We planned and prepared our attack on the White Death's base here on Omega, all that's left is to meet back up with Nihlus and get moving into the base. I grab Valkyrie and Rapture and attach them to my back and make sure my omni-tools are fully functional before walking out fully geared once more, placing my helmet on and sealing it as I walk to the rendezvous point. I find Nihlus waiting there geared up even more than he was before but I notice his lack of a helmet. "You're late, time is sensitive and you're wasting it, you promised not to slow me down."
Even though I can tell he is just ready to get going and tired of waiting I can't help but feel annoyed with the guy, letting out a sigh before responding. "Don't get your spurs in a twist I'm making sure I'm prepared, anyway you need a helmet if you're going in there." I say recalling my first run in with them.
"Why is that? I have my shields and that should be all I need in a firefight." He says, this cocky nature of his is what got him killed in the first game and only serves to make things more difficult.
"You need a helmet seal since they are likely to use gas attacks against us once they discover us, they used it on my squad when we encountered them before, by the time you notice it you're down and weak on the ground." I explain as he listens before pulling grabbing his helmet and putting it on before sealing it not without a bit of grumbling. "Now, we're ready to get moving, did you get the layout of the base like planned?" I say as we get to a more secluded location not far from the base.
"Yeah, it's right here, I have an idea on where we'll infiltrate." He says pulling up a map of the base on his omni-tool before expanding it as I get a good look of the place. It's much bigger than the place that we attacked before, it still hurts to think about. I shake my head and clear my thoughts and focus as I take a look at the map as he explains. "We have a few locations we can come in from, but we want to hit the area least likely to be heavily fortified, which is why I say we attack here." He points to an area that looks barely connected to the rest of the base, likely a storage area for miscellaneous stuff.
"Seems like a good idea, any other location considerable for going into first?" I say as I look at the map seeing this massive base and feeling a bit impressed, it feels like this place is their secondary base of operations from the sheer scale and size of the place. I spot two more area that we can go into. "I feel like the roof above where I'm assuming is the barracks might be a good idea, take out anyone in there that are sleeping before moving on. Then there's also the full-on approach we could take, attempt to cause some panic when we infiltrate." I say though not fully sure about that plan, their indoctrination may give them a bit more resolve than they would have otherwise.
"Possible, however I feel that we should go with the slower but less risky plan here, catching them off guard is the best option, that minimizes our chances of getting injured in the initial entry." I nod and agree with him, we spend the next hour finalizing the infiltration and moving to an area outside the base far away enough to not be spotted.
We move slowly, sneaking past the outside guards guarding the perimeter of the base till we finally arrive to our infiltration point. I take the precaution of sending out a small overload to take care of any potential traps that'll trip the alarm, we get in through a small passage after I use one of my tools to cut through the metal, seems like the White Death took a page from the Geth's book when it comes to structural weakness.
Like we predicted, the spot we infiltrate is a storage room full of random junk, which mostly seems like old equipment, likely from members before they were indoctrinated. We proceed through the storage room, I call out Patriot and sneak him under the door I pull up the screen so that Nihlus can see as well, outside the door Patriot spots four enemies and I mark them on our Hud.
"You connected our systems?" Nihlus said as he looks at me, I can't see his face but I can feel his annoyance radiating from him.
"Yeah, I wanted to make sure you see what I see, and I wanted to make sure I can keep track of your vitals in case of an emergency." I say as I call Patriot back before setting up my attack. "You take the two cleaning and doing maintenance on their weapons, the place seems to be one of their crew quarters, I'll take the two that have geared up near the exit." He nods as I activate my cloak and let him get into cover, I open the door to the confusion of the all four soldiers, I then change my helmet vision to protect myself before letting out a silent flash that blinds the four, I then charge and use two omni-blades to stab through the armor of the two geared soldiers as I return the blades back. I see that the flash has started to wear off as the other two scramble for their weapons, Nihlus rushes out and takes out a pistol and takes the two unarmored soldiers out with two easy silenced shots.
"Good work" I say as we move to the door that's connected to the main corridor, the central point of the base that connects to every part of the base, unfortunately for us it's incredibly tight, just a bunch of hallways into rooms now, compared to the other base that was much more open. I let Flint out once more, he cloaks and goes under the door, there is one right outside the door and another on the other side of the hallway.
"Stay in cover, I have a plan for this." I say as I set up my plan, pulling out Polnia's sword before rushing out and quickly stabbing through the soldier's neck before aiming my arm towards the second soldier, I then activate my omni-tool which shoots out a grappling hook which attaches to the soldier as I pull back hard and pull them across the hallway rapidly before stabbing him and ending him quickly as well making sure he doesn't make a sound.
"I'm glad that damn thing worked." I say as I recall the multiple malfunctions that it had in the past it's been extremely infuriating. Nihlus comes out and looks at me for a moment, I wish I knew what the hell he was thinking. He moves forward and leads the way as I put the sword away and follow after him. We're heading towards the command center, hopefully whatever item their using for indoctrination is here.
We get outside the command center and find some heavy amounts of soldiers protecting it, at least ten with two additional Krogans, Krogans every damn time, still haven't forgotten my last encounter with them. "What's the plan?" I say through the comms as we look at the room. "It's tight, has limited cover and the cover that is there is close to them which means if it turns into a firefight, we'd have to rush in and that won't end well for us." I say considering our options.
"Other than explosions which even if placed well from both of us would likely only take out about six at most. Even then we'll have the whole base on us in no time." He says as I think for a moment before tossing two items out to him, a great little idea ripped off from the Geth.
"Press the button on top and then throw it down at a location you want to take cover at and your problem will be solved, a typically sized energy cover will come out that you can hide behind." I finish explaining, he looks at the items, looking like simple chair legs, he then prepares to attack as I call out Flint and prepare another flash. "I'll flash them, once I do throw down a shield and take cover before moving on, we can improvise from there and attempt to kill them quickly enough that the alarm isn't sounded." He nods to me as I get my abilities ready.
I send out a flash which blinds the guards, unfortunately these ones are well trained it seems and they duck down into cover instead of panicking as the Krogans go into a blind rage thrashing about. Nihlus and I rush out, he presses the button and throws down the Geth styled shield, he takes cover behind it as I take out Rapture in its shotgun form, I take two shots and the Krogan close to me luckily, he goes down and stays down after that. Flint lays down fire onto the other Krogan who has regained his sight, Nihlus fires on the Krogan as well, the two sources of firepower takes down the second Krogan.
By the time I have Flint shield me the guards regain their sight and start firing on us, Flints own shield getting peppered with rounds and threating to breach as I take aim and attempt to pull one over the railing with my grappling hook, as I activate it my omni-tool simply sparks violently which fucks up my omni-tool and burns my arm. "Damn it! Seems like that isn't working again." With one of my omni-tools screwed and Flint's shield along with his temporary shield in front of me starts to run dry I decide to rush them with Rapture.
They focus fire on me, Nihlus manages to take two out which gets a few to target him again which puts him back behind cover. I take a few wild shots which takes one out and injures another who drops their weapon. Flint is automatically called back as he takes too much damage, which leaves me vulnerable, my shields are peppered with round and shredded, I take a few shots mainly to my body. My armor resists a few but I feel two shots pierce through my sides. I manage to stab the injured one with my only omni-blade and start to use him as a shield, I look down at Nihlus who throws one of my shields to me which I throw down and deploy it before throwing my effective meat shield over the railing and take cover behind the shield to take a moment and recover.
Nihlus moves up the other side, moving cover to cover taking out an additional two as I throw out a incinerate at one which burns him to a crisp. I pant like a dog and catch my breath before shooting one more with Rapture. Nihlus then cleans up the final three as I apply a bit of medi-gel to take care of the wounds in my body. I rest for a second before getting out of cover and getting up to the door with Nihlus. "Good work... anything vital hit?" He says as he notices the three shots that punched through my armor.
"Not anything that a few minutes of attention from a medic and some rest can't fix." He nods as we get ready to breach the door, Patriot having already looked inside and saw only one person that's fully armored. We then breach the door Nihlus points his rifle at them as I also point my Rapture at them. They don't respond to us and stay on their knees; I keep my aim trained on them as I move to the right to see what they're looking at and I see a small glowing orb that can fit in the palm of your hand. My eyes widen as I quickly activate my omni-tool and send out my strongest overload hoping to fry everything the room, including the orb.
The lights go out as Nihlus turns to me confused. "What the spirits are you doing!" I know I need to move fast as I rush the person kneeling, I bash their head with my Rapture, they then grow blue and next thing I know I'm flying towards the wall rapidly, I slam into the wall which knocks the breath out me as I yell to Nihlus the best I can.
"Knock them out!" Nihlus charges the biotic and knocks them to the ground and attacks, knocking their helmet off to reveal an Asari, I manage to get up and join him as he gets put in stasis I activate my omni-taser and slam it right into her neck and setting it to full blast, she punches me multiple times with biotic enhanced punches which cracks my armor as they try to resist before finally seizing and falling unconscious.
I sit back as Nihlus takes a moment to recover from the stasis, while he does, I slip the orb into my one storage area in my armor before slowly getting up, feeling exhausted. "I'm glad she was focused and meditating, made it easier to fry the alarms otherwise, that might have been more difficult, what kind of durability did she have!" I say as they equipment around us sparks, I help Nihlus up as I hide the true reason.
"Yeah, surprised the commotion outside didn't alert her... anyway, let's get to work on placing the explosives, the rest of the base is non-essential as long as we take out the center and head of the base, we even got a potential source of information." I nod as we get to work placing explosives over the cleared areas, Nihlus quickly grabs the unconscious Asari leader after placing his explosives as we come out of the same place we infiltrated. We activate the explosives which are put on a timer as we get moving, two minutes out we hear a large explosion, predicted to take out the named places and potentially more of the base.
We go back to Nihlus's ship, he decided he trusts me enough to let me into the ship which has some impressive tech in it, though that's to be expected when the owner is a Spectre. Nihlus stores the Asari somewhere in the ship before returning, but I don't ask questions about it and simply trust he took precautions. "So, what's your plan now Nihlus?" I say as I sit in a chair exhausted and beat up, nothing broken from sheer luck and the shots I took are healing ok.
He takes off his helmet and I realize I still have mine on and proceed to take mine off as well while he responds. "Going to head back to the Citadel to interrogate the Asari and report to the council. Though I have to know, what's your plan now, since we've taken care of the base here on Omega." He says and I have to think for a moment since in truth I don't have a full answer for him.
"I would continue hunting them, but I don't think there is any more info I could really get from here, I'm likely going to return to the Citadel, after that... I'm not sure." I say since I don't have the money or resources to search out the area in galaxy Aria told me about, so all I can do is prepare and improve my equipment. "Might take on some mercenary type jobs, money is running low."
With his helmet off I can better understand what he's thinking, to a certain degree and he seems to be contemplating an idea. "Your work in the base was impressive, I can tell you're a competent and innovative soldier. Your tech is different from what I've seen before, to not acknowledge your potential would be a crime." I can't help but awkwardly stretch, not really knowing how to respond to his praise.
"I appreciate the praise, but I have a feeling you're getting to something." I say, wondering just what he has in mind.
"Well, I'll be upfront about it, before we went to attack the base I took the liberty of looking you up, Corporal Vakarian, it helped me understand who I was working with, and understand that you weren't going to shoot me in the back when we got in there." After he says this my omni-tool pings and I look at it seeing his contact info. "I want to stay in touch, I believe there's a good chance that we can work together again, if I deem a mission particularly necessary of a second member." I can't help but feel surprised and also feel the underlying feeling of a second motive.
"Better a friend than a foe in my eyes so I'll welcome the chance to be an ally of a Spectre. However, I believe I need to get going, need to grab my stuff and catch a ride to the Citadel." I say as i get up and feel my entire body throb reminding me of my exhaustion.
"I don't mind giving you a lift to the Citadel if you need one, not to mention there's a chance the council might want to speak with you." When he puts it like that it sounds less like a friendly offer and more like a demand. I sigh in response.
"Alright, sounds good allow me to just gather my things and we'll be off." I then leave the ship and gather my things from the crappy Omega apartment before returning and telling Nihlus I'm ready. We leave Omega soon after and make our way to the Citadel, the expected arrival time being around a day.
I take a long nap for most of the way before waking up only a few hours before arrival, I walk around on the ship and head to the cockpit as I see Nihlus simply relaxing in his chair, I take a seat in the second cockpit chair and relax as well. "I'm a bit curious, I was thinking about our last conversation and the entire time you spoke, I had an underlying feeling you had something in mind."
Nihlus looks at me as I speak, he lets out an exaggerated breath before responding. "I should have known you would've picked up on that, the answer is yes I do have something in mind, it's a job and if you're interested." I nod to him. "Well then, to get straight to the point it's an engineering job, it's for a prototype ship. It's a joint operation between the System Alliances and the Turian Hierachy, I'd rather not go into full details but basically, they're in the planning phase at the moment, I could put in a recommendation and let you take the job. I have a feeling you'd do some good work seeing your track record of continued research and improvement with weapons armor and tech." He says and I raise a brow while hiding my shock, I know the exact ship he's talking about, the Normandy, and he's giving me a chance to help work on it
"I have to ask why me? Feels a bit sudden to put a person you haven't known for long on an important cross species project." He gives a chuckle at that.
"Believe me it feels strange to me too, but I have a weird sense of trust in you and again I believe in your potential, and either way the project gets another member, whether you make great changes or not." He says as I have to think for a moment.
I take a breath before responding. "I think I would have to be a fool not to accept." I say with a small smirk.
The rest of the ride is uneventful as we return to the Citadel, and after I split off from Nihlus and returned to my apartment I was relieved to hear from Nihlus that the council did not ask for my presence which gave me time to focus. I empty all my stuff and set my armor into its slot taking a look at it and sighing as I consider the time it will take to repair it. I finally get to the item that's been on my mind this entire time and has had me on edge, the Reaper orb.
I take it out and place it on my workbench, I took the liberty of frying it back on Omega so I don't have to worry about it trying to indoctrinate me, deactivated parts of a dead Reaper can't indoctrinate, luckily for me this orb is deactivated. I take the next few hours inspecting it and attempt to figure out what the hell this thing is and come up fruitless. I lean back in my chair and rest for a moment thinking.
I then get a call on my omni-tool and see it's from Destia, I then answer the call. "Hey there Destia, been a while hasn't it" I say exaggerating the time since our last talk. "Have they let you in the field yet?" I say chuckling
"I suppose it has and no they haven't and before you ask yes, I'm still annoyed by it." She says with a half-smile of her own. We chat for the next hour as I can't help but have my mind focused on the future, the Reapers, the Normandy, Shepard and more and the more I think about the worse it feels. Destia seems to notice my mood progressing downwards. "Velius, what's the matter it seems like you're drifting off.
I think for a moment and nod. "It's just... I'm a bit tired." I say quickly trying to pass by with the half-truth.
"I can tell that's not all Velius, why can't you just tell me?" She pauses for a moment and I can tell from the look she has, that she has her mind focused on something as well. "You do this so often... you're always preparing and worried about the future and you never tell me why, it feels as if you're holding back a mountain of secrets." She says and I can't help but know it's the truth, from my reincarnation to my knowledge of the future there is so much that I can't tell her.
"I'm sorry, not meaning to worry you, I know that I'm holding some things back from you but I promise... it's for the better." I look at her again an she seems pained at my words.
"I do not know your reasons that you hold these mysterious secrets so tightly, all I know that it has become so difficult to simply watch and wonder as you prepare and prepare, all the while I can't do a thing." I flinch at her words; I truly hadn't considered how hard it might be for a person to be stuck constantly in the dark about a person they care for. It makes it so much worse knowing I can't tell her anything. I hold my head up with my hand feeling all the more stressed about my situation as I consider an option that I didn't want to think about.
"I know it's been difficult and I'm sorry that i can't tell you anything... I don't want this to make things any worse for you. Perhaps it'd be better if we broke things off." I tense up as I say those words before continuing seeing her simply listening. "I'll be frank, nothing about my secrets will change, if I'm being honest. I understand your pain and maybe, this is the best option for us, things will only get worse from here." I say and I feel as if my heart is being squeezed.
She looks sadly at me before nodding. "Yes, I think this is the best choice for us... I'm sorry but I have to go, I need to rest for tomorrow, we have a mission." She says before the call cuts out. I lay back in my chair and take a breath, feeling like I've been punched repeatedly in the stomach all the while having to remind myself that this is for the best.
I went to bed soon after and woke up the next day, still nothing about the Normandy job from Nihlus, I put the Reaper orb in a hidden compartment before heading out needing to clear my head, walking to the Presidium and simply taking in the sights, collecting my thoughts as it feels like I'm heading into a second chapter of my life here. I later walk into the Wards getting more materials and items needed to craft and research, taking another chunk out of my account and leaving me at 2,000 credits.
I get back home and get an idea, I can't hunt down the White Death with my current position but I know someone who can look around, that I can trust with my life. I call Tib and hope for an answer, I can't help but smile as he answers. "Hey! Tib how are you man."
He chuckles before responding. "I'm doing just fine, the team here is only getting better." He says which is good news to me. "I've also rose in the ranks in the past month, I'm a Sergeant now." I smile at the news proud of my friend. I then make sure the call is not tracked or being listened in to.
"That's great to hear Tib, and I wish this was a simple friendly call but it's not, I have some information about the White Death." His face gets more serious as I mention them, his hatred for them being just as big as before but not as blind as before.
"I'm listening. I'm assuming you're calling me since I can do something to assist?" He says which I nod to before responding as I pull up a map of the galaxy on the console in my apartment. I then point to the Artemis Tau and Voyager Cluster before speaking." Between these two points is their main base of operations, meaning if we can locate it, we can finally take them out, what I need you to do is to see if you can locate the planet it's on." I say before getting rid of the map and focusing my attention on Tib.
"I see basically on the edge of the galaxy making getting to them just as dangerous as fighting them." He says as I can see the gears working in his head.
"Be careful of course and make sure to focus on your assignments, but if you can try to locate them, but I have to make something very clear." I say as I have to take an extra layer of precaution. "Do not, under any circumstance try to attack the base, that will be my job if you find it, trust me on this since it would be difficult for me to explain further." I can see the confusion on his face but I simply stay silent and wait for him to respond.
"I see, I don't understand, but I trust you Vel, all I ask is when you do take action, tell me first, I don't need you disappearing on me in the case that you fail." He says as I sigh and nod. After that discussion we talk and continue catching up, having new objectives now in mind as he tells me about his time that has grown to a decent size of eight soldiers including him. After the call I get to work and repair my armor before looking at my equipment, knowing what I need to improve. I think about all my systems and take to understanding that my armor and tech simply are going to have a harder time holding and running everything, making my cooldowns longer. It puts Mass Effect's weight system into a bit of perspective, at least until I get an idea.
I start working on programming a VI, having plenty of knowledge and resources to develop one, then as I work on programming the VI meant to improve my systems my mind drifts to another end of the spectrum. A potentially very dangerous one, and very illegal one. At this point I'm looking at any way that will give me an edge in battle. I stop working for a moment and consider my options. AI, in my first life and in this one AI is seen as a heavy danger and a threat to the lives of people and organics, but we also see how it can be allied with, Legion and Edi for example. I feel crazy for even considering this, I know I can do it, especially with my knowledge from the games, but the question is... should I?
I sigh and feel stressed considering my options, my brain feels overloaded. I can't take thinking about it anymore tonight; I'll sleep on it and consider the benefits and dangers. I get dressed into sleepwear and get into bed thinking about everything that has happened in the span of a few months and think about what will happen, Eden Prime and Saren can't be avoided but the question is, can I really change things or am I going to be caught in the flow of time and forced along the path that I've seen so many times.
A/N: Hello and thank you for reading, I sincerely hope you have enjoyed the story and look forward to more. I apologize that this chapter took so long to come out, and I will do my best to make the next one come out much sooner. Once again I thank everyone for reading this little mess of mine especially with it being my first story on this site. If you like the story, have a criticism or just had something you liked, comment it! It makes very happy to see people comment and if anyone has a confusion or question etc about the story I guarantee I'll respond. That's all for now, see you all in the next chapter!