Mass Effect

Massive Shock Redux

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or 2K games have staked claim upon. Original Characters that I create may be used or distributed for use at my leisure.

Ch. 12: Citadel Besieged Part 2

The Freaks

22:38 AM March 07, 2182

Jada

Jada van der Merwe carries Blitz on her shoulder and drags Donner by his collar away from the wrecked corridor. This is their first major mission as a team and everything's already gone to complete shit.

Until now, Donner, Blitz, and Jada (codenamed Vixen, though she hates it and eschews it entirely) were solo or small team operatives; going on special top secret missions. Until now, Jada thought she was the only one of her kind, but this job never ceases to surprise her. This whole fiasco could hardly be called a job anymore though. At this point she's not even sure they're still paying her.

No… at this point, Jada is more like property.

There is a good reason Jada was put in charge of this mission. Well. Several reasons:

1: She's the least freakish of the Freaks and therefore a better face for the group. 2: She's the first successful Freak (to her knowledge), and thus has some quasi seniority. 3: She's got more combat experience than the other two. 4: She's got a brain for these kinds of things.

Jada, being used to working by herself or with only a few others, is good at taking stock, making fast decisions, and cutting losses. She's even better at taking a measure of a moment; Jada knows when she has an opportunity and when to take it and she knows how to measure weaknesses and balance those against advantages. Jada is good at making momentary decisions.

But this she didn't anticipate. She didn't anticipate that Donner's sonic blasts are so powerful they could destroy even himself if conditions aren't right. She also wasn't aware that because of his abilities, he can't have a shield because they would either fail from the speed and pressure of his sonic blasts or kill Donner because they may trap the air pressure inside of the shield.

She was also not aware that even though Blitz can accelerate and decelerate so quickly that it seems as if she's teleporting, and that doing so is instinctual, Blitz moves so fast that she can't see while she runs. Adaptations are a funny like that. So, because she can't see, Blitz only moves in straight lines with predictable end points. Even though she can cover a distance equal to 100 times her own body length in a second, she can't will her blood back into her eyeballs unless she's sustaining her run for more than a few seconds. So the problem there is if she doesn't take the time to get an idea of what's going on around her, she can't see something coming at the end.

Like a desk flying at you from behind.

But above everything, Jada did not anticipate Splicer's capabilities. But that's not her fault. She wasn't given any intel on the guy, just told to go get him. She knows he's a merc and knows he's capable. But not make a 300 pound steel desk fly through the air capable.

Jada thought that a sonic blast from Donner would stun Splicer, particularly at that distance. But the semi-enclosed architecture of the corridor made it so that Donner's sonic blast couldn't disperse. Like a shaped charge, the entirety of the force of the blast was directed straight at him. The result was a torn apart hall. Lord knows how Splicer survived that, though he probably didn't survive the second blast. Unfortunately, the second blast also nearly killed Donner as well since it was pointed more at the ceiling than at Splicer.

So, Jada, faced with two unconscious team members, with a gaping hole where the corridor should be, and with no visual on Splicer, decided to cut her losses. They'll find him, or they won't because he's buried and dead.

Jada feels Donner stir then start to struggle.

"Let me go!" He whispers. Even though he's whispering, his voice is loud as shit.

Jada drops him unceremoniously and continues ahead with Blitz on her shoulder. Donner catches up to her after a moment

"What happened?" Donner asks, trying to be quiet. "Where's the asset?"

"Dead probably. Buried under the corridor you dropped on him." Jada responds, glancing at him. "Probably."

Donner looks back, though the corridor is left far behind. "Then what are we doing here? We need to get him."

Jada shrugs. "If you actually killed him he's not going anywhere. There's a better way to make sure he's dead though… Here we go."

Jada approaches the Blue Suns techies who are currently plugged into one of the station's security panels. She dumps Blitz off her shoulder and puts her hands on her hips as the techie glances up at her.

He quickly steps away from the panel and salutes Jada.

Jada gestures at the panel. "Scan the area 21b for life signs."

The techie immediately gets to work. After a moment he shakes his head. "Inconclusive. The scanners aren't working. Says that they're damaged."

Jada rolls her eyes, though it isn't visible to anyone else because of her helmet. "Figures. Cameras?"

"Checking… Yes, those are working." The techie says, stepping away so Jada can look at the screen on the panel.

The video is grainy and it looks like the camera feed is off quite a bit from where it should be, but she just sees a bunch of flaming wreckage facing the pavilion outside of the C-Sec headquarters. The whole wall has caved out and collapsed inwards.

But she sees movement.

Someone is pulling bits of wreckage aside.

No, not wreckage.

Jada zooms the camera as much as it can without losing the individual in the frame. She watches as the figure drags a person out of the wreckage. Again, the video's quality isn't great though it's a miracle it works at all, considering. But even with this poor quality, Jada can make out that the person being dragged from the wreckage is in all black.

Jada sighs and blows a raspberry through her lips. "Well, that's not good."

"He's fucking alive?!" Donner whisper-shouts in disbelief. "That's not possible."

Jada rolls her eyes. "Neither are you. Nor me. And yet, here we all are. Well. At least now we know he can survive two of your sonic blasts and a whole hallway falling on him. We'll just need to throw more at him. Now, let's go catch up to him."

Splicer

I feel a great, crushing weight get lifted off me and I take a few deep breaths. I feel hands wrap around my forearm and pull hard. Despite all the wreckage weighing down on me, I feel my body shift forwards. I take another deep breath and when I feel the pulling on my arm again, I pull back and try to push myself forward.

I feel the weight shift off me and without it, I feel practically weightless.

The hands help me get to my feet, but I do so slowly. I take a few more deep breaths, just trying to collect myself before I face my savior.

"Damn Alex." I say when I can finally breath again. "That's two I owe you already."

"Something tells me you'll pay me back and then some before this is over." Alex responds, making sure I'm steady on my feet before taking her hands off me. "You look worse for wear."

I look down at myself. That's an understatement. The jacket that goes over my armor is an absolute ruin. It'll hardly do anything to protect me at this point. I tear it off and toss it to the side. Where there are armor plates on this lighter set the plates are cracked or scored, or at the very least some of the paint has been scratched off. I can tell my helmet is damaged too, but it seems to be in mostly one piece at least.

"I hope you have a plan." Alex says giving me a serious look. "Before you ask, I left the others to come find you. I don't know if the lobby is safe."

"Only one way to find out." I say rolling my shoulders. "You wouldn't happen to know where they might have been keeping my stuff would you? I need my omni-tool and my pistols."

"Conveniently, if you were being released, they'd be in the lobby's lockup," Alex says, before holding the Blue Suns assault rifle out to me.

I shake my head. "Hold on to it. I can defend myself without guns and I might need backup."

Alex nods and holds her rifle at low-ready. "Follow me. I know the way there from here."

I nod and follow Alex closely, trying to stay focused but feeling more than a little concussed.

"So, who were those guys who attacked us?" Alex asks, keeping her focus trained ahead as we moved down darkened corridors.

"I wish I could tell you." I say. "In my experience though, when weird shit happens around me, it's usually my fault either directly or indirectly."

"They were after you, you think?" Alex asks. She stops then and looks back at me. "You don't think that this… all of this is because they're trying to get you, is it? Because of the Cerberus station?"

At a loss for words, I just give a defeated shrug. "At this point, for my sake, it might be safe to assume that it is."

Alex gives me a frown and turns away from me, continuing forward. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you can't be that important."

I give a small chuckle, not able to deny the humor in that, "No offense taken. To my knowledge, I haven't done anything to piss off the Blue Suns. So, defeats me why they'd be after me. Though I am acknowledging the possibility."

We turn a corner and are met with bright lights at the end of a long corridor without any cover.

"Freeze!" We hear someone scream at the end of the corridor. "Identify yourselves!"

"I'm C-Sec CSI Alexa Silva! I have Splicer with me! We are friendlies!" Alex shouts towards the lights, holding the assault rifle unthreateningly above her head.

I raise my hands, trying to appear similarly unthreatening.

"Crawl on hands and knees up to the checkpoint, slowly!" The voice shouts.

We follow his orders, crawling on hands and knees until we're hauled to our feet and ushered through the checkpoint. Though their entrances are well guarded, it is immediately apparent to me that this is not an ideal situation and not a safe place.

The lobby is packed with C-Sec officers, employees, and civilians. There are easily five hundred people in here.

"Aw shit." Alex says just loud enough for me to hear. "This isn't good."

I nod in agreement, looking around the room and trying to assess the situation, "Listen, this is clearly not safe. I have a plan, but you need to trust me. I can get us somewhere safe."

Alex looks at me and I look at her. After a moment, she nods to me and then nods over at the front desk. "Let's try and get your gear."

We make our way to the front desk. Despite the crowd, there's enough space to move, albeit in a winding pattern. Officers of all ranks are all trying to take charge of situations of varying size, and I can hear and see numerous confrontations between them. Civilians are for the most part deferring to the cops, trying to be small and out of the way. But there are more than a few privileged or entitled individuals who are butting heads with the officers, some of whom try to deescalate.

Others not so much.

I easily spot Zero, looking rushed and busy at the front desk. He's near a few other officers but he's standing alone against a civilian turian who appears to be screaming his head off at Zero. Zero to his credit, appears to be mostly ignoring the angry civilian, though I can see the rising tension in him.

I can hear the exchange as we approach the desk.

"Sir. Calm down." Zero says, even his voice tense.

"Don't fucking tell me to calm down you bare-faced, uneducated, beat-walking fuck!" The turian civilian screams at Zero. "I told you to give me access to your long-range communications! I come from a long line of high ranking turian military! I swear, once I fix this, you'll be lucky to clean floors for a goddamn living! Are you even listening to me?! I-"

Even from a distance, I can see Zero's arms beginning to glow with dark energy after the other turian's 'bare-faced' comment. So, before it can go much further, I punch the turian. He stumbles away, falling after a while. With the chaos of the room, the act goes mostly unnoticed. Zero looks surprised but doesn't react other than to shake his head and return to whatever it was he's focused on. The other cops behind the desk look at me, look at Zero, and then return to whatever argument they're individually a part of.

"Thanks, but that wasn't necessary." Zero says with a tired sigh, eyes glued to a terminal in front of him.

"Oh, I didn't do that for you." I say, getting Zero's attention. "I did that for him. He was going to get himself killed."

Zero smiles and shakes his head. "You're a work of art, Splicer."

I feel myself blush, much to my surprise, and I'm very thankful I have a helmet on. Yikes that was embarrassing.

To say Zero is a unique looking turian is an understatement. Most turians are only distinguishable by their unique face paints. Zero lacks any of those, and to my understanding that fact has caused him some issues in the past. Zero is most easily recognizable by his bulk, his metallic tan skin, his iridescent green eyes, and the long scar running from the corner of his left eye all the way down to his neck. The result of whatever wound gave him that scar also resulted in the loss of most of his left mandible, giving him an asymmetric appearance.

I understand that Zero has had some personal issues at C-Sec recently. But in the short time I've known him, I've only known him to be empathetic, brave, and insanely biotically powerful

"Zero, can you check the lockboxes for Splicer's seized gear?" Alex asks, stepping forward and putting her assault rifle on the lobby desk.

Zero nods, typing on the terminal. "Sure thing. This isn't going anywhere anyways. Captain asked me to try and activate backup power, but it looks like the Suns took that out too. Looks like we're stuck with emergency power."

Zero crouches down behind the desk and comes back up with a metal box, containing my gear. He takes everything out and passes it all to me: my pistols, holsters, OT and credit chit. I don all my stuff and holster my guns, giving him an appreciative nod.

"Can I ask you another favor, Zero?" I ask, leaning over the desk to look at the terminal. "My friend got arrested with me, but she didn't do anything. Can you just check if she's still here?"

Zero nods. "Yeah. What's her name?"

"Nelyna… I don't know her last name." I respond, feeling embarrassed that I don't know her last name.

Zero's brow furrows as he stares at his screen. "Good news or bad news first?"

"Bad news?" I ask nervously.

"The bad news is that the bad news is the good news," Zero responds. "The good news is that she's still here."

Well, he's right. That is both good and bad. Good, because I know where she is. Bad because, well, it's here.

Zero sighs. "Fuck. You'll need authorization to get her out… Okay, I'll come get her with you."

I sigh a breath of relief. "Thanks Zero."

"No time to lose." Zero says, nodding us along. A shotgun is now in Zero's hands and I find it a little odd that I have no idea where that came from. Did he have that the whole time?

Damn, I'm concussed as fuck. Will Afterburn heal my headaches?

I activate Afterburn. Not only does my head suddenly feel 1,001 times better, but the boost of energy Afterburn gives me was much needed.

Zero leads Alex and I to the opposite side of the hall from where Alex and I came in. Zero approaches a cop guarding one of the entrances, appears to have a quiet, brief argument with the cop, and then waves the cop off, waving for us to follow.

Zero leads us down some wide stairs, peeking around the corner as he leads the way.

"What was that about?" Alex asks, taking up the rear, her assault rifle at the low ready but still looking a little oversized for her.

"He said he was under orders to keep all personnel in the lobby." Zero says, moving up to a corner and peeking around it. Zero suddenly steps out of the corner and fires his shotgun three times before looking back at us. "I told him he could shoot us if he wanted to."

I carefully approach the corner and peek around it, seeing two dead Blue Suns mercs there. I look at Alex and give an appreciative nod towards Zero. Zero meanwhile has continued forward at a cautious but brisk pace. He glances into rooms as he goes. The hallway we're moving down has been completely remodeled. Scorch marks mar the walls and distended wall and ceiling panels expose sparking wiring. Glass, chunks of metal, and blood litters the floor, completely eliminating any possibility of stealth. There's also no shortage of bodies, mostly C-Sec personnel.

Only now do I notice Zero's black armor, distinctly tactical and different from normal C-Sec armor. "Zero, you're strangely good at this."

"I'm on our TARR-Sec team. Tactical Armed Riot Response." Zero responds then pauses and looks back at me and shrugs. "And I was in a fairly active turian military cabal."

"Listen Zero." I start, speeding up to catch up to him. "I have a bit of a plan as to what happens after this. There's a safe place we can go; way safer than that lobby."

"Anywhere less crowded would be safer. And literally anywhere else. Local reports are that the mercs are targeting C-Sec precincts and headquarters, which makes sense." Zero says with a nod, but he looks at me after a moment of hesitation. "I want to come with you, but I can't abandon my peers, my friends."

I roll my eyes and I'm again thankful I have a helmet on, "I'm not going to try and talk you out of it; but that lobby, this whole place, is a death trap, Zero. Besides, I plan on taking the fight back to the Blue Suns. Are those guys going to do the same?"

Zero sighs loudly, "Honestly, I don't think so. That's what's on all our minds, but the Watch Captain said it's too early to counterattack. I don't think he's even considering counterattacking though. We have civilians in there that we can't leave undefended and we're too spread out… Okay Splicer. I want to fight. I'm in."

I nod, smiling, and continue to follow Zero down the corridor. Eventually we come to a large door and Alex comes up and starts typing into the door control panel.

"Bad news," Alex says, sounding worried. "Looks like Nelyna is the only one here right now. Her cell, and this door to the detention block are both locked because the building is on lockdown. I can lift it, but it'll unlock Nelyna's cell."

"So?" I ask. Alex gestures to the panel and I see three Blue Suns mercs gathered around Nelyna's cell, or at least what I presume to be her cell. One of them has his hand on the mass effect force field blocking him from her. I clench my jaw and grip my revolver-like pistols tighter.

"How did they get in there?" Zero asks.

"I think they blasted their way in from the other side, since detention faces an outside wall onto the pavilion," Alex says. She then looks up at me. "Ready?"

I nod, activating Aero Dash.

Alex types into the door control and the door in front of us whooshes open. The three Blue Suns are rowdy and making whooping noises. I waste no time and Aero Dash into the detention room, which is a wide hallway lined with individual cells. Having prepared the plasmid, I go further than I normally do, but I anticipated that. I come to a stop just a foot or two from the nearest Blue Suns merc.

Before he can react, I take him to the floor with a precise kick to his hip, just where the leg meets the pelvis. He collapses, not in pain but because that's just what happens when you get hit in the that spot with force. Without looking down at him I point my revolver down at him and pull the trigger three times in quick succession. Simultaneously, I point my other revolver at the merc furthest from the cell and unload it on him. The first two rounds strike his shield, but the third penetrates. The fourth and fifth put him out for good.

Just as I'm about to use my remaining three bullets on the third and final merc, the one closest to the cell. A blue orb about the size of a softball hits him in the back and he's sheathed in dark energy just before he is launched laterally across the hall and into the opposite cell. He hits the wall like a ragdoll and flops to the ground in such a gruesomely limp manner that I must look away.

I look over into the cell where the dark energy orb came from and see Nelyna with her hand up. Her eyes are wide but not afraid. More so shocked. I holster my guns and let my helmet's face open.

"Good job," is what I choose to say for some reason.

She looks at me and lowers her hand, putting the other one to her lips. "Oh, you're hurt."

I recall that I was recently bounced around a collapsing hallway like a ball in a pinball machine by sound waves from a man's mouth. I touch my forehead and glance at my fingers, seeing blood on them.

I shrug and look up at Nelyna. "I'm just glad that you're okay… sorry I'm late."

She shakes her head and comes up to me and takes me into a gentle hug. I lean down and put my arms around her waist. We just hug silently for a moment before I pull away and put my hands on her arms.

I feel like my heart settles down thoroughly. I hadn't realized it was pounding so hard. I remember when I first met Nelyna. The first thing that struck me was her beauty. The second was her grace. And third was her kindness. All these things are open, they flow off of her like an aura. You can see all of that in her expressions, in the way she looks at people with her silver eyes. Nelyna is a beautiful asari. The skin of her face is a smooth, glossy teal that gradients to a darker azure above her forehead, giving the impression of a hairline without hair. She has lovely facial features, namely large eyes with a dark eye shadow, a tall nose and shapely lips on a more rectangular face. Her facial markings are uniquely white, a feature I've not seen in other asari. The markings are narrow white lines on each of her head flaps, flecks on her brows, and a white upper lip with a small white square in her lower lip. Of all asari I've met, I've always thought Nelyna was the most beautiful.

"You are okay?" I ask, looking her up and down.

"Physically." she responds, putting a hand to her forehead. "What in the Goddess is going on? Were those mercenaries?"

I nod. "Yeah, them and a bunch more are attacking the Citadel. We don't know why, or at what scale. But the Citadel is closed, with the Destiny's Ascension and the Citadel fleet on the outside. I think it's best to assume the worst at this point."

"We're on our own?" Nelyna asks, looking concerned. "What about the Embassies?"

I shake my head. "I don't know, why?"

"My sister works at the Embassies." Nelyna says looking even more worried.

I nod and try to look confident and reassuring. "We'll find her, Nelyna. I promise."

She looks me in the eye and nods.

Suddenly remembering that we're not alone, I look back at Alex and Zero, both of whom were waiting respectfully a few feet away. I gesture to them, "Nelyna, this is Alex Silva and I think you know Zero. They're coming with us."

Nelyna nods to them in greeting. "Thank you for coming to rescue me."

Zero doesn't say anything, just nods and averts his gaze. Alex gives a friendly smile and approaches Nelyna, knowing by instinct to reassure her with proximity.

"Let's not waste any time." I say, nodding everyone along. "Let's get going. We're going to the Embassies to get Nelyna's sister, and then we'll head to my apartment building."

"The Embassies aren't far. We can sneak through the Presidium Open Market to get there. After, what's your plan to get from the Embassies to your place?" Zero asks, following closely with Alex and Nelyna bringing up the rear.

"I'm hoping we can find transport. But I'm also not keeping my hopes up. We'll tackle that problem when we get to it." I say, looking at Zero. "Trust me, in times like these, it helps to not get to fixated on your plans. Things can always change; we just need to be ready."

I close my helmet, and lead my friends to the large blasted out hole in the wall, prepared for anything.

Garrus

Garrus sprints into an upper story office of the C-Sec Presidium headquarters. Once inside, he slams the door controls, shutting it. Garrus doesn't waste a beat, he's already hacking the panel, trying to get it to permanently lock. After a few seconds, Garrus succeeds and he sees the red holographic interface flicker and disappear. Up here, Garrus is cut off from the lobby by several floors crawling with Blue Suns and something much worse.

A traitorous friend.

"Garrus!" Chellick screams from the other side of the door, just barely audible through it. "Garrus! Open the door!"

Garrus steps back from the door, picking his sniper rifle back up from the floor where he had discarded it when he came into the office. "Go away, Chellick! That's your last warning! You're on your own! I'm not fucking helping you!"

"Garrus, listen to me!" Chellick shouts. "I didn't know what they were planning, I swear!"

"You better go, Chellick." Garrus shouts, checking his rifle to ensure it's operable. "All that shouting is going to draw more Blue Suns. They can't get me in here."

Chellick doesn't respond. Maybe he does, but Garrus can't hear him. Garrus doesn't have anything else to say to him at this point.

Garrus moves to the large window of this office. He looks around the room and drags a desk from the corner into the middle of the room, perpendicular to the window and almost right up against it. Garrus grabs a probably valuable potted plant and tips it to the side serve as a rest for his rifle. Garrus steps around the desk, facing the window. He sets the barrel of his rifle gently down onto the top of the books and places his elbows down on the desk. He shifts around a bit to ensure he has a good field of view of the large, open pavilion outside the C-Sec HQ.

Garrus takes a few deep breaths and scans the pavilion. Across the pavilion are several buildings and a few alleyways and Garrus can see Blue Suns moving beyond the buildings. Just outside the main lobby, about a dozen C-Sec officers are set up behind makeshift barriers.

Garrus watches as the Blue Suns appear to prepare an assault on the ramshackle barricade, approaching low and slow, weapons up and ready. Before Garrus takes aim, Garrus unloads his rifle's standard ammo block and pulls out the ultra-heavy, custom tungsten block. These babies are specially made for tactical response, good thing Garrus snuck one out weeks ago… just in case. They cut a large caliber pure tungsten round, surrounded in quantum charged particles. The particle sheath is shed into the kinetic barrier, leaving a nice hole for the tungsten round to pass. The high velocity, ultra-dense round is then able to pierce even the toughest armor.

Garrus gently slides the ammo block into place, savoring the satisfying click as it snaps home, and shuts the internal magazine. Garrus racks the slide, takes aim, listens to his rifle hum, and squeezes the trigger on his third exhale.

The leading Blue Suns merc's head vanishes in a startling red spray and the ones following close behind quickly scramble for cover. Garrus has already taken aim and waits for his third exhale before firing again.

The window partitioning Garrus from the pavilion shatters on the second shot and falls out of its frame. Garrus feels cool, smoky air on his face. He takes another three breaths of smoky air before squeezing the trigger on the third exhale. At this point, his rifle has overheated and it alarms loudly in protest. Garrus rotates the rifle as he was trained so the heat is vented well away from his face and arms without blocking his view ahead or altering his sight picture.

At this point, the Blue Suns are scattered, all hiding behind cover. A few bold ones start shooting up at the open window and at Garrus. A few lucky shots enter the office and hit the ceiling, but Garrus doesn't even flinch. He takes aim again and doesn't aim at one of the ones who's shooting. Rather, he aims further back at one who is taking cover at a bad angle.

Garrus squeezes the trigger on his third exhale and the hiding merc dies as blood sprays from his exploded chest cavity. The Blue Suns closer to the front are thrown off by the death of one of theirs so far back. Garrus enjoys the momentary distraction and takes out yet another merc. Damn these rounds are good. Now inspired, the officers below begin trading fire with the distant mercs. Though the range is a bit too far to be effective, it keeps the mercs in cover and they're not effective at this range either.

Now that most of the Blue Suns are hiding in cover, Garrus takes a moment to scan the pavilion. To his left, near the edge of the pavilion, Garrus spots four individuals moving away from the HQ. He scopes them down just as they're reaching an alley at the other end. The one at the front stops at the mouth of the alley and covers his companions as the move into the alley behind him. Garrus takes a deep breath.

Right in his scope, in light armor… Funny how even a week ago, Garrus might have squeezed the trigger after his third breath left his lungs. But Garrus lets the breath pass. With no way to signal him from here, Garrus just gives a mental acknowledgment to Splicer.

"Good luck, Splicer." Garrus says, turning his rifle back to the Blue Suns mercenaries. "Now… Do I have any volunteers? Yeah there you are… … … Scoped, and dropped."

Splicer

"Christ Zero!" I grunt with exertion, hanging from the low balcony at the end of the short alley way. "How much do you weigh man?"

"I recently came off a holiday, I'll have you know." Zero says, grunting as he climbs up my back, using my armor plates as handholds.

We ran into a dead end. We couldn't go back because there was a battle going on in the pavilion outside of C-Sec HQ. But Nelyna had a clever idea. There was a balcony at the end of the alley we went down, about 5 meters up. Nelyna thought that Zero could boost me up to the edge of the balcony and then we could use my body as a sort of makeshift ladder.

The idea was actually pretty good. Zero stayed on the ground and boosted Nelyna and Alex, both of whom don't weigh too much, so it wasn't hard to stay hanging on. It worked very well until it was Zero who had to climb up me. First of all, Zero wasn't able to get a good enough vertical leap to grab my ankles and start the climb. So Nelyna used her biotics to carefully lift Zero a few feet up so that he could reach my legs.

When she dropped the lift… Well.

Zero puts his foot down on my face as he steps over the edge of the balcony, "Oh shit, sorry."

"Just. Get. Off." I grunt as he finally gets off me.

Zero and Nelyna help pull me up over the balcony. I glare at Zero.

"You did that on purpose." I mumble at him.

Zero shrugs innocently.

"Hey, stop messing around! It's not far to the Lake." Alex whispers from nearby.

I follow her through a dark, posh apartment and back out onto a street. I can hear distant fighting, but it's lonely here thankfully. Alex and Zero lead the way as we hurry down a small street through a commercial district. Occasionally, we see a few people hiding in stores through the store windows, barricaded behind shuttered entrances and whatever loose furniture they could pile up.

Finally, we reach a balcony lined with some shops that faces down over the lake. Unfortunately, it looks like they're making this their center of operations maybe. The place is damn swarming with mercs.

"Well shit." Zero mumbles quietly, staring out over the darkened lake, lit only by ambient light from fires, emergency lights, and mobile light poles that the Suns set up. "It's like a fortress."

"There aren't any mercs over on the other side, near the Embassies." I say, pointing. "Maybe they haven't gone in there?"

"Yeah it looks like they're more focused on the Council Tower." Zero says, pointing down towards the elevator entrance. "But they're all between us and the Embassies… And what's the plan after?"

"I'm thinking." I respond, observing the area immediately surrounding the Council Tower.

"This is hopeless." I hear Nelyna say, distraught. "There's… There's no way. She's already dead."

I turn to her. "Listen Nelyna. Things aren't ideal, but they aren't hopeless. You've seen yourself that they're not killing every person they see. How many bodies have we found after all? Realistically, there is no way they have the manpower to handle every single civilian, which is why they're probably being ignored for the most part. It's not hopeless. We aren't going to just accept that your sister is gone unless we all see her with our own eyes. But we will find her Nelyna."

I gently squeeze Nelyna's shoulders and try to look reassuring.

Nelyna nods and then touches my temple, looking above my eyes. "You need a haircut."

I sigh, give Nelyna a hug, and then take a deep breath. "Alright y'all. I have a plan."

"'Y'all' he says." Alex says with a shake of her head. "Definitely from a colony."

I pointedly ignore Alex. "If this is gonna work, it needs to happen exactly right."

Alex

"He's been gone a while." Nelyna says, looking over the railing.

Zero, unable to keep his cool, sighs and nods. "Yeah…"

Alex rolls her eyes. "Keep it together… and stop talking. They might hear us."

Alex glances cautiously over the railing concealing them as well. The three of them are hiding not 30 feet from the nearest Blue Suns merc. It's been about an hour or so since Splicer snuck off, telling them to go the second they saw their opportunity. No such opportunity has come, so far. Alex, though they could be found at any moment, can't help but notice the unease she's feeling.

It's odd. She didn't feel this way with Splicer around. It's probably the way he stands so straight, appearing a giant to all those around him. Even people who are physically taller than Splicer don't match his presence. It's not an entirely positive presence, but it is reassuring how at ease he seems even in the worst situations. He does everything without second guessing himself and doesn't question anything he has done. Just one thing to the next. Even when the world is crumbling all around him, he's unconcerned with it. And he's always focused on others. Perhaps that's what is most reassuring. He's always leading the way or bringing up the back, whatever puts him between the danger and others. And he's always looking back to us, checking on us. A few times, Alex caught Splicer staring, either at her or at Nelyna. She thought it was the usual leering both she and probably also Nelyna suffer daily. But then she noticed that Splicer doesn't look either of them up and down like other people do. And he also looks to Zero frequently. And he does it regularly, sometimes directly even if she'd been looking at him already, not opportunistically. Why he does it is anyone's guess, but Alex likes to think he's being protective or perhaps observant.

On some level, Alex thinks that, maybe, Splicer is so at ease among chaos because he thrives in it. And that's sad. Alex's aunt told her once, a long time ago, that those people who are comfortable in uncomfortable situations should be feared and pitied equally. They've obviously led hard lives, and only people who truly know discomfort and without anything to lose are at ease when everyone else is uncomfortable.

Maybe that's why he keeps a disguise on. Less connections means less to lose, after all.

An explosion rips across the walkway nearby on Alex's left, between the Blue Suns' FOB and the Council Tower elevator, just behind the Blue Suns' main defense line. A thick black cloud fueled by raging red flames obscures the elevator from her view. Then, a few seconds later, just as more mercs are running towards the explosion from the FOB to her right, another explosion rips across the walkway, igniting fuel cells and causing a chain reaction. Several explosions deafen Alex for a moment as she stares in shock at the raging fires and hears the muffled screams of Blue Suns.

She feels a strong hand on her arm. She looks up at Zero, who's yelling something at her. He points ahead and Alex looks. Straight ahead, between one curtain of black smoke on the left and another on the right, is a path straight to the Presidium Lake. And a short swim beyond that is the Embassies.

Oh shit. Somehow he made a direct path to the Embassies for them.

Alex gets to her feet, sprints ahead with Zero and Nelyna, leaps over the railing and into the cold water of the Lake.

Zero

Zero was initially leading the way through the lake. But being the least buoyant of the three, lagged behind a bit. The three of them are sticking to the right side of the lake, up against the wall, staying low in the water so that only their heads are exposed as they bob along through the lake. Since it's dark, they shouldn't need to worry too much about being visible. They'd only be visible if someone shined a light directly on them.

However, Zero warned the other two about going too fast. If they move too fast, they'll make a wake which would be easily visible from anywhere around it as it reflects light and leads an observer in a direct line to where they're moving. Another reason he said that was because kicking does nothing for his movement as he's too heavy. His legs just drag limply along behind him, as his arms do all the work to move him through the lake. He'd hoped it would force Alex and Nelyna to slow down but he quickly lost sight of them in the nearly pitch black space

Zero suddenly feels something firm, petite, and warm against him. He realizes he'd been moving without looking in front of him and he'd run right into Nelyna.

"Oops!" Zero whispers in surprise, "Sorry Nelyna!"

Zero feels a hand against his thigh as a way of response. For a moment, Zero is unsure of her meaning. His first thought is, 'oh god she's flirting with me. Now of all times?!' Then he has a prolonged moment of shame that that was his first thought and he knows from the tightness in his chest that that shame isn't going to go away anytime soon. Finally, he understands her meaning.

He hears voices nearby.

"I fucking heard something." A strange, reverberating voice barks loudly. The voice is raspy, like one might sound after getting punched in the throat or if they were whisper-shouting, but with volume as loud as someone who screamed at the top of their lungs.

"Your ears as good as your vocal chords then, eh?" A second female voice says, tinged with an accent Zero hasn't heard before. Human then. Humans have all kinds of accents, a tribute to the notion that there are many human languages. Zero might understand several dialects but hundreds of entirely different languages? Chaos.

"Shh! Listen!"

There's a long beat of silence.

Zero feels Nelyna tap Zero's leg frantically and feels her dive. Had he been so close to her this whole time without realizing? Instinctually, he's about to do it too, then he has a quick thought. The lake water is pretty clear. If they shine lights down here, they'll all three be seen, even with the light reflecting off the water. And the wake from their dive will be seen too. They'll know immediately.

Zero, improvising, goes belly down instead of diving completely. He lowers his arms and feels Alex and Nelyna. He pushes them down below him and lets one of his arms limply drift back up into a neutral position. He keeps his face in the water but forces his hips to stay afloat to better cover both Nelyna and Alex below him. He lets his body float as it would naturally. His legs slowly sink and his wide torso stays afloat, partially helped by the more buoyant Alex and Nelyna below him. Shielding them with his body as he is, he feels both sets of their hands on his front, stabilizing themselves below him. He sees light shine over him as he drifts slowly away from the lake wall.

"Mm. Dead C-Sec. Fish food." Zero hears the female voice say. "You're jumpy, eh?"

"I heard a voice." Zero hears the raspy voice one shout. "I know what I heard."

Zero hears a long, exasperated sigh. "Might it possibly be coming from the screaming comrades burning to death not 30 meters away? Let's go. He's here somewhere. This is his handiwork."

The light passes away. Zero's lungs are on fire, but he's disciplined. He carefully turns his head to the side and lets out a breath, seeing a trio of oddly armored Blue Suns moving away from him. He lifts against the hand holding his wrist, squeezing it tightly, pulling Nelyna and Alex up to the surface. He helps them back to the wall as they quietly take deep breaths.

"Keep moving." Zero whispers, nudging Nelyna forward.

"Quick thinking Zero." Alex whispers, breathless, to him. "Nice work."

Zero feels a wash of pride but buries it quickly. All still winded, they start moving again. Finally, they reach the opposite side of this stretch of the lake, close to the Embassies. It's eerily silent here and the still burning fires on the other side seem very distant. They can see numerous flashlights moving and a few gunships fly overhead.

"Z, go up and check if it's clear?" Alex whispers to him, pointing up at the railing a meter or two above

Zero looks up. "Aren't humans evolved from Earth apes?"

Alex is silent for a while looking like she's trying to process what she just heard. "We have a common ancestor. So what?"

"So, I've done some reading and from what I know, apes are pretty good at climbing." Zero responds.

There's another long beat of silence, more processing. "So?"

"So, I also read that humans still have strong gripping muscles, a remnant of when you were once tree-swinging animals. Like you can take your entire weight with one arm for a period of time. Incredible." Zero responds, whispering and trying to sound both amicable and encouraging.

"And?"

"Turians aren't evolved from things that climb." Zero says.

"Get your fat ass up there Zero!" Alex whisper shouts at him.

Zero feels a kick against his shin though it is far from painful thanks to his armor and the fact that they're in the water. Nonetheless Zero takes it as encouragement and struggles his way up the railing, much slower than if an ape-evolved thing did it. He's seen humans climb, it's like an obsession with them. Making whole gyms for it and climbing mountains and ice walls. Absolute madness.

Zero clears the railing, streaming water out of his armor. He takes a quick check around to ensure it's safe. It's dark and quiet, no movement or light nearby. He bends over the rail and reaches down grabbing onto a slim arm. He hauls Nelyna up onto the walkway, trying to ignore the way her drenched clothes cling close to her body. Zero then hauls Alex up and similarly tries to ignore her also more apparent body shape thanks to the wet clothes.

Ancestors, you'd think that in a time like this, Zero would be more focused. But no, he's thinking like he's pubescent. Zero once again feels a childish shame that isn't going to go away any time soon. He needs a girlfriend or something because this is silly.

Zero awkwardly clears his throat. "Let's keep moving."

"Stay focused." Alex says, exasperated.

Nelyna laughs nervously. If he could kill himself with the knife edged embarrassment he's feeling, he'd happily fall on that blade. Zero leads the way into the Embassies. There are a few dead C-Sec, a few dead Turian military, and a few dead Blue Suns. Zero doesn't notice any dead civilians, however.

Zero looks back at Nelyna and Alex. "Let's check the Executor's office first. He might still be alive, and he might know where your sister is."

Alex nods in silent agreement and Zero leads the way to the Executor's office. The door is closed, and a red interface slowly flashes before them. No power.

Zero looks at his two companions, then cautiously raises his fist to knock. He knocks on the door with three solid knocks. The trio of them listen carefully. No sound on the other side.

"Executor?" Zero says, unsure if these doors, which seal with either vacuum suction or magnetics, would permit sound to penetrate through. "This is Officer Sagaeus. I'm here with CSI Silva."

Still no response. No sound whatsoever.

Zero looks at Alex, unsure of what to do next.

"Saphyria?" Nelyna calls softly, pushing past Zero.

Sounds, voices, on the opposite side. Zero listens and hears several voices, at least 5. The door's interface suddenly changes to a soft blue and the door hisses open. A light on the other side, behind a dark silhouette in the doorway, briefly blinds Zero.

"Nelyna!" an asari, presumably Saphyria, gasps with relieved excitement.

Nelyna and Saphyria embrace tightly, emotion practically wafting off them.

"I tried to go to the Consort's, but there was fighting downstairs." Saphyria says, voice choked by emotion.

"It's okay, it's okay. I wasn't even there." Nelyna shushes her, touching Saphyria's face.

"Officer Sagaeus, CSI Silva." A familiar baritone voice calls. The light, now clearly a rifle light, lowers. Executor Venari Pallin stands a few meters away, an assault rifle clutched in his hands, "Good, overall, that you're here."

"Overall?" Zero asks, walking into the office quickly. Alex shuts the door behind everyone, locking it again.

"More manpower means we're a harder target for the Suns. Unfortunately, we're short on arms and food. I had a small ration of food and water stored here, get me by for a few days. But with all of us here, we'll be out of water before tomorrow and between us Officer, out of food in a day and a half. Everyone else will need to starve, unless we figure something out." Pallin explains, moving towards the balcony of his office.

Zero glances around the office, at the other occupants trapped here with them. Besides Pallin, Alex, Nelyna, Saphyria, and himself, there are two humans males, a volus, and an elcor. One of the humans, the volus, and the elcor are all formally dressed. The other human is in an Alliance military dress uniform. Zero isn't a military buff but he's pretty sure that's an officer's uniform. Zero nods brief acknowledgement to some of the other occupants before joining Pallin at the balcony.

Pallin points out across the lake, at a midpoint between the Embassies and the Council Tower Elevator, at a large shop. "There's some kind of shop or emporium there. Never been there myself. It's for tourists and people from the Embassies. But there might be some food and water for all of us over there. I've been devising a plan to get us all there, but the Suns assault base is too close. With those explosions and with you here now, it might give us a chance to get there and back undetected or give us a fighting chance if things get dicey. Did you cause those explosions?"

Zero shakes his head. "No, that was Splicer… I think."

"Splicer… The mercenary? How's he involved in this?" Pallin asks, confused. "And where is he for that matter?"

Zero shrugs. "I think he's just surviving, like the rest of us. We haven't seen him for at least an hour. He was setting up that explosion. Lord knows how he even pulled that off anyway."

"Is he coming here?" Pallin asks, looking out around the surrounding area, no doubt looking for Splicer.

Zero nods slowly, unsure. "I think so… I hope so… Executor I've seen him do things."

"What sort of things?" The Executor asks, looking at Zero curiously.

"Weird, not possible things," Zero says shaking his head, "I've seen him move across large distances in the blink of an eye, almost like he's teleporting. I've seen him catch a missile with his mind and set people on fire and electrocute them, again with his mind and a gesture."

Pallin frowns at Zero. "Sounds like he's biotic. I mean… you can do some of that stuff, can't you Officer? And the fire and electricity are easily explained by tech powers, no?"

"No, it's different." Zero says with a shake of his head. "He can do that stuff without an omni-tool, without dark energy auras or mass effect bleeding."

Palling shrugs. "Then they're modded into his armor and he is a good biotic."

Zero shakes his head. "No, he can do that just with his-"

The office is flooded with bright light suddenly filled with washes of hot air. Zero looks out towards the Blue Suns gunship, despairing. Maybe he and Pallin can take cover but nobody else can.

"Get down!" Zero hears the Alliance officer shout.

Zero takes a deep breath and gets to his feet, filling himself and funneling dark energy through his body to his extremities. One chance at this. A precise biotic strike right at the nose of the gunship with everything he's got might flip the ship end for end, hopefully making it crash. But the ship suddenly rotates, a bit erratically. It moves backwards and forwards, then back a lot and Zero is worried that it's going to crash into them but then it lurches forwards again, stopping and hovering about 3 meters from the balcony.

A ramp lowers from the back of the gunship and Splicer is standing in the doorway of it.

"Hey!" He shouts to the office. "Got a ride."

The whole office stares at him in absolute shock and awe. Splicer moves back to the pilot seat of the gunship and begins slowly moving the gunship backwards. It hits into the wall above the balcony, loudly.

"Oops!" Zero hears Splicer say. "Sorry!"

"Everyone, on the AAPC!" the Alliance officer shouts. "Let's go!"

Pallin is the first on, followed by the human in the fancy clothes and then the asari sisters. Alex and the Alliance human both hop on and Zero looks back at the elcor and the volus.

"I think the AAPC is getting full." Zero says, then points to the volus. "You can fit on. I'll stay here with the elcor."

The volus waves him off. "No thank you! Too cramped for me. Besides, I have the nagging feeling that that thing is going to crash."

"Confidently: I can protect him." the elcor says, evidentially confidently.

Zero gives an apologetic look and then hops on the AAPC. He presses a button near the ramp and it closes behind him.

"Hey uh." Alex says, strapped into a seat on the wall. "Splicer, you can fly this thing?"

Splicer looks back and wags a finger at her with a sarcastic grin on his face. "I can, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I should. I'll be honest I'm winging this. Get it? Winging it? Airship? No?"

"Maybe the Alliance ship captain should fly the ship?" The human ambassador offers, sounding nervous.

"Believe it or not you don't need to know how to fly a ship to command one." the Alliance officer says. "Besides, these sorts of small airships aren't the same as the big ones."

"It's fine guys." Splicer says waving everyone's concerns away like an offensive odor. "It's pretty intuitive, the only hard part is going up and down, and keeping it level… and turning without rolling. And also just turning."

"We're doomed." Alex sighs.

Splicer

I take a few furtive glances back at Captain Anderson. I've seen Garrus, and that was surreal for sure. Maybe it's because he's human, but I'm having quite a bit of mental dissonance right now. I just feel extremely out of body looking at him, hearing him speak…

Though it's definitely possible I have a few concussions as well. That would also explain my weird feeling.

"How fast are we going?" Zero asks from somewhere behind me. "How far do we need to go?"

"I'm following the signs, we're getting close to the path to the Wards." I respond and then glance at the absolutely indiscernible display before me. "And I'm not sure how fast we're going… pretty fast I think."

"Definitely fast enough that if we crash, we'll all die instantly." Alex mumbles under her breath though I easily heard her.

I spot my turn and fly into a spacious access tunnel, completely devoid of any traffic at the moment, thankfully. I breathe out a sigh of relief. Home free.

"What is that?" Nelyna asks, appearing behind me and pointing past me out the cockpit window.

I look at where she's pointing and see something moving along the wall of the tunnel. It's so distant, it looks like barely a spec, but it's going faster than us. These access tunnels are a few kilometers long, feeding out along the Ward arm we're on. But the diameter of these tunnels is a few hundred meters and they're oval shaped. Whatever it is, it's moving fast enough that it can overcome the downward gravity of the station and run along the wall of the access tunnel, like the rocket car did in Men in Black.

As I look, I realize what it is.

A person.

"Ah shit." I say out loud. "Okay y'all we're in trouble."

I pull the manual controls of the ship to move away from the that weird runner I saw in the C-Sec precinct but feel the ship rock violently and suddenly, before lurching back towards the runner. The display lights up with a dozen different things telling me all the shit going wrong with the ship, alarms blaring.

"Did you hit the wall?" Ambassador Udina asks, sounding on the verge of panicking.

"Not even close." I respond, pulling backwards on the controls.

An average civilian car rushes past us before slowing down to get back behind us, but I keep moving back. On top of the car is another person, crouched low and braced on the roof of the car. I recognize him too.

"Okay screamy boy." I growl, placing my fingers on the triggers. "Fuck you."

I pull the triggers. There's a momentary mechanical whirring before tracer rounds the size of my foot tear through the air at 1,000 rounds per minute directly at the car. But just as I begin firing, the screamer faces us and opens his mouth towards us. The soundwave that emits from him is invisible itself, but it tears the air apart as it travels, causing a strange shimmering effect particularly at the edges of it. The bullets from my gunship hit the wave as if it's a wall, breaking or deflecting harmlessly. I yank back on the controls.

Hitting the sound wave is just like hitting a wall. I get shot forward in my seat. I feel the belts tear into my shoulders and hips as I get rocked forwards. My face, bloodied somehow, turns up toward the windscreen again. The glass is cracked all over but I can see the runner flying through the air straight at us. I feebly grab the controls again with one hand and yank it down and to the side. The ship lurches down and spins once before I right it again with both hands.

Without being able to verify if I dodged her or not, I see my chance and I pull up on the controls, exiting the Ward access highway. The display in front of me is screaming at me but we're so close. Are people speaking to me right now? I can barely hear anything besides my blood pumping through my skull. The gunship can't take another hit. It's already about to go down.

Something Alex said comes to mind and I slow the gunship as we emerge from the tunnel over the wards, mostly because when this ship crashes I don't want to die instantly. Just as I do, a third soundwave blast just barely clips the nose of the airship. If I hadn't slowed, we probably would have been torn in half by the blast. Nonetheless, the blast causes the ship to do half of a backflip in the air, going nose up before dipping back forward and straight down. Much like during those pendulum rides at amusement parks, I feel like my brains are going to run out of my nostrils from the g-force.

Completely disoriented, it's a bare second before everything goes black.