MASS EFFECT: ENTANGLED

CHAPTER 18

This takes place after Chapter 20 of "Solace."

Normandy:

"Commander, I cannot stress the importance of this summit. We need alliances or this will be a short war," Hackett's deadly words sent a ominous reminder to Shepard of what was at stake as she faced the holo-projected image of the admiral in the war room.

"Urdnot Wrex is an old friend of mine, Admiral," She stated boldly. "We have been through a lot; especially on Virmire." A cold chill went down her body from the nightmarish planet's name. Her adrenaline was on a high intensity that day despite not letting it show as she faced down the disturbed krogan merc. He had every right to be pissed after learning that once again the salarians were planning on sticking it to his species. His rage blinded Saren's true intent. Fortunately, she was able to get him to listen to reason; the krogan were tools to the rogue Spectre. He had no intention of saving the reptilian race from extinction. All he wanted was canon fodder to help Sovereign. Virmire pained her heart greatly besides dealing with Wrex; after all, that was where she lost Kaidan to the dark abyss. She never really was a religious person and did not dig into the details of her past lover. Alenko never openly spoke about his faith. Though, a part of her wanted to pray that there was an afterlife and that she would be reunited with him once more. At least that was what she thought she wanted for months following his untimely death at the hands of Saren and the geth. Ever since she ran into Bray on Omega when she visited the asteroid station to locate two of her dossiers against the Collectors, her sense of logic was never the same. She began to doubt a lot; especially her love for Kaidan and what she wanted further. Something about the batarian dug beneath her skin like a parasitic infection. Her run-in with him on the Citadel was not expected and troubled her even more. He was right by Aria's side once more in the club, Purgatory, like a dutiful lapdog. The overthrown ruler of Omega offered assistance to the war if Shepard did a few errands for her including helping her retake the asteroid back from Cerberus. Krysta hated how the asari was using the war like a bargaining chip. It made her blood boil. Shepard had no hesitation in rejecting the offer, and Bray pursued her out of the club to speak with her more.

Seeing him troubled Krysta deeply. She felt so unguarded and vulnerable. How did he do that to her? She felt compelled to get herself away since the feeling upset her. His pursuit angered her even more and she made a spectacle by throwing him on the floor when he reached out to stop her. The look of hurt and betrayal was a frozen image that still haunted her thoughts even on the Normandy. "Is there anything else, Commander?" Hackett's question snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Aria T'Loak has offered her mercs to help with the war."

He shook his head. "Aria can never be trusted. I will defer to your judgment on that, Commander. I sense she wants something out of this deal."

"She does. She needs my help to get certain merc leaders onboard with her and Omega was captured by Cerberus. She wants it back."

"Something isn't right here," He doubted. "Why would the Illusive Man be interested in Omega?"

"Omega's control would give him full access to the Omega 4 Relay for salvage rights to the Collector base that I left defunct there," She gritted her teeth as she thought back to her previous decision to not blow up the vessel as she intended to do. How did he talk her out of it? "I should have never trusted him."

"That is in the past now, Commander. At some point, we may need to get Omega back. However, this summit should be our primary objective."

"I agree, sir."

"Good. Is there anything else?"

"One more thing," She began as she thought back to her conversation with Thane on the Citadel. "A fellow marine re-enlisted shortly before the Reaper attack: Lieutenant Alivia Lykaia. She was the sole survivor of Akuze. To deal with that makes her one hell of a soldier. She is better off the frontlines."

"Coalition teams are being created for special ops. It was the Primarch's idea."

Krysta blinked at the news. "Really?"

"I'm hoping that Urdnot Wrex will submit some heavy fighters for the cause. With the Reapers attacking various fronts, the Alliance is being stretched thin. We need to reserve many of our forces for the assault on Earth with the Crucible. We cannot go into that alone."

"I agree. I'll talk to Wrex to see what he can do. He owes me a few favors," She smiled knowingly. "Thank you, sir."

"I'll see that she's on one of those teams. Keep up the good work, Commander. Hackett out."

"What are the odds?" Rhodes joked with a cracked grin on his face as he walked up to Alivia following their mission debrief on Arcturus. It was only then that she found out that instead of her assignment out to Rio, she was being pulled to a Special Ops group.

At least she was with a familiar face and their alien counterparts would be arriving shortly for their departure. The Special Ops groups were newly formed for tactical missions and would use other races to work in unison. Her squad leader was a turian named Ulana Acalius, who served as one of the first units deployed to Palaven and their other squadmate was a krogan by the name of Urdnot Torsk. Each group would have around the same pairings: two humans and two aliens with most of the non-humans for now being either turian or krogan. With the Primarch's influence and pledge to assist, there seemed to be more turian numbers than krogan. The large reptilian species was not fully committed yet. Wrex's release of his soldiers to the groups was an act of good faith only. The asari and salarian refused to send aid at this time. The dalatrass did not like the fact that the krogan were in on it and the asari were trying to preserve their worlds first. "Had no idea this was coming. This is crazy," Alivia did not know what to think about the surprise assignment. Why was she pulled away?

"I guess we are the best of the best."

"I hope so." She threw her pack over her shoulder and started to move out to their designated docking port to meet up with the rest of their squad. Alivia chewed her lip as she trudged along the busy corridor with Rhodes beside her. She just enlisted and was considered a "new" recruit by many despite her years of service before her discharge. There were many hardcore veterans before her. Doubt and worry filled her mind. Yes, she survived Akuze, but why the sudden backing? "I guess Ulana will be our tech expert."

"Yeah. Never worked under a turian before. Should be interesting. I was one of the tops of my class in marksmanship and you're biotic. Just put a bubble over me and I can snipe away."

She giggled. "The technical term is a biotic sphere."

He shrugged. "Bubble sounded more fun."

A female turian in light body armor with white facial markings on her crest plate was standing intimidatingly in front of the docking tube to their awaiting shuttle. Rhodes and Alivia gave sideway glances as they approached before they saluted her. "Ulana Acalius?" Alivia asked.

The birdlike alien narrowed her eyes at the greeting. "Lieutenant Commander Acalius, Lieutenant Lykaia," She sternly corrected.

Alivia cringed as she figured that a sharp military-based race would be up to speed on all information. She was still thrown off by the placement. Rhodes reached out to extend his hand for greeting. "First Sergeant Wayne Rhoades of the Ninety-Sixth Company. Honor to have you as lead on this, mam."

Acalius scoffed at the gesture and did not break her stance. "Now, we wait on- "

"Why is this place so damn confusing?!" A loud voice bellowed nearby.

"The krogan," She finished her sentence with a displeased grumble.

They turned their heads to see a krogan in heavy green armor approaching from their right. His pale green eyes directly looked upon the trio as he bounded down the hallway in a huff. He studied each of them before speaking. "Urdnot Torsk. This Acalius' group?"

"You found the right one," Alivia greeted him with a welcoming smile. He grunted in acknowledgment.

The turian cleared her throat to focus their attention on her. "Did anyone read the mission objective?"

Alivia and Rhodes exchanged confused looks then Wayne tossed a shrug. "No, mam. They just gave us the assignment breakdowns."

"I just know to beat the crap out of Cerberus," Torsk barked.

"Close enough," The burly krogan's quip seemed to amuse Ulana. "The communications hub on Onatrom picked up a Cerberus troop vessel heading towards Arvuna. As you know, a dam facility there helps generate power for the hub and the kinetic barrier that protects it."

"If we lose the hub, then a lot of communications for the Alliance will be down," Rhodes commented.

"A lot of troops fighting the reapers will be in the dark," Alivia added grimly.

"Then we better beat Cerberus there and put up a strong defensive," Acalius motioned her towards the docking tube entrance.

Torsk chuckled in delight. "I can't wait to try out my war hammer."

Two hours later, the team landed on Arvuna. The facility was on mandatory lockdown with the employees hiding in a more secure area. A VI was being used temporarily to man the controls of the station to keep production going. "Ok, Cerberus is inbound, so we only have a twenty-minute window. Most likely, they will be after the control codes for remote bypass. I need to manually transfer those codes to my omni until they are gone. Lieutenant Lykaia, I want you to accompany me. First Sergeant Rhodes, you and Torsk stay near the shuttle and alert us as soon as see Cerberus. We don't want to lose our ride out of here."

Sporting a Mneumonic visor, Rhodes nodded his head at the order and watched the pair head in a south-westerly direction towards the control station of the facility then eyed his krogan squadmate. "Did you know this place used to be a quarian colony?"

"Too damn cold here," Torsk grumbled as he shivered a little, then looked over at the water body that surrounded them. "I hope there's fish there. I may need a snack if this takes too long."

The many workstations were humming away at the control station of the dam. Alivia let her turian leader take charge and watched her move to a single console. Acalius opened her omni and tapped away with her talons. "The facility granted us access so this should be pretty easy."

Suddenly, two shuttles crested the skyline and were moving right at them! Rhodes tapped his comm. "We have company!"

As soon as he relayed the message, one shuttle fired off to the side of the facility causing a small explosion followed by a few terminals nearby going offline. "What the hell happened?!" Ulana's voice cracked over the comm.

Torsk took out his war hammer and grinned widely. "Finally. Come down here."

Rhodes gritted his teeth as he unclasped his Mattock assault rifle and engaged the incendiary ammo modification. "Here we go."

The explosion rocked the facility and nearly made Alivia lose her balance. She took out her Tempest submachine gun and activated her biotic implant to create a barrier around her armor. The dark energy sizzled to life. "Did we lose connection?"

Ulana unclasped her M-5 Phalanx heavy pistol and clenched her mandible. "That attack severed our connection with the terminal. I can engage the repair drone, but we need to make sure that Cerberus doesn't take it out."

"Affirmative. I got its six."

The turian looked Alivia's way. "Let's see what you got."

As soon as the pair of shuttles touched down at the other landing zone, Rhodes and Torsk moved over to greet their guests. Rhodes took a position near a console to have some protection from opposition fire while Torsk charged ahead. The doors to the shuttle opened and out poured six Cerberus soldiers, two Nemesis, and three Dragoons." The Nemesis broke away to find ideal sniper positions while the soldiers met the krogan in a barrage of gunfire.

Despite his shields taking a beating, Torsk met the attackers head-on and then swung his war hammer to the left. The impact shattered a soldier's entire helmet and sent him reeling over the banister and into the watery grave below. Then Torsk pivoted and swung in the other direction careening one soldier into the other making them tumble to the ground sloppily. Just as one started to get up, Torsk used the end of the hammer to plunge his entire body down on the metal surface, flattening it like a pancake. A gruesome display of blood, brain matter, and bone fragments shot out in all directions.

Rhodes picked off a few soldiers with precise rounds to give Torsk some cover and heard the screams of the Cerberus fighters being burned alive with the flammable ammo. Seeing a hue of red come into his field of vision, he quickly dove behind the protective console just in time as a whisp came over his head. He barely missed that shot from a lurking Nemesis! The robotic chattering was heard to his left and he used the barrel of his rifle to follow it. Just as the Cerberus black-clothed operative rose to fire another round, Rhodes picked it off with three well-placed shots in the head. Seconds later, the satisfying squeal of the Nemesis going offline filled the air before the short-circuiting body collapsed. "I still got it!"

Torsk roared as he charged the other stalking Nemesis and hit it dead on with a head butt. The impact threw the Nemesis back several feet. Within seconds, the krogan was up on it and yanked the robot up from the ground. He pulled the struggling operative to his sharp incisors before he dropped it on the ground and smacked it hard with his hammer.

Rhodes spied the carnage that surrounded the landing zone. "Not so bad." He then realized that they were missing some. "Where did the Dragoons go?" Then his heart lurched. They were going after the controls!

As they were escorting the drone, Alivia noticed that they were being followed by three Dragoons. "Acalius, on our six!" She aimed her Tempest at the one in front and squeezed the trigger. A few rounds hit her target, but he was still coming at her fast with his electrifying whips at the ready.

"Go with the drone!" The turian jerked her ahead as she switched places with her. Using her omni, she launched an overload attack, which disabled the Dragoon's shields completely to null. Then she fired relentlessly at him with her pistol. The rounds picked off her opponent but then two Dragoons took the opportunity to come at her in a pincer maneuver. One of them unleashed its fury and hit her with the whip, knocking her back in excruciating pain.

"No!" Alivia halted her progress with the drone and moved to assist. Harnessing dark energy, she launched a biotic shockwave attack. The released energy hit the Dragoon on the left sending him slamming into a console nearby. She then opened fire on the other with her weapon. Ignoring the hit on its shields, the Dragoon lunged at her with its whips snapping as it landed. Anticipating this, Alivia rolled to the side to avoid a direct strike. The Dragoon then shuddered violently as it was being attacked from behind till it finally succumbed to the assault and fell to the floor. Looking over, Alivia noticed that Ulana had opened fire and taken it out.

The remaining Dragoon moved off the console and stared at them through its dark visor. Alivia gritted her teeth as she watched her turian companion. Which one of them would it choose to strike at? The drone paused nearby since it needed them to help guide it to the required location. Just then the Dragoon made up its mind and dove towards her! Before it could get too close, several blazing rounds hit it causing it to fall to the ground in flames. Looking back in the direction of the shots, Alivia smiled to see Rhodes and Torsk running up to where they were. "Thanks for the assist!"

"Quickly! Get to the drone!" Ulana ordered as she sprinted to where the repair bot was. Alivia and the others surrounded it as they continued the escort. She then looked at Rhodes and Torsk. "Status report."

"All dead," Torsk smirked.

All of a sudden, a large explosion followed by several others ceased their premature celebration. Rhodes and Alivia broke away to spy on the damage. An Atlas mech was standing in front of the charred remains of what was once their shuttle. "Crap," Rhodes grumbled and tapped the comm. "We have an Atlas!"

"I'm sending Torsk. I got this on my own back here," Acalius replied.

Within seconds, Torsk was at their sides. "One pitiful mech?" He chortled.

"It took out our shuttle," Lykaia reminded him.

"We can always steal theirs after this," Rhodes thumbed over to the empty ones.

Alivia clenched her jaw firmly as she tried to think of an attack plan. The mech was heavily armored and extremely dangerous. One hit by its guns would drop their shields entirely and if they were caught in its rocket launch, there was no hope for survival. Striking too close would put them at risk for the mech to grab them and staying in a distant spot for sniping would make them an ideal hit by its weapons system. "We need to strike at all sides. Rhodes, you take left and pick at its back once it turns. Torsk, you hit right to draw him away so Rhodes can get him. Just watch the charging. I'll hit it center to try to keep some heat off of Torsk."

"Sounds good," Torsk grunted his head in agreement as he maneuvered to his spot. Rhodes gave a thumbs-up before he dashed to the left. Alivia fired directly at the mech to give her team time to get away and then dove into cover to avoid counterfire that pummeled the spot she was at nanoseconds ago.

"You are dumber than a vorcha!" Torsk jabbed at the mech pilot from his location. "Face a true enemy!" The pilot steered the Atlas to turn towards the krogan and just as he did, Rhodes opened fire from his point, hitting the Atlas in the back. The mech then started to move towards Rhodes, but just as he did, Alivia opened fire again hitting the cockpit glass. Becoming arrogant, Tork gave a mighty roar and moved towards the Atlas with his war hammer at the ready. He managed to hit the Atlas hard on the back causing the mech to slightly lose balance. Torsk laughed in triumph as he ignored the peril and struck once more.

"Torsk!" Alivia fired at the mech to stop the pilot from moving toward the krogan, but the pilot ignored the assault. Seeing Torsk in trouble, she unleashed a biotic pull and used the dark energy to engulf the krogan and pull him sharply towards her causing him to stumble to the ground, but out of harm's way.

"Human! What are you doing!?" He snarled as he moved to get back up.

Rhodes continued to hit the Atlas with everything he had along with Alivia and then the Atlas hit critical, exploding into several pieces. Torsk covered his head to avoid any contact with the shrapnel. The pilot's body was disintegrated by the intense heat of the explosion. Fuming, the krogan moved to confront Alivia by her earlier action. "Human female! You took away my victory!"

"On the contrary, Urdnot Torsk. She saved your life. You were foolish in your charge," Lieutenant Commander Acalius rectified as she walked over. "I saw the very end. She should be commended."

"Thanks, mam," Alivia beamed proudly at the turian. A huge weight lifted off her chest as the adrenaline of battle began to evaporate from her blood. "Did the transfer work?"

"Yes, and I tapped their comms. The vessel is leaving the system."

"Great, then their shuttles are ours," Rhodes spied their prize.

"Not so fast, First Sergeant," Ulana stopped him. "They will be tracked. Best that we leave them here. I have sent a pickup request. Go check on the civilians. Tell them to stay down for another hour." He saluted her before leaving to carry out the request.

Torsk holstered back his hammer and then folded his arms. "Means we are stuck here."

"It was nice working beside a krogan," Ulana approached him. "Usually, I have to take down mercenaries of your kind."

"Heh, and your kind: Pirates," He jeered.

Alivia allowed the downtime opportunity to walk over to the rail that overlooked the endless ocean in front of her. Her hands tremored slightly on the rails as her anxiety was ceasing. It had been a while since she fought like that. Though she made it! "Thane," She murmured to herself. "You would be so proud of me. You and Shepard both."