Disclaimer: I do not own the Mass Effect games. This story is written with no profit in mind. I make no money from it. It isn't for sale or rent.

Chapter 3

=DC=

Part 3

=DC=

23.04.2183GS

Nova Yekaterinburg

Therum

The whole planet was one giant shithole in the middle of nowhere. It was hotter than most deserts on a good day, there were volcanoes and rivers of lava almost everywhere and the less said about the shit flying through the thing stuff that passed for air around here, the better.

It was well known among certain circles that Zaeed Massani wasn't a fan of the heat, which was one of the reasons he was there in the first place. The other was simpler – according to most people nowadays, he was a washed up has-been drunk, which wasn't too far from the truth until recently. Once he managed to quit drinking the pain away, he found himself strapped for money, reputation shot and low on choices. When he saw an advertisement asking for independent contractors to help shore the defence of this particular hellhole, it wasn't like he had anything to lose, nor better prospects.

That was how Zaeed ended up playing rent-a-cop for the past few months and loathing every moment of it. At least Therum offered him the opportunity to get his edge back by training in extreme conditions in place where there wasn't anyone to see him embarrass himself when off shift. Occasionally he even allowed himself an evening in the local seedy bar to celebrate reaching one of his self-imposed goalposts. Now, even with his messed up face and artificial eye, his accuracy was back up to par and his endurance was getting there.

A few more months of this shit and Zaeed would be feeling well enough to get off this molten rock and go find some better paying job – not to mention, has a nice nest egg for better equipment that was kinda necessary for said better paying jobs. He looked in disgust at the local ass ugly reddish armour the EAE security got issued. Eldfell-Ashland Energy practically owned the colony and mined the heavy elements that more often than not simply poured through the rivers of lava – they also paid his salary in order to keep the workers cooped on Therum in check when the plage got to them or they simply drunk their problems away and went overboard. While Therum was supposedly a target for pirates, its primary export wasn't profitable enough nor easy enough to load and transport for most Terminus outfits to bother and if they were simply slavers – there were systems much closer to the border to hit, where they would have better odds on avoiding a vengeful navy coming after them.

By now, Zaeed had resigned himself on a very boring and onerous tour of duty. All he had to look up to was counting the days until his contract expired and he could simply leave without fucking up his reputation any more than it already was.

He sighed through the filter mask built into his helmet. At least the light armour came in with air-conditioning – kinda vital piece of kit to keep anyone outside the sealed building from cooking. With his shift over and a storm projected to hit the capital tonight, Massani headed for the nearest bar. A drink or two to "celebrate" the end of his third month here and halfway point through the contract, then he was going to hit the rack. Something to eat too for dinner – or was it breakfast after trying to stay awake the whole night with jack shit to do.

At least Boris' was still open – the place had decent enough grill, witch was often done on the lava river passing behind the building for the novelty factors to get more credits of suckers new to Therum. On the plus side, the Vodka was goon – with a case arriving from Earth once a month for those who could afford it and the grub was more often than not edible. With Zaeed keeping his drinking under control – like once or twice a month, he didn't really have issues affording the nice stuff on the rare occasions he allowed himself to partake. Besides, it was good to check if he still had his habit under control or not.

This early in the morning, the place was mostly empty, with only a few small groups of workers and guards coming off shift like him coming for either a bite or a drink. A couple of worse to wear Loki mechs stumbled through the place clearing the tables while a small dome-shaped robot scrubbed the floor. There was a single waitress leaning on the bar chatting up the barman, who looked bored out of his mind and absent-mindedly polished a glass.

Massani nodded at Evgeni – said barman who nodded back more out of reflex than recognition and headed to a free table in one of the corners that would allow him to watch the entrance. Some habits died hard and that was in fact a good thing, Zaeed reckoned.

The only downside of his chosen place was that there was a group of miners nearby. They were already well into their cups with a bottle of vodka opened between them.

"I tell you, its all bullshit!" One of them rambled. "Production up, economic upswing thanks to us and all the shit we mine… When was the last time we saw an increase in pay or benefits?"

Zaeed couldn't say he disagreed – the very reason he got hired in the first place was that business for EAE was booming and they feared that either pirates or "pirates" sponsored by the competition might hit Therum. That however didn't mean their peons saw much if any benefit. Well, that wasn't strictly speaking true – he had a combat pay clause in his contract, however what were the odds he would be able to cash in on that? Its mere existence however, put him head and shoulders of those poor suckers scrapping through the lava for living – and they made more than half of the thirty five thousand or so souls stuck in this hell with him. The others were support personnel with a smattering of management types, small business owners, the local garrison – which was tiny enough to warrant a lot of ERS security types like him and various unlucky sods who had to bring their families on Therum of all places.

"I hear you, brother..." Another miner moaned in his cup. At least the waitress noticed him and sashayed his way. Not a bad looking bird for someone stuck in this place, though not of the calibre working the evening shifts. "I'm for Terra Firma because of this shite! They'll fix it up, I tell you!"

"Bollocks..." Another miner snorted. "They're all the same bastards…"

Zaeed had to agree with that one.

"Why not? It's not like the Allance knows whats is doing..." A different voice added – one obviously belonging to someone already deep in his cups.

"They'll leave us to hang by ourselves." A so far silent miner grumbled. "That's why there's more and more of his kind." He waved a cup at Zaeed who simply stared back with a disinterested expression on his face. "We're supposedly important here! Do we have ships in orbit protecting us? Heh, there're more mercenaries down here keeping order and to keep pirates away than army!"

That, Zaeed couldn't disagree with. There was a company of SA soldiers in their base on the other side of the capital. Law enforcement, unless there were capital cases or hell, protecting the mining operations spread all over the planet was left to EAE to really handle. A few AA towers spread around the town and that was it. Back in the day, before first contact and the following colonization boom, a world like Therum would have seen at least a regiment on the ground given its importance, a small task force in orbit too. Nowadays? Considering it was quite deep in human space and as importantly reasonably far from the Batarians and Terminus, the place was almost as lightly defended as they came.

That was another reason Massani chose it – a quiet gig to show he can still cut it while getting his edge back. Well, just as the waitress came with his drinks and confirmation that his synthetic steak would be ready in couple of minutes, the raid alarms so far only sounded with as tests with liberal warning beforehand, came to life at full blast.

"God, damn it!" Zaeed cursed.

=DC=

Part 4

=DC=

23.04.2183GS

Nova Yekaterinburg

Therum

Zaeed Massani knew orbital strikes all too well – he had fought on too many hellholes that no matter how hard you squinted nor all the rules lawyering could pretend to be Garden Worlds. Therum, the lave covered slice of hell was no different. So it shouldn't have come as a surprise that when he ran out of the bar with his trusty rifle unfolded in his arm, he saw KE rounds streaking through the ash choked sky soon to slam in the general vicinity of the garrison. So much for the army boys and girls being of assistance. Even as he watched, the ordnance vanished behind the higher buildings in the centre of the capital and he threw himself on the ground on reflex. Light flashed and the ground jumped to meet his armoured face while deafening thunder clapped over the town and shattered many of the reinforced windows. The rest of the shock-wave followed throwing all kind of shit everywhere – from mere gravel to chunks of melted rock and sturdier pieces picked up from the vicinity of the now gone military installation. Irony of ironies, the one positive benefit of the orbital strike was that at least temporarily it cleared the air from most ash and other stuff usually mixed in – something no doubt the infernal planet was going to address with a vengeance.

The mercenary dragged himself to his feet and looked around – there were a few more rent-a-cops like him and even a pair of SA troopers lucky enough not to be in their former base.

"We need reinforcements yesterday!" Zaeed heard one of the soldiers scream in his omni-tool.

"The comm array has been down for almost a day!" A tiny panicked voice shouted back. "We were about to call for spare parts delivery when the cargo ships arrived tonight!"

Of all the rotten luck…

"Who the fuck hit us and why aren't the towers shooting back?!"

"The first thing we knew was when those ships got into high orbit and opened fire! They're staying out of effective range!"

"They're going to either take those towers out from orbit or send a ground element to deal with them if they need the rest of the town more or less intact." Zaeed suggested.

"I'm not detecting any more shots incoming, however there's heavy jamming! Even if the comm array was up we couldn't call anyone!"

"We need to get everyone in the shelters. Who's up there? Batarians? Geth?!" The soldier demanded.

Now that Massani took a good look at him, he saw the Sergeant's insignia on the shoulder smeared with dirt from where he too had hit the ground during the bombardment.

"Nothing I've seen before and the computer can't ID them so probably Geth..."

"Fuck my life..." Zaeed groaned. Pirates and slaver he could handle. Murder robots with who know what capabilities? Why did he quit drinking anyway?!

"Wait, I'm getting something on the short range scanner…" whoever the Sergeant called – probably the controllers in the Starport, now sounded even more terrified.

"Your right, they're sending in a ground element." The Sergeant looked around. "Get those civies in the shelters – if those are Geth, there must be something in the town they want otherwise they would have simply erased us from orbit. If they get it… They can't get it." The man muttered stubbornly.

Zaeed couldn't really disagree – that was his take on the current mess as well. Well, the Geth might leave after they got whatever they wanted, however before the comms went down enough news came from Eden Prime to be known that the robots left behind enough nukes to glass the colony. He cursed again – what did the machines want from this hole?! They had their own corner of the galaxy for themselves! They couldn't be here for the heavy metals ready to be shipped off world… then again, why not? It would deny some resources to the SA, especially if they bombed the mining operations off the planet and they might be able to use the ready for loading haul at the spaceport… There was just one flaw in that theory – if that was the case, the Geth would have already plastered the town instead of sending ground units in. He left with another curse and patched into the EAE security net and winced at the sound of multiple people trying to establish control.

"Sergeant Massani reporting." He pinged the net with his location. "Requesting orders."

"Sergeant Massani," A new, calmer voice that might have been a VI, contacted him. "Uploading a rally point. Gather a squad, sweep the designated area and escort any stragglers to a shelter. We've got confirmed hostiles incoming. ETA one minute. Once your sector is clear of civilians, move to point Delta and protect the tower until advised otherwise. Control, out."

Massani wasted no more time and ran.

=DC=

Five minutes later, after forming a scratch squad at the rally point and moving in to secure his designated area, Zaeed was already neck deep in flash-heads. If the damn robots weren't trying to punch his number, their damn design would be hilarious! Who made their robot troopers with flash-lights in the centre of the head?!

The bastards were tough and accurate – he had to give them that, not that it was a surprise, they were machines after that. Their weapons were nasty – two of the privates he picked up died without knowing what hit them when a Geth drop-ship screamed above their heads and deployed three robots behind them. Whatever they used as munitions simply tore through the luckless bastards shields as if they weren't there before perforating their their heads and neck. At least their death allowed the rest of the squad to scatter and return fire. Then the next unpleasant surprise came – those flash-heads had powerful shields and only Zaeed had disruptor ammo available. The others needed to focus fire to take out the enemy and that was enough for the robots – even as Massani decapitated one with a sustained burst and a second got blasted by the other five mercenaries, the last Geth methodically shot two of them in the head before the others got behind solid cover.

"Control, Sergeant Massani. We need disruptor ammo and tech support. The Geth units have powerful shields." He called while signing at a Corporal to draw the last Geth's attention.

The man nodded grimly and shouted to one of the remaining privates. A moment later the two of them showed as little as they could over the cover and opened fire. The Geth managed to blast off the back of the private's head before Zaeed could take aim and return the favour. A movement in the air down a side street goth the mercenary's attention and he got back under cover as fast as he could.

"Company, four o'clock!" Zaeed shouted a warning. Just in time too, because a pair of drones came screaming at them and opened fire. They caught the Corporal in a bad spot – he just dashed to shift cover and turned simply turned his torso into a gory mess.

Zaeed sent a few burs at the drones before displacing and this time his luck shifted – he heard one of the machines whine in distress before a sharp explosion sounded behind him. The other one followed him and came in straight into the sights of his remaining men. They did a short work of it but not before it managed to blow off the head of another mercenary.

What was with those Geth and head-shots?!

"Form on me." Zaeed barked. "Control, Sergeant Massani – we encountered a Geth fire-team with drone support and took them out." He reported. "We suffered heavy casualties however. I'm down to two effectives, the others are KIA. Continuing sweep and requesting reinforcements."

"Sergeant Massani, Control. Be advised, we're encountering Geth air-drops all over the town. The towers are doing what they can to keep enemy air-support at bay. Finish the sweep and displace to point Delta ASAP. You'll link with reinforcements there. Control, out."

"God, damn it!" Zaeed spat. "You two, watch my ass. I'm taking point."