MASS EFFECT: ENTANGLED

CHAPTER 21

September 21, 2186

Verush: Outskirts of Hegemony Capital Center

Cerak Bodrah adjusted the torso of his midnight black colored medium body armor as he stared at his reflection in his apartment's bathroom mirror. In the main living quarters of his small apartment, his mate, Patia, was transfixed upon the monitor that was displaying the urgent press release from the Hegemony. He glanced outside the bathroom doorway to her uneasy furrowed brow as her right hand nervously rested on the baby bump of her lower body where their first child was. "What are they saying?" He asked.

She glanced wearily just briefly from the screen as the two batarian reporters: One male and one female were going over the intel that was relinquished to the public. "That they believe the massive fleet that entered the Harsa relay is the Alliance." She shook her head solemnly in disbelief. "First Bahak and now us…." Her eyes sadly moved down to where her child was inside her. "I don't like this…"

Cerak moved over and kissed the top of her head gently from where she sat on their couch. "Don't worry. This time, they don't have an asteroid to throw at us."

She worriedly took his hand and held it against her lips as she sighed softly. "I don't want you to go…"

"I must. I got the call. I have to report to the capital within two hours. The Alliance is bluffing. Though, this hurts their position. They are no longer innocent as the council races deem them to be."

Patia stood to lean up on her tippy toes to kiss his lips and then kissed the light crimson discoloration of skin right below his brow line. "Stay safe." He smiled and moved to give her one more kiss before the news feed broke off. An eerie stillness fell in the room before air raid sirens wailed like banshees in the dusk. A massive explosion shook their apartment as small tremors followed in its wake. Patia screamed and clutched his armor tightly. "What is going on?!"

Cerak broke from her embrace to move towards their large window that overlooked the city from their tenth-floor apartment building. Off in the westerly direction where the capital was, smoke pummeled into the air as fireballs seemed to almost fall from the heavens towards the vast city below. More violent quakes rocked them as more explosions triggered, but this time their shockwaves were closer. A sound deafening horn of the damned blared in unison with several others. Towering mechanical beings were walking and blasting the capital with red lasers! The nightmarish scene was as if it was pulled from a fantasy film. Patia was now at his side to the apocalypse as it unfolded all around. "Cerak!" Tears streamed down her face in sheer distress. "What are those things?!"

Another mechanical being landed with a seismic wave about three miles from their tower. Rushing back to his bedroom, Cerak grabbed his sidearm from the nightstand and checked the clips he had stashed away on his armor harness. "We need to get out of here," He gritted his teeth as he clutched Patia's hand, urging her away from the window.

The move was unpredictable, and Patia stumbled to comprehend fully what was happening around them. "Go where?!" She desperately looked around their small home. "I need to pack things we may need."

Another explosion was heard even closer. "No time! We need to go now!" Cerak led her out into the hallway where confused and petrified residents were either dragging around in shock or fleeing for their lives towards the elevators. Cerak had to risk the elevator with his four month pregnant mate. He managed to secure a car along with several others and silently prayed they would reach the bottom floor. Forty-five seconds later, they were in the lobby and screams of fright were heard all around outside. The noise-racking horn blared even louder deafening their eardrums as Cerak frantically looked around to produce some type of survival plan. Civilians were scattering all over either by foot or sky car. Vehicles were crashing into each other in the turmoil. Gunfire now echoed in the distance from whatever resistance they had from their local municipality.

Several of their tower neighbors were throwing their things in a nearby sky car. Racing over, Cerak moved towards them. "I need room for Patia! She needs to get out of here!"

His mate grabbed his armored arm frighteningly and pleaded, "Don't leave me!"

"The capital has to have transports! We need to get there!" One of the neighbors insisted. "We have room!"

Cerak looked ahead to see many sky cars inbound to the capital were being shot down. "Don't go that way!" He moved Patia back away from the car and urged them to follow him. "We need to find another way off this planet."

"We have more protection if we get to the capital!" His male neighbor protested.

Suddenly, snarls of beastly figures entered the fray as grotesque humanoid creatures clambered all over the streets and sides of buildings as if they were possessed. They were attacking fleeing batarians like rabid varren; biting and scratching while some civilians were being pulled away to an unknown tormenting destination. Patia watched in a frozen state. "Where are they taken them?!"

Urgently, his neighbor moved to shut the door. "We are leaving now! Come with us!"

Cerak knew they had to head in an easterly direction toward the shipping warehouses. They would find off-world transport there. He reached out to block the door; the situation was dire. "If you go that way, you will be killed! Come with me instead!"

"Please…," Patia choked on her tears as her emotions soared.

Leading a new wave of attackers, strange bipedal insectoids were flying in the air in their direction. They were armed with some type of gun. Alien chatter was heard between the insects as they targeted many escaping batarians including where Cerak and the others were. Cerak's neighbor gave him a hard shove to knock him off balance and away from their vehicle as he closed and locked the doors in place.

Scrambling to regain his footing, Cerak clenched his teeth as the car lifted to head out. Engaging his implant, he gathered dark energy and unleashed a singularity attack on the approaching insectoids. The sphere struck two of his foes and hoisted them in the air. He then lifted his pistol and fired several shots to take them out. Their numbers were quickly replenished with more of the same and more zombie beings. He was severely outnumbered. His eyes lifted to the sky to see his friends' skycab moving towards Khar'shan's capital city. As their craft became smaller and smaller in the distance, it suddenly combusted into a fireball as one of the towering mechanical beings outside their city struck it down. Patia screamed at the gruesome display.

Looking around, Cerak noted many batarians panicking back into their homes, cornering themselves while others fled in no sense of direction. Many were too frozen by the hellish nightmare that they fell upon the ground and began to pray loudly in wails to their god. Hearing children screaming, he looked across the street at one of the apartment buildings to see children being pulled away along with several adults. "Bastards!" He recognized the insects to be the Collectors; the alleged beings behind the human colonies hit several months ago. Their photos were splattered all over the extranet feeds. The Hegemony labeled them as not a threat since they only targeted humans. The other strange creatures resembled "husks"; the mutated shells of humans that were dead yet still alive. There were many accounts of their sightings on the Citadel when the rogue spectre, Saren Arterius, attacked with his geth followers. Though again, the Hegemony didn't see this as a threat to the batarians so further cases were not looked into. These falsehoods were now on batarian soil; an adversary that their kind was not proficient to. Judgment Day was upon them. Using his biotic abilities, he utilized a throw attack to knock the Collectors off their feet into the solid structure near them. Their unconscious bodies fell upon the ground and the two children clambered towards their apartment once more in fear. Realizing that they were only delaying the inevitable that way, Cerak tugged at one of their arms to stop them. "Don't go in there!" They looked at him sadly with tear-stained faces. "I'm with the military. We are getting you to safety."

"Our parents are hurt bad…we can't leave them…" One sobbed uncontrollably.

Taking a breath, Cerak knew that their parents were dead or soon would be. He could not risk trying to move them out, but these did have a greater chance of survival. "They will be safe," He lied. "We need to go."

"Cerak!" Patia called to him.

He looked the way she was staring and saw more Collectors and husks heading in their direction as they were systematically going from one building to the next. If they lingered any longer, they would face undisputable odds. "This way!" He ushered them to follow him as he moved toward the shipping warehouse. They couldn't risk a sky car and fortunately, it was less than two miles away. They would have to go on foot. He worriedly glanced over at his mate at his side as they briskly raced down the road. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," She panted. "Thankfully, I'm not at the end of the pregnancy," She gave him a weak grin.

"We will be there soon." He lured them off through an alleyway to hide and cut through the side streets. The terrible horns were becoming further and further away. Hope was once again coming to light. They were going to make it!

Zigzagging back and forth through the side streets to avoid detection, Cerak spotted their destination straight ahead and his heart skipped anxiously when he saw several small cargo ships nearby. A wall served as a perimeter for security and the main gate was closed with the access panel intact. Patia banged on the door with her fist in fright. "Please let us in!" The children mimicked her actions and did the same on the left side of her.

Cerak looked around for any type of life. Did they abandon the site already? How would they get in? He spied the access panel and then looked at his sidearm. He was not able to hack their way inside, but firepower could prevail. A sinister groan from behind grabbed their attention away. Several husks managed to follow them, and they were accompanied by one Collector Captain. The insectoid barked orders at the husks in its chattering language and pointed at the group. The husks charged at them; some on two legs while others lurched on all fours.

Checking his clip, Cerak took point in front of the others. "Stay behind me!" He then gave his mate a cluster grenade. "If something happens to me, use this and get to safety with them." She bit her lip and nodded her head gravely in acknowledgment. Inhaling slowly, he harnessed his dark energy again and used another throw attack to rid them of two of the husks while the other three lunged at him like savage beasts. The sheer force of their weight knocked Cerak onto his back and he could feel their razor-sharp nails clawing at his armor and face while their mouths desperately moved to bite him. He used his right leg to deliver a hard kick to one. This allowed him to gain leverage and he used his right arm to deliver a powerful hook to another. He then managed to shoot the other with his pistol at point-blank range. A black ooze sprayed all over his face from the once again corpse. He regained his footing and saw the captain order three more to come at him. He fired at one taking it out quickly. The use of his constant biotics was taking a toll on his implant, and he felt a wave of fatigue hitting his body. He had a few rounds left of the clip.

Abruptly, the two husks were hit by a cluster grenade and the explosion blew them up in the air. He looked back at Patia with a stunned look on his face. She smiled at him. Suddenly, the face of rejoicing changed to shock and anguish as she was struck by the Collector's rifle to the right of her chest. She fell to the ground. "Patia!" He screamed and then pivoted on his foot to face the lone Collector. Yelling in rage, he used all the dark energy he could muster and delivered a massive throw attack. The larger biotic sphere sent the captain reeling several yards back and slamming him into a building. The strong burst drained Cerak completely and he felt his knees buckle. He staggered and nearly crawled over to where his mate was. Blood oozed from the hole in her chest right above her breast. Tears flowed down her face as her left hand desperately held to maintain pressure while her other hand held onto her abdomen. Cradling her gently in his arms, fighting back the surge of tears from his eyes, Cerak held his hand over her wound to help with the pressure. Hot pumping fluid touched his flesh from the hole in her chest. Her mocha-colored eyes stared at him in complete devastation as intense fear plagued her.

"C-Cerak," Her voice strained. "Ou-our baby…"

"Hush. You are going to make it. Hold on," He gingerly picked her up in his arms as he stood. "Keep pressure on it." His body shuddered as the obvious haunted the back of his mind: The wound was fatal. He had to remain strong for her, their unborn child, and the two children beside him. They had to press on. Maneuvering her body to where most of her weight was temporarily resting upon one arm, he used his other hand to aim his pistol at the access panel for the gate and fired. The impact shorted the controls and he then was able to kick the door open far enough to allow them to squeeze through.

The entire warehouse complex was vacant on the outside. Where were all the workers? He spied the craft to their right and led the way with his mate tucked securely back in his arms. So far, there were no hostiles present, but he had to remain vigilant. He was down to his remaining clip and the heavy biotic use already took a toll on his implant. A last stand would not be long for him. When they got to the docking area, there was a sign of life. A worker ran out to greet them with a look of dread plastered on his face. "This is a restricted area! Please turn back!"

Growling, Cerak faced him. "You have to be fucking kidding me! Do you see what's out there?! She's been shot! I need to get her to safety!" He sidestepped around the worker to continue, but the other moved to block his path. "I am with the military!" Cerak angrily snapped. "I need to evac these civilians. I'm commandeering a ship and I suggest you have your workers come or they are all dead." He noticed a few more hiding workers peering around to see the confrontation.

The batarian remained at his heels as Cerak tried to move ahead. "The Hegemony denied all space clearance!"

"Are you armed?" Cerak looked back at him in annoyance as he walked with the children at his side.

The worker blinked both sets of his eyes in confusion. "No, why?"

Halting again in his steps, Cerak whipped quickly around on his heel with his gun drawn upon him. "I am and I'm a damn good biotic. If you care for yourself or your workers, you will join me."

Holding his hands up in response to the weapon, the batarian meekly nodded his head and gave up his protest. He then signaled the others. "Let's move out! Get to the ships! We're out of here!"

Once he reached the first ship, Cerak boarded with his other passengers. He gently placed Patia down on the floor. "I have to get the ship out of this system then I'll be back." He looked over at the manager who came onboard with a few others. One stepped by to hit up the controls. "Do you have medigel?"

The batarian complied moments later with a pack. Placing it on the wound, Cerak smiled weakly down at Patia. "This should help, my love. Hold on. You got this." Without a word, she held his hand, giving it a light squeeze before letting him depart to see to the take-off. The two children coward on the floor, hugging each other and sobbing.

Cerak took the co-pilot seat and eyed the pilot turning on all the systems. "I hope you're a damn good one."

"I fear those things will shoot us down once we breach the atmosphere. There's no way we can make it to the relay in this thing. It's not armed," The other argued.

"Most likely, those bastards will have a blockade but the larger transport vessels from the Capital will be their targets. If we are lucky, then we can sneak by." Cerak fastened his harness and watched the gauges show that they were already gaining altitude.

"Where do we go once, we hit the relay?"

"Patia needs immediate care, or she won't make it," He fought back the urge to become emotional as he spoke about his wife and child. "Get to the Citadel."

The pilot scoffed at this. "They hate us there."

"I don't care."

Alarms blared as the craft accelerated up to the planet's atmosphere. "This is the end of times…," The pilot gasped at the warning. "There are too many of them! We won't make it!"

Cerak noticed the radar also detected the anticipated transport vessels that carried hundreds of refugees to safety. He gritted his teeth. Several of their attackers broke from their position near the relay to engage the larger crafts. "Ignore the alarms and hit the throttle. Don't blink."

Minutes later, they were able to get past the blockade and hit the relay with the pre-planned destination. The fate of the others was unknown, and he prayed to their god that some made it with more leaving the planet. Being able to finally breathe, Cerak unharnessed himself and moved to check on Patia. When he came to her side, her eyes were closed. He picked up her hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze. "Patia…we made it. We will get to the Citadel." There was no response from his grip and her touch was cooler. He swallowed hard and gently nudged her. "Patia…?" Checking for a heartbeat, he hung his head; there was none. Releasing her hand, he gripped the cold metal floor beneath his knees and struck it hard with his fist. Tears flooded his face. "Patia!"

Following the Cure of the Genophage on Tuchanka,

Rhodes looked over at Alivia inside the shuttle heading to the twice-stricken colony of Benning, then moved to sit beside her. "What do you think of this?" He purposefully kept his voice low to hinder detection with their squadmates sitting nearby.

"Benning?" Alivia whispered back. She couldn't peg if he was truly asking about their current mission with Special Ops or if he was addressing the obvious elephant in the room: Their new teammate.

"He means me," A disgruntled voice piped in near the back. Cerak arose from his seat and used the interior ceiling rails for standing support.

"If you can fight, then we have nothing to worry about," Torsk shrugged indifferently in his seat, keeping his arms crossed. Alivia noted that Ulana remained tightlipped, but her avian eyes betrayed her true feelings: She didn't care for the addition one bit.

Before Cerak's placement, the group received the news with a brief overview of his military background and fighting experience. The species was unsuspected for Rhodes and Alivia given the Alliance's past entanglements with the batarian race via skirmishes with mercs, slavers, and pirates. Torsk didn't have an opinion and Ulana was irked. She openly questioned selection and voiced her opinion on more qualified candidates: All were turian.

Cerak's background was limited. They classified him as adept and noted him to be a survivor of Khar'shan with some fighting experience. There were no personal details about him. "Well, human. We have time. What's on your mind?" The batarian chided.

Nervously giving her a look, Rhodes cracked a forced smile at their new counterpart. "No offense. Didn't think the batarians cared that's all."

"I'm doing this to avenge the fallen," He hissed.

Alivia noticed the extreme tension in the air and bit her lip to think of something quick to make the suffocating atmosphere less hostile; after all, they still had another hour left of their voyage. The idea of going up against reaper ground troops was faith-crushing already. If they were going to be successful, they had to work together, including getting along with their new squadmate. "Khar'shan fell fast. What happened?"

The sincere question threw Cerak off guard and it took him a bit to compose himself. "There was no warning from the government. We all assumed it was the Alliance trying to play a bluffing game. Our planetary defense systems went strangely offline along with communications moments later. Our military and cities were left blind in the dark. The civilians had no chance of survival…it was as if someone inside the government wanted the reapers to be there."

"A traitor?" Rhodes blinked at the hint. "You sure it wasn't a hack?" Cerak only provided a shrug to the question.

"Did you have any family that made it out?" Alivia asked hopefully.

Her squadmate paused as his eyes darkly narrowed. "No. I lost my mate and my unborn child." He clenched his fists as he looked at each of them inside the shuttle. There was a brief hesitation at Ulana. "I will kill as many as these fuckers that I can and then I want nothing more than death. You can have your uppity civilization ashes."

The air in the shuttle seemed to become colder at his bitter words and Alivia remained still. There was so much pain in him, and he was shutting out everyone. She began to question his selection but in a different light. Surely, the Alliance knew the bitter details and his psych profile. Was he just there for canon fodder? Or did someone truly have the heart to place him to give him the revenge he sought? She mustered the courage to face him directly head-on. "Cerak, you're on this team and you are equal to me. I will have your six." The movement threw him off and he could only nod his head at her statement. This made her smile.

Rhodes saluted him. "Count me in. Never hurts to have another biotic."

Torsk grunted, "I have the highest kill count so far. Beat that."

The turian leader rose from her seat to face them all. Her stature was guarded at first, which threw off false signals about how the conversation would go. "We have all lost so much in this fight. I welcome any aid we may get. If we stop them here, then that means more of a chance for Palaven."

"Too bad they took out Arcturus," Rhodes grumbled.

"It was bound to happen. The reapers are doing this methodically," Ulana explained. "The mobile platforms would benefit us; less detection that way."

"There's only a small garrison at Benning since Shepard stopped the Cerberus abductions," Alivia thought back to their very short briefing. "The colony's population is only half of what it was. Without a large military presence, why would the reapers attack there?"

"Cerberus is becoming such a pain," Rhodes grumbled. "Now, we must worry about both of them. Not like Shepard has nothing to do."

"The reapers are running scared now that the krogan are in on this fight," Torsk chortled. "They need fresh meat."

The turian finally broke her silence. "He's half right. With the evacuation of major cities on the worlds hit right now, the reapers are losing forces faster than they can replenish them like before. Most likely, they acquired Cerberus communications and learned of Benning. If we are lucky, they will underestimate this and send in a small force to recoup their losses."

"If we aren't lucky?" Rhodes played devil's advocate.

She grimly looked his way. "Then as you humans would say, 'we are screwed.'"

Thane closed his eyes as he exhaled slowly in a meditative state at the window that overlooked the Presidium at Huerta's lobby. He just completed his therapy session for the day and was scheduled to see his specialized pulmonologist later that afternoon. His mind was clouded with thoughts of Alivia. It had been weeks since they had spoken. Word spread shortly after his last message that Arcturus was annihilated by reaper forces and scrap was all that was left of the station. Nothing salvageable. Any messages from her ceased at that point. He would resist the urge to believe that she fell to her death aboard the station. The only thing he knew was that she was part of a Special Ops group that was sent out on various missions. After her mission against Cerberus, he saw a spark of new life just by her words.

Shrills of fright and panic interrupted his quiet moment at the far end of the lobby where the main elevators were. Three well-armed Cerberus soldiers came in and aimed their weapons at the various patients waiting to be seen. A few guards rushed to intercept, and their ends were met swiftly. Thane knew he was in no condition to face them head on and he dashed to a more secluded area of the lobby. He had to see what they were up to. The leader of the group talked into his wrist communication, "Orion Squad, we are securing the hospital now. No sign of the drell so far. Proceed forward with the operation."

Krios tensed as he listened in on the conversation. He was their target, but why? He leered around his hiding spot to see the trio approaching the main triage counter. "You!" The leader aimed his Talon pistol right at the frozen salarian attendant. "We are looking for a drell," He held up a holo image of Thane's face. "Is he still here?"

"My apologies, per patient confidentiality, I cannot definitively- "The salarian began to respond but was ceased with a shot right in the forehead by the Cerberus soldier's weapon.

"Wrong answer."

Screams of horror erupted into sheer chaos as onlookers saw the bloody display. Thane closed his eyes to say a quick prayer to the hospital worker that just lost their life. The leader became agitated by the cacophony and fired his gun into the air to bring a stillness once more. "C-Sec is under siege and won't help you. Just give us the drell. We know he's in this hospital."

An asari doctor oblivious to the hostage situation inside the lobby was hurrying out of the medical wards to check out updates from the attack on C-Sec and the station. Her presence was the distraction that Thane needed to get the drop in on the soldiers. When the trio moved deeper into the hospital to where she was to secure a new hostage for their search, Thane darted around a wall to get behind them once more. He held up his finger to the cowering patients as he unholstered his stashed away M-5 sidearm. When the doctor saw the Cerberus operatives, she screamed and then turned to go back the way she came, but one of them rushed and grabbed her arm roughly. "You're not going anywhere!"

The asari desperately struggled to get free from the vice. "Please let me go!"

Moving towards the furthest one away, Krios stalked his prey and placed his hands around the soldier's neck firmly, giving a fast twist to sever his spine. Thane caught the dead operative and gently laid his body on the floor to prevent any sound. Holding his pistol, he shot one straight in the back of the head and then unleashed a biotic warp attack on the other. With a quick snap of the falling soldier's neck, the floor was now littered with all three of their corpses. Remaining still and darting his obsidian eyes around, he made sure no more operatives were coming their way. He then spied on the other hospital worker behind the counter. The human female's face was white as a ghost. She trembled uncontrollably as he raced over to her. "Lock down the elevator after I leave. Do not let anyone but Captain Bailey inside."

"O-Ok…t-thank you," She managed to speak to comply with his request. Her finger eagerly hovered over the control as he left her side.

Stepping inside the elevator, he waited for the doors to close, but didn't push any buttons. Instead, he opened the emergency hatch and scrambled to the top of the cart. Cerberus would be locking down the elevators and the tight space of the cart would make him vulnerable to an ambush. He had to make it to C-Sec Headquarters.