Benning
Arcturus Stream, Euler Cluster
One Week Ago
WANTED
By Order of Cdr. David Amherst
*Abigail's picture taken from a security camera*
CRIMES:
Murder
Violent acts against
Cerberus Peacekeepers
Terrorism
Abby punches the digital display with a mixture of disgust and genuine understanding, denting the screen and making the words unintelligible.
"Well, sure I killed all those soldiers, but Terrorism? Really?"
She continues on her walk to the Cerberus command center in the city. The commander there is next on her Templar hit list.
Up ahead in the street, a group of Peacekeepers heads in her direction. Abby tugs her hood further down, inconspicuously looking for a way around.
These Peacekeepers aren't like typical Cerberus soldiers. They wear white and black cloth uniforms with yellow highlights in place of heavy armor, similar to C-Sec on the Citadel. For weapons, most carry either Blunt or Shock Batons, with Officers sometimes wielding pistols like Talons or Carnifex.
"Hey! Hold it, you!" One of the Peacekeepers shouts at her. Abby has been caught, but she's not under arrest.
Not yet.
The group comes closer, with one taking the lead. Abby slowly raises her hands, keeping her head down.
"Take off that hood." The Peacekeeper orders. A devilish smirk crosses Abby's lips as he comes closer. The others begin to form a half-circle, surrounding her. The man in front reaches out to pull her hood of.
"I said, take off tha-" Abby cuts him off by taking hold of his extended arm. Her Hidden Blade deploys, skewering him through the wrist. Then the other into the man's side. The other Peacekeepers stagger back in shock as their comrade falls to the Assassin's feet, her blades gleaming crimson.
"It's her!" One shouts. "The killer!" They all ready their melee weapons to take her on. Abby defends herself from her first attacker, easily knocking away his baton swing and slipping in a quick kick to the groin. The Peacekeeper keels forward, only to take one of the Assassin's blades through his eye. As he falls, another comes up from behind. Abby blocks his attack as well, stabbing him repeatedly in the torso with both blades. He staggers for a moment, barely standing, until Abby lightly pokes him with one finger and he falls back lifelessly.
"Move! I have a shot!" The Officer calls out, drawing her pistol. Thinking quickly, the Assassin dives to the right, grabbing one of the Peacekeepers to take the incoming rounds. She drops him and closes in on the Officer, helplessly fiddling with her overheated weapon. Abby knocks the gun away before delivering a kick to the Officer's left knee, easily breaking it. While she stumbles to the ground, the Assassin moves behind her, swiftly slitting her throat.
Only three left.
First, a simple parry, Abby pulling the Peacekeeper's arm into hers and behind her back. Breaking it at the elbow, with the finisher being a stab to the neck. Another comes up from behind. The Assassin blocks his swing, holding his arm in place while using the other blade to chop it off. The man screams in horror, only to be cut off by a stab to the chest. The last Peacekeeper raises his baton, enraged by the merciless slaughter that has befallen his comrades. Abby blocks with both blades just above her head. Gritting her teeth, she pushes his attack away and quickly stabs him in the stomach before the man can recover. He falls to his knees in front of the Assassin, who lines up her blades at the Peacekeeper's neck before making a scissor-like motion, swiftly beheading him.
Retracting her blades, Abby looks around at the carnage all around her.
"Well...maybe 'Terrorism' isn't such a stretch after all." She thinks to herself with a chuckle.
The few civilians who were around are long gone, so the Assassin moves on. Off in the distance, in another part of the city, gunfire breaks out. Several Cerberus shuttles fly past in that direction. Abby ducks into an alley and opens her Omni-tool, tapping into Cerberus' planet-wide communications.
"...small Alliance team has landed downtown." A voice says over the static-choked line. "Commander Shepard may be with them. All available units respond immediately."
"It's about time the Alliance showed up." Abby grumbles, quietly padding her way down the alley. "Shepard is a welcome distraction."
"Patrol Theta-Nine here. Got unit Yankee-Six down on Plum Street. Could be the HVT. All patrols keep an eye out."
"Figures."
The Cerberus command center is nestled between several normal buildings, and once was one itself. The only hints to it's true nature would be the large Cerberus banners and the high number of Peacekeepers and regular soldiers, most of the latter quickly leaving after the Alliance announcement.
There are far too many Peacekeepers around to take on at once, let alone sneak past on the ground. They would likely warn the commander as well, and he could slip away. Looking around, the Assassin finds the surrounding buildings perfectly suitable for climbing, as well as one window of the command center rather close to an opposite balcony. With skills acquired through years of training, Abby starts to climb. She slips through an open window on the floor below the top, finding an abandoned apartment. The sound of boots in the hall cause her to make herself even quieter, slinking to the apartment door like a mouse. The pneumatic hiss of the door is covered by a Peacekeeper knocking loudly on one further down the hall.
"See? I told you." Says an annoyed voice. "Romeo team swept this place twice last week. It's still empty."
"I know, but we have to keep it up. Perimeter security, ya'know?" Their partner replies.
"Didn't you hear the NET? Yankee-Six got jumped right down the street. Don't you think that's a bit more important than searching empty buildings?"
Directly ahead is the stairs leading to the balcony she saw earlier. Abby moves to them and starts to climb, but the toe of her boot catches on the top step. She stumbles, silently cursing under her breath.
"Woah, woah. What was that?" The second voice asks.
"Probably the next patrol, since Amherst is so obsessed with this building." The first quips.
"Viking-Two!" One of the voices calls out. "Mathers! Tracey! That you?"
The Assassin, meanwhile, has already found her way to the balcony. A clothesline is strung up from above her head to the building opposite.
"For folks so adamant on perimeter security, they aren't very good at it." Abby muses as she climbs up and onto the line, quickly scurrying across. She steals a glance at where she came from to see two men poking around in the room the hid in while they dawdled downstairs. Looking around and seeing no prying eyes, Abby quietly slides open the window and steps down.
She was in.
Commander David Amherst was a tall, wiry, paranoid man who always tried to cover up those points by being tactful, sneaky, and diligent with his troop movements. His efforts didn't go unnoticed, as according to his information, The Illusive Man still believed he and his men were still in the Horsehead Nebula at Cronos Station.
Luckily, they were low on the radar from the beginning and would likely not be discovered.
The Reaper War is taking its toll on the galactic population, and Cerberus was no exception. Add on their losses over the previous years with Projects Lazarus and Overlord both taking deadly turns, as well as the Alliance suddenly taking great interest in their operations, and Cerberus is quickly running out of manpower in the 'Soldier' department.
Amherst and his men arrived on Benning under the pretense of protecting it from the Reapers after they destroyed the spaceport as well as neighboring Arcturus Station. With the Alliance stretched too thin to respond, and the helpless population at the mercy of the Reapers, it seemed perfect. For a while.
Over the last few days, the civilians have been resisting his men's efforts, with the aid of a hooded 'vigilante' type who has stopped his Peacekeepers from doing their jobs, even going so far as killing some of them. She is now a priority target for elimination. A shame, really. She has undeniable skill in combat, and she isn't bad on the eyes.
Idiots. All of them. They don't realise that the Alliance isn't coming to save them. Cerberus can, and is trying to, but they keep resisting.
A sudden noise in the otherwise quiet room makes the commander look up from his notes and maps, only to find himself face to face with death.
"Hello, Commander." Abby says devilishly from her place seated on top of him.
"Here to turn yourself in?" Amherst replies shakily, trying to mask his sheer terror with casual defiance. "That is very admirable of you." He eyes her up and down. "While my men may not like it, I suppose I could be convinced to let you live."
Abby deploying one of her blades and holding it up to the commander's neck quickly silences him.
"You're lucky to still be drawing breath." The Assassin growls.
"Why? Because I'm trying to save the people of Benning from the Reapers? Because Cerberus is doing what your Alliance is too weak and afraid to do?"
"You know where my allegiance lies."
"Yes." He says with a quick nod. "With a virtually extinct cult Hell-bent on destroying what we are working so hard to achieve. You yourself are lucky to have been away from Arcturus Station."
Amherst smiles when he sees Abby's demeanor quickly crumble. Anger turns to sorrow as her thoughts drift to her Brothers and Sisters who died on the collosal station just a short FTL jump away. She is all that is left of the Brotherhood. The other Assassins, and their Mentors, gone.
"Your own empire is crumbling." She retorts, pulling herself from her mind. "Cerberus is being wiped off the map, and the Templars just as quickly. As long as I am here, the Brotherhood lives on."
"I could say the same." The commander says. "Even after you kill me, the Templars will continue to rebuild. Pick up where we left off. The only problem is that by slaying me, you doom the people of this planet. The Alliance can't protect them. You can't protect them. Cerberus can. We don't even have to be involved. The Alliance will lose, and so will the others. You will seal the fate of every living thing in the galaxy."
Abby shakes her head after a moment.
"We'll see about that."
She pushes her blade down, swiping to the side and slitting the commanders throat. He stops moving after a few seconds and Abby stands, pausing to reach into the man's shirt and produce his token items. The Templar Cross hangs on a necklace along with a Deist Flame icon. She removes the necklace, placing the icon in the commander's open hand, before quickly and quietly leaving the room.
