventually drawn towards an old holovision in the corner. "Just tell me if that thing works or not."

"It does, but there's nothing on," he replied.

Nel decided to judge for herself. She went over to the holovision and looked it over.

"Hmm, classic model, early 2140s if I'm right," she observed. "I suppose I can handle a lack of Ultra Mega-High def quality and just settle for high."

Nel switched the screen on to find a flag waving at her in the wind. It was the Hegemony's flag, a bright red star surrounded by a yellow circle against a red background with blue diagonal stripes taking up the corners. And in the center of the star was a black ceremonial dagger. The Hegemony's national anthem played in the background loudly. The prideful call of what seemed like a choir group singing filled the room, making the song sound more like a religious hymn than a national anthem.

When the anthem ended, Nel expected it to switch to something else. But the flag kept waving and then the song started up again.

"The fuck is this?" Nel asked.

"That would be the syndicated patriotism channel," their batarian host answered. "It only plays the national anthem against scenes of the flag for hours at a time. Every holovision sold is pre-programmed to switch to that channel upon activation and you can't change it until you hear it the whole way through once. They sometimes play other songs on special occasions, also all patriotic and non-threatening, but it keeps it new."

"Boring, where's the cartoons and shit?" Nel asked.

She didn't wait for an answer, switching to another channel to find a news report in progress. The anchorman was reading off the ending to the latest story.

"And thus, with the escaped slaves swiftly returned to their owners, I think it is safe to say the citizens of Krongshengya will doubtless sleep easier this night." The anchor concluded.

The topic then switched as the graphic behind the anchor's head changed to that of an official looking government seal.

"In regards to other security matters," The anchor started anew. "Our Glorious Emperor, Lord Eskorik Narvkel, issued a proclamation earlier today that will assure the continuing security and safety of all batarians within Hegemony space. The Emperor has signed into law a new piece of legalisation that will keep us safe from the most insidious of all corruptions that can leak into our society. Specifically, the corrupting forces from within the murky waters of the extranet."

The scene shifted to one of a rather old looking batarian in a black suit, adored with medals along the chest. He also wore a rather wide smile, one that was inviting and warm, like a grandfather. The camera flashes of photographers nearly blinded him, their various voices drowning out all sound, but all he did was chuckle lightly at it all.

But Liara could recognize the charade. He was flanked by two armed guards, military grade rifles in hand. His four eyes, while pleasant looking, just seemed off to the casual outsider, as did his smile upon closer inspection. He didn't seem genuine, more like a commercial presenter or talk show host. It was too wide a grin, his eyes too forcefully inviting, his stature too put on. It was an act, confirmed even more when he spoke.

"My beloved fellow batarians," he slowly began to speak, his voice as soothing and fatherly as his face was. "We enjoy many freedoms on this planet. We enjoy freedom from the taint of alien influence, freedom from the corruption and prejudices of the Council and, most importantly, the freedom for a man to defend his divine property and caste. However, our freedoms are at stake every day from being corroded from within by the evils from without. Evils that seep into our beloved Hegemony because they exploit the freedoms we have."

"He sure likes saying freedom a lot," Wrex noted with a slight laugh. "Kinda ironic for a species that funds slave rings."

Liara kept watching, taking in the performance word for word. The Emperor stood straight as he moved on, clasping his hands into a gingerly and gentle position.

"We can't let our love for freedom endanger our livelihoods," he explained to the crowd. "So, I have enacted a piece of legislation that will successfully cap this leak. As of today, the extranet monitoring agency has been reinforced. Several sites, sporting anti-Hegemony propaganda, have been added to the block list. More importantly, the government now reserves the right to terminate extranet connections beyond Hegemony space in the case of a dire emergency. Our wondrous race will continue to prosper, so long as we remember the fundamentals this government was founded on. You will always be protected so long as my house holds the throne. And that is an Emperor Narvkel guarantee."

Narvkal then gave the camera thumbs up and a wink before giving off another hearty chuckle. The reporters asked no questions, only clapped for continuously at their leader's declaration.

"What a fucking joke," Vik said derisively as he leaned on the doorframe to the study. "He's just told them they've lost all access to free information and they're applauding him."

"Welcome to Khar'shan," Drothan replied. "Narvkel has been ruling the Hegemony with that oversized grin of his for over twelve years now. Everything he says is gold, although most of it is all just crap he gets his speechwriters to come up with."

"Not a fan I take it?" Wrex asked him.

The batarian huffed at Wrex's question.

"Why do you think I'm working for ShadowNet?" He responded. "Thanks to his laws, the only slightly high paying jobs I can get are in the shipyards and those places are unsafe death traps. Something that is also thanks to him and the fact he turns a blind eye to working conditions. A courier doesn't pay much, but it's safer, and it gets me access to quite a few things. And if a few of those things end up with the Shadow Broker and I get an extra few hundred credits, I'm good."

"I'll see to it you gain a raise for this then, Drothan," Liara assured him. "I really appreciate the risks you've taken."

"I hope so," Drothan informed her. "It took every favour I had to make sure your crate didn't get checked. Just do what you have to do here and leave the credit chit when you leave. And don't tell me why you're here either, the less I know, the better."

A wise sentiment, one Liara could respect.

Nel, in the meantime, had already grown bored with the news channel and was about to flip, when the picture changed to an exterior shot of Krongshengya's skyline with an overlay of the week's weather forecast. Despite the graphics predicting a sunny day for the city before heavy clouds rolled in, it was impossible to ignore the biggest building in the background. It was a tall pyramid-like structure stretching up high into the sky. Its glass glittered as the slowly rising sun hit it from the side, the structure itself casting a shadow across much of the Downtown area.

"What's with the big ass glass pyramid?" She asked.

Vik kneeled down beside her to get a better look, along with Drothan.

"Ah, the news channel's early morning weather forecast and sunrise watch. Enjoy the beauty of Krongshengya and whatever," Drothan grumbled dismissively. "May the sun shine down upon us and blah-de-blah-blah."

"That wasn't my question," Nel told him irritably.

Before Drothan could reply properly, Vik filled her in.

"The Rakavekyon Tower," He said disapprovingly. "It's the tallest building on Khar'shan, or the tallest eyesore in existence if you'd prefer. They started building it back in 2156, claimed it would be finished by the start of 2160. It was going to be the Hegemony's five-star hotel for foreign dignitaries and high paying tourists, proof to all of the Hegemony's glory at the expense of slave labour and tax payer's money."

"Was?" Nel asked confused a she stared back at the building's image through the forecast graphics. "It's not finished?"

"They got the windows on before they suddenly switched to higher priorities," Vik explained. "After the falling out they had with the Council, alien diplomats and rich off-world tourists were no longer wanted in Hegemony space. The new foreign policy was, if they're not going to bend over for us, why should we? All of a sudden, the prospect of increased tourism and the credits it brought was deemed 'culturally subversive' by allowing non-batarians to bring 'outsider influences' onto the home world."

Vik snorted at the image as he turned to it.

"That thing cost billions of credits," he stated. "Its budget could've gone to feeding people and creating better housing. Instead, it's now just one big monument to the Hegemony's ego and greed."

"So, why don't they tear it down and sell the scrap iron if it's so useless to them now?" Nel asked.

Dorthan laughed at the suggestion before Vik could answer.

"And admit they wasted all that time and money?" He asked mockingly in return. "What are you, nuts? No, the government just keeps saying they're gonna finish it someday and open it to the public. Except of course no one would be able to afford the place anyway and they've been saying that since 2162. It's never going to be open. They haven't restarted work on it in years and yet they still got the construction site locked down. They're paying people to guard an empty building that's never going to be open! It's kinda hilarious actually."

Nel, deciding she had enough of staring at the stupid building herself, finally changed the channel. What appeared next seemed to be some kind of cartoon, starring some guy with a fancy looking light sword.

"Oh, you guys got cartoons, neat!" Nel said to Dorthan with an intrigued grin.

Drothan and Vik didn't share her enthusiasm.

"Wait for it," Drothan droningly told her.

The guy wielding the fancy sword was soon revealed to be a human, a very poorly drawn and disgusting offensive looking human. He had beady eyes, a large head and a huge overbite. He was extremely hairy and scratched himself now and again like some kind of primate. His armour was dark black with spikes and he was flanked by several other humans covered in similarly sinister looking armour.

He forced his way into what looked like a field, his minions cutting down guards as they advanced. The action animation was very crude, choppy and of a general poor quality, not helped by the outdated screen. It also heavily emphasized the violence done to the batarian soldiers, as they were shot repeatedly and then beaten into the ground.

After the guards were all so ruthlessly killed, their leader rushed over to a group of batarians in chains. He cut them free with his lasersword one by one. A few of his masked minions then began handing out weapons to the freed batarians who eagerly clawed at them like stupid animals

"Wha-ha-ha," The cartoon human leader cackled menacingly. "Now that the slaves are freed, I'll use them to help me conquer the batarians in the name of the Alliance and then the Galaxy!"

"Not so fast, Abolisher!"

A dramatic heroic sound was heard and the Human turned to see a batarian wearing the colours of the Hegemony flag on his spacesuit and sporting an advanced looking pistol in his hand.

"You're too late, Captain Patriot!" The human declared. "The slaves are now mine and your civilization will crumble!"

"You seek to ruin everything that makes us strong by taking away our sacred right to own the lower castes," Captain Patriot declared. "This will not come to pass as long as there are batarians willing to put an end to your foolish notions of abolition."

Captain Patriot then shot off into the sky with a jetpack and attacked the humans from on high, along with the freed slaves. He easily shot down the humans with little effort and then created a laser whip from his hand which he used to strike the slaves and force them back into a kneeling submissive pose.

"Get up and fight, you cowards!" The Abolisher demanded. "Don't you want to be free?"

"Freedom is not their right, human," Captain Patriot told him. "They know their rightful place, and I will teach you yours!"

There was a short battle as Captain Patriot easily sacked the Abolisher to the ground with a single punch before wrapping his neck up in a laser whip.

"There are others like me!" The human declared. "You will never stop us! Not when the rest of the galaxy allows us such free reign!"

"The asari and turians may allow you to spread your foul ideas, but the Hegemony will always stand to face you!" Captain Patriot replied defiantly. "Owning the lesser castes is the right of all higher caste batarians! And I won't let you take that away from us!"

Captain Patriot then casually choked the human to death with ease and stepped onto his body heroically.

"Another glorious victory for all Batarian kind," decreed an announcer. "Thanks in no small part to CAPTAIN PATRIOT!"

Everyone, save for Vik and Drothan, looked at the holoscreen in a mixture of shock, disgust and complete confusion.

"What the hell was that?" Wrex asked, his hand outstretching towards the screen.

"Captain Patriot," Drothan replied, with a low, drawn annoyed sigh. "He's real big here, nowhere else. He's mandatory watching for children. I got tired of him by age five. The show is just so formulaic and dull after the sixth hundredth time he kills the Abolisher. It's always with the whip somehow."

"How do you keep killing the same villain over and over?" Nel asked, befuddle at the concept.

Vik just seemed to roll his eyes. For a moment, Liara thought he was going to go off on a rant about how Nel's movies had villains that were all similar or something. Thankfully, the quarian restrained himself somehow.

"He's supposed to be a different human every time, I think," Drothan grouchily explained unhindered. "I don't know for sure, I don't watch Holovision anymore."

As the credits for the show began to roll, the announcer returned in full force.

"Tune in tomorrow for a brand new exciting Captain Patriot episode," he advised. "See our hero face off against an evil underground thieves guild of quarian infiltrators who are planning to steal the Hegemony's entire supply of gold!"

Instinctively, everyone turned to Vik to see his reaction. He had the same deadpan look through his visor that he had been wearing since the HV came on, his silver eyes glaring at the screen. His grated boiling angry voice told them everything they needed to know about the rest of his expression.

"Turn. It. Off." He said, speaking through his teeth.

Nel switched channels and found themselves looking at a network promo next.

"Tonight on KBN, the Khar'shan Broadcasting Network, it's a thriller classic from days gone by! How much do you really know somebody? Even your own husband!"

A female batarian nervously approached her husband in a chair, holding a stack of datapads in her hands.

"Darling, what is all this I found in your study?" She pleaded. "Liberty Shuttle? A Decade in Chains? The Cabin of Uncle Drokorv? This is all anti-slavery literature! What is going on?"

The husband than rose eerily and looked her in her eyes with a menacingly distant glare.

"If you must know my dear, I am an abolitionist," he announced softly and creepily.

The wife screamed in horror as a title flew into view.

"I Married an Abolitionist!" The Announcer read aloud. "Tonight at Eleven! Followed by 'The Human Menace' at One!"

Nel switched the channel again, but only found that she had returned to the flag channel once more.

"Only four channels?" She said astonished.

"We have the Flag channel, the Hegemony News Network, the Children's Educational Fun Channel and KBN," Drothan told her. "I told you there was nothing on."

"You could probably use this opportunity to catch up on some reading then," Vik suggested cheekily as he handed over a book to the turian. "A lot healthier for the mind than Holovision anyway."

Nel took the book in Vik's hands curiously, eyeing it as she took hold of it. She read the title out loud.

"Prehistoric Creatures of Khar'Shan," she read as her eyes tried to figure out what exactly she was holding. She opened the book and started pecking at the pages with her fingers. "A paper book? No electronics? Seriously?"

"It's a lot more personal than a datapad I think," Vik replied sincerely. "You'll need special lenses to translate the text though."

Nel tossed the book aside and cued up her omni-tool instead.

"Outdated holovision, only four channels, creepy old cabin with animal heads and paper books," Nel growled aloud to all who could hear. "I am officially stuck in the dark ages. Thank the Spirits for omni-tools and downloadable vids!"

Vik just shrugged and walked away, at least no one could say he didn't try.

"Well, I better get going," Drothan told them all. "I have deliveries to make. I'll be back with more food and supplies when you need them."

"Thank you again, Drothan," said Liara graciously.

The batarian soon exited the cabin, leaving the group to their own devices. Feeling they had dawdled long enough, Liara quickly set about getting to work. They had still had mission to take care of.

"How goes tracking the data dump's location, Vik?" She asked their quarian companion.

"The signal has been getting cleaner and more precise ever since we landed," Vik answered. "I think I may have a more accurate location now."

Vik brought up his omni-tool, the tracking program already opened on its viewscreen. On it was a static orbital picture of Khar'shan, one that lacked many technical details, but had enough to properly make out the landscape. As the picture began to slowly, but surely, zoom-in on the coordinates the signal was originating from. The quarian let Liara get a better look at the screen, just as the program finally narrowed down their target.

"Well, we have a set of coordinates now," Vik observed. "The data dump doesn't look like it's too far from the capital either. Your hunch was right, Doc."

"Not entirely," Liara humbly admitted, looking at how far away the source was from the city. "I was expecting it to be within the capital's walls. This one seems to be in a more rural and open area a few miles away."

"Well, in the streets or in the sticks, they're gonna need a place to house the thing," Vik reasoned. "Let's see if I can figure out if there is anything out there that sticks out."

As Vik began his check, Nel cut in with a question.

"Are you sure this data dump is gonna have what we missed back at that lab?" She asked.

"It's like Vik said," Liara reminded her. "The Network Connection the lab had allowed it to upload all its relevant intel into that data dump. That requires the same network access we were looking for, along with the Hegemony Government Communication codes. Once we find the dump and hack it, we'll have what we came for."

A quick cross check using different maps of the area, as well as information from the local net, allowed Vik to finally pinpoint the probable location where the data dump was being housed. It turned out to be the last place any one would've suspected. Wrex eventually peered over their shoulder to see what they were looking at so dumbfounded.

"Oh you have got to joking," he moaned.

---

They had walked several miles through the forest to reach their destination. Now, from atop a hill, they could clearly see their target below. They could see the large landing lot in front of a large fenced in complex. Within, they could see various tracks, buildings, stands, streets, flag poles stretching high into the sky, and more. Even from here, they could smell the grease and sugar from the various vendors within. While there was no music, they could hear it in their minds just by looking at the place.

A large gate resided at the front of it all. It was flanked by the Hegemony's national bird, a Crested Vandergle. They were perched atop top two large pillars with their wings stretched out. From their wings, a bright sign read 'Heritage Fields.' The fact this was their where they needed to go seriously defied their original expectations.

"An amusement park," Wrex growled in disbelief. "They put their data dump in an amusement park. Are these people just borrowing all their ideas from old cheesy mystery-solving cartoons?"

"What's an amusement park?" Kayap asked looking up at Liara, bewildered by exactly what they were looking at.

Liara supposed his people wouldn't know much about something like this. She doubted the Covenant had time for rides and games, let alone the money set aside to make one for unggoys to go vacation at.

"It's a place where people go to have fun with their friends and family," Liara tried to explain. "They ride things on tracks, watch parades and shows, play all sorts of games and buy food, toys and t-shirts."

"Or use it to store backup files on all their evil schemes it seems," Vik interjected.

"I think that this park is the only one that really does that, Vik," Liara corrected him.

The quarian seemed to accept the asari's reasoning, not saying anything more. Nel, in the meantime, took a look through her rifle's scope down at the park itself. She could see guards at the main gate, military of course, but it didn't look like the park was open at all. Even if it was, it was still strange to see armed security forces at an amusement park, especially ones armed with rifles.

"What's with the goon squad out front?" She asked. "Shouldn't they be rent-a-cops and not the National Guard?"

"Not this amusement park," Vik informed her. "It was funded and constructed by the Hegemony government."

"Making it a federal installation," Liara quickly added. "Therefore, it's under their jurisdiction to police. That of course also makes it quite easy to set up a secret government data storage dump inside its walls."

"That still doesn't answer why an amusement park of all places," Wrex reminded them.

As always, Vik was quick to field the question himself.

"Heritage Fields isn't your average fun land," he spoke up. "It's essentially an indoctrination facility for kids. You know, spy on your parents, rat out your friends, defend the Hegemony and learn to hate humans? It's all designed to inspire total loyalty among young minds before they start thinking for themselves. And what better way to brainwash people than to make it sound like they're having fun? I'd bet every credit I had on them monitoring the visitors to see which kids are buying it and which aren't as a plus. You know, just to see how well they're doing while potentially sniffing out traitors."

Nel, still kneeling on the ground looking through her scope, looked up at the quarian inquisitively.

"You seem to be Mr. Expert on all things Hegemony for the guy who didn't want to come," Nel told him, a cocked brow in his direction.

Vik looked down, shifting his eyes slightly towards the park once before answering properly.

"Unlike you, I actually read about things," Vik haughtily explained. "People have smuggled the information maps they hand out at the park out of Hegemony space and have taken hidden camera footage of it as well. If you actually paid attention to these things, you'd know it too. Also, it was these sorts of things that were the reason I didn't want to go, a government so desperate to keep its populous in bondage they'll pervert childhood to do it."

"And yet, you still came," Nel chided him. "So does that mean you got over it or what?"

"I don't have to like it, but if I have to be here I want this to be done right," Vik retorted. "That means knowing the enemy and expecting the worst out of them. In any case, if anyone here should have issue with coming here its Clad-in-Black Silent Death over there."

Vik pointed behind him towards Saya, leaning against a tree. His attention had only been slightly called by Vik's statement.

"He's STG," Vik reminded everyone. "Despite that, he's cool with potentially getting his government implicated in the infiltration of a sovereign nation. Not that the Hegemony doesn't have it coming, but you'd think he'd be a bit more averse to causing an international incident."

"You do realise STG doesn't care about that and never has... ever," Wrex informed the quarian.

"Oh, I know," Vik assured the humpbacked Chieftain. "But wouldn't they have a problem with one of their agents hopping on down to Khar'shan without authorization from their Dalatress? Unless, of course, it had something to do with krogans, then they wouldn't mind at all I imagine."

Saya pushed himself off the tree and typed something quick on his omni-tool. It simply read: "Disavowed."

"According to the STG, Saya Empa doesn't exist if he's caught," Liara quickly explained in full. "There's no reason to worry ourselves with the legality of all this in any case. As far as the Hegemony is concerned, we're all illegally here and subversives in their eyes."

"I just wanted to make sure that was clear," Vik informed her. "We can't be caught. If we are, we're going to be used as scapegoats for whatever crap their beloved Emperor wants to push next. We can't have this get tied back to us, at all... ever. It's the whole point of Deniable Ops. It's what Saya's government understands and he has accepted. No one is going to come to save us if we get found out. And even if we get away, we're going to become priority targets of the Hegemony."

"I understand your concerns, Vik," Liara assured him. "But I fully accepted those risks the moment I decided to come here. Whatever it takes, we'll cover our tracks. The ShadowNet knows how to keep these operations from being traced back to us."

That seemed to relieve the quarian of his fear, although Liara still felt it was weird that he had only decided to bring this up now. It was a valid fear though, one she wasn't entirely sure they'd be able to fully avoid. They could cover their tracks easily, insuring that the Hegemony wouldn't be able to prove they had ever been to Khar'shan in case something went wrong.

It wasn't as if she had no experience in these things either. She had been able to keep her team from being named as the people who broke into Charlan after all. Of course, it helped that Charlan's own list of crimes were far greater than her little break-in. As long as they erased the evidence of their infiltration, and made sure that the Hegemony couldn't accuse them of anything without incriminating themselves, they'd be okay.

However, Balak was no fool and his Swords didn't have to follow proper legal channels. He'd easily connect the dots and that would make them even bigger targets. For now at least, he had no suspicions that they were even here. As long as they had that, Liara had one over on the batarian and his cronies. Hopefully, they'd be off this planet fairly quickly with no traces of their stay left behind. They could deal with the fallout from Balak figuring out they had invaded his home planet after that.

"So how are we getting inside exactly?" Wrex asked. "Front door is out if want this to be quiet."

Liara scanned her eyes along the fence perimeter of the park and eventually spotted a large box like building along the side of it. She couldn't make out many details from here as the front of the building was facing away from her.

She could see that it was coloured pure marble white and had some decorative pillars along the sides. There weren't many guards patrolling the area outside the fence near it. They seemed more concentrated on the obvious entryways into the park. So, if they couldn't get through the front door, they'd just sneak in through one of the attractions.

"Vik, you wouldn't happen to have one of this smuggled park maps with you on your omni-tool?" She asked him. When the quarian nodded she just pointed to the building. "Can you figure out what attraction that is?"

Vik opened up the file he had and checked out the park layout. Eventually, he managed to approximately locate the building based on what he could see.

"The Hall of Leadership," he said. "It's an 'educational' theatre show that teaches folks to respect their masters and spout patriotic garbage."

"Right then," Liara reasoned. "We'll cut through the fence there and enter through the Hall's backstage door. If we encounter anyone inside, at least we won't be out in the open. That will give us time to take them out quietly."

"We should be fine," said Nel rather sure of herself. "No one ever goes to the educational attractions at parks. Not unless they're really desperate for some air conditioning."

---

The team made their way through the long overgrown grass along the sides of the park's fence. They were able to get close enough to it without being spotted. Only find that the reason the fence wasn't guarded was because it was electrified, as the sign in front of it stated.

"Can't get over it," Wrex observed. "Maybe we can find the generator and shut it off."

"Too much time," Liara stated before looking to Saya. "Cut it open."

Saya unsheathed his sword, and let the electricity spark along its blade. He slashed at the fence three times, creating a large open space for the team to walk through easily. They moved through the gap and made their way to the wall. Wrex helped them climb over it, boosting each of them save Saya who elected to jump up to the top on his own accord.

Wrex scrambled over the wall last, helped by Liara who grasped his arm and pulled him over the top. They moved towards the attraction's back entrance and Vik quickly bypassed the lock. It wasn't a difficult feat as the security lock seemed woefully outdated by galactic standards. As the door's icon turned green and slid open for them, the group piled in, weapons drawn, just in case they ran into any guards inside.

To navigate the darkened room, Liara had handed out some infrared light visors before they entered. It wasn't the best of night vision tech, but it was good enough to get them inside without revealing their position to anyone inside. They travelled through the backstage, climbing up a small set of stairs to find themselves on a stage. It didn't look like there were any heat signatures inside, but they remained cautious.

They spread out along the edge of the stage, but it didn't take long for them to find something. Thinking she saw an outline of something within in the dark through her visor, Nel reacted. She turned off her visor, pointed her gun in the direction of the figure and turned on her weapon's flashlight. She found no enemy though, but batarian staring lifelessly ahead, unmoved by the spotlight now on him and wearing a very formal decorative military uniform.

"The heck is this?" Nel asked as she walked over to what she first assumed was a statue.

She felt it with her talon, poking its face. She couldn't feel it through her armour, but the way it moved on touch seemed similar to that of plasticine or silicone. But she could feel something hard and metal beneath it.

Eventually, Liara managed to locate a lighting switch in the backstage area. She flicked it on and illuminated the stage, raising the curtains as well. Standing alongside the first fake batarian, were several dozen more dotting the width of the theatre's arena.

They were all looking out at the seats in the audience with a resolute and never faltering gaze. They wore different clothing, from different eras but all militaristic and authoritative in fashion. Some sat in chairs while others stood proudly among their peers, but with wearing a look of commanding presence no matter which pose they held.

At the very front of all of them was a batarian they could recognize. It was Emperor Narvkel, smiling as sweetly as he had been on the Holovision and holding a place of honour as a centre piece of the display. He was between two other batarians Liara couldn't immediately place on first inspection, but she could make a guess as to who they all were by now.

"These are the Emperors of the Hegemony," she realised, remembering the name of the attraction itself. "Not all of them I imagine, but they are all former Emperors."

"The most memorable and suited for the attraction's message at least," Vik was quick to add venomously. "You of course got the current man at the front, to give out whatever bullshit he needs to spill to convince visitors that the Hegemony isn't corrupt. And his fellow bosh'tets are here just so he doesn't seem too egotistical."

Nel gave them all a good hard look as she walked among the lifeless former Emperors. She poked her gun's barrel at one that was particularly fat.

"So people just watch wax sculptures in this place then?" Nel asked, confused by the mere concept alone. "I don't get it."

"They're not statues," Vik explained. "They're animatronics. Former military mechs repurposed and dressed up to look like the people they represent. They talk, they move around and they convince people their government can do no wrong."

Vik walked over to one of the look-alikes close to Narvkel. He was the one with a coat brimming with medals and a sword at his side.

"This is Emperor Alyikos, 'liberator' of the asari colony of Esan in 1913, which is now called Lorek," Vik grimace, almost spitting the man's name. "He's meant to represent the Hegemony's desire for expansion."

Vik pointed across to an older, more ancient Batarian. He wore a robe of sorts, holding several swords along his belt.

"That's the very first Emperor, Eluato the First," Vik said as he walked over to him. "He united the disparate nation states into a single overarching centralized government. He also established the strict adherence to the caste culture within the Hegemony's constitution that's still in practice today."

Vik began pointing to other various batarians in the crowd.

"Gotovom, the Great Enchainer, Deskarik the Second, Subjugator of the Lesser Revolt on Erszbat, Vortorvam the Merciless, who bombed the Salarian colony on Mannovai," Vik quickly listed off. "They all speak to the image of a room full of powerful, supposed 'heroes' who defied the galaxy and beat back the filthy slaves that sought their freedom. Keelah, it's more sickening than I imagined it would be."

Kayap walked up to the look-alike of Alykios, and noticed a switch on the back. His translator helped him understand the word as 'test.' Eager to see what it did, he let his curiosity press the button and the mech cast in silicone sprang to life. Kayap jumped back suddenly as the automaton moved about and then began to speak.

"My fellow batarians, we have long been the masters of our own destiny," the machine look-alike declared as he jerked about, his gears and servos grinding. "We have never bowed to any one, never allowed the injustices of the corrupt races of the Council to stand in our way. We have remained strong and powerful through our never ending resolve in the face of their insidious designs. And now, with new dangers against us, we must endeavour to rise even greater than before. We will never tire in reaching this glorious destiny, not until the virtues of the Pillars of Strength reach across the galaxy to all the poor unfortunate lesser species that inhabit it."

The mech ended its ridiculous little speech and returned to a sitting position. Everyone else just looked on, rather unimpressed.

"Well that was a whole lot of nothing," Wrex grumbled. "He reminds me of some stupid clan leaders back home. Specifically ones I'd probably shoot after hearing them yap on for about two minutes."

"Why don't they use holograms?" Nel asked. "These things are so... old and fake looking."

"Yes, but holograms are see-through and not as life like as actual present objects," Vik argued. "Besides, from what I understand they blew most of their money saved for holograms on other attractions."

"Well, at least one good thing can come out of it," Nel considered. She looked over to Liara as she lifted her rifle. "Can I assassinate me some Emperors, ma'am?"

Liara shook her head at the turian before she could do anything of the sort.

"We're not here for petty revenge against mechanical ghosts," she reminded her. "We're here for the data dump. Vik, do we have a clearer location now?"

Vik looked to his omni-tool, bringing up his tracer signal's program. After giving it an overlook, he was able to get a clear location.

"Looks like its further back into the park," he told Liara. "We got a ways to go from here and through a hell of a lot more shitty propaganda I wager."

"Hopefully a lot more fun than this crap," Nel asked pleadingly.

"They have a roller coaster, I guess," Vik relented, rolling his eyes at her in frustration. "But that's hardly-"

Suddenly the sound of a door being forced open came to their attention, echoing through the theatre. Someone was coming.

"Quick, hide." Liara ordered, hushing her voice slightly.

The team ran into the still darkened audience seats, keeping low as they heard footsteps wander in. They couldn't stay on the stage with the lights up, so this was their next best bet. Kayap had the easiest time hiding, being the smallest of the group. Wrex had more difficulty with his hump. He was forced to lie on his side just to be safe.

As they huddled beneath the seats, Liara looked up slightly to see who was inside. Stepping slightly into her view, as she stared along the floor, was the distinctive two-toed foot covered in blue armour. A sangheili was here, on Khar'shan, in this very park. It was both unexpected and unsurprising at the same time. This was contradiction in another circumstance perhaps, but not here.

They needed to take him out quietly, before he sounded the alarm. Liara looked through the gaps beneath the seats to see Saya just a row over from her. She quickly typed a message onto her omni-tool and sent it to him. The message simply read: "Take him."

Saya read the message moments later and activated his cloak. Liara couldn't see what he did next, but she could hear. There was the sound of a theatre seat squeaking, catching the sangheili's attention. His feet turned in mid walk, pinpointing where the sound had come from, further up the rows. Saya used the opportunity to close in from behind and slice his sword across the alien's neck. The sangheili fell to the floor, bleeding out before their eyes and Saya's cloak deactivated.

Everyone got up form their positions and rushed over to the body.

"The Covenant are here?" Nel asked, sounding somewhat delighted. "Hey, maybe this won't be so boring after all."

"If there's one sangheili, there's a squad close by," Kayap warned. "And if there's a squad, there are even more stationed with them."

The Unggoy's words just made it clear how dangerous things had gotten.

"This mission has just gotten complicated," Liara informed them all. "I think it's safe to assume that the park's maintenance and refurbishing period is just a cover. The Covenant are probably using this place to maintain a presence on Khar'shan. It's probably another part of their arrangement."

"Looks like we're going to have to be extra cautious," Wrex concluded.

"We'll hide the body and head out," Liara ordered them. "They'll come looking for him eventually. Neither he, or us, can be here when they do."

---

After taking care to shove the sangheili's corpse in a supply locker backstage, the group moved out into the entrance hall lined with artefacts from previous emperors. Most of it was miscellaneous items that had descriptors explaining that "supposedly" one emperor or another had either touched or looked at it at some point. Very few of the cases contained actual artefacts, and then again most of them were family swords.

They didn't waste much time gawking at the displays and exited out through a side door. They now found themselves in the park proper. Gift shops, food stands and a small arcade lined the main road on their way deeper in. They decided to stay inside the stores themselves, avoid the open street as much as they could. They didn't see any Covenant, but that didn't mean they weren't there.

Inside one of the many interconnected shops were t-shirts, posters, toys and books. They all displayed things like Captain Patriot, or depicted 'glorious' battles across them. Most of the products had Narvkel's face plastered on them. His overly sweet smile had now become a nauseating sight as his lifeless eyes watched their every move.

With that thought in mind, Liara looked to Vik, just to make sure he was staying focused. He was on point dutifully looking at his omni-tool that would lead them towards the data dump. He needed to remain on task. He seemed fine, although every now and again, when he spotted Narvkel's face out of the corner of his eye, he darted his head from side to side nervously.

For once, Liara couldn't completely blame him. The batarian emperor seemed to be everywhere. As did his army of toy soldiers and life-sized realistic toy harpoon rifles that lined every shelf beneath his visage. It was a bit unnerving to say the least, like they weren't invading a theme park but some kind of government weapons store house.

They came to a candy shop at the end of the street. This was where the cover of the shops ended as a small square marked the centre of the park, opening it up to various other attractions throughout it. The typical fairground formula surrounded the square. A carousel, some games of skill and strength, large slide for kids in a makeshift little playground, little closed down food stands and in the centre of it all a statue of a batarian. Not one of the Emperors they had seen though. This batarian was wearing an old spacesuit, a helmet clutched under his arm as he looked to the sky.

"Who's the guy on the pedestal?" Nel asked confused.

"I believe it is Jeftak Chakiel," Liara observed. "He commanded the spaceflight to the gas giant Verush's moon Bira, an expedition that led to the discovery of prothean ruins there and began the Hegemony's expansion into space."

"He's one of their oldest heroes," Vik explained. "They turned his act of exploration into a manifesto for Hegemony dominance in the galactic sphere, so he had to be included. He's even got his own roller coaster according to the park map."

Nel seemed to light up at the very mention of a rollercoaster. Liara seriously hoped she would not ask if they could go for a ride. With anyone else that wouldn't be a real concern, but again this was Nel.

"Why did they make a statue of him and not one of their Emperors?" Kayap asked Vik after a few seconds of silence.

"They'd have to keep changing it with every new one I imagine," Vik suggested. "You didn't see Narvkel sharing merchandise with his predecessors in there did you? My guess, he's the one person that every Emperor has to revere forever. He gave them their power, albeit indirectly. Making him the centrepiece of the whole park grounds its message with him."

"Cut the political science lesson for a moment, Sajee," Wrex warned. "Look up front."

Everyone took their eyes off the statue and at last saw two squads of Covenant moving into the area. Everyone stepped back to keep themselves from being seen as the patrolled the square and its side attractions.

"We need to slip past them somehow," Liara reasoned. "But there's barely enough cover out there to keep us hidden."

"Maybe we should've waited till nightfall," said Wrex. "We'd at least have the cover of darkness then."

"We came here for the data, I was not wasting a full day just to get it," Liara argued abrasively. "Besides, it's too late now and they'd have been here either way."

Wrex seemed taken aback by Liara's snap at him, but said nothing in response. He instead allowed her to think matters through.

"We'll make our way through the square cautiously," Liara decided. "Do not engage them and try to exit out the nearest pathway. We'll take an alternate route to the signal's location through another section of the park."

She observed the two patrols for a moment longer, eyeing them as they walked around the square. They had a pattern of sorts, dictated mostly by the sangheili leaders, and it was just sparse enough that they could get out of the square without them seeing.

They decided to use the little carnival game stalls as cover and make their way over to a pathway between them and the merry-go round. It was the closest way out of the square Liara could see. They waited for the Covenant squad to turn away from their position and then rushed behind one of the game stalls. It was a target practice game from what Liara could scarcely see, armed with toy rifles on swivelling perches. The side of the stall had read "Headshot the Human." It was easy to imagine what the targets were.

They moved to the next stall quickly, one after the other. The Covenant didn't see them, but they were dangerously close by. It forced all of them to be very careful about when they ran out. Vik almost went a little too early, as a kig-yar began to turn his head. He pulled himself back into cover, just before the bird creature spotted him. The Covie eyed the stalls strangely for a moment, but walked off soon after with the rest of the squad. Vik breathed a sigh of relief and rushed over to the next stall.

When they made it to the end of game stalls, the path now lay open. However, it was here Liara hesitated to move forward. The Covenant were still pacing about the area and with little cover along the path, there was a chance they'd be spotted before they got out of view. Liara imagined they'd just have to chance it, hoping the Covenant wouldn't be able see them before they got out of the square. If only they had some kind of distraction.

Almost as if she had read the asari's mind, Nelanax rushed across the way towards the carousel. Liara wanted to call her back, but fears of the Covenant hearing her kept her silent. Nel made her way over the control box for the Carousel while the Covenant weren't looking and slammed her fist on the console's start up command. The ride sprang to life suddenly, fanfare playing from the speakers as batarian beasts of burden rode in circles once more.

Nel tucked herself away behind a small trash bin, as the Covenant raced over to see what was going on. The turian motioned the others to move down the path while the Covenant were busy looking at the suddenly activated ride. They rushed down as the Covenant began to scramble around the control box and look for the off switch. Soon, they were out of sight.

"That was way too risky," Liara told her in hushed anger.

"Hey, you said you didn't want to wait, right?" Nel countered cheerfully. "Besides, it worked."

Indeed it did, but Liara still didn't like Nel going off on her own so casually. At least she hadn't gone on a shooting spree suddenly. So, perhaps, she could be taught to listen somewhat.

The Covenant didn't seem to be in force around the western end of the park. Liara's team was more or less able to make their way down towards the tracer's signal with little trouble. They passed outdoor theatres, more shops and even the aforementioned rollercoaster Vik had spoken of.

Called "Chakiel's Expedition Blast Off," the ride looked to be a very modern roller coaster. From what she could see of the track, it appeared riders were strapped in and shot up along the track. There, mock ups of planets, asteroids and stars greeted riders at every turn. It looked fun, more or less, and at first glance seemed to be the least overtly jingoistic attraction they had spotted so far.

But it wasn't where their data dump was. They were headed to something a lot more eye catching than a recreation of a journey through space. It was a large building, near the very back of the park that seemed a little out of place for a theme park.

The structure looked like some sort of palace, but not nearly as big. Two statues of batarian soldiers, cast in gold, loomed over the entrance way, pointing their rifles out in a heroic manner. The walls of the building were draped in the Hegemony flag and stone depictions of battle scenes between batarians and other alien races. Great pillars, held up by representations of lowly slaves, lined the front while bold words hung over the doorway, reading "Our Glorious History" in bold yellow.

"This looks more like a museum than a ride," Wrex noted.

"Great, just what I wanted, more edutainment," Nel grumbled as she stuck out her tongue and pretended to gag.

"It's the biggest attraction here," Vik explained. "A ride that lets you travel through the sorted history of the Hegemony's militaristic expansion period. No doubt presented through a distorted twisted vision of a past of their design. And from the looks of my omni-tool, the signal is coming from inside."

But apart from the golden statues, there were real soldiers on the grounds. For vigilantly guarding the entrance was a contingent of sangheili. They marched around the queue line and the steps of leading up to the door, their plasma rifles held high and ready. Unlike their patrolling counterparts, these ones weren't moving an inch from their posts.

"So much for stealth," Liara grimaced as the group continued to hide behind a food stall.

"They must have set up their headquarters inside," Vik presumed, his face suddenly turning worried. "Or they're just guarding the data dump. But that could mean they knew we'd be coming, or at the least suspect we are. What if this is a trap?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Vik," Liara reassured him before his paranoia could take hold. "There's no way they'd know about us coming here. They're probably just keeping an eye on the dump as per the arrangements of their stay here."

"It doesn't matter why they're here," Wrex reminded her. "Point is we can't get inside without alerting the whole park. Which means, the second we head inside, everyone outside follows us in. That makes things a hell of a lot more difficult."

Wrex was right, they couldn't just head inside expect the Covenant patrolling the grounds to ignore them. There had to be more than just those two squads patrolling the area after all. However, Nel's earlier escapade with the carousel gave her an idea.

"We can distract them," Liara strategized. "One group calls the attention of the guards out front and the rest of the park. Then, they can lead them away from the ride while a second group heads inside and finds the data dump."

"I'll have to be the one who goes on team two," Vik reasoned. "If the data dump is in there, I'm the only here who can hack it."

"I can do distractions," Nel volunteered quickly. "Hell, I was hoping we'd somehow get an excuse to do this anyway."

Hardly comforting to Liara, but at least she had controlled herself for awhile.

"Wrex, you, Nel and Saya can probably keep them off our backs the best out of all of us," she told the krogan. "I'll lead Kayap and Vik inside and get to the data dump."

"Take your time," Wrex chuckled. "I can hold off these pyjaks for days if I try hard enough. This place does offer a hell of a lot of good defensive positions and vantage points."

Then it was settled, Liara just hoped this little strategy was the right one. She, Vik and Kayap stayed where they were. Meanwhile, Wrex and Nel moved out to different positions along the street. Saya cloaked himself to get a better angle. Nel slid behind a small bench and activated a cluster grenade.

"I got a bomb for everyone," she declared.

She tossed the cluster grenade over at the guards, the device splitting into several little explosives. They impacted the ground near the queue line, and the resulting blasts consumed one sangheili while gravely injuring another. The Covenant officers began firing on the Turian's position, who responded in kind with a furious barrage of fire from her assault rifle.

Wrex soon added his own attack into the fray, launching a carnage shot that knocked one of the sangheili down as he rushed down the attraction's steps. He stepped out of the foliage planted along edge of the path and continued to spray fire onto their position.

"Sorry, we lost our tickets," he chortled. "Hope the bullets will suffice."

Saya, who had invisibly coated a line of explosive gel across the street as he passed by the enemy lines, appeared behind a corner vendor stall. He fired his pistol at the Covenant. When the sangheili moved out, trying to attack him, Saya detonated the line of gel and watched the explosion knock the Covenant back. The blast hadn't been powerful enough to kill them, but it had been enough to anger and certainly disoriented them.

It was exactly what the three had wanted. They all ran off in different directions, leading the remaining guards away from the museum-like attraction. Liara, Vik and Kayap stayed hidden, as alarm bells began to ring throughout the park. Sirens blaring through the speaker systems, blotted out every other noise as the Covenant abandoned their posts to fight the intruders.

When they were all gone, Liara rallied her own team.

"Let's get inside," she told Vik. "We have data dump to locate."

---

Inside 'Our Glorious History' Liara, Vik and Kayap found themselves within a large empty space, with pole no doubt meant to form the actual queue line. The ropes were gone, allowing them freedom of movement within the large space.

Lining the walls were old propaganda posters from different eras, depicting a number of conflicts. They all had pictures of brave batarian soldiers smashing symbols of "corrupt" citadel symbols of powers and their armies. They had titles that said 'Stamp out the Human Menace!' and 'Support our Boys on Esan!' or 'Down with Council Oppression!'

Alongside them were paintings of conflicts past, terrible battles between batarian states or against Council foes. Only a few represented humans. They were likely only recently added. There hadn't been any real wars between the two species, only proxy battles between marines and Hegemony pirates, but why let facts get in the way of their propaganda?

In the center of the room was a holographic stand of some sort, with a Batarian General VI standing tall and proud. Kayap hobbled over to the stand to get a better look. He must've activated the VI's motion sensors, as the General began to speak.

"Within these hallowed halls, history stands as a testament to the power of our empire!" He announced. "Though many have sought to tear us down, from within and without, we have persevered against their aggression. Learn of their heroism, their deeds, their sacrifices in the face of such overwhelming odds and see why our Hegemony remains as the single greatest bastion of light in a galaxy of corruption and decay!"

"These four-eyes are really starting to remind me of the sangheili a bit too much," Kayap commented.

"Don't believe everything you hear, Kay," Vik cautioned. "It's mostly bluster. As evil as they are, they're an empire in name only. They have to win through subterfuge and deceit, not wars worthy of vids and song."

"Stay focused on why we're here," Liara reminded him. "We need to pinpoint that signal."

They moved out of the main entranceway and further down the queue line towards the rider loading dock. Before they could reach it, however, Liara stopped suddenly in her tracks and raised her hand to slow the others. She tilted her head forward, as she could a strange chitterling, buzzing sound. It was growing louder and louder. It didn't sound metallic in nature, and the ride wasn't on in any case.

"What is that?" Vik asked nervously, the sound now becoming audible to him as well.

Liara instinctively thought to look to Kayap, and saw that he was even more frightened than either her or Vik. He knew the sound. She could see it in his face. He didn't waste any more time in exposing its origins.

"Yanme'e!" He shouted. "Down!"

Liara and Vik dashed into the cover provided by the corner they had just past. At the same time, three insectoid creatures sped up onto the landing, firing plasma pistols in their direction. They were the colour of sickly green with sharp little mandibles and six ugly little legs. Their plasma bolts struck sporadically against their cover as they flew about haphazardly.

"Giant bugs?!" Vik shouted in disbelief. "I thought insects didn't get that big! It's basic science! They can't support their own weight or something!"

"We'll inform them of their impossibility when they're dead," Liara told the quarian sternly.

Liara stuck her pistol out and fired two shots at the trio of bugs. They bounced off a shield, unaffected by the attack.

"They're not supposed to have shields," Kayap observed, his initial shock turning to rage. "The sangheili gave them shields before us! They don't even wear armour!"

"They must be wearing mass effect-based shields," Liara surmised. "The disruption pattern when my shots hit seemed to react like them instead of Covenant shields."

"It's still a shield," Vik declared. "That makes this an easy problem to solve."

The quarian pointed his omni-tool out and activated and overload attack. The yanme'e were too spaced apart for the attack to jump to them, an advantage given to them by their ability fly of course, but it did bring down the shield of one of the yanme'e.

Liara rushed out of cover, firing as she went on the other drones to keep them dispersed. She then hit the defenceless drone with a biotic throw that sent him careening into the wall behind him. The bug went splat against the concrete before falling to the floor in a heap.

Kayap aimed his plasma pistol out and fired an overcharge shot at the second insect, managing to take out his shield as well when the blast struck him. In response, the yanme'e peppered the unggoy with plasma shots, but luckily his own shield protected him long enough to get back into cover.

The yanme'e now flew towards Kayap's position, charging through the aim. Only for the alien to be blindsided by Vik when he got close enough. A single shotgun blast blew apart the alien's fragile exoskeleton and sent him tumbling over the railing of the balcony and down to the loading dock.

However, one last bug was able to close the distance with Vik in the confusion and tackled the quarian to the ground. It began scratching at him with its claws, trying to bite him with his mandibles and screeching all the way. Vik kept it at bay, using his foot to prop the alien up. He then fired two more shots straight into the insect's torso. As fluorescent green blood flowed from its body, Vik knocked the Covenant bug off of him and got to his feet.

"Keelah, what are these things?" Vik demanded to know.

"They're called Yanme'e, I believe," Liara explained as she walked back to the group. "They're an insectoid species in the Covenant. Very single minded from what I remember, right Kayap?"

"Yeah, they're not exactly the smartest bunch," Kayap admitted with a shrug, looking at the body. "They got this hive mind. They were conquered and forced into the Covenant, but they're extremely loyal regardless. They view the Covenant as its hive now, so I guess devotion is just, programmed into them at birth."

Liara turned the corpse of the Yanme'e on its back and gave it once over. She found a small mass effect field generator strapped to its back near the thorax. As she suspected, the Covenant were trying to give them a fighting chance.

"Thing is," Kayap cautiously warned. "If there are three of them in here, there are going to be a lot more. They travel in swarms, at least seven or more. These three might have just been a small scout party. They've probably set up a small hive inside."

"Where the hell would they put it?" Vik asked. "I doubt the batarians would just stick it in the middle of the track. They're going to want to use this place again someday. That would be quite a clean-up job."

Liara had an idea, but she needed to be sure. A quick trip down the steps to the ride's control console in one of the back rooms provided the answer. The door had been kept unlocked thankfully. Nobody seemed to have considered someone would get this far perhaps. They didn't need to rummage around much in the files either as they quickly found a layered floor plan of the structure.

They discovered that the ride was bigger than they had first believed for it covered a large portion of the park's back area. It was apparently their star attraction. It was also incredibly complex, requiring a lot of technical equipment and maintenance. When it was fully operational there were at times even live actors among the mechanized figures that dotted the length of the ride. They gave additional information while they acted out scenes and parts.

To manage it all, there was a tunnel system beneath the ride. It housed the technical aspects, like power and computing systems for the ride itself. They housed special effects, extra models and additional cars undergoing repair. There was a particularly large space in the middle of the tunnels.

"That's probably where their temporary hive is," Liara imagined. "Big enough to house a small number of them for a little while at least."

"But that would mean those tunnels are crawling with them," Vik reasoned fearfully. "We'd never get through that many and it's more than likely our data dump is down there with them."

"We'll never make it through that way if that's the case," Liara surmised. "We'll have to risk the main track, follow the signal best we can and find a way down when we're on top of it. With any luck, the majority of the yanme'e will stay down in the tunnels, protecting the hive itself."

Vik nodded and downloaded a copy of the ride's floor plan, which he overlaid his signal program with. That way they could better follow it along the layout. As he did, the lights in the building suddenly came to life. Patriotic music began to play through the loud speakers and a voice explaining safety rules rang through the halls.

"The hell?" Vik asked confused.

"They've turned on the ride," Liara realised. "Probably from a secondary console or control room somewhere in the tunnels. Question is why?"

"Sounds like a sangheili tactic, not the yanme'e," Kayap suggested. "They probably want to mask their movements and everything with all this noise."

"Great, so they know we're coming," Vik groaned.

"Perhaps," Liara relented. "But they've also just showed their hand to us. We can use their overconfidence to our advantage instead."

They walked over to the loading dock, several cars lined up against its wall. Liara look However, none of them were moving. The track itself wasn't really a track. It was actually a floor of metallic strips separated by a thin layer of insulation. Taking a better look at the cars themselves, she realised there was some sort of control stick inside.

"It seems the riders have a semblance of control during the ride," Liara realised.

"According to the information on the attraction, Wrex was right. The place really is like a museum," Vik informed her, looking at his omni-tool. "Riders travel in their cars through elaborate displays they can roll around in for awhile before control moves them along. It gives them time to look around at the exhibits of batarian history and even interact with some of it as well. Very elaborate set-up and no doubt expensive too."

Liara jumped in the car and tried to move it forward. It remained stationary.

"Looks like they didn't activate the cars," Liara said as she climbed out onto the metal floor. "They probably don't want to risk us using them to run them over."

"So, we're walking then?" Vik asked innocently.

Kayap and Vik joined Liara on the metallic floor and walked towards a large opening that would lead to the rest of the ride. On both sides, proud batarian soldiers stood tall, saluting as they walked by, music playing triumphantly as they headed inside. As they approached, they could hear the singing a lot clearer.

Welcome to Our Glorious History!

History comes alive today!

A past filled with glory!

Sacrifices we must never betray!

The odds they faced,

The challenges that arose,

The enemies they chased,

The bravery shown!

Come see it all in our history!

History comes alive today!

"Keelah, I can feel my brain cells and sense of good taste dying already," Vik groaned.

"Worry more about the Covenant and not the Hegemony's twisted little history class," Liara told him. "That's what they want, to put you off guard."

"Don't worry," Vik assured. "I hear spin all the time, I can handle a stupid kiddie ride."

Liara just hoped that the others would be alright without them. They had to contend with every Covenant soldier outside after all. The odds seemed pretty stacked against them to be sure. But then again, if anyone could survive out there it was probably Wrex, Nelanax and Saya. They weren't pushovers after all.

Liara supposed she was really more worried about what Nel would do in her absence. She was an unhinged freelancer with delusions of grandeur and a ton of high powered weapons loose in a theme park after all. The amount trouble she could get in was staggering to think about.

---

The Covenant were as relentlessly dogged as Liara had suspected. Gaining extra squads to help them, Nel found herself followed by a steadily increasing number of sangheili and their cannon fodder followers. That suited her just fine, the more the merrier as some said.

She did realise, however, that fighting them out in the open was folly. So she retreated deeper into the park, seeking to find refuge within in one of the attractions. She believed she found the perfect place to make a stand within the walls of one ride called "Homeland Defender."

Thankfully, it wasn't another educational ride. No, this one was both a ride and game! The premise was that riders were transported to a near future of sorts, where humans were invading Khar'shan. Given a little laser pointer shaped like a gun, riders were expected to shoot the enemy holograms of marines as they rode through the streets of a regular batarian town.

That was what she was able to determine from the entranceway at least. There was a large mural spanning the entire line detailing the "invasion" of the planet in stills. From the first Alliance ships in to the bombardment of cities, Nel had to admit it was all a little bit disturbing.

She didn't need Vik to spell out what was going on with this little recruitment tool. As much as the quarian thought she was oblivious, she wasn't. It was all one big training tool, getting the kids psyched for killing humans. That much was clear. She honestly wondered though how many people were actually fooled by this. No one could possibly buy into something this silly, right? Her action vids may have been slightly outlandish, but this was overboard. In her mind, it was all just too easy to see how exaggerated things were.

Regardless of its intended message, Nel was only interested in how she could use the attraction to fuck with the Covenant. She had already fired on them from the entranceway before racing inside. She heard them following her shortly after. Now that she had lured them in, she would just need to spring the trap.

She found the ride's control console and activated it, hoping to use the various human holograms to distract the sangheili. They had some sort of hard-on for shooting humans after all. The ride soon sprang to life, although most of the carts had been removed from the track for maintenance purposes. That was fine, gave her a little breathing room, but still afforded her some potential cover if need be.

She didn't stay too long at the console, as she could already hear the Covenant closing up from behind. They were being cautious it seemed, moving in twos up the queue line towards her position best she could hear. They could tell this was a trap, obviously. She'd need to be unpredictable if she wanted to catch them off their guard.

"Thank the Spirits who blessed me with that particular trait," she thought to herself.

She ran along the track proper now, into the bowels of the attraction. She was greeted with a recording alongside a mock up of a video screen showing human ships entering Khar'shan's atmosphere.

"The humans have breached our defences!" The recording cried. "Your Hegemony calls for your assistance cadets! You are our last line of defence against these savage aliens!"

And Vik called her vids cheesy as fuck. This place already sounded like an afternoon school special. It made her laugh a little actually. Not as much as the ride itself though. She had grasped the gist of the ride's meaning just from the front entrance and the few carts that were still on the track. The ride proper, however, was completely over the top.

It was a representation of Anytown, Khar'shan, bombarded to hell and back. Houses were on fire, sirens were blaring and the holograms of humans were already out in force. They were similar to the ones Nel had seen watching vids of Pinnacle Station's matches on the extranet. The holograms were already busy setting buildings ablaze and shooting randomly into the streets. They were pre-programmed with phrases such as "Die Batarian Filth!" and "Burn all their children!" In fact, she heard the latter one twice in the span of ten seconds.

She did her best to ignore the scenes of overblown carnage and looked for a decent enough spot to take cover. She found a mock up of a small street side diner of sorts. It had 'dead batarians' strewn around it in and human holograms in the windows popping up periodically to shoot at the riders that weren't there. Nel ducked into one of the windows alongside the 'human invaders' and got her assault rifle ready.

The sangheili soon approached, although they sent the unggoy ahead of them. As they walked along the track, human holograms popped, exiting mock-ups of landing craft near the start of the ride. They shouted expletives at the Covenant, causing the unggoy to jump in fright. They fired on the holograms, dissipating them with ease. The sangheili directly behind them was quick to whack the back of their heads for their foolishness.

They walked further up the mock street, close to where Nel was now hiding. When they were close enough, their eyes ignoring the holograms entirely now, she jumped up and opened fire on the Covenant. The shots hit one of the unggoy, killing him and sending the rest of the squad running for cover. Nel kept firing as they did, only letting up when the sangheili began to return fire on her.

Nel switched to Disruptor rounds and popped back up to fire more shots at the sangheili. One of them had taken up residence behind a mock-up of a burning street side shop. The fire was a hologram of course, along with the human stationed inside. The sangheili spotted the human and, almost disgusted at the mere thought that he was fighting alongside one, swatted at the air once to try and disrupt the image.

The split second distraction gave Nel the chance to unload on the Covenant officer, punching through his shields quickly. The sangheili tried to return fire, but Nel's Phaeston was more accurate than his plasma rifle. As she moved along the length of the fake diner's window, she landed more shot on the Covie, eventually landing two body shots and a clean headshot for good measure.

That was when the second Sangheili tossed a grenade into the diner and Nel knew it was time to get going.

"No time to leave a tip," she quipped, bulldozing through the wall of the mock-up.

The plasma explosion destroyed the rest of the scenery. The shockwave almost knocked her off her balance, but Nel kept standing as she ran for better cover across the street. She managed to reach a mock up of an average batarian house, where the innocent holographic family was being dragged out by holographic humans to be shot.

She took cover behind the open door way, as plasma bolts peppered the mock-up. The fake fence was soon full of burning holes, pieces of the house were blasted off one after the other, and real scorch marks were soon left on the side of house alongside the fake painted on ones.

"Damn it, they got me pinned here," she thought to herself.

She saw her salvation arrive as one of the carts rolled up the track towards her. She figured she could make it, but she'd have to time it right. It was when the Covenant began to push up that Nel saw her chance. The Covies were using the trash cans and bullet ridden parked cars for cover, but when one Unggoy began to run up the fake street directly at her, she made her move.

She popped out, fired a concussive shot and hit the unggoy. He tumbled over himself, back down the street. Nel then kept running, diving into the cart's seat as it passed her by. The sangheili opened up on her, her shields the only thing keeping her from getting completely devastated by the plasma bolts.

"Okay, dipshit," Nel growled as she reconfigured herself in the cart, readying incendiary rounds with her submachine gun. "You're about to add to my score on this little carnival ride."

Nel pulled herself up and began firing back down on the sangheili as he tried to follow. Her submachine guns ate through his shields as he chased after her. He did his best to avoid the shots, but Nel managed to take down his shields. She then fired another concussive shot that sent the sangheili flying backwards into one of the parked cars in the street. The hit rendered him dazed long enough for Nel to rake a number of incendiary rounds into his face with her assault rifle before he could get back up.

Nel left the cart when she was out of sight, finding herself in a mock-up of some little alleyway. She scanned the area carefully, and then, out of nowhere, she heard a plea.

"No, don't shoot! I am a friend!"

She turned around quickly, her gun pointed forward, only to see a holographic human holding up his hands. Then he suddenly pulled out a shotgun.

"Why don't you meet some of my friends? HA, HA, HA!"

All at once, holographic humans appeared from all sides and opened up on her. Of course, the holographic bullets did nothing to her. They weren't entirely like the ones in Pinnacle Station. She doubted even the batarians would risk hurting their patrons. Still, this could be used to her advantage.

She climbed the mock-up, heading into one of the windows that overlooked the alleyway. She knew more Covies were coming, so why not make this fake ambush a real one when they arrived? She didn't have to wait long, a number of unggoy and fresh sangheili soon entered the alleyway. Their weapons scanned the area, just as she had. They didn't see her up in the window above. The holograms in the area had long since reset, but when their motion trackers detected their arrival, the scene played out once again.

"No, don't shoot! I am a friend!" The holographic human said once more.

The Covenant focused their weapons completely on the fake human initially confused but soon remembering that he was a fake. Then the ambush began as it had before, with human goons popping out from behind corners and trash cans. As they did, Nel dropped a cluster grenade into the ranks. The multiple explosions kept her from seeing what had happened initially, but she could tell the mock-up alleyway was completely devastated at this point.

The hologram sensors flashed violently, their recording tracks playing haphazardly. The holographic humans themselves were heavily damaged, their static, warped forms appearing every couple of seconds, trying to continue on their assigned programming. All they did was glitch out and crash every time they appeared.

The blast killed several unggoy immediately, along with one sangheili. The rest of the squad had moved back before the grenades could detonate, but the attack had injured some of them from the way one sangheili was limping. They filed back into the alleyway slowly, still cautious about what had happened. Perhaps the hologram's safeties had been breached? At least, that was what Nel thought they were considering

As the Covies tried to figure out what had just happened, Nel opened up on them from on high. One sangheili's shield was weakened enough that she managed to penetrate it and land a headshot in two consecutive hits. The hit fell to the floor, along with two other unggoy before they could react. The rest of the Covenant opened up on Nel's position, forcing her to flee.

She ran from the plasma fire as it ripped through paper thin walls of the mock-up. She ran along the maintenance catwalk behind the scenes, the Covenant following her as she ran. Finally, she threw herself out through another window and fell on top of another bullet ridden car. It just as bad as she imagined hitting a real car felt.

She clambered off the thing and into cover behind it, expecting the Covenant to come swarming after her soon. Looking around the street, she saw that the human 'invasion' had progressed. Now, there were batarian holograms in what appeared to be slave garb, with broken chains, fighting alongside the humans.

They were both assisting the other in destroying what appeared to be some kind of downtown area and she could see a few model human gunships flying about, firing at holographic bullets at the ground. There even seemed to be some target reticules on the undersides of the gunships, probably for keen eyed riders to earn extra bonus points.

"Kinda starting to wish I had one of those right now," she said, looking up at the gunship.

She briefly thought about juicing up, perhaps giving her the edge. But she didn't want to risk using up the supply she had taken on this mission too soon. If she ran out, what happened with Bash and Blast could happen again. She didn't want to get caught off guard. She did not want to run out of steam mid-fight, and this was gonna be a long fight, even after she got out of this ride.

As she tried to compose herself, plasma bolts began hitting the car. She positioned herself away from the corner of the car, where the shots were hitting. She peered over, down the street, and saw the Covenant once more doggedly pursuing her. She fired an incendiary round at the backpack of an unggoy, causing it to detonate. The blast engulfed the unggoy and ignited a second nearby.

As the other unggoy ran around, screaming in pain as the fire spread over him, the sangheili opened up on Nel's position. Pieces of the fake vehicle now began coming completely off and some plasma bolts managed to zip straight through the prop without much trouble.

"Damn it all, I gotta get out of here fast," she reasoned. "Fuck it, time to juice."

But before she could even get the injector, a green light flew over her head and slammed into the mock-up building behind the car. It had been a fuel rod cannon shot, and the pieces of the fake building were now tumbling down on her. She rushed up and away from her position before the entire side of the building collapsed onto the car, revealing the backstage behind it.

Nel had to race up the street as plasma licked at her heels. She rolled on the top of what appeared to be a crashed human ground assault vehicle. It looked like a Mako, but she couldn't tell as it wasn't entirely accurate. It was missing a pair of wheels and the nose was pointed down instead of up. The designers for the ride probably didn't get an entirely accurate description.

Right now, Nel was just happy it was here to keep the bad guys from riddling her full of plasma. Although she would've preferred if the holographic humans stumbling out of the crashed vehicle, guns blazing, were real and actually trying to help her out.

She looked over at the advancing Covenant, confident that they had her pinned. They weren't giving her a second to line up a good shot. Then, she looked up at the model gunship again, still firing its pointless bullets at threats that didn't exist. It was at that moment she had an idea.

"Maybe the holographic invaders can help me out," she thought with a smirk.

She looked for the mechanism that was making the gunship pivot and swerve in the 'sky' while it shot. Her eyes eventually pinpointed it as a mechanized arm hidden in the dark. She could hit while still staying in cover, so there was no risk in trying. She aimed up at the arm and unloaded every single round she had in her assault rifle at the fake aircraft's mechanics.

The damage quickly caused the mechanism to start short circuiting, making it pivot and lurch around wildly out of control. Suddenly there was a metallic groan, then a snap and the gunship was torn from its support track on the ceiling. It fell to the ground below and smashed into the track. The arm kept moving the gunship, making it sweep across the ground, tearing up the floor and any Covies who happened to be in the way.

The first victim was an unggoy, squashed when the gunship fell. The second a sangheili who was slammed in the side by the huge model, throwing him straight through one of the fake buildings and fracturing his spine on impact. The gunship sweeped the other way, running over two more unggoy and squishing a sangheili as he tried to run away.

When the gunship suddenly started to spin around in circles on the floor, it swiped one of the unggoy, the one with the fuel rod cannon and catapulted him through the air up the street past Nel's plain of vision. The chaos continued, as pieces flew off the model aircraft, shrapnel slicing into one sangheili's head as he raced away.

Finally the gunship was loosed from its mechanical arm. For the first time ever, it actually flew, for a few brief seconds. Then it slammed straight through wall of the track, causing a whole section of the fake street to collapse. Nel looked on in complete awe... before hollering triumphantly.

"Now that is what I call bonus points, baby!" She shouted. "Fuck yeah!"

Nel continued up the track now, confident she had more or less removed her tail for now. Unfortunately for her, she soon realised that the Sangheili were at least one step ahead of her in one respect. Before she could even get around the final bend, plasma fire began to zip past her head again. This time, however, it was coming from in front of her, not her back. A small squad of Covenant had entered the ride through the exit in an attempt to cut off her escape.

In order to get out of the open, she quickly ducked behind a mock-up movie theatre's ticket stand. Plasma fire shot up the posters of old Batarian science-fiction vids. Nel fired back at the Covies, managing to score a headshot on an unggoy and hit another in the neck.

The Covenant were quick to get out of the open as well though. They used a grouping of a car and some supports holding up something on a building's entrance. A closer look revealed it to be a batarian religious symbol, a Pillar of Strength to be exact. She was only able to recognize it however because she remembered one of the bad guys in a vid she saw held a little pendant reproduction of the pillar around his neck. Clearly this meant the mock up in particular was some kind of church or temple.

Off to side of the church and its newfound Covenant occupiers were the holographic images of some batarian slaves and their human liberators. They had thrown simulated ropes up onto the pillar and were tugging at them, trying to pull it down. Nel wished they would, and crush the Covenant beneath it as it looked solid enough. Unfortunately, fake grappling hooks wouldn't do the job and neither would any of her weapons.

As she looked around for a better place to shoot the Covenant from, she found just that. Lying next to a bent street lamp was the body of an unggoy. Not just any unggoy though, it was the one who had been carrying the fuel rod cannon. She could tell because the weapon was lying just a few feet in front of him.

"I just need to grab it," Nel reasoned. "But I'll need a little boost to get to it."

Secure enough behind her cover, Nel finally found the time to grab her injector, a vial and stick herself in the neck. She felt a rush of adrenaline spread through her body and the wonderful tingling sensation that came just after it settled.

"Mama gonna get a high score on this ride," she laughed wholeheartedly, the buzz stretching right up into her brain.

She bolted from the ticket stand, rushing towards the fuel rod cannon. The plasma fire rocketed past her, but she was able to turn and open fire on the Covenant positions as she ran. She wasn't able to kill them, of course, but she could keep their heads down and that was good enough. She tucked and rolled when she neared the cannon, grabbing it with her talons before she came back up. She aimed it directly at the Covenant position and fired.

The fuel rod shot rocketed at the enemy, hitting the Pillar of Strength at its base. The giant religious icon tumbled, as per the wishes of its holographic attackers. The Covenant raced to get out of the thing's way, but it was far too late and the massive pillar squashed the Covenant who had sought refuge beneath it.

"And who says you can't get anything out of church these days," Nel chuckled warmly as she continued her walk down the street.

Nel passed by the 'final boss', so to speak, of the human invasion, a 'Super Tank' or something. It looked like the famous Alliance Grizzly, but with a lot more weapons on. There were target indicators all over it for the riders to rack up a few extra bonus points. For kicks, Nel shot at a few of them, just to test her aim a little. As she left the ride, she could see neon lights flashing 'new high score' to great fanfare.

"You're the best soldier in this army, Cadet," claimed the recording. "You saved our world from the terror of the humans, you deserve a medal! And should the enemy ever return, we will look to you!"

"Fuck medals," Nel laughed as she pulled herself up onto the unloading dock. "I got a goddamn plasma launcher!"

She patted her newly liberated fuel rod cannon as she left, intending to steal something from the gift shop on her way out.

---

Liara did not know exactly what to expect when they entered the ride, but she knew it wasn't this. The track opened up, the smooth metal floor weaving in and out of what could be best described as displays. These particular exhibits depicted salarians in a rather unflattering light.

They were vicious, slimy-looking, hunched over constantly, with wizened little grasping fingers and sneers. Most egregiously shameful were the prongs on their heads that were now more akin to horns than anything else. It was weird that these were the first creatures seen on the tour, Liara expected batarian might to be the foremost display. She only realised what this was when she looked up.

On the ceiling were mighty Batarian warships, firing down on the salarians from above. There were actually some batarians groundside as well and they looked much more heroic to be sure. They were standing on top of a hill in the center of the exhibit, shooting down at salarian attackers and defending innocent batarian damsels who they had to their backs.

The salarians in the meantime ran away, or more accurately were depicted as scurrying away, from the bombing attacks themselves. There were models presented as freeze framed images of the salarian air defences exploding as batarian gunships dive bombed them. The explosions even lit up and there were sound effects to fully capture the mood.

"I think I know what this is supposed to be," Liara said.

She walked over to the center of the exhibit and pressed a button on the display. The batarian models and the salarian attackers now moved slightly, the batarian soldier's gun swished from side to side, the salarian soldiers moved up and down the hill slightly.

"Here is the last stage of our police action on Mannovai," a recording claimed. "It fully demonstrated the whole reason for its necessity. This is the recovery of the kidnapped batarian civilians who were being used in dreadful experiments by their salarian captors. The salarians tried their damndest to hold onto their victims, but our heroic troops won the day."

Liara had been right about what this exhibit was about. Mannovai was one of the oldest interstellar salarian colonies. The batarians attacked it in 1758 in a terrible bombing raid. However, the ride seemed to be embellishing some of the facts, as Vik was quick to point out.

"What a load of shit," growled the quarian in anger at the display. "No batarians ever landed on Mannovai during the bombing. Their whole 'police action' was a foolish attempt to punish the salarian government for passing resolutions in the Council to curb their aggressive expansionist policies into salarian space. There were no kidnapped batarians on that world."

"And they certainly didn't cause nearly this much devastation as I recall," Liara added. "I also remember that none of the ships ever made it back to batarian space. They were destroyed before they even made it to the Mass Relay."

"Well, I'm guessing the average Hegemony citizen isn't aware of that," Vik thought aloud with a grumble. "After all, how would they think of their government if they realised how this little mission ended in complete failure and almost started a war between the Union and the Hegemony?"

Almost was a key word, the fact the perpetrators had been killed so quickly was sufficient enough for the salarians to sate any desire for revenge. In the end, the batarians were just lucky to lose some of their colony rights. From what she understood, the Turian Hierarchy felt they should drastically reduce the Hegemony's military forces, by force if necessary.

"Does Saya really look like that under his helmet?" Kayap asked, pointing to one of the horribly racist caricatures of the salarians.

"No," Liara assured him. "That's just how the Hegemony want people to see them as."

"They want all aliens to be seen like that. As the enemy, the monster, the barbarian at the gate," Vik added with a venomous growl. "When you're told of the beast outside waiting for you, who would want to leave?"

It was then Liara heard something up in the ceiling rafters. She looked and spotted something moving. Vik and Kayap followed her eyes and soon they noticed it too. Then they heard that buzzing noise.

"Scatter!" Liara ordered.

The group broke apart, as a small squad of yanme'e raced down from the rafters, their wings beating a hundreds of times a second. They fired haphazardly at the group as they all sought cover behind whatever was available, the corners of the displays, the unmoving cars still on the track and even within the exhibits themselves. Kayap managed to squeeze into a trench where plastic salarians were cowering as bombs dropped around them. Unlike them, Kayap tried to fight back, shooting at the yanme'e as they buzzed about the exhibit.

Liara managed to reach the safety of a lone riding car. She fired back on the yanme'e with her pistol, trying her best to shoot them down. She ended up hitting parts of the display instead and one of her bullets sliced through the head of the batarian soldier fighting the salarians in the central display. Vik had retreated to a nearby corner, letting his combat drone take to the field to harass the buzzing yanme'e while he opened fire on them.

Between the three of them, they managed to keep the yanme'e from flying too close to them and corralled them within the central display. They now flew around the batarian defenders and their salarian attackers, zipping up among the model bomber craft now and again in an attempt to avoid the gunfire.

One of the yanme'e took a glancing blow to the wing from Liara's pistol. He dropped on top of one of the model bombers, but he wasn't dead. He spotted Liara just below him, still behind her car. Then, he did something a bit unexpected. He spat something at her from his mouth. It fell down upon the riding car, causing Liara jump back a little. Before her eyes, she watched as the saliva began to melt the riding car.

"Kayap, were they able to spit acid before?" She asked as she ran back to a corner in the exhibit for cover, plasma bolts chasing her.

"No, they definitely couldn't do that," Kayap shouted out.

Liara flung a pull attack at the yanme'e, but hit the model bomber instead. That still shook the vehicle enough that the bug toppled off and allowed Kayap to take him out before he could get back up. Liara resumed firing at the yanme'e that were left. She tossed a singularity into the middle of their ranks and was able to catch two whose shields had been taken offline by Vik's drone. She fired a warp at the trapped insects and caused them both to detonate. As she did, another wad of acid hit her corner and she backed away from open.

"Just our luck we ended up with the least polite of the Covenant species," she grumbled to herself as she reloaded.

She and the others, however, soon realised that the bugs weren't the only Covies they'd have to deal with. Suddenly, a pair of kig-yar sped down from above. Something was off about how they jumped from the rafters. At first they dived towards the ground, then suddenly opened their arms and slowed down. Liara a first thought it was a trick of the eye and decided not to think too much about it.

Liara sent a throw that knocked one of the kig-yar into the air and into one of the several model salarians. The assault didn't kill him, but it took him out of the fight for a minute. The second kig-yar opened fire on Liara's position, firing at her with the plasma pistols implanted in his shield gauntlets.

However, his focus on Liara made him forget about Vik on the opposite side. The quarian laid down a turret that began to rapidly shoot at the kig-yar. The alien took a few hits and tried to block the rest with his gauntlets. The attack forced him back and into the cover of the central display.

The turret lost tracking on him and instead began to fire on the yanme'e. The model bombers took a lot of fire as the turret chased after them, cutting through the support wires for one. The model dipped its nose, striking a yanme'e as it passed under. As the bug went splat against the floor, a second yanme'e rushed at the turret from the side as it was chasing another of the bugs. It spat an acid wad at the turret, hitting it on its anti-grav mechanism. The turret fell hard onto the ground, shorting out when it did. The yanme'e had closed the gap between it and Vik, however, allowing him to fire a shotgun blast right into the creature's face.

The kig-yar that Liara had tossed away now raced out of the display, throwing pieces of the salarian model away like garbage. He fired on Liara's position, intending to pay her back for the biotic blow she had delivered. The asari rolled away from the incoming fire and tossed a warp attack at the kig-yar. The alien seemed physically pained by the attack, but soon righted himself. Enraged, the bird did something even more unexpected than acid spit. It raised both its arms up, screamed aloud and then sprouted blades from its wrists.

"Okay, I'm certain they didn't do that before," Liara thought quietly to herself.

The kig-yar raced across the floor, swishing blades in a ready to cut position. Liara fired on the alien as it charged, it blocked the shots with its gauntlets as they came at him. He then jumped forward to slash at Liara, but she just responded by sending a biotic throw arcing beneath him. The attack threw him up into the air, smashing into the belly of a model bomber. The model cracked, pieces falling to the floor and the Covie landed back on the floor in a heap. Liara quickly fired a shot into his head, just to make sure.

The second kig-yar fired at Liara in response to his friend's death, forcing her to run to cover. However, he had revealed his presence to Kayap. The unggoy, seeing the asari in danger, activated a plasma grenade and tossed it at the bird-alien's position.

"Heads up!" He called out.

Almost as if by divine providence, the kig-yar turned towards the sound of Kayap's shout. It ended up getting the plasma grenade stuck to his face. He screamed in horror moments before the grenade detonated and took out him and pretty much the entire central display. As pieces of the salarians and batarian models scattered everywhere, the yanme'e stopped swarming around it. They spread out across the exhibit, which ended up getting them in trouble.

Liara sent a biotic attack that slammed it into another of the model bombers, throwing the bug clear through one side and out the other. The bug smashed against the wall and fell to the ground twitching. She then zeroed in on another of the bugs, firing three perfect shots at the insect as he strafed the floor. The bug took every hit, one of them striking his wing.

The yanme'e spun out of control, slamming into one of the bomber models. As he gripped to side, Liara sent a biotic throw at him that pushed the bug and the model backwards. The cables holding the model up couldn't take the whiplash when the bomber swung back and broke, sending both it and the yanme'e tumbling into a wall.

Kayap fired plasma bolts, chasing after one of the bugs. The yanme'e narrowed its eyes on the unggoy, firing bolts at the little alien's position. Kayap ducked down low as the shots came in and then overcharged his pistol. He then jumped back up and let loose a shot that struck the yanme'e right in the face, burning his exoskeleton right off.

Vik walked out, his combat drone beside him as he fired at the few remaining bombers. His shots blasted through the bomber models hanging on the ceiling as he continued to fire. Eventually, he landed a hit on one yanme'e and then another. The careened towards they ground, their wings shredded by the spread of the shotgun's blast. The drone quickly moved in to finish the insects off, zapping one in the face while Vik blasted another in the torso.

A final yanme'e sped down from above then, and grabbed Vik carrying him up into the rafters as it screeched. Terrified, Vik dropped his shotgun and now began fiddling for his pistol. He stuck it up into the insect's maw and pulled the trigger. The alien died instantly, his grip loosening.

Vik fell back to earth suddenly, expecting a painful impact with the ground. Then, he suddenly stopped falling. He looked to see himself covered in a blue aura and saw that Liara, her arms outstretched, had caught him just before he hit the ground with her biotics.

"You okay?" She asked him concerned.

"I'm not insect food, so I guess I can't REALLY complain," Vik admitted.

Liara let him down and took account of the devastated room before them. The models were full of holes, the central display completely destroyed and broken models of batarian bomber craft littered the floor. The one still hanging by a single cable suddenly gave way and crashed nose first into the ground.

"Well, we just made this exhibit a bit more accurate I think," Vik observed with a satisfied chuckle.

Liara walked over to one of the yanme'e bodies. Acid was pooling from its mouth. Liara quickly took a scan of it with her omni-tool and found the genetic make-up of the compound matched a very different creature.

"This acid is similar in chemical structure to a thresher maw's own caustic saliva," she realised. "Trox did mention they were experimenting on a 'bug' back at Charlan. This was probably what he was talking about. We know they were working heavily with thresher maws, the mgalekgolo probably weren't the only ones the experiments were for."

"I don't think that's all they did," Kayap called out.

The unggoy was staring at the body of the kig-yar Liara had killed. She soon came over and bent down to get a better look at the body. The blades were still popped out. On closer inspection they seemed to have been surgically implanted, given the scars around the wrists.

"Probably courtesy of VykerCorp," Vik noted with a sneer, looking over her shoulder.

"That's not what I'm looking at," Kayap corrected him, lifting one of the kig-yar's arms.

Liara couldn't believe her eyes. Extending out from the kig-yar's arm was a thin, stretchy strand of collapsible skin. She held it in her fingers and moved it about. It seemed to be similar to the texture and the elasticity of similar animals that could glide.

"They've given them short-range flight capabilities," Liara concluded. "It's safe to assume this was Charlan's work as well."

"Seems they got a lot of projects finished before we shut them down," said Vik despondently.

"Just another reason we need that back door into the Hegemony's systems," she reaffirmed. "Along with whatever other information we can find inside that data dump."

Liara stood up again and readied her pistol.

"We gotta keep moving," she told Vik. "It won't take long for them to realise we've beaten their forward guard. We need to push forward and not give them have a chance to breathe."

"Fine by me," Vik agreed. "It means getting out of this den of lies faster, and maybe the destruction of another one of these stupid history lessons in the process."

---

Wrex had never been to an amusement park, didn't entirely see the point of them. Maybe he was just too old now to enjoy it. Maybe the idea of a 'family fun outing' was just lost on him. What was left of his direct family weren't exactly people he wanted to spend time with. However, Wrex imagined none of the parks sported something as disturbing as a haunted house depicting a real-life massacre.

He heard a lot about Torfan, how the Alliance basically ransacked the place. They freed slaves, destroyed pirate garrisons from orbit and burned the raider ships in their dry docks. In less than a day, the Systems Alliance Marines had obliterated the biggest vestige of batarian backed piracy in the galaxy and dealt a severe blow to the Hegemony's slave trade.

The humans didn't like boasting much about it. Even given that the people who were killed were mostly scumbags, the brutality of the event hadn't been lost on the media. Nor had the tremendous loss of life on the side of the Marines. They wanted revenge so badly, for all the times the Batarians had snatched up a colony, for the Skyllian Blitz, for being general pains in the ass.

And because rage blinded them, it got a good chunk of them killed. It reminded him a lot of his own people and their glorification of war, their desire for revenge instead of healing. Unlike the krogan, however, the Alliance had been smart enough to recognize in the aftermath that the battle hadn't been something to be too proud of.

Now, Wrex found himself in the batarian's version of events within an attraction called 'Terror on Torfan.' Within these halls, Torfan was a peaceful colony world, savaged brutally by the humans who raped, pillaged and murdered their way through the moon. The crimes were all wonderfully detailed in the settings and scenes through the little maze.

Humans set slaves free to kill their masters viciously. They slaughtered civilians, burned down villages and got away with their crimes because of the corrupt Council not reprimanding them. Funny how the Hegemony could spin a defeat into a piece of propaganda, but he supposed it was easy to do when they controlled all the news and no one was allowed to leave.

Wrex and Saya had retreated inside the haunted house, intending to use the close quarters to make it easier to funnel the massive amounts of enemy combatants they had attracted. Wrex wasn't sure where Saya was now though, as soon as they had walked through the front door the salarian had vanished. Not that his disappearing was surprising of course, he was STG after all.

Now Wrex found himself alone in a darkened depiction of a Torfan under siege by the Alliance. Models depicted humans skewering batarians, shooting civilians and in general doing all those horrible things the Hegemony wanted them to believe the Alliance had done. Wrex noticed a lot of nooks and crannies everywhere, no doubt meant to house park staff that would dress like humans and jump out to scare folks as they passed. Wrex admitted to himself the idea of the place would probably be fun, if it wasn't a crap load of lies and twisted facts.

The ride wasn't operating, but that didn't make the atmosphere any less fearful. Wrex walked through the narrow corridors, his shotgun raised to his eye. The sangheili and their minions could be behind any corner in this place. They had been in this park for who knows how long and had probably memorized the attraction layouts already and they no doubt had full access to all maintenance and employee backstage areas.

Wrex walked through a reproduction of the inside of a batarian household in the middle of being ransacked by humans. There was dead family sitting at the table, shot up and burned while their meal was still warm. There were bullet holes covering the entire room and blown out walls. Wrex knew better than to buy into the anti-human fear mongering of the scene. The only enemies here were the Covenant.

It was then he heard the sound of running feet coming from in front of him. He quickly moved behind the kitchen counter for cover. He soon found a snout and wagging tongue sticking in his face as he crouched down. They belonged to a model representation of the family pet Varren, who had been skewered by human bayonets and was lying on the stove.

Two sangheili appeared shortly after Wrex took cover and had just barely seen him hide. They opened fire on Wrex, tearing the kitchen apart with their plasma rifles. Wrex readied a carnage shot and jumped up, firing it at the nearest sangheili. The Covie took the devastating hit and in the aftermath, Wrex closed the gap between him and the second sangheili with a krogan charge. He rammed the sangheili into the wall, his head slamming into the alien's stomach. He punched the Covenant officer a few times for good measure, but the sangheili was able to kick him off.

Wrex landed back in the kitchen and he quickly rolled under the family dinner table. He upended it and used it as a shield, taking shot from the sangheili's plasma rifle as he moved about the kitchen. The plasma burned at the wooden table, but didn't penetrate immediately. It wouldn't be long before that changed though, so Wrex took aim with his claymore and fired two blasts through the table. They slammed into the Covie, blowing out his shields with the first shot before hitting him in the stomach.

Wrex tossed the table aside and looked back to the dead family models.

"Sorry for interrupting your meal," he mildly grumbled.

He walked past the first sangheili who had taken the carnage shot on his way out. He was apparently still alive, although the blast had blown one of his arms off. He feebly tried to claw at Wrex's leg, the krogan responded by planting his foot in the Covie's skull. There was little time to concern himself further with them. His fellows had no doubt heard the gunfire and were closing in.

He moved out of the house now and found himself in a trench he could see humans above stabbing batarians with bayonets. Wrex wondered if they were animatronics currently offline. Up ahead, Wrex could see a line of bound and gagged batarian women in the trench. Across from them, humans armed with rifles. They were definitely animatronics. Wrex figured they probably shot air as visitors past them, simulating gunfire as they killed the innocent batarians while the tourists were in the middle.

Given the intended message of the scene, Wrex had to give credit to the designers in their approach. He ultimately found it rather tasteless all the same, however. Krogan in general weren't much for propaganda and he was no exception. Words on posters seldom mattered as much as action on Tuchanka.

The slight distraction from the scenery, however, gave a sangheili the chance he had been waiting for. He jumped out of a nook in the trench and attacked Wrex. The krogan jumped back before a plasma dagger could slash through his skull. He grabbed the sangheili's arm as it tried to cut him again and threw him into the opposing wall.

The sangheili quickly got up, avoiding Wrex's attempt to shoot him with his claymore. He pulled back to another corner in the trench and fired at the krogan with his plasma rifle. Wrex quickly took up a spot for cover himself and the two traded fire for a few seconds. Wrex wasn't sure how he was going to dislodge the Covie, but he figured that the sangheili would try to rush him eventually and then he could match him in a proper battle of strength.

Instead, Wrex found he wouldn't need to. When the sangheili tried to move up, he got jumped from above by something unseen. Saya soon appeared on the alien's back, jabbing his sword down into the Covie's neck. The sangheili was able to throw the salarian off, with a single arm, but Saya had already left a present behind. With a touch of the sword's hilt, the sangheili's neck exploded outward and the Covie fell over dead.

Wrex wasn't entirely happy to see the salarian, as he hadn't exactly been much help until now.

"Where exactly have you been?" Wrex asked him. "I've been wandering around this damn maze alone, worrying about every little nook and cranny I came across."

Saya said nothing of course only pointed behind him incessantly. Wrex wasn't much for sign language, but he could tell the salarian was trying to inform him of something. He looked to where the STG agent was pointing, above the trench itself. He saw shadows reflected on the wall, something was coming their way. Wrex quickly took off down the trench with Saya close behind.

They came to another setting within the haunted house, a forest where statues of humans, their guns pointed forward, waited in the brush. Saya quickly rushed over to a nearby control box and forced it open. When he popped out his omni-tool, Wrex realised what he was doing.

"You're turning the room's effects on," he realised. "Any particular reason why?"

Saya didn't attempt to explain as much this time. He was too busy fiddling with the controls. From what he could see, Saya had prepared a timer for the room's activation. Giving the fake forest another look, Wrex also spotted some lines of explosive gel. He devised that the salarian was setting up some kind of ambush.

"Okay, where you want me?" Wrex asked, trying his best to go along with the plan.

Saya again indicated nothing, only a small look back at the krogan followed by a waving hand sign. Wrex looked back and saw he was gesturing to an emergency exit. The Urdnot Chief was not amused.

"For someone with a lot of experience with krogan, the idea you want me to run from a fight is kinda bullshit," Wrex told him. "Seriously, you don't want my help at all? You don't want me cutting in on YOUR ambush?"

Saya only stared at him briefly before getting into position. Wrex just grunted at him and quickly took up residence behind a tree.

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, amphibian," he growled as he readied his incendiary rounds. "But you're getting my help with this whether you want it or not."

Truthfully, Saya's insult made him want to leave, but that would be giving him what he wanted. Besides, Wrex kinda wanted to see how this was going to go down.

The Covenant soon appeared through the entrance. Unggoy were up front, while sangheili took up the rear, each keeping an eye on their corners as they entered the darkened room. As they got inside, Saya's timer reached the end of its countdown.

Suddenly the room burst to life as gunfire and screams rebounded off the walls. The statues of humans came to life as they moved along motorized tracks on the floor, bullet sounds coming from speakers at their base. What was the most eye-catching though were the lights, the strobe lights that flashed rapidly throughout the room in unison with the bullet sounds. The Covenant got the full brunt of it, clutching at their eyes in pain as the pitch black was repeatedly disrupted with burst of bright light.

Saya was a bit more prepared than Wrex or the Covenant, he looked away from the front for a brief moment and let his eyes adjust. Wrex, meanwhile almost jumped back in pain from the sudden flashing. In response, he buried his head in the trunk of the fake plastic tree he was hiding behind for a few moments. It helped him adjust, and not a second too soon.

Saya popped out of cover to fire shots from his pistol as he ran across the room. The majority of the strobes were facing directly at the Covenant, so he had a decent line of sight. The Covenant could only get brief glimpses of their moving target and ended up firing wildly.

Wrex joined the fight himself, shooting out blasts from his assault rifle to keep the Covenant guessing where the shots were coming from. The gunfire noises assisted in masking their presence further. Covenant started to fall like flies as they tried to feel their way towards come kind of cover.

Soon enough, Saya activated the explosive gel, which was concentrated around the main entrance where the Covenant had been bottlenecked into. Sangheili were knocked off their feet while unggoy went flying. The loud noises of the explosion deafened the survivors' ears, while the flash of the bomb made it even more difficult to see. Wrex quickly added to the chaos with a carnage shot, which turned one of the sangheili into chum on impact.

One of the sangheili, enraged by the deaths of his comrades, rushed forward firing at where he thought the lights were coming from, only to end up get his throat sliced by Saya in the dark. He was the last to fall, and the Salarian quick beat a retreat towards the emergency exit. Wrex followed best he could, keeping his arm up to block some of the strobe lights' flashing. He busted through the door and emerged into the light of the park proper. He immediately saw Saya taking off in another direction without him.

"Damn it," Wrex grumbled. "That guy is gonna get me killed."

He did admit though, as he raced off after the salarian, that the trap had been good. He just wished that the amphibian had bothered to include him in it. As far as Saya was concerned, he seemed to think he was the only one in this park besides the Covenant. Wrex wasn't about to share the same attitude, not with Liara inside that building with the loony quarian and the scared little midget.

He only hoped that she was okay, and he wasn't just referring to her current mission. There were a lot of things stirring in that asari's mind. He could tell from the moment she settled on coming to this planet.

---

To say Liara was even less thrilled with the next exhibit would've been an understatement. She wasn't surprised by it, nothing could surprise her at this point, but that didn't make the appalling scene around her any less disgusting.

Pale blue, wicked looking asari huntresses, armed with rifles and knives lined the displays. They beat down and killed other asari, brutally and malicious for little reason other than money or food. Liara's people were being presented as a rowdy, wild women species, unfeeling and uncaring

Contrasted with them were the batarians. There were statues and large scale dioramas depicting them planting their flag in the ground, beating back the wicked, lawless asari who resisted them, and bringing order to the savage chaos around them. In the centre of the exhibit, the batarians stood atop a hill, their flag being hoisted up into the air, while grateful members of the asari people gave them gifts as the Hegemony soldiers graciously accepted their submission.

She didn't need Vik to tell her what this exhibit was, she knew the instant she saw it. It was a recreation of the Annexation of Esan in 1913 CE, when the Hegemony stole an asari world, renamed it Lorek and forced the asari there to leave. The Matriarchs almost started a war over it, but decided against it. The planet was already lost, deep in the Terminus and it was deemed easier to just relocate the displaced asari colonists. Apparently the Hegemony had seen the events differently.

She did her best to hide her derision of it all, but it was hard when such an inexcusable treatment of her people's history surrounded her. They could've easily justified going to war with the Hegemony for what they did on Esan, and no race in the galaxy would have opposed it. They chose not to out of the interest of preserving the lives of their people rather than causing more death. They let the batarians have their prize, and they turned it into a trophy to hold above their heads in pride.

Kayap's curiosity once again led him to press a button on one of the nearby displays. The savage Asari Huntresses bared their weapons as the batarians planted their flag, which waved proud as the Hegemony soldier surveyed the land.

"Seeing how the oppressed asari lived in fear of their tyrannical war-loving crime lords, we sent our sons to liberate and educate these wayward souls. We were met with resistance, but we were determined to bring civilization to this land and teach the asari their proper place as dictated by the natural order of the universe."

"He means slaves, right?" Kayap asked, clearly catching on to what they were trying to push.

"Anyone who couldn't get off the planet was put in bondage," Vik answered. "As I understand it, the matriarchs had to do a lot of negotiating just to get them back. There are rumours, however, that some Asari Commandos went to Lorek in an attempt to save some of the remaining captives."

Liara was quick to ease Vik's little conspiracy ramble.

"That's never been proven," she told him. "Although I do wish it were true. Esan, or Lorek, is out of Asari space. Such a rescue attempt would have been difficult, costly and could've potentially ignited a war. If there is any truth to those rumours, I've seen none. They're certainly not doing it now."

"Didn't mean to sound like I was accusing your people of anything," Vik apologized quickly. "I just wish that someone had bothered to try at one time or another. It would've... saved a lot of lives."

Vik's words seemed strange, far off and distant. He was remembering something clearly, but it seemed off. The quarian looked around at the asari bowing to the batarians and offering gifts, not with ire, but sadness in his silver eyes.

"To the Hegemony, every species deserves to fall under their heel," he mused sadly. "The lower classes and lesser races must bend a knee. That is the law of the universe, the strong stand... the weak submit."

He looked over to a depiction of an asari huntress being beaten down by a heroic batarian soldier.

"Anyone who fights that order must die," he said despondently. "Esan was probably a beacon of peace and serenity before it became Lorek. Now, it's just a jewel in their crown, a testament to imperial dreams."

Liara walked over to shake Vik out of his state. She wasn't sure where this had come from, but she knew he wouldn't be good to her if he was stuck in it. Her natural curiosity got the better of her though.

"Is there something wrong, Vik?" She asked.

"I'm fine, Doc," he insisted nervously and dismissively. "I'm just... I've been taking my pills, I'm not crashing here. It's just hard to take in, you know? Thinking about how the batarians celebrate stealing peoples' homes and everything."

Liara decided to let it go, she just wanted Vik's head in the game.

"We best keep moving then, before the Covenant show up again," she told him.

"Yeah, I thought the sangheili would've attacked by now," Kayap mentioned. "It's not like them to have a lack of defences ready. They knew we were coming."

Liara didn't like either. The Covenant could be setting up better defences, or they were just lying in wait for something. Perhaps they were waiting for them to walk into the crossfire of an ambush. She wanted to be sure.

"Vik, can you scan the room for anomalies?" She asked.

The quarian obliged, letting out his combat drone to sniff around the area.

"I have a detection software function loaded into her," Vik explained as he directed the drone. "She can sniff out heat signatures, specific material alloys and-"

Vik's explanation was interrupted when an explosion erupted beneath the drone and rocked the exhibit. The drone was unable to maintain its form due to the damage and vanished, but Liara was able to figure out what happened. Given that the explosion came from underneath the drone, there was only one conclusion.

"Mines," she warned. "They set up a minefield between us and the next exhibit."

"Probably cloaked batarian mines," Vik reasoned quickly. "They're virtually undetectable by regular means. Lots of people think they don't exist, just a rumour spread by the Hegemony as a scare tactic. I always knew they were real though."

"If they're blocking our path forward, that means they've blocked us off," Kayap realised, a sense of foreboding in his voice. "And the yanme'e can just fly over them, and if they can fly over them..."

The buzzing noise suddenly resumed. Everyone looked for cover behind the dozens of cars spread out across the exhibit. Before long, the bugs were back, but they weren't alone. Clutched in their arms were the sangheili officers who fired down on the group as the yanme'e lifted them past the dangerous mines.

They dropped the Covenant soldiers onto the floor from above and the sangheili immediately pressed their advantage. They fired on the squad in their hiding places, the carts shaking as the plasma bolts hit them. Liara returned fire, as did Kayap and Vik, but they found themselves trying to both keep out of the sights of the sangheili and their flying insectoid backup.

Kayap was forced to duck low as one yanme'e dived down at him. Liara fired up at the bug as he sped away. She managed a few solid hits, clipping him through the thorax and chest once the shield was gone. He fell to the ground dead, but there plenty more of the bugs to take his place. They swarmed around the exhibit firing down on the three whenever they spotted them. The sangheili directed the yanme'e to their targets as well, firing on their positions, forcing all three of them to keep switching cars.

"We're too vulnerable here," she said. "We need to make a path through those mines and get to a better position up ahead. If we fall back, we'll never get to that data dump."

"I can try and activate a static current through the floor," Vik suggested. "It might just short-circuit the mines and detonate them. Our armour should be properly insulated so we won't get shocked."

"We'll cover you, just do it," Liara ordered.

As Vik began scanning for a way to switch on the floor's electrical current, Liara flung biotic attacks at the swarm of bugs above them. Kayap switched to a needler gun and began shooting trailing shots of pink into the air. He was able to catch one of the yanme'e with several needles successfully, resulting in a glorious pink plume that killed the bug and injured another flying close to it.

The sangheili increased their attacks in response, firing at the riding cars as they moved up. Liara sent a powerful throw attack that knocked one of the sangheili down, but it would only keep him out of the fight for a short while. His friend continued on shooting and Kayap and Liara were forced to pull back towards Vik's position.

Soon, more yanme'e appeared carrying more sangheili along with a few unggoy and kig-yar. They were intending to overrun the small group, force them back, anything to keep them from pushing further inside. Liara was starting to wonder if they had guessed what they were here for. Even if they didn't expect an attack, they had probably wagered that the data dump was the only reason to come here. It would explain why they were so adamant about keeping them from getting any further.

"They're just going to keep sending men forward until we're spent," Liara called over to Vik. "We need the mines down now!"

Vik had pried loose a floor panel and was rummaging amongst the wires. He found the floor's primary conduit and activated it. Power surged from the cable into the floor, zipping through the strips that allowed the cars to soak up the energy. Vik pulled back from the open panel, taking cover behind one of the cars with Liara and Kayap. Moments later they could hear explosion erupting to their front as the mines were detonated by the electricity coursing through the floor.

"Try not to touch the floor with your hand," Vik cautioned as he squatted behind the riding car. "You'll complete the circuit and send a shock through ya. Won't kill, doesn't have that kind of power, but it will hurt like hell."

Liara went to see if they could make a dash for the exit, but wondered how they could be sure the mines were all gone. Just as she was looking at the smouldering remains of the impromptu minefield, a plasma shot nearly hit her in the head. She pulled back towards Vik, while Kayap returned fire on the Covenant forces.

"We'll never make it across with the Covenant pinning us down," she told him. "We need to break them apart."

Vik gave it some thought and came up with a bit of inspiration. He turned around and unloosened their car's back panel, revealing the battery unit inside.

"The car draws power from the floor," he began to explain as he fiddled with the machine. "The more you hammer the pedal, the more power it soaks up and the faster you go. They've limited how much power the battery can soak up so no one can go too fast, but I'm gonna bypass safety and send it charging into their ranks. I just need to overload the battery."

Vik pulled out a series of wires and piece of metal. He then slammed the top of his hand onto the battery and siphoned power from his overload program into the power supply. The car lit up, its dashboard beaming brightly. He then quickly took one of the scrap bits of metal and jammed it into the forward drive pedal.

The car quickly zipped away, speeding into the Covenant ranks while Liara, Vik and Kayap made a dash for the next exhibit. The car bulldozed over a kig-yar, an unggoy, barely hit one sangheili and headed straight for another whose eyes were solely focused on Liara, trying to shoot her down. He didn't see the car when slammed into him and piled him straight into the display, knocking over one of the batarian soldiers carrying the Hegemony flag.

"Clever trick," Liara congratulated her quarian companion as they ran.

"I seem to work best when under fire," Vik laughed. "Fear gives me a sense of immediacy."

Vik and Liara pushed one of the cars forward into the former minefield and saw that it passed cleanly. The group followed its path, leaving the Annexation of Esan exhibit behind, but not the Covenant. They were quick to get their bearings and follow after them. Liara just hoped they'd have more luck in the next exhibit and be able to get rid of them before they reached the data dump.

---

The others may have felt that this whole situation was a little ridiculous, but Nel couldn't help but feel the rush of excitement. She remembered going to amusement parks as a kid, although turian theme parks were very regimental and sticklers for rules. You could certainly have fun at them, but they were big on height restrictions and always locked you in pretty tight. Still, it was always fun to go on the roller coasters, especially the ones with the big loop de loops.

'Chakiel's Expedition' didn't have any of those, but it had drops and tight turns and even one corkscrew. She supposed that was all they could afford in the budget. Oh well, a rollercoaster was a rollercoaster and she was gonna ride this one. What other chance would she have to? Hell, when would she have another chance to shoot bad guys while riding one?

She had picked up her new tail around the park's little hover cart racing track, kig-yar to be precise. These ones were different though, they ran after her, they glided after her. Which was kinda cool, but she had to get over her amazement pretty quickly after meeting them. That or get shot, which she didn't want.

She briefly thought about shooting them with the fuel rod cannon, but that seemed like a waste of a perfectly good high powered explosive. These guys were kinda frail, better to conserve her fuel rod ammo for bigger game. Her small arms would more than suffice for now.

She led them back to 'Chakiel's Expedition,' intending to use the ride as her next little shooting gallery. It was twisty and mazey enough that the kig-yar would have to get close to stand a chance of getting a shot on her, and she imagined there wouldn't be able to fly too high above the tracks to dive bomb her anyway.

Really though, all that was just an excuse for after if Liara found out about what she did somehow. She just really wanted to kill bad guys on a roller coaster. The idea was far too enticing for her to pass up.

She had managed to get ahead of the kig-yar and scramble into the docking station for the ride. She quickly switched on all the start up buttons, activating the ride. She could already hear the kig-yar coming and prepared herself for the fight. She was still running high on her first injection. She probably had enough to last through the firefight.

But she remembered Bash and Blast again and how she came down too soon. What if she ran out again? She couldn't risk that. She reached into her compartment again and pulled out another vial. They always said never to risk overdose, never to take more than one per mission. They bent those rules quite a few times though, upping the dosage of each injection, upping the potency of the batch. It hadn't always led to good results, but she was tougher now than back then. She could handle it better. An extra dose wouldn't hurt.

So she plugged another injection into her neck and felt a new buzz atop her current one. It was rejuvenating, better than before, enticing even. She almost had forgotten what two at the same time felt. It would probably be good enough for now and certainly last long enough to deal with these shit heads.

She looked outside and saw the kig-yar still looking for her. So she decided to help them out.

"Hey, shitheads!" She called to them, catching their attention. "Over here, you sorry sacks of feathers!"

She fired on them with her assault rifle, scattering them.

"Are you guys looking for me?" She asked as she raised her arm high. "Then you must be this suicidal to ride!"

The kig-yar opened fire on her, causing her to duck back inside. The Covies charged the coaster now, gliding up onto the support beams and the track itself. Nel in the meantime jumped into the coaster's train and let herself be rocketed up along the track. She screeched with glee as she rode up, turning to the side to see kig-yar gliding up at her. She fired her assault rifle, filling one full of holes before she reached the end of the incline and dropped right down.

When she reached the bottom she encountered a hard left, running over an unsuspecting kig-yar as she rocketed past. Another kig-yar fired down on her as she sped past, but she fired up at him as she did. His feathers caught fire from the incendiary rounds, hitting several beams as he fell screaming in agony. Nel continued to laugh as the coaster kept going. She headed up another hill at top speed, firing away at the various kig-yar scrambling over adjacent support beams, trying to land a shot.

As she rocketed down the other side, one landed directly over her head on a support beam hidden by a cut-out of an asteroid. The Covie sliced it off with some kind of blade in his wrist and fired down on Nel. The turian rolled over to a seat behind her in the same car, firing up at the bird-like alien as she rode past, shooting him clean through the torso. She couldn't believe how accurate she was. Even on a single dose she had never been this good! It was euphoric

Another kig-yar jumped down on the track, close to a swinging comet that was hanging just low enough to look like it was going to hit the riders. It of course never would, not without help. Nel unloaded a stream of bullets from her rifle, blowing off the safety lock on the comet, It swung down suddenly and slammed into the kig-yar, breaking off in the process and carrying him clean off the track.

"Now that's what I call a shooting star," she quipped.

Nel quickly braced herself as she rode out the corkscrew, laughing all the way. Her stronger grip created by the juice making it child's play. When she evened out, one of the kig-yar jumped on top of the train a few cars back. He fired two clean shots at her from his plasma pistols, forcing her to duck down and fire back. The bird easily dodged the shots and rushed forward along the speeding train.

Nel sat with her back to the seat, her shotgun out and ready. She was more than aware of every little sound he made as he got closer, her hearing heavily enhanced by the double dose. When the kig-yar got close enough to be standing over her, she pointed her shotgun up and fired. The shot took his head clean off.

"Keep your hands, arms, legs and brains inside the car at all times!" She laughed.

As she rode up the next hill a single kig-yar scrambled up to a maintenance ledge on the side. He popped one of his wrist blades as he took shots at her, intending to slice her head open when she got near. Nel merely took out her pistol as she ducked low from the plasma bolts and fired three shots. Two struck the shooting hand of the Covie, the third hit his bladed arm. The momentary pain caused by the assault allowed Nel enough time to take her shotgun, grab its barrel and club its grip clean against the kig-yar's head. The hit knocked the kig-yar clean off the maintenance ledge and down into the forest of beams below.

"Best! Ride! Ever!" Nel screamed as she rocketed down the next hill, firing off her shotgun into the air.

---

Liara slid into the cover behind one of the smaller displays in the next room, as did her two companions. They gave quick look of the surroundings as they readied their weapons. They could see reproductions of Citadel fighters attacking batarian gunships hanging from the ceiling, turians, asari, and salarian soldiers in dishevelled looking military gear, engaging proud and regal batarians in shining illustrious armour.

There were wounded batarians gallantly holding the line, sword wielding batarians rushing enemy positions and one batarian ridiculously killing a turian with the hegemony flag itself. It was a bit harder to place this exhibit, as this one was probably the most exaggerated. In the end it could only be one thing, the Skirmish on Enael or, as the Hegemony seemed to be claiming, the Battle of Enael.

"I don't recall the history books mentioning air support on Enael in 2115," Vik noted.

"There weren't any fighters," Liara reminded him, her gun still pointed at the entrance. "The fighting lasted for only fifteen minutes before the batarians ran back to their landing zones. There weren't even this many Citadel forces, just two squads worth of soldiers beating back a small commando raid on a tiny outpost."

"Well, the kids on Khar'shan have been taught differently it seems," Vik observed.

A plasma bolt hit the small display they were taking cover behind as the Covenant rushed into the room. Before long, the model depicting the batarian insertion was riddled with holes. The motionless Hegemony soldiers were shot to pieces as the sangheili rallied their forces to strike the trio down.

"We need to spread out a little," Liara told them. "We can't let them focus their fire on one area. Vik go right, Kayap, left."

The three separated on the asari's command. Kayap jumped behind the depiction of a Citadel Forces tank in a display, while Vik ran for one of the nearby cars for cover. The quarian let his turret and drone add to their numbers, splitting the focus of fire from the enemy even further.

The yanme'e still made fighting the Covenant hard though as their swarm seemed to grow even as Liara's team managed to kill a few. Vik's shotgun blew apart one of the bugs, but another soon arrived to force his head down. Kayap's needler took out swaths of the buzzing aliens flying in tight formations, but more just replaced them. To Liara, it was becoming increasingly clear that victory meant taking out the buzzing swarm over their heads. They'd need something to remove the yanme'e from the attack.

Liara eyed one of the models of the Citadel Forces' Fighters. It appeared to be asari in make, or at least a batarian version of it. She could tell by the small prong like wings and lower tail fin. To her, it was good enough. She'd need some help on this one though and she just who to call on for it.

"Kayap," she shouted while looking behind her to the unggoy, who had just he fired off another string of needles. "When I say now, I want you to fling a plasma grenade at that model!"

She pointed to the asari fighter and Kayap, although he wasn't entirely sure of the plan. Liara next looked to Vik.

"Keep the swarm bunched up, Vik," she ordered. "Direct the turret to hold them back, shoot down any stragglers."

Vik obliged, reprogramming the turret to begin a containment subroutine. The shots kept the swarm in line. They were ultimately unwilling to risk abandoning the safety of numbers while the quarian's turret and Vik himself were shooting anything that tried to leave it. Liara in the meantime focused her biotics on the fighter itself. She encased it in a blue aura and moved it about, eventually prying it away from the cables on the ceiling. She then aimed it towards the swarm.

"Kayap! Now!" She shouted.

The unggoy readied a plasma grenade just as Liara launched the ship forward. Kayap tossed the grenade into the air, hurtling it towards the fighter. The explosive smashed through the glass of the cockpit, landing in the seat. The fighter slammed into the swarm, hitting a few of the bugs as they flew forward. They parted slightly, intending to simply let the craft pass them by, like a school of fish avoiding a predator.

Then the grenade exploded right in the middle of the swarm taking out most of them, unaware of the trap inside. The bugs fell from the sky, blown to bits, shredded to pieces by shrapnel or on fire. They fell on top of their superiors before the wrecked burning husk of the model began to fall on them. The Covenant fell back as the fighter collapsed on them. The fighter rolled over itself, crushing the Covies beneath them with ease, kicking parts of the floor and running over anyone who didn't get out of the way.

When the wreckage stopped, everyone looked on in awe.

"Keelah," Vik said in surprise. "Nice one, Doc."

"Most of that was Kayap," Liara admitted.

They both looked at the unggoy who just shrugged at it all.

"Where'd you get such a good arm?" Vik asked him.

"Lots of practice I guess," he admitted. "They only give you so many grenades and if you miss too much they beat you. You really got to learn it if you want to avoid getting beaten for wasting resources."

There was no more time to think about their success, they still had a mission to complete.

"How far are we away?" She asked Vik.

He quickly looked at his omni-tool.

"Close," he assured her. "I think the next exhibit will put us on top of it."

The trio ran out of the Enael exhibit, hopefully heading towards their final goal at last.

---

Wrex moved back through the rows of arcade machines, firing his shotgun at the oncoming mass of Covenant cannon fodder. Normally he'd just stand his ground and fight, but he was trying to lead them away from Liara so the further back towards the front he went the better. It was still somewhat embarrassing for a krogan to be performing a fighting retreat, especially against unggoys.

The sangheili of course took up the rear, with a few of their kig-yar compatriots moving up as well. The bulk of the work was left up to the damn midgets, who raced through the game cabinets like so many a pyjak charging a food store. Wrex pulled back from one arcade cabinet, fired into the mass and then ran to the next row, repeating the process all along the arcade floor. It was tedious, but at least the arcade games provided sufficient cover.

There were other difficulties though, the unggoy stayed on the ground but the kig-yar preferred to cheat. Every couple of seconds, Wrex had to divert his attention as a pack of the little beak-faced bastards scrambled over the tops of the arcade machines, always in twos, and tried to rush him that way. Wrex managed to spy their attempts though. He then shifted his sights to them and gave the kig-yar two good shots from his claymore, one for each.

Then he had to quickly race behind one of the cabinets again because the unggoy tried to use the distraction to their advantage by firing on him. He always paid them back though. He threw out a shockwave that rippled across the floor and hit the little gas sucking pyjaks hard. They just never seemed to learn the lesson though, or their masters at the back of the line were telling them to deliberately ignore it.

Wrex was just glad to see Saya was actually being more of a help this time, in his own way at least. The salarian had taken the other side of the arcade machines, firing off pistol shots and laying down little explosive patches to eliminate the squads of unggoys.

Between them, they were able to keep each line of Covenant soldiers from achieving the ability to flank. The strategy ended up getting a lot of innocent arcade machines destroyed in the process though. A shame, some of them looked half-way decent, with some really realistic-looking gun controllers on the shooter cabinets.

Eventually though, they ran out of rows and both Saya and Wrex found themselves with their backs to the wall. The krogan looked to the salarian, who was reloading his pistol before blind firing out into the open. Wrex switched to his assault rifle and readied it as well. There was a way out, but it was across open ground past some holotables for a game of some kind, probably holo-pucks.

"Think we can make for the back exit?" He asked the salarian.

Saya didn't answer directly, but pointed to his cloak function on his armour.

"Fair enough, you can get out, but what about me?" He asked. "I don't hide so good."

Saya seemed to slump his shoulders in a sigh brought his pistol up to bare before gesturing to the door. It seemed like he was offering to cover, so Wrex decided to make a go for it. He readied his barriers, prepared a carnage shot for firing and took off to the back exit door. He rushed out of cover, turning to fire his carnage shot among the cabinets, destroying them and blowing up one or two unggoy in the process.

As he moved out, Saya fired back on the Covenant, flipping over one of the holo-tables and then spread gel across both of its legs as he landed. He then forced the table up on one end, creating a bit of cover. Wrex was able to use it to make up for the open space between them and the exit, the table blocking the plasma bolts as they flew towards them. Wrex bulldozed through the door, Saya right behind as he slammed it shut, locked it with his omni-tool and then sliced the opening mechanism to keep it closed.

"I think we can double back and make it to where we entered," Wrex told him as they ran. "We can hold them off inside the Hall of Leadership."

Saya seemed look at him incredulously.

"Relax, I got a plan," he promised.

---

Bright orange and red filled the room, momentarily putting them all off guard. When they adjusted to the sudden change in lighting, they found a city in flames depicted around them, with chaos brimming from everywhere. Displays of beaten down vehicles, destroyed shops and panicking people were everywhere. This time, however, there were no aliens, just batarians. For once they were greeted with an exhibit Liara couldn't place. One thing was for sure, with a lack of other races present, this was an internal event to be sure.

"You seem to be well read on batarian history," Liara told Vik. "What is this?"

"I'm not sure," the quarian admitted. "I've never heard about any batarian cities on fire like this. Probably exaggerated, but I still can't put my finger on it."

They looked around the displays, trying to get a better picture of what the museum ride was trying to convey through the exhibit. Closer inspection of some of the batarians revealed shabbier clothes and more savage appearances. They were storming upper class batarian homes and shops, setting fire to government buildings and killing anyone, soldier or civilian alike. There was one statue that depicted a batarian with broken chains around his wrists. In his hands he held the head of batarian women, her decapitated body at his feet.

"A revolt, maybe?" Liara asked.

"It looks like it," Vik admitted. "I don't recall reading about anything this violent though. You hear rumours of small slave revolts on batarian colonies now and again, but never this big or Khar'shan."

The quarian eventually found a button along the side of one of the displays. He pressed it and the exhibit came to life, shining a light on a group of batarians, ripping collars off their necks and taking farmer tools in hand. They rattled them at the groups of higher class batarians, who featured cowering mothers sheltering babies while their husband stood between them and the armed batarians.

"In 1957 CE, our Hegemony faced one of its greatest challenges to date," the narration began. "A mass slave revolt that spread across our very homeworld of Khar'shan. Driven by their inherent barbaric nature, as well as their lustful desire for what the higher castes had earned, the lowest caste sought to take by force what they could not claim by right. They arrogantly rose against their masters and attempted to destroy all we held dear, bringing chaos in their wake."

Vik seemed almost shaken by it all.

"Wait, I think I heard about this," he said. "But it was so long ago, and there are so few records... and no survivors."

"What is it, Vik?" Liara asked.

"There was a slave revolt in 1957 CE," Vik told her solemnly. "But... it wasn't this widespread."

Vik shook his head and ran over to another display, trying to make sense of this. Liara couldn't understand why he had become so frantic, but she did her best to keep up. She kept beside Vik as he pressed another button on the exhibit display. This diorama depicted Hegemony soldiers firing en masse at the revolting slaves, quickly making them scurry away in fear from the citizens they were attempting to slaughter.

"Our brave soldiers soon routed the enemy," the narration claimed. "Capturing many and returning them to bondage. Others had become far too independent minded, no longer wishing to serve their masters as they should. They had been corrupted by stories of supposed freedom and abolition from outside our space. The only choice now was to cull the herd."

"They culled it alright," Vik stated grimly.

Vik brought up a file on his omni-tool depicting an entire burning district of a city. Flames reaching up into the sky, buildings crumbling, charred bodies scattered about the walls.

"This is the only known photograph," Vik explained sadly. "It's a slave district of one of the smaller cities on Khar'shan, Xongdak. In 1957 CE, it's claimed a group of slaves tried to rise up in the district. Somehow, they had stolen guns and weapons, smuggled into their homes. Then they refused work, shot at the whip masters who tried to collect them and closed their district. The military kept trying to force them out, but they were repulsed from the district. Many people thought it was just something the Hegemony made up, to scare people about slaves rising up and killing them."

"What happened to the slaves?" Liara asked cautiously, expecting a bad end.

"The story goes... they were firebombed from above to end the revolt before it spread," Vik explained. "The district burned to the ground."

Vik looked over at the exhibit as a whole. The statue of the batarian slave holding the women's head, the raging fires about the buildings, the slaves fighting batarian soldiers, it led to one sobering conclusion.

"It actually happened," Vik said looking at the picture on the screen. "People said the district in the photograph wasn't from that revolt, that it was just a fire that started because of faulty heating equipment. The Hegemony just refused to put it out because they didn't see the point in saving the slaves. But that's not it at all. The photo is the aftermath of the firebombing, a deliberate act of mass murder as opposed to just uncaring abandonment."

"But if the revolt only happened in one city, inside one district," Kayap began to ask. "Why would they claim the slaves rose up everywhere?"

Liara wondered the same and came to a very grim conclusion.

"To make sure every slave knows that even if they all rise up, they'll all be hammered down," she realised, staring at the image of the slaves being slaughtered by the soldiers before them. "And it's also to make them even bigger villains in the eyes of the people, making the slaves the aggressors in the story. In history, they refuse to come out and don't attack anyone but the soldiers who come in. Here, they try to kill anyone who's a higher caste than them all across the planet."

"And there's no one left alive from that time now to say otherwise," Vik added sadly, shaking his head. "The Hegemony probably destroyed all records of the event as well. All anyone knows outside batarian space is that a district burned down and that there were some unruly slaves in the past. We can't even be sure what they hoped to gain. Maybe they wanted better treatment, maybe they wanted to be free, maybe they even wanted to start their own city state, we'll never know. The Hegemony saw to that."

Vik walked through the exhibit more, the others following as he observed the distorted history in front of him. The images of slaves trying to throw off their master's yoke, a quest for freedom, warped into something ghastly. It was far more disturbing than the other three exhibits combined.

"Tons of people come to this park," Kayap noted. "They learn about this. They think it's real. Why didn't any batarian refugees who escaped say something about this?"

"They have," Vik elaborated. "But they all think the Hegemony made up the entire story, that there was no slave revolt. Hell, some have even claimed what evidence remains is fabricated by either the Hegemony or its opponents. The story has been so messed with and altered that the truth is impossible to discern. We've seen what they've done to the history of the galaxy, is it any wonder that they altered their own so much?"

Vik looked on the room with utter dismay now, shaking his head at the sight of it all.

"All that remains now of their struggle is a lie," the quarian mused sadly. "It could've been a chance of hope for slaves everywhere of a possibility of standing up to oppression. Instead, they've twisted it. Made it fit their vision of things, made sure it doesn't complicate the narrative they want to tell. Now history tells them slaves deserve their lot and anyone who tries to change it..."

Vik's anger was boiling over now, his fists clenched in silent rage and his head lowered. For a short second, Liara thought she heard the quarian stifle a sob. He placed his hand up to his face and began to rock his head back and forth.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he kept repeating.

Liara had seen this in the vents on Omega, when they first met. It was clear here, as it was then, that he was talking to someone else, but Vik still had a job to do. Liara couldn't have him breaking down here, not when they were so close. She caught his attention, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Vik, the signal," Liara told him. "Where is it? We need to get it and get out of here. We've already wasted enough time."

It was a bit harsher than usual, but they had a schedule. Luckily, Vik was able to compose himself. He looked back at the tracer's signal on the building layout. They were practically right over it now from all appearances.

"Alright, we can get to it from here," Vik told her pointing at the map. "There's a maintenance hatch leading down. I can hack the lock and have us within spitting distance of the data dump."

As Vik said those words, the buzzing returned once more. Before long, yanme'e were flying into the room from the direction the trio had entered. Liara tossed a biotic attack back at the bugs, but it was only small respite. Liara grabbed Vik by the arm and forced him to run with her.

The yanme'e landed on the building cut-outs in the display, using them as stable ground to fire down on the tree. They all shot back at them as they ran for the hatch. Liara slung out a singularity as they reached it, hoping to give the bugs pause. Vik quickly pulled up aside the false door of the burning batarian shop to reveal a nook in the wall with a hatch in its floor. He dropped down onto it and began hacking through its security.

"Open it! Open it!" Kayap pleaded with Vik.

"I got it! I got it!" The quarian assured.

Moments later the hatch popped open and all three of them dropped inside. Liara shut the hatch behind them and placed a small explosive charge on the latch. She walked down the ladder of the hatch before detonating it. The device melted the lock shut with a fiery blast.

"We weren't going out that way anyway," she reasoned.

They were now inside the darkened maintenance tunnels below the ride floor. They walked a few paces before discovering their target. The door with the words 'Information Bank' printed over the frame in bold batarian writing. Vik jarred the door with a quick bypass and soon they were inside.

They found a massive server room, with several huge data store computers lining the walls. In the center of the room were five user consoles, the central one appearing to be the main hub. Vik gave it a quick once over.

"Standard operating station for manual user commands," he determined. "We should have total access to their network from this station once I crack security."

Vik pulled a decent sized OSD from one of his larger pouches and connected it to the command hub station. He then began the procedure to hack through the console's security systems in order to access the files.

"Our main goal remains getting access to their network," Liara reminded him. "But we might as get as much out of this as possible. Focus on finding network access point, but don't let that stop you from downloading everything on these servers you can find."

"That's why I brought the OSD," he replied.

"Just making sure we're clear," she explained. "I need you on the top of game here, Vik."

"Don't worry, I got it," the quarian assured her once more.

Liara didn't want to sound like she was being pushy or thinking less of him, but she was concerned. Vik's mind had been somewhere else just moments ago and she wasn't sure if he was fully back yet. This little twisted museum had thrown a lot at them so far, she didn't blame him for feeling a little overcome. However, she wondered if some of it was personal.

Sadly, while they were off the track, the attraction wasn't done with them just yet. Liara could hear the buzzing just outside the door. She quickly moved over to it and activated the lock on it.

"Vik, set up a turret," she told him as she loaded her pistol. "We may have a problem incoming."

---

Nel figured she had given the Covenant the slip now. Oh, they were still looking for her, but they had no idea where she was. Setting up on the carousel back in the square was the first idea that came into her head. It had a lot of cover with all these metal animals blocking the way, plus it was as good a place as any in this park now.

She could see the Covenant converging into the main square. The sangheili were yelling at each other and the unggoy. Spirits, did they seem pissed. She couldn't be sure what about though. From the smoke and debris she could see down the main street of the park, she imagined it had something to do with Wrex and Saya's diversionary tactics. Hopefully they were having just as much fun as she was.

At the moment, most of the Covies were standing around the small playground off to the side. Really out in the open there, perhaps they thought no one was around. She had kinda double backed here after leaving the roller coaster and heading over to the bumper boat ride. Water was real cold, but she had been able to lose the remaining kig-yar and some of their unggoy friends.

She figured they'd probably all come back here to regroup and figure out their next move. They had proven her right and now they were about to feel the wrath of a carousel turned death machine. She started up the ride and got back on, ducking into cover. She walked opposite of the ride's movement, not doing anything to give away her presence.

She just let the Covenant listen to the music for a bit. Once they realised the thing was back on, they began walking over to it, probably thinking it had 'malfunctioned' again like before Both times her doing, but this time there would be a nasty surprise.

She let the ride carry her out front, her fuel rod cannon lifted over her shoulder. She aimed it down at the Covenant, targeting the lead sangheili. When the Covenant soon spotted her, she waved at them with one hand, brought it back to steady the weapon and then... she pulled the trigger.

The fuel rod shot rocketed out of the weapon like a ship through a relay. It sped through the air as the Covenant tried to fall back. Before the first shot had hit anything, Nel fired another, aiming higher than the first, back towards the playground and the squad that was still there.

Both shots hit with a tremendous sound, green balls of fire engulfed the contact areas. Sangheili were thrown sideways, unggoy utterly devastated, kig-yar consumed by the fire. The playground went up in a torrent of green flames, as the Covenant there ducked low to protect themselves from the shockwave.

Still running high on her juice, Nel could see the colours of the two explosions mix and match with another. She watched as the bodies were flung through the air like lifeless dolls in a state of absolute elation. She could see every second, every frame, every moment all at once. She soaked it up and fired another shot just for kicks. This one finished off a sangheili who had managed to dodge the first attack, but was unable to avoid this one in time.

Nel tossed the cannon to the side and brought out her assault rifle. As the carousel came round towards the devastation she had wrought once more she opened fire on the survivors in a stream of bullets. All the while she sang along with the merry fanfare of the carousel, watching the bodies fall in almost perfect synchronization.

The sangheili who had lived looked to the safety of the Chakiel's statue in the center of the square. Nel tried to fire on them, but her bullets failed to register. She only nicked the stupid statue instead. Not fair, she wanted blood, not pieces of bronze.

She ducked low as plasma bolts flew her way. She was able to avoid the shots in the cover of the carousel's central pillar. They instead hit the various carousel animals, melting away their faces on impact or scorching their tails.

She decided to remedy the problem with a pair of cluster grenades. When the carousel rode around once more she tossed the grenades at the sangheili. She then watched as multiple explosions completely annihilated them and the statue of the batarian space hero.

Colours and sounds mixed together, forming a strange alluring orchestral spectacle in her mind. Her eyes lit up at the momentous eruption of a dozen little grenades all going off at once. She laughed with wicked glee as the Chakiel statue toppled, completely divorced from anything else going on around her. All she could stare at was the carnage in her wake and beauty it appeared to produce.

Taking two vials soon after the other had been a success after all. She had killed the enemy. She had experienced wonder. The dumbasses in the military that kicked her out were wrong, just like they had always been. She should've done it sooner.

---

Liara watched as the door as insects rammed it repeatedly, bending and denting it with every strike. Kayap's knees shook with every pounding, while Vik focused squarely on his work, frantically trying to work faster. Liara was calm, her weapon pointed to the door and at the ready.

Another bash against the door pushed the frame inwards

"They're getting in," warned Kayap.

"I know," Liara said as she raised her omni-tool.

The door was struck again.

"You want me to throw a grenade?" Kayap asked.

"Wait," she assured him.

Another bash bent part of the corner into the room. Kayap looked at Liara confused

"What are we-"

"Now!" Liara ordered.

Liara pressed a button on her omni-tool and the door suddenly swung open. The yanme'e raced in, not expecting the door to just vanish. They were unable to stop themselves in mid-dash through the air, allowing Vik's turret to chew them up as they piled in. Kayap threw his plasma grenade at the same time, catching many a bug off guard with a sudden explosion.

Liara then pushed forward firing every bullet she had and tossing out a biotic throw or singularity when she was able. She pushed the yanme'e back defiantly and coldly, moving towards the door with almost razor sharp precision. When she got to it, she tossed out a singularity among the bugs and then a warp to detonate it.

The massive swarm was devastated by the biotic explosion, weakening their numbers. She, Kayap and Vik's turret moved to the door where they kept firing on the approaching Covenant. There were still plenty more down in these tunnels. More would have to die for Vik to complete his work.

---

Wrex ran back down the aisle, firing his shotgun away as he headed back towards the Emperors. Unggoy fell onto the theatre floor as the Claymore shot easily punctured their weak armour. Saya jumped over the tops of the theatre seats, exercising quick footwork; as he fired on the kig-yar entered from the other side of the theatre. They blocked the attacks with their shields best they could, but Saya was just a little more accurate. He managed to score a hit on one's foot and then through the alien's skull.

The two finally reached the stage where the old Emperors sat along their current successor. Saya jumped behind them, still firing out into the audience seats as more Covenant filled the theatre. Wrex, in the meantime, knocked on Narvkel's mech reproduction slightly with his shoulder. The robotic double activated and began giving a speech.

"Some may think our ways are harsh, well I say they just don't appreciate the values that make us strong and..."

Narvkel kept going, but Wrex had spent the entire day listening to Hegemony propaganda and was just about fed up. He grabbed the mechanized Emperor, ripping him up from where he was bolted to the floor. He tossed him into the audience, hitting a sangheili with the mech. The Covenant officer knocked the fake batarian off him with a swipe of his arm. All the while Narvkel continued to talk, although he kept repeating the word "well" constantly.

Wrex backed up into the row of Emperors as more plasma bolts continued to fly. The Emperor's faces and nice clean suits soon found themselves melted off or on fire, revealing the former military mechs beneath the skin. Some of them even started talking as their circuits shorted out.

"Eighty-Sev-Sev-Seven years ago my ho-ho-house took this throne to lead our pe-pe-people out of the try-trying times of-"

Wrex knocked the Emperor's head off, hoping it would shut him up. He continued firing into the crowd pouring through the doors, shooting carnage shots when he could. He blew up entire rows of seats, turning Covenant into mulch on impact. As he saw one plasma grenade roll onto the stage floor, however, he quickly kicked over one of the Emperors onto it and rolled away. The explosion was muffled by the mech's body, but it still left a huge hole in the stage floor. The Emperor's head flew off into the audience.

"OuR lIveS aRe nOthINg iN tHe grEAteR cAuSE oF pe-pe-PEAce!" The flaming head declared through distorted and scrambled audio track.

Arms and heads were shot clean off the bodies of the Emperors, as plasma bolts continued chasing after Wrex. The krogan switched to her assault rifle, firing out into the audience. As he ducked down again to reload, he looked over to Saya who was firing off shots at the other side of the theatre, trying to keep the numbers down.

At that moment, one of the sangheili managed to get on stage and charged towards Saya with a plasma sword. The salarian was too focused on the attackers in the front, so he didn't see him. Luckily, Wrex did and he fired a burst at the Covie, taking down his shield with a few clean hits and striking him once in the shoulder.

The attack gave Saya enough warning to avoid the sangheili's plasma sword which cut one of the Emperors in half instead. The salarian ducked low and cut at the tendon in the Covie's leg, forcing him to kneel. Saya then turned moved around the sangheili to stab him through the neck, He then grabbed the alien's plasma rifle on his belt and fired on the kig-yar moving up the aisle without missing a beat.

Wrex continued moving over to Saya, who soon followed the krogan behind the bulk of the synthetic Emperors. Wrex gave a quick peak to see how well they were doing and recognized that they were probably just about ready. No one else was coming in.

"I think we got them inside," he told Saya. "You planted the gel on the support beams near the doors, right?"

Saya nodded once and brought up his sword. He squeezed the hilt, detonating the gel. Two large support columns collapsed along the two front exit doors, trapping everyone inside. The Covenant noticed but kept on fighting, only concerned with killing the enemy. What they didn't know was that Wrex had just cut off their escape.

"Lock all the emergency exit doors but one," he told Saya. "I'll be right behind you."

The salarian obliged and took off to do his next job. Meanwhile, Wrex armed a carnage shot and fired up at the ceiling above the audience seats. Bits of rubble and wall fell down the Covenant below. The sangheili were fast enough to avoid it, the unggoy and kig-yar were not so lucky. Wrex fired a second carnage, sending more debris down on top of the Covenant. One sangheili got his foot stuck this time, but he managed to pry it out.

It didn't matter to Wrex, it was all just to make this place a little less stable and to get more air in here too. He ran off the stage now, shooting up the control box for the attraction. The Emperors began going haywire, shorting out as they kept repeating their stupid pre-programmed speeches over and over.

As electricity spooled from their mouths in sparks, Wrex fired incendiary rounds into the curtains around the room. He ignited them with ease and then fired on the Emperors themselves sparking some electrical fires that spread across the damaged rows of Hegemony leaders. Their suits seemed to make decent fuel for fire.

His job done, and the theatre slowly going up in flames, Wrex rushed off to the exit. Saya was already there and the Covenant were already trying to take the stage. He could hear their grunts and yells and scrambling footsteps as the fire spread. He and Saya ran through the door and locked it shut behind them. Wrex shot at the mechanism, locking it in place and trapping the Covenant inside. It didn't take long for the fire to spread through the building. With the Covenant trapped inside, they would sure burn to death.

"See," Wrex said elbowing Saya as they looked on. "We do a lot better working as a team."

Saya said nothing and departed in a different direction. Wrex sigh and walked off after him. At least they had cooperated for a little while.

---

Liara kept shooting as the bugs swarmed the hallway. The bodies piled up, but there seemed no end in sight. The turret had long since run its course and the doorframe was completely marred by acidic wads burning through the walls and forcing them to pull back now and again. Liara wasn't sure how many were left, but this swarm was getting out of hand. It was time to deal with that problem.

"I'm going to need a lot of space," she said suddenly. "Cover me, Kayap!"

Liara rushed out into the open, firing away with handgun. Kayap shouted in abject terror after her. She didn't know what he said. Perhaps he was trying to talk her out of it, remind her how dumb this was, but that didn't matter now. All she knew was that these bugs were going down.

She built up a tremendous amount of biotic power, coursed it through her veins. She ducked and weaved away from the bugs and then slammed her fists down on the ground and forward, sending out a powerful nova blast that rocketed through the halls and sent the yanme'e flying back down them, crashing into each other, the walls and the various pieces of equipment strewn throughout the corridors.

As the wave died down, Liara felt a pain in her skull and felt her a dripping down her nose. She reached up and touched something warm and wet. Bringing her fingers to her eyes, she could see it was blood. She had seriously overexerted her biotic powers on that stunt. It made her a bit tipsy and she almost toppled over. Luckily, a friend was there to catch her before she fell. Vik managed to grab her by her under arms and right her back to her feet.

"Are you alright?" He asked her, deeply concerned.

"I've never used that much biotic energy before in one attack," she explained, clutching her head. "Even for an asari... it is straining. I won't be able to do that again for awhile, we need to get out of here before they come back."

"Well, the good news is we're almost ready to do that," Vik assured as he led her back into the server room. "I've downloaded everything I can from the servers and I have direct connection to the Hegemony Network."

He led her over to the terminal and showed her the screen. They were in the operating system for the communication hub. It was asking them if they wanted to send or retrieve data, if they wanted frequency numbers, service codes, military codes, anything and everything. The entire network was opened up completely, just for them. Everything was in place now.

Quickly, Liara hooked in a small connection box into the terminal and opened a secure long distance line.

"T'Soni to Lucen," she began. "We're feeding you the signal. Lock on, infiltrate and start absorbing."

It would only take seconds for them to accomplish the goal. Vik had seemingly already done so himself.

"I just set us up primary access through a worm," he began excitedly. "We're piggybacking off the Hegemony's main network server now. It recognizes us, our signal address, cloaking system complete, reroute enable and I now have a direct access to the Hegemony's dirtiest secrets at the flick of a switch. The ShadowNet has breached Hegemony cyberspace."

Liara got a message back from the Lucen at the same time, confirming Vik's words. The message simply read: "We have achieved connection. Infiltration of server completed. Security is no longer a threat."

They had done it. The Hegemony had managed to keep the higher levels of its Government cut off for as long as there had been a Shadow Broker. Unlike all of them, she had succeeded where they had failed. The Hegemony was an open book to her now. Along with the information captured on Vik's OSD, they had everything they came for. When they got back to the cabin they'd have a lot of intel to sift through.

"We need an exit, Vik," Liara told him.

"There's a tunnel down to our right that should lead us out," he replied. "But we need to cover our tracks. The Hegemony and the Covenant will figure out we were here if we don't. Then we'll have a manhunt looking out for us and that won't make getting anywhere else on this rock easy."

"What do you have in mind?" Liara asked.

Vik walked over to the terminal and began to pack up as he explained.

"I got the idea from the last exhibit," he began. "The only way to completely hide the truth is to burn it. I can wipe the hard drives, but to cover up all evidence, we need to bring this whole park down. We need to burn it, along with every filthy disgusting lie here."

"How?" Liara asked.

Vik pulled out another OSD, holding it between his two fingers.

"I can download this overload virus into the server room," he explained. "It will send an electrical spike through its system and the entire park. It will overload the electronics equipment and set this whole damn building on fire along with anything else it overheats. To everyone else, it will just look like an electrical fire that got out of hand."

"Bit much, don't you think?" She asked him, sounding a bit concerned with his tone.

"It's not like this place is anything but a damn brainwashing camp," Vik told her. "These bosh'tets have been lying about their history for years, twisting and distorting it for their own ends. I say, we burn that legacy down and make the act serve our needs instead. Poetic justice, I believe some people call it."

Liara had to admit, she wouldn't shed a tear over this wretched place. It just seemed so eerily similar to what had happened with the slave revolt. It wasn't the same entirely though. That was done to erase a truth. This would be an act to destroy a lie. In the end, that was all Heritage Fields was. And it was the best way to make sure all evidence of their actions here was destroyed.

"Burn it," she told him. "Burn all of it."

Liara was able to fully imagine Vik grinning at the order. He installed the virus at once, plugging its OSD into the terminal. Moments later, the servers began to hum wildly. Electrical sparks shot out from the computers as wires overloaded and the system spike began to force the system to self-destruct.

Liara, Kayap and Vik ran out of the room and down the corridors, just as more Yanme'e arrived to renew their attack. Already they could smell smoke rising up from the server room and then a loud explosion, followed by orange light emanating from inside.

They rounded the corner, the bugs on their tail. Vik turned and blasted one down with his shotgun and kept moving. They got to an exit hatch and forced it open. They climbed out as the bugs and their constant buzzing drew near. When they were all out, Kayap tossed a plasma grenade into the hole and Liara shut the hatch tight. A small explosion was heard shortly after.

"Liara to everyone," she spoke over the closed circuit radio. "Mission accomplished, disengage and meet me at the rendezvous as soon as possible."

---

By the time they reached the rendezvous in the forest, Heritage Fields was ablaze. Wrex had killed the batarian guards out front with Saya when they extracted. The guards seemed to have assumed the Covenant were handling the situation and hadn't called for backup. He and Saya had placed their bodies into one of the buildings catching fire.

The guards' arrogance and sloth meant the fire would be allowed to spread. Between Vik's spike and Wrex's little fire trap on opposite ends of the park, it was only a matter of time before Heritage Fields would be a raging inferno. Good riddance, as far as Liara was concerned. As the team watched the fires spread over the attractions and shops, Nel presented a different outlook.

"You know," she began with a warm smile. "It may have been a place to indoctrinate kids and was full of propaganda, but it was kinda fun in the end."

Vik considered another way of looking at the ordeal.

"I don't suppose you took away anything about how entertainment can be used to enforce an ideology onto a population," he said to Nel rather sardonically. "Or made any connections between your Action Vids and Heritage Fields itself?"

Nel thought it over for a bit.

"Nope," she said grinning cockily. "But I did learn shooting dudes on a roller coaster kicks some serious ass."

"And you have once again proven you are hopeless," Vik growled at her.

"Glad to disappoint you, Wet Bucket," Nel replied with a broad smile and chipper attitude. "Now let's get going, I've got a craving for some greasy fat foods and overly caffeinated sugary drinks. There was nothing in that park I could eat and I'm hungry as fuck."

Nel walked off whistling a carnival ground fanfare as Vik shook his head.

"She is deliberately mocking me now," he growled. "Ancestors that turian is stubborn as she is thick."

"Now you know how my job as Chieftain feels," Wrex told the quarian, a similar sense of irritation at Nel in his voice. "At least she enjoyed herself."

"I'll enjoy myself when we find what we're looking for in the Hegemony Network and get off this damn planet," Vik grimaced as he marched off after Nel.

Saya soon joined the three, leaving Kayap and Liara alone. He barely looked back at any of them as he moved out.

"The quarian okay?" Wrex asked Liara.

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "He didn't want to come here after all. I guess this planet is starting to get to him."

"I can't say I blame him there," Wrex admitted. He then looked down at the asari. "Are you okay? You seemed a bit out of it when we got here."

Liara didn't want Wrex to worry too much. She had done a pretty risky thing overloading her biotics like that in the catacombs of the ride. She didn't want to lie to him either. He was a good friend and he was just looking out for her. If he was in her situation, she'd want him to be honest.

But in the end...

"I'm fine, Wrex," she assured him. "We best get moving."

She walked off after the others, Kayap and Wrex close behind. She hoped he believed her. But, as she briefly looked back at Wrex, she could see a sense of doubt in his eyes. Heritage Fields had taught her much about batarian culture and life under the Hegemony. But it hadn't been able to teach her its central message, how to be a better liar.

---

AN: This went a bit slower than I had hoped it would go. Between getting ready for Christmas I was already running a little slower. Sadly, a family loss hindered my ability to write sufficiently quick enough. I'm not saying this as an excuse, merely as an explanation for my lack of responses and updates if you will. Regardless, you have all been so patient and I wanted to deliver this chapter in time for the Holidays as an early Christmas present.

I wanted to do something like this for awhile now, explore the Hegemony and Khar'shan itself in greater detail. I picture the planet and its government as similar to North Korea, a prison state where the government holds absolute power over its citizens' lives. It does so under the idea of protecting them from the outside world and making them fear and hate anything that isn't like them. I'll have more to say on what went on in this chapter as there was a lot of work put into it. The idea of fighting in an amusement park has always been a bit of a strange fantasy of mine. Maybe I've just gone to Disney World too much and wondered what it would be like to snipe Communists from the top of Cinderella's castle.

For more background on this chapter please check my profile, remember to review, head on over to the TV Tropes page, edit it if you wish and know that there is more to come soon. Merry Christmas to you all and know that it is you and your support, as well as helpful advice on how to better my writing, that makes this all possible. I thank you all for being patient with me and I humbly appreciate the time you've taken to read this little story of mine. It means so much to me and so do all of you.