In practice, after the divorce, I didn't actually see John that much. Before Dad died, it was because of how far they were since the navy doesn't bother posting divorced couples close together like they do with actually married couples. Visitation rights are kind of useless when you're however many hundreds of lightyears away. And after I went back to Mom after Dad died, well, that lasted maybe all of a year before her attempts to get me killed by removing my implants saw me right back on Earth, getting resynced. The Ryders took me in and basically acted as my family after that, since I made pretty damn clear I wanted nothing to do with my mother until after I was of age as I was never going to trust her with my guardianship.
The next time we met after that was when we both arrived at the Imperial Naval Academy on Titan. John was his usual exuberant self at seeing me. Me? I was wondering who this random bloke was that was trying to get all touchy-feely. Shows just how apart we had grown, that I didn't even recognize my own twin brother. Still isn't going to stop me from killing whoever killed him, though.
-Evangeline Shepard, Mandatory Counseling Log 014
Chapter 13
Ex dolo malo
Knowing Garrus was alive was one thing. Getting to him to keep him that way turned out to be another thing entirely. The short exchanges they managed indicated the turian and Mordin were alive but were coming under increasing pressure. It seemed that the Blue Suns weren't the only ones after the salarian doctor.
"Blood Pack," Zaeed remarked from his vantage point. "Surprised the krogan were willing to come into a plague zone that specifically killed aliens."
"They're probably after the supposed cure Dr. Solus is working on," Miranda said, apparently not quite believing even a salarian could have devised a countermeasure for the disease in so short a time. "It makes sense though. If they are the only ones with access to the cure, they could use it to obtain dominance over the entire station."
"Betcha that's what Aria's also thinking," Jacob said, "though in her case it's to make sure no one knocks her off her perch."
Shepard made no interjection of her own as she studied the collection of krogan and vorcha. There was a clear argument going on down there between some of the former, likely frustration over their failure to break through to the clinic combined with the ever present threat of dying if they failed to obtain the cure or it turned out to be a bust. Few of the krogan were wearing fully sealed suits, so it was quite an all or nothing gambit on the Blood Pack's part. The really interesting bit from Shepard's perspective however was the way the vorcha were milling about, watching their ostensible krogan overlords argue. Or rather, encircling the arguing krogans.
Suddenly, flames erupted all around the clustered krogans, dousing them in a roaring inferno. The sudden shock was enough to cause even the krogan to panic, and the fire and smoke did not help in them trying to muster a response. The vorcha on the other hand simply needed to shoot into the flames, which they began to do with alacrity. Here and there, a krogan charged outward with a roar, with a few even making it far enough to storm through the surrounding vorcha. It was probably quite the intimidating sight to see a flaming krogan charge at you, but that did not change the fact that said krogan was still on fire and slowly getting immolated himself. That and any that did break out immediately became the center of attention for whichever side of vorchas the charge was on. Even so, the krogans put up a ferocious fight before the last one succumbed. By Shepard's count, almost a third of the ambushing vorchas went down with them, which said much considering how outnumbered and taken by surprise the krogan were. Still, what they just witnessed certainly put yet another twist on their little jaunt.
"Well, shit," Zaeed said for all of them.
"Okay, that's a new one," Jacob said. "I've seen vorcha take opportunistic potshots at some of their overseers before, but this looks like a staged mutiny."
"Plague rats," Miranda added. "That's what Aria called them. I'm starting to think there's even more truth to that than she let on."
"Bah," was Grunt's helpful contribution. "I wouldn't have gone down like that."
Shepard kept her own thoughts to herself for the moment as she watched the vorcha move out. It was a neatly executed ambush, though its success relied more on brute force and overwhelming numbers than tactical sophistication. It was also the second time this day Shepard had seen the vorcha try this trick though, and the colonel was more than a bit curious as what that portended.
"Keep your eyes peeled," she ordered. "The vorcha seem especially fond of ambushes today, and if we get hit by another one, I'm going to be very disappointed."
A flow of acknowledges answered her as the squad arose from their various hiding spots and proceeded down, picking up their civilian followers along the way. Said followers visibly flinched as they were forced to walk along the periphery of the ambush, with the visible sight and smell of still burning flesh before them. They were arguably fortunate Shepard was detouring them instead of taking them straight through, the civilians not having the gear to withstand the smoldering flames that still licked the ground. Still, no one wanted to linger overlong next to this carnage, and the brisk pace they set took them past quickly enough.
"We'll be coming up on the clinic soon enough," Shepard said, "but according to Garrus there are still pockets of Blue Suns and Blood Pack testing the perimeter defenses."
"It's a wonder they've held out as long as they have," Jacob remarked. "Even if everyone with a working brain's thrown in with them."
That was the other detail Garrus had managed to convey through the heavily interfered comms. Mordin's clinic had turned into something of a communal neutral zone, one that not even the Suns were prepared to go to the trouble of turfing out. Once the plague hit, naturally everyone that could headed its way, both for shelter but also for the hope of treatment. That meant Mordin had had no shortage of samples to study the plague from, and while he lost many of them, each failure ultimately led him to better refine his treatments, until now the doctor believed he had a viable cure. Now all he needed was the necessarily supplies to synthesize it in large quantities, supplies that Shepard's squad, or rather mostly the civilians now, were carrying.
At the same time, even as his alien patients were dropping or otherwise mostly debilitated, the human refugees that streamed his way were still fully capable. Those not pressed into service as medical orderlies had picked up a gun to bolster the mechs Mordin previously employed to guard his clinic and proceeded to fight tooth and nail to keep the clinic and everyone inside it safe. Because at the end of the day, even if most of the patients inside were aliens, they were still the neighbors the humans of this ward had lived with over the years, and humans tended to not take kindly to outsiders trying to mess with members of their own community, for good and ill. Still, attrition was a thing and even if the Blue Suns were now a mere shadow of what they were in this district, the Blood Pack, or at least their vorcha mutineers, were going to be a big problem for the defenders unless they got some help.
"Garrus, you still alive?"
"I am if you are," the turian responded. "Less interference now, I take that to mean you're getting closer?"
"Just abouts," Shepard said. "We just saw a bunch of krogan get whacked by their own vorcha. Make anything of that?"
There was a noticeable pause as the gears in Garrus' brain turned.
"I really don't like the sound of that, Shepard," the turian finally said. "The Blood Pack we could be pretty certain want the cure, but the vorcha? They're supposed to be immune as well. If they're making some sort of play here, I wouldn't put it past them trying to torch this place, and that'd mean they could come in a lot harder."
"My thoughts exactly," Shepard responded. "I'm going to send part of my squad with the supplies to you, that should help Dr. Solus get started with this cure of his. I'm going to take a few others though and see if I can pin down that vorcha pack we saw turn mutineer."
"Alright, just stay on your toes, Shepard," Garrus said. "Something doesn't smell right here, and it's not just all the rotting corpses."
"You know me," the colonel said. "Be seeing you soon, Shepard clear."
She then turned to the others. "Miranda, Jacob, you'll take the civilians the rest of the way to the clinic and help bolster the defenses. Grunt and Zaeed, you're with me, we're going to track that vorcha pack and see what exactly they're up to."
"I don't think splitting up is a good idea here, Colonel," Miranda immediately protested.
"It's not, but we need more intel to understand what's going on," Shepard said. "The vorcha are acting way more independently than their threat profile would suggest, and if it's not the krogans pulling their strings, I want to know what else we're dealing with. We still need to get that cure from Dr. Solus though, so delivering the supplies to the clinic is still a top priority. That'll also let you link up with Garrus and bring him with if I need to squawk for help."
All well-reasoned, but Miranda still looked distinctly unhappy. Not that the woman's protests did not have solid rationales themselves, but as the commanding officer, it was still Shepard's prerogative to override them.
"Get moving," Shepard said. "The faster you get those supplies to the clinic, the sooner you can rejoin me if the need arises."
"Aye, ma'am," Jacob at least had no problem with adhering to this particular chain of command.
After a moment Miranda gave a choppy nod, reluctantly agreeing as well. The two then headed off, the civvies in tow.
"You know you're gonna need to sort that one out before it ends up biting you in the ass," Zaeed remarked once they were alone with Grunt.
"Don't I know it," Shepard said. "But that can wait we've fleshed the squad out a bit more. At the least I'm going to need another biotic."
The merc gave a grunt of agreement as he took point once more. Following after the vorcha proved to be straightforward enough, the pack was not being subtle in its trek and left plenty of indicators as to its chosen direction. Even with most of the district's internal surveillance systems down, EDI was able to pick up some additional details about the pack they were tracking, including the fact that was growing into a veritable horde.
"Looks like more vorcha squads are mutinying against their krogan overseers," Shepard said. "This is starting to look like a genuine vorcha insurrection."
"And here I thought I'd seen everything," Zaeed said. "Well, not the first time vorcha have shot their minders in the back, but on a scale this large?"
"They'll still be dead meat at the end of the day," Grunt said, sounding mildly irritated that his fellow krogans were falling so easily to the diminutive rapscallions.
"Maybe," Shepard said. "They've clearly got a plan, and just because we beat one ambush doesn't mean we can get sloppy. And it'd look really bad in the Cadre records if my cause of death was listed as 'vorcha.'"
The others shared wry chuckles at that. Still, this was distinctly looking less and less like something they could handle with just the three of them, and even if Miranda and Jacob returned with Garrus, the six of them might still not be enough to handle the growing horde.
"Colonel," EDI's voice sounded over the radio, "I have examined the potential points of interest along the projected path of the vorcha horde and discovered a possible objective."
"Show me," Shepard responded verbally, seeing as if EDI was not bothering with their direct neural link, there was time to keep Zaeed and Grunt in the loop of their conversation.
A map appeared in the corner of Shepard's eye and zoomed in, highlighting a particular section of the ward.
"Oh, shit."
That saw Grunt look back at Shepard, while Zaeed still kept his eyes peeled in front even as he stopped.
"They're headed towards the environmental controls."
Zaeed, for all his gruff personality, was no fool. And Grunt, for all his relative inexperience, still had the entirety of Okeer's education imprinted upon him. Thus it did not take either particularly long to come up with all of the possible outcomes that could result from the vorcha obtaining control over the environmental systems.
"It'd take them hours to vent a place this size," Zaeed said, "so suffocating us is out, at least as a short-term threat. Think they could be trying to spread the plague to other parts of the station?"
"A good question," Shepard said. "EDI, how interconnected are the life support systems between the wards?"
"Many of Omega's residence blocks were installed piecemeal and by competing factions," EDI answered. "Several are on completely independent life support networks, isolated from the rest of the station. This ward is one such instance, but it is part of a larger block of wards that are all tied into the same system."
"What sort of numbers are we looking at here?" Shepard asked next.
"Forty-six thousand non-human and non-vorcha, give or take."
"Fucking hell," Zaeed said with a low whistle. "If that many people get infected, there's no way they'd be able to maintain the quarantine, even if they were willing to slag entire sections of the station."
"And it might not matter that there's a cure," Shepard said. "Not unless Omega is set up to produce it at an industrial scale immediately. Miranda, have you reached the clinic?"
"We just handed the supplies off to Dr. Solus," the other woman responded over the radio. "He seems confident-"
"Get Solus on comms, now," Shepard interrupted.
Miranda did not argue, picking up on the urgency in the colonel's tone.
"Hello, yes?" a rapid clipped voice was soon speaking. "Already thanked Cer-Cord-Hislop representative for ferrying supplies in, what is more urgent than synthesizing cure?"
Shepard chose to ignore the clear hint that even Mordin knew that Cord-Hislop was just a cover for Cerberus and jumped straight to the heart of the matter.
"How fast can production of the cure be scaled up to treat fifty thousand people?"
The break was very, very brief.
"Ah, someone is attempting to contaminate the entire local block through the environmental systems," Mordin immediately surmised what Shepard was alluding to. "Yes, most problematic. Is stopping them within your means?"
"With the numbers they have, I'm not liking my odds."
"Understood. Agent Vakarian, Ms. Lawson, you had best rendezvous with Colonel Shepard immediately. Perhaps the three of you might help even those odds."
"We're on our way," Miranda said promptly.
"Doc," Shepard still had not gotten her answer however. "Is Omega capable of scaling production of the cure quickly enough?"
"Ah, yes," it was as if Mordin just remembered that original question. "Hard to say. Omega does have local chemical industry, so absolute capacity likely within its capabilities, but time to scale harder to estimate. Also, cure is still prototypical in nature. Unclear if current iteration will work, or work for all species."
"Even so, we've now got proper comms running," Shepard said. "Can you transfer all the technical data necessary so that we can broadcast it to the rest of the station? Give them a head start?"
"Hmm, wish to perform at least preliminary test on cure efficacy," Mordin responded. "Will send data out for backup at least, but suggest only releasing information about necessary precursor inputs, lest someone attempt to too reckless an application of current formulation."
That was probably a reasonable enough precaution.
"You've got the line to the Normandy, get it out to whoever you think should have it," Shepard said. "Garrus, Miranda, Jacob, haul ass. The sooner you get here, the sooner we can clean out this rat infestation. Shepard clear."
"Think they'll get here in time?" Zaeed asked.
"Probably not," the colonel said, giving her rifle a final lookover. "Still, it'd be nice to have some help with the cleanup afterward."
The merc chuckled. "So long as it's not us they're cleaning up. Alright then, give the word."
The three were already at the environmental controls, or close enough that they could see the vorcha beginning an assault of their own. It was turning out to be something of a last stand for the Blue Suns, their numbers whittled down by plague and the general chaos of the past few days. Still, the Suns did have a reputation as one of the better equipped PMCs, and their surviving members put up quite a fight. The vorcha advance was slow, possibly due to the lack of krogan muscle that would have usually bolstered their lines. It was about to get slower.
"Grunt, if you would."
The krogan had already braced himself. Given the go ahead, he unleashed a tidal wave of fire right into the backs of the advancing vorcha. Shepard and Zaeed both popped grenades at that instant, blowing even more holes in the panicked ranks of the enemy. Over a dozen hostiles were downed in their opener, but there were easily a couple times that more still combat effective. Still, finding themselves fighting on two fronts caused quite a stir of confusion and panic. Several groups momentarily broke formation, exposing themselves to further attacks.
With barely not even a fireteam supporting her, Shepard could not resort to some of her more dynamic options to further pressure the enemy. Instead she carefully surveyed the battlefield, making use of EDI to help locate any vorchas that looked like they were asserting whatever passed for battlefield control for the packs. Another was gesticulating frantically, and then his skull popped like a grape. Shepard cycled her sniper rifle as she looked for another target.
Even with the surprise and their nominal command chain being dismantled, the vorcha were still reacting towards this new threat. The natural pecking order they had meant even when a pack leader went down, another was usually ready to rise up. Still, every little bit of friction helped, and the more higher level leaders she took longer, the less they were facing one big horde and more just a collection of packs.
The Blue Suns also noticed the arrival of a new force, taking advantage of the chaos Shepard's squad sowed to make some advances of their own. They at least had the numbers to try to exploit the openings the arose, and between the two sides it was definitely the Suns that were pushing the vorcha back. Unfortunately, that was simply going to result in the vorcha getting pushed right into Shepard's position, and the vermin still had the sheer numbers to overrun them.
"Pull back," the colonel ordered. "Zaeed first, then me, then Grunt."
The merc obeyed at a brisk pace, finding another vantage point and signaling his readiness. Shepard wasted no time doing likewise and was laying down with her sniper rifle shortly. Grunt's retreat was a bit more fraught, seeing as there was no more voluminous suppressive fire keeping the vorcha at bay. As destructive as her sniper rifle was, it simply could not match the rate of fire of an assault rifle, much less a light machinegun.
"The packs are dispersing more," Zaeed said. "Looks like there's no longer a cohesive body moving against the environmental controls."
"They could still overwhelm it if they reconcentrate," Shepard stated. "We keep grinding them down."
"You're the boss," Zaeed said as he resumed shooting.
That task was made both easier and harder by the way the vorcha were splitting up. While the chances of a single surge swamping Shepard's squad was diminished, though not outright gone, there were fewer opportunities to nail clusters of tightly packed enemies. Picking off one or two packs was all well and good, but doing so was taking more and more time. That and they were bleeding through ammo at a prodigious rate. Sure, rate of fire had seen a definite improvement since the switch-over to thermal clips, but if they ran out of things to actually shoot the enemy with, they would be just as dead as from thermal lockup.
"I'm out," Grunt announced.
Zaeed made the sound. "There goes our fire support."
Shepard was also almost out of clips and stowed her sniper rifle. If she was precise enough with her shots, at this range she could probably make those clips last longer with her Saber. Worst case, they would need to start stripping clips from their kills. As Shepard contemplated what the best way to pillage before burning might be, a particularly adventurous vorcha was rewarded for his daring when his skill exploded into ludicrous glib. That was quickly followed up by two more similarly masterful headshots, while others of that pack suddenly found themselves floating into the air. Shepard did not even hesitate as she initiated a charge burst, detonating the biotic field and sending a shower of gore splattering the ground and walls.
"Colonel," Miranda gave a belated announcement of their presence. "It seems you started without us."
"Knew you'd catch up," Shepard said, blithely ignoring the slight admonishment. "See you haven't gotten rusty on me, Garrus."
The turian's chuckle could be heard over the radio. "Oh, I've been getting a lot of practice the past few days, Shepard. Feel more like an exterminator these days than a cop, though."
Off to the side Jacob tossed a few clips to Grunt, who promptly reloaded his LMG and went right back to mowing down vorcha.
"Yeah, perps here seem a bit less willing to be collared than back in more civilized space," Shepard said, then back to Miranda. "Situation shipshape at the clinic?"
"Aside from Dr. Solus' lovely bedside manner," Miranda said dryly, "he was already getting to work when we left. He estimates an hour or so to synthesize the first batch of the cure, and then another hour or so to see if it is effective."
"Then let's make sure he actually gets that time," Shepard said, accepting the ammo Miranda handed her. "Garrus, anything we should be focusing on aside from fumigating this place of pests?"
"Well, I don't suppose you were mindful enough to track if any vorcha went into the vents?"
"Not me," Shepard responded. "EDI, what about you?"
"The limited coverage from my available sensors does not allow me to obtain a full view of the battlespace," the AI answered. "I can estimate however a 65% probability that at least some of the vorcha have made for the vents, based on the last known vectors of several packs that broke off."
"That a good or bad thing?" Shepard asked.
"Bad," Garrus responded. "Very, very bad. Based on the layout I've got, some of those vents bypasses the strongpoint the Suns have set up and into the rest of the environmental controls. If the vorcha are really trying to spread the plague around, they could be already doing it while we're stuck outside here."
"Shit," Shepard said full-heartedly. "Can we warn the Suns? Or are they not going to be in a listening mood?"
"They already took a shot at us the last time we tried talking," Miranda pointed out.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Garrus said. "They tried to make a move on Mordin's clinic when the plague broke out, likely wanted to impress him into treating their men first. Mordin didn't take too well to that, and I was also in the neighborhood, and so lent a hand."
The colonel gave a snort. "Not surprised. Still, you think they still won't listen even at the risk of the plague spreading through this entire block?"
"Well, someone slightly more diplomatic than me might be able to talk them down," Garrus said. "Know anyone we could call up on such short notice?"
"Last I heard Liara was back in asari space," Shepard said, not even pretending she was an option. "EDI, I don't suppose the environmental controls are networked in such a way that you can get in and lock them out remotely?"
"They are, but I would require access to said network," the AI answered. "Whether due to age or actual prudence, the controls are air gapped and are not connected to any external wirelessly accessible network."
"So one way or another we've got to go through the Suns," Shepard said with a sigh. "Alright Miranda, you're up."
The Cerberus operative blinked at the colonel. "Me?"
"You are the most diplomatic one out of all of us, no?"
Miranda spent a moment glancing at Shepard and then the other members of the squad visible to her. Never had truer words been spoken to her by Shepard, yet Miranda still felt an instinctive urge to want to refute them. Giving herself a mental shake, she instead physically nodded.
"I'll see what I can do," Miranda said. "Maybe your drawing off the vorcha will have bought us some goodwill with the Suns."
"One can certainly hope," Shepard said, turning her attention back to the still rampaging packs.
She still kept an ear open to Miranda's exchange over the radio though.
"Blue Suns commander, do you read, over," Miranda said.
For a few moments the only answer was the sound of gunfire and a biotic blast or two as the situation around them at least stabilized with the reinforcements.
"This is Commander Jentha of the Blue Suns," a woman's voice finally responded. "Who is this?"
"This is Operative Lazarus, here at the behest of Aria T'Loak," Miranda said. "We're here to keep the vorcha from spreading the plague to more wards in this station block."
"Fucking hell," the woman on the other end said. "These rats really are behind the plague?"
"Spreading it, at least," Miranda corrected.
"Whatever," came the impatient response, then surprisingly more calmly. "Sorry, this has not been a good week down here for any of us. Half my troops are down with this stupid plague and the rest of us haven't gotten much sleep."
"That's understood," Miranda said courteously. "Are you aware that Dr. Solus has developed a possible cure for the plague?"
"The salarian doc?" Jentha said. "Damn, knew we should have tried harder to grab him."
"Be advised, Commander," Miranda quickly cut in, "Aria is also aware of Dr. Solus' cure and is supporting him in synthesizing and distributing it."
"Fine, fine," Jentha conceded rather quickly, suggesting the woman did have her head on straight. "So long as we also get the cure, I don't care if Aria wants to spread it around to the rest of the station."
"That is good to hear," Miranda said. "We still need to keep the vorcha from using the environmental controls to spread the plague, however. Even if Dr. Solus' cure works, whether we'd be able to make enough of it for all the people in the block quickly enough is, an open issue."
A snort sounded from the other end. "Yeah, I can imagine. But don't worry, we've got this place locked down tight, none of the vorcha have been able to breach the other perimeter." There was a momentary but noticeable beat. "Thanks for the help there."
"You are welcome," Miranda said, "but our concern actually lies with any ventilation shafts that might allow the vorcha from bypassing your defenses and sneak inside."
Again there was a break in the communications, though from what Shepard could see and the amount of radio traffic going about, it was certainly not due to any actual silence on Jentha's part.
"Alright Lazarus," Jentha finally responded. "If that's even your real name. You clearly know way more about what's going on here than you're letting on, so let's cut the BS. Do you have a way to stop the vorcha from hijacking the environmental systems?"
Miranda looked over at Shepard, who gave a simple nod.
"We do," Miranda declared.
"Then get your asses down here. Some of my guys inside aren't responding, and I'm short enough troops as it is."
"On our way," Miranda said.
"Grunt, Garrus, stay out here," Shepard ordered. "If more vorcha show up, I want them greeted properly."
"You got it," Grunt said with good cheer.
"Be careful, Shepard," Garrus had a few words of advice on the other hand. "Jentha is a competent sort, but she does have a temper."
"So long as she's more reasonable than the last Blue Suns officer we ran into, we should be fine."
"Somehow none of those words surprise me," Garrus said after a moment.
"You know me so well," the colonel said. "Heading in now, you two watch yourselves as well."
The four human members of Shepard's squad walked through the carnage filled streets and entered into the large plaza in front of the environmental controls. Fortunately this time no one opened fire on them, even if the troopers did look somewhat twitchy. A woman wielding a particularly large rifle stepped forward.
"Which one of you is Lazarus?"
"That would be me," Miranda said.
The woman eyed the squad. "This all of you?"
"Of course not," Miranda answered matter-of-factly.
A snort sounded. "Fair enough. I'm Jentha. Right now we're buddies, don't do anything to make me think otherwise."
"Likewise," was the succinct but diplomatic response.
Another snort. "Let's get inside and do whatever it is you think will lock this place down."
"I'm mildly surprised you can't do that yourselves," Miranda said as they all headed in.
"We could have," Jentha said, "but my boss who had the codes bought it two days ago. Tarak was a paranoid bastard and catching the plague didn't help any. And of course he didn't have proper contingency protocols in place, so now no one has the codes."
"I see," Miranda said, then glanced over at Shepard. "Is that going to be a problem?"
"Not with the overrides Aria gave us," Shepard said, using her suit to slightly muddle her voice to keep it from being recognized, while also lying through her teeth to cover for EDI's upcoming tricks.
"Aria has overrides for our environmental systems!?" Jentha exclaimed, then sighed. "Because of course the queen bitch of Omega does."
Of course the best lies were those that were easily believed. For all they knew, Aria did actually have such overrides. Hopefully she would not mind the accidental truth leaked today.
Inside, one of the other Suns hurried over to meet them.
"Interior is still locked down, boss," the man, another human, reported. "Whatever tries poking their heads in from the vents, we'll be ready."
"Damn well hope so," Jentha said. "Enough has gone wrong these days, I'd like at least one plan to survive contact with the enemy."
Shepard took a moment to get a solid count of the mercs around them. Three to one odds looked about right. She spoke a few brief words to Miranda over the radio.
"And what plan is this?" the other woman promptly asked.
Jentha now gave Miranda a speculative look. "I don't remember ever seeing you in Aria's ranks."
"Aria decided she needed to contract some outside expertise for this plague problem," Miranda answered coolly.
"So all the skin you have in this game is what she's paying you?"
Shepard almost visibly sighed. So much for Jentha having her head on straight. She still instructed Miranda to play along, for now at least.
"You think you can outbid her?" Miranda did just that.
A smirk crossed Jentha's face. "Hard to put in a bid when you're dead. Or about to die from plague."
Zaeed had caught on from the start, while Jacob was not too far behind. Still, he was the only one to visibly stiffen as the insinuations became clear.
"You want to spread the plague to the rest of the station," Miranda laid out their suspicions. "Just like the vorcha."
"We're nothing like those scavengers," Jentha's temper flared, "so if you want to walk out of here with a deal, you'll remember that."
"Alright," Miranda said with a shrug. "So what's your counteroffer?"
"Give us the override so that we can open up the vents," Jentha said. "And help us get control of the cure. With a monopoly over it, we could take over the entire station. Once we do, you'll get paid way more than whatever pittance Aria's offered you."
Even without augmented senses, it was blindingly obvious to anyone observing Jentha that she was lying through her teeth. The Blue Suns commander had no intention of holding to any offer she made here, the moment she got what she wanted, she would try to backstab Shepard and her squad.
"Christ, the Suns really have gone to pot," Zaeed murmured over their private channel, seeming almost offended at how transparent Jentha was being.
Shepard did not disagree, but she was not quite ready to make public that agreement. She thus ordered Miranda to keep stringing the Blue Suns commander along.
"Even if you gain sole control over the cure, do you really think you can take the station?" Miranda asked. "From what we've seen the Blue Suns are also in pretty bad shape here. And if you back Aria into a wall, she's liable to just burn down every infected district before letting you blackmail her over the cure."
"Weren't you listening?" Jentha scoffed. "The plague will take care of Aria for us. The cure is for getting the rest of the station to bow down."
More likely it would cause total pandemonium to break out, since even if Aria could mobilize Omega to make enough of the cure, the Blue Suns probably couldn't. And once that became evident, there would be a lot of desperate people trying to get at what limited supply there was, after which even a fully equipped army probably could not maintain control. Even assuming said army was able to outlast the mob until the majority had died off from the plague, the station would still be gutted to the point of non-operational. Why was it that Blue Suns commanders, especially human female ones, so susceptible to bouts of megalomania? Surely it had to be something they explicitly looked for in their recruitment and promotion practices. Well, they were about to have some more vacancies for those practices to fill.
"If you want to say something pithy to cap it all off, I'm willing to indulge you," Shepard said.
Miranda cocked her head as if considering it, then a smirk touched her lips.
"Your plan is ambitious, if nothing else," Miranda said. "There's just one major problem with it."
The Suns rather blatantly started raising their weapons.
"Let me guess," Jentha said with a scathing tone. "You're going to stop us."
"That's a given," Miranda said. "No, the problem is that Aria already has the cure."
Not quite true, but Jentha had no way of knowing that. And the look on her face was easily worth one measly lie. Shepard took a single moment to savor it, before unleashing havoc.
The thing about being nominally surrounded and outnumbered three to one was that you were also in a target rich environment. That meant when the biotic wave erupted from Shepard, it caught over a dozen Blue Suns in its wake, sending them flying back. The others, having already gotten their orders, had grenades tossed out right on cue before Jacob and Miranda formed a barrier to shield them. The moment the detonations ceased they dropped said shield, allow the squad to maneuver again. The initial onslaught had killed a solid half of the enemy, while some of the better equipped or simply lucky mercs might have managed to pick themselves back up again to fight back if given the chance. They were not.
"GAH!"
Shepard's blade sliced right through shield and armor, pinning the woman against the wall.
"You know, a part of me resents just how much time I've had to waste dealing with the nonsense you people have caused," the colonel said, eliciting another pained gasp as she applied just a bit more pressure to the sword. "It really says something that the voice of sanity in all this is Omega's pirate queen. Then again, Aria probably didn't get to where she is by taking stupid risks or rushing in bullheaded, unlike a certain overambitious rent-a-cop."
"Who the fuck do you think you are!" Jentha spat out.
Shepard leaned in. "The Butcher of Torfan."
That caused the Suns commander to actually start. Hunting down Saren might have been what made Shepard famous, but it was Torfan where her infamy first arose. Every pirate in the business knew about what Shepard had done during that battle, and even if most hated her for it, hated what her actions represented, those with at least a modicum of sense also knew to fear her for it, and pray that they were ever at the wrong end of her barrel. For one thing that Shepard had unequivocally established at Torfan was that she would pay whatever price was necessarily to bring down her target. Bleeding her and her troops, bleeding innocents, nothing short of killing Shepard herself would stop her, and killing her was recognized as a very, very difficult prospect. And once Shepard did have you in her grasp, it was solely at her sufferance whether she offered you quarter. The blade began glowing blue.
"Wa-wait!"
A rather ignominious last word as the sword flared and left Jentha's body a decapitated corpse. The faint sound of gunfire could be heard coming from outside as Garrus and Grunt executed their half of the counterattack, finishing off the few Blue Suns that had been left at the perimeter. Shepard sheathed her sword and looked about. A few of the Suns inside were still alive, with one or two even trying to crawl away. Shepard considered for a brief moment whether to kill them here and now to avoid any future risk, minute though it may be. A very brief moment.
"C'mon," she said to the others. "We still have some vents to lock down."
But not before the colonel picked up the gun Jentha had been hefting. A Revenant light machinegun, just like with Jedore. Perhaps the Blue Suns handed them out as standard issue for their higher-ranking officers, which belayed the relative wealth of the mercenary company. Still, Jedore's rather spectacular death had deprived Shepard of a trophy last time, so the colonel saw little reason to forego one this time. After all, as the saying went, pillage, then burn.
Overriding the environmental controls turned out to be pitifully easy with EDI's help. It wasn't that the encryption key itself was bad, these days most encryption systems were functionally uncrackable using pure brute force methods, but as one of the most advanced AIs ever developed by humanity, EDI had a whole host of tools to launch side-channel and other types of attacks. And of course Omega being Omega, what passed for the authorities here were not the most diligent when it came to keeping the software running their infrastructure properly patched. It took EDI barely three minutes to find an existing exploit that she quickly took advantage of to gain privileged access. By the fourth minute, not only was the environmental system completely under Shepard's control, it was also probably the most secured it had ever been to a direct hardware intrusion. Short of the vorcha ripping out the actual computers and wiring in entirely new control systems, no one was going to be using the block vents to spread the plague. With this dealt with, it was almost mission complete.
"Shepard!" Garrus suddenly called over the radio.
Almost.
"What is it?" the colonel responded.
"The clinic is under attack! Blood Pack are moving on it in force!"
Shepard wasted only a single breath on a curse as she bolted. If this was the Blood Pack proper and not just a bunch of renegade vorcha, that meant lots of krogan muscle. The clinic might have held out against random scavengers, odds and ends of vorcha, or even the depleted Blue Suns, but against a proper krogan warband?
"On our way!"
Shepard was not going to lose another specialist. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Perhaps she would be doing some burning prematurely after all.
End of Chapter 13
One more chapter, he says. At this point I don't know why I even bother trying to estimate arc lengths, I've undershot so many times with Meridian that that story is something like 30% longer than I had expected at this point in the narrative. Little surprise I'm not doing much better with Vengeance's estimates.
That all said, I think I've worked out how to weave together several of the major narrative threads for this story. One of Duty's more appealing aspects, I think at least, was the way that various side-plots were weaved together in a more coherent manner, so it didn't feel like a bunch of arbitrary side-quests getting tacked on as an afterthought to the main narrative, each side mission the characters went on helped feed into the main narrative instead.
For ME2, that was always going to be trickier because of how BioWare structured the recruitment and loyalty missions. Their narrative component often felt like they were primarily there to give you something to do in-between the major set-pieces, which arguably all side-missions are, but in ME1 the process of building up the team often tied more directly into the main mission of hunting for Saren. Garrus was already investigating Saren, Wrex was after one of your leads, Tali had info incriminating Saren, and Liara was a direct person of interest. ME2's various recruitments after Miranda and Jacob though? Not so much. And the loyalty missions even less so, and that's assuming the mission was even narratively interesting standalone. But, I think I have something that might actually manage to tie everything together in a coherent way. That might even make some of the recruitment related things, and dare I say it, loyalty related things, actually interesting in and of themselves. I've got big plans for Samara, for one. And Thane. Suffice it to say, there is going to be a massive gambit pileup that actually will give Shepard reason to get involved beyond merely doing a favor for a squad mate that she needs to view as expendable anyway because they're going on what is widely considered a suicide mission.
As a general rule I do not accept collaboration offers or the like. By and large having to reconcile another person's intentions makes creating any narrative work harder, not easier, and make it take longer to spin out stories, hence why I prefer to just go it alone.