MASS EFFECT: ENTANGLED

CHAPTER 29

This takes place after Chapter 29 of "Solace"

The cacophony of wails to mourn the dead, screams of agony and debris removal pounded Bray's ears as he walked back to Afterlife from the docks. Citizens wept over their loved ones that were gunned down in the streets by Cerberus as they fought valiantly to take back their homes while a few unlucky bastards were prey for the twisted adjutants where the body was absent of multiple limps or even half a torso. Blood from both sides stained the pathways and embers were still fizzling just outside the nightclub. That was the spot where Nyreen sacrificed herself to save many from the adjutants by encasing herself and the demons in a biotic bubble and then detonating an entire load of grenades. The heat from the intense explosion left no remains and the spot was burnt to a cinder.

Aria's men were rounding up the remaining Cerberus troops and corralling them just outside Afterlife until the ruler of Omega could decide their fates. Petrovsky's severed bloodied head was already mounted on a spike near the Cerberus' gathering as a precursor of what was to come. Sh'sk was overseeing the mounting when he spotted Bray walking back. "Just where the bastard belongs," He grumbled.

"There you are. Where have you been?" Celeste moved through the crowded street to where they were. Her green eyes fell directly on Sh'sk. "Thought I had to save your ass."

"Celeste? Heh, you made it," The batarian chortled at her with a playful grin.

The redhead thumbed over to the general's head placement. "Aria dealt with that asshole it seems. Just her style."

"She didn't kill him, Shepard did," Bray corrected her. He was still astonished that despite telling Aria to stop killing the man who ousted her, Krysta ended up murdering the general in cold blood herself. The few shots about Torfan seem to trigger old wounds and the arrogant man made it clear that Cerberus was still keeping tabs on her current entanglements and that meant him. Bray knew about Krysta's past, and she knew about his. Both were being hunted down for their previous transgressions. Hate was the norm between the two warring species and their relationship was a mockery. The look in Krysta's eyes right before the kill shot was a side of her that he never saw. He had seen it before in Aria's: Murderous intent hatred. Coming from Shepard disturbed him just a bit. It was as if she snapped.

Celeste nodded her head in appreciation. "Damn." She whistled up at Petrovsky's head in amusement. "Be careful there, Bray."

Bray decided to play his hand now. "You finally found Sh'sk. She was so eager to find your ass." He grinned knowingly.

The woman shut up quickly and narrowed her eyes at his comment. "Watch it…I'm the leader of the Blue Suns." Sh'sk chuckled at the counter.

"And remember where you are," Bray sharply rebutted, unfazed by her statement. "You piss off Aria and she will easily find a replacement for you."

Sh'sk observed the growing round-up of the Cerberus' alive soldiers in amusement. "Aria is going to have quite the show for everyone." He nudged Celeste. "Come on, let's see who else we can get."

Celeste gave one final glimpse at Bray. "Don't think this makes me forget what happened with Archangel."

Bray decided it was best to ignore her foreboding statement for the time being and head back inside to see what else Aria wanted him to do. Many of the wounded were inside the hall just outside the main room door while T'Loak kept the center area off limits. Shepard was there and gone within an instant. A few moments just passed, and he longed to kiss her again. The feeling felt so foreign to him, and he felt distant from what was happening around him. His body shuddered; he needed a smoke. His fingertips tapped the pocket where he kept his stash of cigarettes but withheld against the temptation. It was best to see what Aria needed him for first before lighting up.

T'Loak was still in her private booth with Ahz going over all the specs of the station at the holo before them. Her blue eyes noticed his return and she dismissed the salarian momentarily with the wave of her hand. "I'm having each level screened for Cerberus infestations. Nothing will be untouched. Their stench is still on this place, and I loathe it," She fumed. She tapped her fingertips along her left elbow top lightly before her purple lips moved into a sneer of delight. "I have lived for centuries, Bray, and I don't think I have ever met anyone like Shepard. This whole time, I pegged her to be the good soldier type. Killing Petrovsky was more stimulating than if I took his life myself. Feeling his pulsing breath slowly draining beneath my grasp was pleasurable. I almost regretted turning him over to her. And the way she tasted…" She mused suggestively. "I would have to say I'm quite jealous of you, Bray. How is she in bed?" This time she turned to look right at him in delight. "Is she the rough type?" He swallowed hard and broke her gaze. The subject matter was making him uncomfortable. T'Loak pursed her lips as she continued relentlessly. "During my maiden years, I had a few batarians: mostly male but one female. All mercs. I wouldn't put your species on my top list of adequate sex partners. There's no finesse at all. Rather dull," She rolled her eyes. "I would say she's desperate, but I have seen who she works with. There are multiple choices." She scoffed callously as she dug into him more, "You must have quite the cock for her to even dare to ask me to let you join her little band."

Bray's entire face flushed as the difficult topic remained thick in the air. He swallowed again. "I told her I didn't want to go. I'm not leaving Omega."

She was unmoved by this. "I'm sure. Now that I have Omega back, it's time to show that I still hold power. See that every member of fucking Cerberus is found. No one gets away."

"On it." He turned to head back out to carry out the task.

"One more thing."

He paused at the steps. "What's that?"

"Have a memorial setup outside the club for Nyreen…I don't want anyone to forget her," Her voice shook bitterly with sorrow and fury. This time, her eyes were away from him as she turned her back to hide the emotions inside. Bray said nothing and continued. He told Krysta before they parted ways that he had to remain there to help Omega and Aria; a sour note between the two. Krysta accused him of being frightened of T'Loak even if he did leave the station. He knew that Aria's reach expanded well beyond the asteroid. A part of him felt like he owed her allegiance. After all, she did save his ass years ago when he deserted from the batarian military and had a price on his head. T'Loak had plenty of help and could have easily looked for another way to profit from the Hegemony's bounty. Instead, she lied to their associates and made sure he had a way to divert their tracking on Omega. If it wasn't for her, he would have been dead already. He never divulged the other reason to Shepard. As a batarian, their culture was never the comradery social type. They lived mostly in isolation apart from the other species due to bad blood. Their idea of hanging out was going to a bar for a few shots, cards, or strippers. Omega was dark and dangerous. There was no trust and if you dared to, then it was suicide. No one hesitated to off someone for a few creds. There was a daily death count and merc wars were common as they fought over limited territory. He had to admit, living on the asteroid was gripping. He felt like he didn't have a place amongst Shepard's team. When he went to her party prior to, he could feel the tension in the air as soon as he stepped inside the apartment. Many of her team members did not want him there and arguments flared up. He didn't fit in, and he pegged that the distrust would remain if he stepped onboard the Normandy at her invitation. Even if Aria was willing to let him go, would he even do it? Could he go into that sort of life? Could he just walk around the ship and know that he wouldn't get shot in the back? Sure, he would have more sessions with Shepard, but what if it wore off? What if she found someone else? Where would his place be then? Aggravated, he paused just outside Afterlife's front entrance and reached into his pocket to retrieve his cigs. It was time for a smoke.

Five Days Later

Decoris System, Sanctum

"Inbound in five minutes," The Special Ops team's shuttle pilot announced, signaling the occupants to get into position.

Alivia inhaled slowly as she rose from her seat, catching a quick glimpse of Urdnot Torsk on the other side. The burly krogan grunted with a head nod. She smiled inwardly. It was great that the team was still together, and that Lieutenant Commander Ulana Acalius still allowed him to stay onboard despite their prior heated argument. Ulana explained to Alivia in front of the team that she had changed her mind because he had considerable combat skills. Torsk jabbed that the truth was that her superiors declined her request to maintain a peaceful alliance with the krogan. Perturbed, Ulana did not concede to that, but deep down, Alivia pegged it was probably truer of the two statements. Rhodes said nothing and only gave her a silent look.

The female turian stood at the lead at the shuttle door to speak to her squad. "This facility went offline shortly after Shepard and her team tangled with Cerberus. The small Alliance garrison that was mustered to maintain a foothold in this system was quickly overwhelmed by a Cerberus squad. Intel is squawking that this place is being used for more than a reaper artifact study. We believe that various prisoners of war have been transported here as a holding area. There has been no communication back on prisoner exchange. Cerberus is ignoring all methods of contact. We shut this place down."

"Roger, mam," Alivia and Rhodes acknowledged dutifully with salutes.

Torsk sneered at the pair and shook his head. "I'll try to leave some behind for your numbers, Rhodes."

"Hey," Wayne chuckled at the jab. "I was close last time to your status."

Torsk's eyes lit up as he turned his thick neck to look at the marine squarely. "Just like a salarian mating, close is not enough to breed," he retorted in laughter.

"Quit the chatter," Ulana snapped at them. "Our bird is in their radar scope. Fortunately for us, no guns can bring us down. The pad will be hot. Don't let them get you still in the shuttle."

Alivia took the safety off her Tempest submachine gun, checked her clips, and activated her cryo modification. Rhodes grinned as he turned on his Mneumonic visor and cocked his Mattock rifle. "Let's do this."

The entire shuttle became deadly silent as the craft descended to the drop off. Another minute and the pilot cut in, "Hostiles on the landing pad. I need to get back in the air soon or we won't have a ride back."

"Keep her steady," Ulana confirmed and she stood at the door with her M-5 at the ready.

"Drop point…five…. four…. three…. two…one, go!" The door whished open at the microsecond and Ulana's shields pinged from the bombardment of heavy gunfire from the Cerberus welcoming party. The turian fired off at the closest opposition before skirting to her right to take cover as her shields regenerated. Torsk was next and he let out a savage roar, storming in, swinging his war hammer at the closest Cerberus soldier. The move was unexpected and the impact with the spiky weapon impaled the poor bastard before Torsk lifted him off and over the pad's rail. Rhodes hopped off next and veered to the left to try a pincer maneuver while Alivia went to Ulana's side.

Ulana darted up first and used her Savant omni to launch an overload attack on two of the soldiers' shields, dropping them fast. Alivia seized the opportunity to fire her gun and hit them both with her cryo rounds. Within seconds, both froze into place. Ulana then finished them off with her Phalanx.

Rhodes peered around the corner of the crate to notice the troopers' current attention on the rest of his team. He raised and fired his Mattock rifle taking out a few of the soldiers. Torsk finished up the remaining two with the pounding of his hammer. The krogan bellowed in laughter and then glanced around as he held his prized war hammer over his shoulder in triumph. "What a pity…is this it?"

Alivia held up her fist to signal the team as she heard the distant sound of turrets being set up. "We got engineers."

Ulana flagged her and Torsk to go right through the nearest entranceway while she and Rhodes moved to the left entrance. Alivia moved ahead of her krogan counterpart and stopped at the entranceway as she kept her back pressed to avoid detection. "These guys are going to ambush us."

"Krogan don't coward," He dismissed her warning. In the distance, she heard the whirl of rounds being blasted.

"Sounds like Ulana and Rhodes got the turrets."

"Too bad," He grinned as he darted ahead. An engineer moved out of position from the stairwell on the other side and started to take his turret pack off to block Torsk's path.

Alivia activated her implant and launched a singularity attack. The biotic orb lifted the engineer into the air and away from the turret before he was finished following through with his task. She then killed him with a few quick shots of her Tempest. Torsk snorted at the offline turret. "Piece of scrap metal," He growled and smashed it with his war hammer. The krogan then bounded up the stairwell. Seconds later, mechanical chattering closed in, but Alivia couldn't spot the source. The krogan stopped in front of her and glanced around in confusion. "What the hell is that?"

Alivia's eyes widened as she recognized it. "Shit. Phantom!" Just as she said it, the slender robotic Cerberus concoction unveiled itself and struck at Torsk with its sharp blade. The weapon was augmented with high-grade metal, capable of armor destruction beyond what a normal sword could do. The tip ripped through Torsk's armor torso and scraped the skin. The krogan barely flinched due to high pain tolerance and he swung at the quick enemy with his hammer, missing him completely. Alivia tried her best to lock it on, but the phantom was fast!

"Now, you're just pissing me off!" Torsk roared as he lumbered around to hit his opponent. The phantom did a cartwheel, evading the attack, and then moved in close again. It spun on its heel and struck Torsk straight in the upper chest with its blade. This time the tip moved through the armor and flesh. The krogan groaned lightly as he seethed through clenched teeth.

"Torsk!" Alivia's eyes widened when she saw the strike.

The krogan grabbed the phantom by the neck roughly, jerking it up to where the mechanical being was face to face with him. The action caught the robotic being off guard and it dropped its sword. Dropping his hammer, Torsk growled loudly as he ripped the phantom's head off its body. Loud beeps and whirs came from within it before its offline form shattered to the ground. Alivia rushed over to check on him. Blood was oozing from the slit that the sword caused. She grabbed a pack of medigel from her armor belt. "Here."

He shrugged her away. "I don't need that shit. Let's just move."

Alivia tapped her comm. "Ulana, we near upstairs. What's your position? Torsk has been hit, but he doesn't need an evac."

"You are near us. Go up the stairwell and to the left…the room is clear. I think you guys want to see this." The turian's words shook as if she was frightened by something.

Alivia and Torsk exchanged silent looks before continuing. Moments later, they found Rhodes and Ulana standing near the lab rooms. The one to their left contained corpses of Alliance soldiers and some apparent civilians while the one to the right contained three dead Cerberus scientists. "What the shit happened to them?" Rhodes shook his head at the abomination. Torsk moved around him to check on the room to the left while Alivia joined Ulana in the one with the dead scientists.

Ulana knelt to do a quick scan with her omni. "No bullet wounds…" She showed Alivia one of their arms. "They injected themselves."

"What for?" Alivia moved over to the terminals and searched for them with her tool. "They are scrubbed. Whatever, they were doing, they didn't want us to know about it."

"Yeah," Ulana stood back up and closed out her omni. "Most likely, once we landed, they ended their lives with or without their consent. Spirits."

"These look like some of the marines that went missing after one of the incursions," Rhodes checked all the deceased in the other room.

"Then who are the rest of them?" Torsk asked as he pointed out the bodies of asari, salarians, and one batarian.

"No armor," Ulana noticed. "These are civilians." She did a scan on the nearest asari. "She is from Illium…and him," She motioned to the dead batarian to the right. "He's from Camala. Traitors?"

"See that…," Rhodes motioned to the back of the salarian's head near the cerebral cortex. "They all have an incision right near that spot…some kind of implants?"

Ulana scanned the back of the salarian's head, and her mandible twitched. "This doesn't make any sense…"

"What's wrong?" Alivia asked as she watched.

"There's something underneath the skin…no identifiable technology..."

"How can that be?" Rhodes asked.

"I have no idea," Ulana stared incredulously at her tool. "Whatever it was, it killed them, and Cerberus died to hide it."

"We have the bodies here. Why can't we just pull it out and see what it is?" Torsk chimed in gruffly.

"Better let High Command make that decision. Need to make sure that any of the data can be salvaged. Maybe our techs know a few tricks. We are done here."

"I'd say…" Rhodes looked at the dead in horror. Was Cerberus grabbing people for their test subjects? What were they trying to accomplish?