I huddled in on myself as I drove. Miserable in my anger and guilt. I had no illusions as to what Alan's parents would say. And I certainly did not look forward to the crushing guilt their words would no doubt bring.
As I rounded the bend that would take me to the valley that the colony was nestled in. I noticed something.
The dull, orange glow of fires. And thick coiling tongues of choking smoke.
All other considerations fell away as the pedal violently collided with the buggies sheet metal floor. And I slammed the dinky little vehicle into its highest possible gear.
The fires only glowed brighter as I drew closer. And a final terrible noise, confirmed for my brain what my heart desperately denied as the truth. Gunfire, and explosions. Screams, and cries of fear and pain.
Slavers.
And In that moment the world seemed to shift. It was all quite simple really.
I would find my loved ones first. See to their safety, get them off planet as quickly as I could. And then I would set myself to the happy work of Finding those responsible for this. No matter where they tried to hide.
And they would suffer, in all the ways I knew how to make beings suffer.
I stopped the buggy a few feet away from the gate and almost calmly stepped from the driver's seat. I turned to face the gate, and with an outstretched hand sent a wave of force that sent the massive reinforced steel doors flying from their housings. Walking through the now open entryway as the warped ruin of the gates skidded away from me. My eyes shined as I scanned the area, searching.
I had work to do.
Orek shifted uncomfortably in the wintry air as he and the rest of his squad plodded uncomfortably through a decimated side street. All four eyes shifting side to side as they made their way to the Evac point.
Orders had come down a little while ago. Plunder had been good. They had all they had come for, nothing to do now but torch the rest of the colony and get out of there before the alliance showed up.
He grimaced, he wasn't particularly fond of his line of work. And he had spent more than a few nights drowning himself in as much alcohol as he could. There were just too many things he didn't want to remember. So much he couldn't bear to be accountable for. But then he'd get messages from his wife, sending pictures of their growing son that he hardly saw anymore. Who was being put through school with money he made here. And he'd be reminded why it was all worth it.
As they rounded yet another corner. There was a sudden yelp.
He spun around. Rifle raised. As the rest of his squad did the same. Looking around in bewilderment.
One of them was gone.
A few seconds later. They all saw the dead man's trigger activate on their huds.
Orek tightened his grip on his rifle. Every eye turning in its socket to try and detect whatever had killed their squadmate. He turned to say something to their leader. And as he did, something moved.
And suddenly he was gone. There was almost nothing at all to indicate he had been there. Except his footprints and his dropped shotgun. Another scream, muffled. Somewhere above them, and then another dead man's trigger went off.
Orek suddenly barked an order to his last two remaining squadmates.
"Tighten up! Get your backs to each other!"
They scrambled, roughly knocking against one another as they formed up. Hearts pounding and eyes looking in panic. An object suddenly fell from above. Making a soft thud as it landed in the snow at their feet. And as Orek saw what it was, it took everything he had not to vomit in his helmet. It was their leader's head, a terrified expression still forever frozen on his face. Eyelids and other features still moving with the nerveless twitching of the recently deceased. Blood leaking and freezing in the snow.
Orek felt one of them suddenly shift.
"Oh gods, we need to get out of here!"
Orek grit his teeth.
"Stay in position."
He said. Feverishly watching the rooftops for any sign of movement. Suddenly he heard the sounds of running footsteps. And whirled around to see that the other Batarian was running.
"To hells with this! I'm not dying here!"
Orek roared at his retreating back.
"Stay in fucking position!"
Too late. Far too late.
A spear of what looked like shining black metal shot out from the dark. And impaled the fleeing man, driving through his heart and nailing him solidly to the Duracrete beneath him. He thrashed briefly as his impaled heart failed him. Before growing still. His blood coloring the snow around him crimson.
A figure suddenly descended from the rooftops. Landing with a whisper quiet thud. Before rising, and turning to face them. Orek saw nothing of its face, save its shining purple eyes. Glowing in the dark like twin stars. And for the first time in his life Orek knew what it was to be truly afraid. His hands shook and his heart pounded. A veritable sense of dread roiled off the figure in waves. Filling Orek's head with vivid and ghastly images of his own gruesome and painful death.
He remembered the stories his mother would tell him when he was younger and everything was simpler. Of the many faced demons with glowing eyes. Who would come to take evildoers to one of the thirteen hells to be tortured for all eternity.
He wondered now, if perhaps it would have been prudent of his younger self to listen more closely to those stories.
And as he watched it. It subtly shifted its weight.
And it disappeared.
That was the only possible way Orek could describe it. One moment it had been there. And then the next it hadn't.
Suddenly it appeared scant feet from where he stood. And in one quick cruel movement, drove its arm through his last squadmate's chest.
Not into. Through.
Orek had seen that armor stop heavy shotgun slugs at almost point blank range. Turn aside monomolecular blades. And this thing had driven its arm through that armor. Through flesh and bone and muscle, as if it were hardly even there.
It wasn't normal. It wasn't human. It couldn't be, no. No creature could move as this being did. Kill as effortlessly as it did. It was a monster, some demon of the ancient world come to punish him for his sins.
Orek's rifle dropped from shaking hands. He fell to his knees, as tears began to pour unbidden from his eyes.
"P-please. I-I don't-I don't want to die!"
The demon let the corpse slide off its arm. And it turned to regard him. And Orek saw its face clearly.
He couldn't have been older than 17. And Sedibus was almost shocked by the seeming normalcy of his voice.
"Neither did any of the people you killed today."
He said. In what Orek was surprised to hear was perfect. If slightly accented Batarii.
"And besides."
He said. In an almost conversational tone.
"I'm going to do something far worse than kill you."
Tree roots suddenly exploded from the ground. Wrapping themselves around his limbs as hard as bent bars of steel. Preventing any possibility of escape, the demon approached. And placed an outstretched hand onto Orek's head.
And Orek suddenly felt a chill that had nothing at all to do with the winter cold. He felt briefly as if he was floating. And then the demon pulled its hand back.
Orek had only the briefest of moments to scream.
Everything he had ever been. Every emotion. Every memory, every hope and dream. Was suddenly laid bare, to be roughly rifled through at the whim of this cruel being. He felt pain on every level possible. Spiritually and metaphysically exposed as he was.
And as the last few memories were rifled through Orek felt suddenly as he began to lose himself. Memories and experiences, his very sense of being and identity. Began to slip away. No matter how desperately he tried to hold on to them. Until eventually there was no more Orek. And all the energies that made up his soul dissipated into the winter air like so much mist.
But Orek was not dead. To die was to simply change spiritual form, and this is not what had happened to him. Everything that he had been was gone. Every memory, every emotion. Every solitary little thing that had made Orek who he was, was gone. Orek was not dead.
Orek no longer existed.
Jane watched. In somewhat horrified awe. As she and the rest of the remaining refugees followed Howard through the bombed out remains of the town.
He dispatched the various groups of pirates and slavers that ran afoul of him and their little group. Moving with a ruthless professional brutality, his face set in an expression of frightening intensity and focus. His every movement and action was that of a predator on the hunt, long and graceful. He looked, as if at any moment. That he might as soon kill them with his teeth as with his pistol.
As he finished off another group. Silencing the gibbering begging of a particularly terrified Batarian with a cold clinical pistol shot to the back of the head. Jane approached him, he looked up. The expression he fixed her with made her nervous. It was profoundly uncomfortable to see a face like Howards set in such a hostile and hateful expression.
"Where did you learn to fight like that?"
She asked. Glancing around at his handiwork. A story of death, told in the sounds of weapons fire and the breaking of bone. And written in various shades of deep crimson.
"Military training."
He said, as he holstered his weapon. Turning away from the corpses with an uncomfortably aloof air.
"Didn't know you were in the military."
She said, uncomfortably. As he strode past.
"There's a lot you don't know about me Jane."
His tone was clipped. Short, not hostile. But…. unnerving all the same.
"Evac centers aren't much further."
He muttered, as he made the signal for the all clear. And the others extricated themselves hastily from the various pieces of rubble they had frantically hidden behind.
Jane couldn't force herself not to speak.
"But I- what about Matt?"
Howard shook his head, and his expression softened to the most minute of degrees.
"He and Alan aren't due back for another few weeks yet. And besides, even if we could get in contact with him. I would hope he'd be smart enough to stay away until they-"
And at this he pointed upward.
"Fuck off back to wherever they came from."
Howard put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"He's fine, I'm sure of it. Those bastards are interested in the colony. Not what's around it."
Jane felt unsure. But she wanted to
believe it. The fact that Matthew was probably okay was one of the only silver linings of this waking nightmare. Howard turned from her. And jogged back to the front of the group.
"Don't fall behind. We aren't far now."
Sedibus, never known for his temperance or emotional restraint at the absolute best of times. Sat in his command chair, his armored body subtly vibrating with barely contained apoplectic fury.
"How many did you say?"
He asked, his face dangerously low and quiet. The messenger shifted uncomfortably, a twitchy little Salarian named Aydus.
"Fifteen sir, fifteen squad's have fallen out of contact."
Sedibus's next utterance was simple. But still laced with enough latent venom to send a chill down the spine of every man present.
"How?"
Aydus fumbled on his omni-tool. Before several pictures appeared on screen.
"We've managed to capture these from various helmet cams."
Most of them were blurry, they caught something in motion. But whatever it was, they certainly couldn't tell. The other's however….
Sedibus stared at the pictures. And from several angles a familiar face stared back. Layered with a new expression of aged weariness and the sporadic lines and wrinkles of middle age. But there was no forgetting that face. Not for him.
And old scars, and memories of wounded pride. Burned in a way they hadn't for almost two decades.
"After all these years…."
He said quietly, almost to himself. Aydus and the other members of the bridge crew looked on in confusion at what seemed to be a moment of deep nostalgia for Sedibus. And they're confusion only seemed to mount as he slowly rose from his captain's chair.
"I'm heading down."
He said, as he strode purposefully toward the elevator doors.
"I want five squads, the best we have. Have 'em down in the hangar. Five minutes."
As the others scrambled to obey. And the elevator doors slammed shut behind him. He whispered lowly to himself.
"You're not getting away Price…."
He said darkly. As the scar down his right eyes burned with the pain of long buried memories.
"Not this time."
I threw the batarians' now empty shell aside. Contemptuous as I puzzled briefly over the contents of his memories. Sifting idly through the irrelevant crowd of childhood memories until I found what I was looking for.
So. They were a raiding party. Opportunists who had chosen to use the disabled relay as a means to execute a raid that would have almost assuredly resulted in their destruction under different circumstances. They had been stranded in the traverse. And their captain, (memories supplied the name Sedibus.) Had seen Mindoir as an easy target. I smirked.
They would soon learn otherwise.
"Umbra."
At my call. The oozing puddle of black slime insinuated itself into my view. Briefly writhing before molding itself into a vaguely humanoid shape.
"You called master?"
For once I had no scruples about his chosen address. And I turned to speak to him.
"Find Jane. Find Melanie. Find my father. Kill anyone that attempts to stop you. Do not fail me."
Umbra bowed low.
"As you command."
I watch him slither away. Before turning towards the downtown area. The Evac centers were in the center of town. And knowing dad. The first thing he would have done was find Mel and Jane and herd them to the evac centers post-haste. I exploded forward. My feet carrying me as swiftly as They could. Various obliterated storefronts and buildings turning into unrecognizable blurs as I went.
If They were anywhere. It was there. I had to get to them. Nothing else mattered.
Howard's pace was difficult to keep up with. He moved like a man possessed. Pistol drawn and held before him with a practiced ease. Jane felt a sensation of profound relief as the evac center came into view. A few small fires could be seen burning. But the building seemed intact for the most part.
"Looks like we're the first ones here."
Howard nodded.
"Or the only ones to get here safely."
He said with uncharacteristic grimness. He turned and put two shots through the locked glass door. And waved them through.
"Evac shuttles are in the hangars on the third floor. With any luck. They're weapons won't be able to target us before we're already in orbit. Come on, we don't have much ti-!"
There was the sudden shrieking of repulsor engines. As a dropship suddenly screamed into view from the upper atmosphere. Howard turned to them.
"Go! I'll cover you!"
Jane stayed where she was. And shook her head obstinately.
"No! I'm not losing anyone else!"
Howard growled in frustration and grabbed her by the arm.
"Dammit Jane! If you die here then Melanie died for less than nothing! I am NOT going to lose you too! Now go!"
He gave her a firm push away from him and she stumbled back. Tears beginning to stream down her face as she ran to join the others.
Howard turned as Jane and the others ran up the stairs and out of sight. He looked down to check his current armament.
Three grenades. 2 flashbangs. And four thermal clips. He could buy them some time until they could launch and make a short range jump away from the planet.
The troop transport landed with a ground shaking thump. And as the bay doors opened. Howard heard a voice he never thought he would hear again.
"HOWARD PRICE! COME OUT AND FACE ME!"
Howard Took cover behind an overturned table. Pistol at the ready.
"Sedibus!"
He roared out.
"Could have sworn I killed you."
He heard rough guttural batarian laughter.
"You certainly gave it your best try you son of a bitch! I still have those scars you gave me! I've been waiting 23 years to pay you back!"
Howard grimaced as he wrapped his hands around one of his flash-bangs.
"Only in your wildest dreams you ugly fuck! I'm going to finish what I started!"
And with that he tossed the flash-bang over his shoulder and into the crowd of pirates and slavers.
It went off with a sharp report and a flash of blinding light. Rendering them insensate as he vaulted over the table. And suddenly the world seemed to slow.
Two directly in front of him. A knife to the first one's throat. Before raising his pistol. And putting two shots center mass into the other. 1 second.
He pulls the pin on the first grenade and flings it into the thickest mass of bodies. He reckons that kills roughly eight or ten of them. As it goes off with a resounding bang. Flinging shrapnel and body parts every which way. 2 seconds.
The first of them have begun to recover from the flash bang. And are beginning to take aim. He dives behind a fallen concrete pillar. Just as the first bursts of automatic fire begin to ring out. Before they have time to readjust. He puts several well aimed pistol shots into them. Another five dead. 3 seconds.
One salarian. Perhaps braver or more foolhardy than the rest. Charges him with a shotgun. He steps into the salarians guard and grabs hold of the weapon with both hands. And kicks him solidly in the chest. The salarian flies away empty handed and Howard turns his newly acquired weapon on his teammates. Four times he pulls the trigger. Another six go down. 4 seconds.
He flings the now spent weapon away and thumbs the activation switch on the next grenade. Before flinging it into the center of the remaining enemy formation. Before diving behind new cover. The grenade goes off. 3 dead this time. 5 seconds.
Howard gasped for breath as the rush of adrenaline wore off. He emerged from behind the ruined duracrete wall he had hidden behind. And glanced to and fro. Head on a swivel as he looked for his last target.
"Sedibus!"
He yelled.
"Your lackeys aren't here to die for you anymore! Now show yourself you cowar-!"
Suddenly there was the sharp crack of a sniper rifle. Maybe fifty meters behind him. And Howard felt an explosion of agony in his left leg. His pistol fell from his hand as he fell to his knees. Screaming out in pain and shock.
"Damn rookie mistake…!"
Howard thought as he clutched his bleeding and thoroughly useless leg.
"Shouldn't have left cover. Should have checked my six…!"
He heard footsteps behind him.
"You know Price."
Sedibus said as he stepped in front of Howard. Stowing the folding sniper back onto his back. And pulling a hand cannon from his hip.
"I usually don't like mixing business and pleasure."
He said, as he leveled the barrel of the hand cannon on to Howards forehead.
"But after twenty three years of dreaming about this exact moment. I don't mind admitting that this brings a smile to my face."
As I near the evac center I can hear explosions. Gunfire. Whoever's there is putting up a hell of a fight. As I get closer. I see no less than twenty chakra signatures go out. All in quick succession, who were they fighting?!
As the noise begins to die down and I make my final approach. I suddenly hear the sharp report of a sniper rifle. Followed by a horrifyingly familiar howl of pain.
Oh god. Dad.
I push myself harder than I ever have in my life. Ignoring my body's demands for paltry insubstantial things like rest and oxygen. I round the last corner. And that's when I see them.
Howard's entire world is pain. He aches everywhere. And he can no longer feel his leg.
It's getting hard to stay awake….
There's a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. And to his shock. He see's Matthew. Matthew looks out of breath, his eyes full of panic and concern. His hair (so much like his mothers….) disheveled and hung heavy with dirt and sweat. Sedibus doesn't see him, thank god. He's too focused on him.
"23 years, Price."
Sedibus says.
"23 gods-damned years. I've waited, and as if by an act of divine grace. Here I find you. I could have waited an eternity for this."
His thumb flips the safety off.
Matthew moves as if to stop him. But Howard raises his hand ever so slightly. Praying that Sedibus doesn't notice.
"Run!"
He thinks desperately. Hoping Matthew understands.
"Don't endanger yourself, please!"
Sedibus smirks.
"You lose Price."
Howard shuts his eyes, as he feels an odd calm fall over him. He hears the evac shuttles taking off. Good, Jane is safe. He smiles.
And welcomes oblivion.
The Batarians weapon goes off. And all in one moment my world falls apart.
My father slumps to the ground. His eyes vacant and glassy. Blood pouring from a neat hole in his forehead
No, this isn't real. This isn't happening….
"DAD!"
I screamed. My voice thick with despair. The Batarian whirled around. Raising his weapon and letting off a shot. My shock kept me rooted in place. And I felt a sudden hot explosion of pain in my shoulder. I burst into motion, diving behind a slab of duracrete. As a dropship screamed down. Peppering the ground with automatic fire, as the batarian who had murdered my father ran pell mell toward the opening bay door.
I couldn't get close! I couldn't do anything! If I so much as peeked my head out I was dead.
As the dropship flew away, with my father's killer on-board. I screamed in frustration and despair.
For all my strength, for all my abilities. I had still been powerless to stop the destruction of my home and the ruin of my family.
I had failed in every way it was possible to.
I gasped in sudden pain as the adrenaline crashed. And my body began to cash its long overdue checks. I slumped bonelessly against the wall. Gasping for breath as I gingerly felt the bullet wound in my shoulder.
"Umbra…."
I croaked out. The creature didn't take long to arrive.
"Master! You are terribly injured!"
I waved him off as he made to treat my wounds.
"Not important, we need to get to the ship."
Umbra paused. Seemingly unsure.
"Master?"
I grimaced as I sat up.
"I can't let them get away with this. I have to find out who ordered this. I have to make them pay! Now help me stand!"
"Master, please-!"
"ENOUGH!"
I roared. Cutting him off as I leaned my weight against him. As we began to limp away. I jerked my head towards my father.
"Collect him."
I said. Not daring to look any longer.
I did not trust myself too.
Umbra nodded. Before a piece of him seemed to slide off. And coalesce into another one of him. His duplicate gingerly picked up the body. And hurried after us.
Jane exhaled explosively as she felt the old transport breakthrough Mindoir's upper atmosphere.
For a brief moment her thoughts went back to Howard. She was almost certain he was dead. The odds were simply too long. And as for Matthew….
Well, god willing. He was in the Mindoiran wilderness. Safe and thoroughly unaware of the attack. But on the off chance that he had come back early-.
"No."
She thought to herself. She couldn't let herself think like that. The loss of Mel and Howard had torn something Irreplaceable from her, but even considering Matthew's death seemed to open a void in her, a terrible gaping absence that struck her with a pain that was almost physical.
All she could do, all she would do. Was hope. Desperately, that the universe wasn't that cruel.
She shut her eyes in exhaustion, as she suddenly felt just how tired she was. A bone deep fatigue that was driving her to unconsciousness.
She fell asleep as the transport jumped to FTL. Dreaming of better times, that now seemed like such a long time ago.
Juliet was thoroughly irritated, 7 months ago she had been sent to Mindoir by the Illusive man. She had been tasked with the assignment of retrieving a usable piece of genetic material from one Matthew Price.
A seemingly simple assignment taken at face value. But when the relay had shut down, suddenly a simple asset retrieval assignment had become a great deal more complicated. She had hoped that her prolonged stay would allow her many chances to procure a sample of some kind. But the young man seemed almost impossible to catch unawares.
He was almost never alone. And even when he was, his awareness of his surroundings seemed almost supernatural. There had been times, thoroughly unsettling times, when she had been observing him in the shadowed boughs of one of the trees that bordered his family home. And she could have sworn that he turned to look right at her.
Completely ridiculous, of course. No human had night vision that good. No matter how strange their eyes looked.
She had considered giving up entirely, when the attack had suddenly come. Perhaps this would give her the opportunity she was looking for….
She had watched, and waited. And eventually been rewarded with a windfall.
The young man had returned home a good week earlier than she had thought he would. She had watched, in silent disbelief as he had raised his hand. And seemed to make the colonies massive heavy metal front gates, some ten tons of combined weight. fly from their hinges by no means she could readily see.
It hadn't been biotics, she could tell just by looking. None of the telltale blue glow that would have been exhibited otherwise. And anyway, he would have had to be almost as prodigiously gifted as some Asari matriarchs to replicate such a feat with biotic power alone.
And almost more interesting than that, had been what he'd done to the Squad of Batarian's.
She could not properly account for any of what she had seen. It just didn't align with what she believed was reality.
And yet he seemed to conjure, seemingly from nowhere, spikes of black metal with which to impale his enemies. He was strong enough to punch through heavy combat armor, and the muscle and bone that lay beneath, as easily as she might punch through a wet paper bag. Fast enough to dodge gunfire and move faster than her eyes could track. And most bizarrely of all, some sort of life draining ability.
She still could not properly come to terms with what she had seen him do. He had willed structures of wood to grow from the duracrete beneath him. Wrap themselves around the unfortunate begging pirate. And then he had pulled something from the Batarian. And all at once that pirate had gone suddenly, terminally limp.
A small part of her still shuddered involuntarily when she thought about it.
He had discarded the empty Batarian body as carelessly as one might a piece of trash. Spoken a single solitary word she hadn't been close enough to hear. And then something had slithered into view. A viscous oozing black mass of something that after a few moments had seemed to morph into a shape that might have been called humanoid.
She hadn't heard any of the exchange that followed. But the slimy black thing had bowed with a distinct deferential air. And then slithered away again.
So it, whatever it was. Took orders from him. Why, what was it?
In any case, she hadn't had time to think about it. Price had exploded into motion again, and she had only been able to track him by the clouds of snow he kicked up and the dead pirates he left in his wake. Eventually she had managed to track him to the spaceport. She had watched as he slumped against a slab of ruined duracrete. Clutching a shoulder that had obviously suffered a recent gunshot wound. And smearing a great deal of very salvageable blood all over it. Before he had once again called for the creature. The thing had picked up a body. The young man's father from what she could see. And they all limped away into the night.
She had waited, and then ran to the slab, hoping to procure a sample before the blood dried. One swab and a small vial later, she had a small, but perfectly usable sample of blood. She gazed at the crimson liquid as she swished it about. As it caught the wintry moonlight in the most fascinating way.
Oh yes, the Illusive Man would be pleased indeed.