The moment the lights went out, Kat cloaked and Jack and EDI started moving. Nobody said a word. There was a weird sound coming from the equipment in the guard station against the right wall; low and gravelly, like static from something overloading. While EDI moved pretty good for a robot, Jack could hear each heavy step of her feet so she guessed the noise played to their advantage. The Krogan began milling around, weapons raised, but the heat-shape of their heads looked around in random directions. She grinned. They were blind.
Jack picked up the pace and aimed for the biggest gap between the giant bodies, then twisted and spun through at least a dozen of them without sparing a glance for the others. The Krogan were shouting commands and three of them clustered right in front of her, forcing her to change direction quickly. When one of them then raised an arm to point toward the station, mid-dodge, she dropped and slid beneath for almost a meter. Her shins and knees sang in pain, dragging across the rough stone, but she quickly crawled to her feet with her pulse loud in her ears. In moments she was free and found EDI on the other side before sprinting away.
Looking over her shoulder at their widening distance, Jack's lips peeled back in a wolfish grin. Just then she noticed EDI digging her heels in to stop and her head swiveled forward to see the shape of 3 tomkahs tearing down the tunnel toward them. The arc of the first's headlights spread wide from wall to wall. If it hit them, they'd be seen and that would be…
"Don't stop!" Came Kat's voice over comms. "We can't get surrounded!"
EDI glanced in her direction and Jack shrugged before picking up the pace again. Together their feet pounded stone until the brightness of the headlights illuminated them. They peeled off from center, each one sprinting for all they were worth in an effort to get past the vehicles. Jack went right and flew by the front grill before whoever was driving decided to hit the brakes. The tomkah behind also braked hard, swinging to his right to almost strike the wall and Jack saw EDI leap atop its front hood then off again with hardly a pause. When the wide side doors of the tomkahs began to slide open Jack felt a chill crawl up her spine. All the doors were on her side. She didn't know how many Krogan were about to emerge but her body didn't give her time to think about it.
She felt the biotics rise, joining the thrill of danger and the answering thrum of the adrenaline she'd been built for. It was the air she breathed, the food she ate, the dreams she had when she slept. It was her poisoned, black, beating heart and it leapt to life. A shockwave flew from her left hand like a bowling ball, rocking the sliding doors back into their frames with a crash. With each black opening she passed she released a stupidly loud shot from her pistol, bursting with the fury of a shotgun into anyone unlucky enough to be crowding the exits. She heard herself roaring at them, too.
"Keep going!" Kat shouted. "We're almost there!"
And she might've been right. It might take the Krogan a while to get organized, but this underground road was straight and long and there were lots of guns behind them. Maybe it was because they were so close to their goal. Maybe it was because this was her only chance to get out of this place. Maybe it was just because all her violence meant fuck-all when her one goddamn job was to get people not to kill each other. She might never know. All she did know in that moment was that she had to slow them down and there was only one way to do that.
So while EDI and Kat (she hoped) sped down the corridor, Jack stopped and sucked in a breath. She holstered her pistol and brought both hands to her center, pulling and tugging at the glowing threads of biotic power she could see even with her eyes closed. Her palms pulled closer and closer to one another, shaping the forces of gravity into a ball and spinning it, giving it life. Her comms were screaming. She ignored the sound, throwing herself into focus instead. Around and around it goes, where it stops, nobody knows. The ball tightened, strands sinking deeper into a black center that glowed at the edges.
It transfixed her, that tiny black hole. A part of her wanted to dive into that singularity, become one with the universe forever and ever or some shit; but with a sigh of resolve she willed it toward the tomkahs and the path she'd just run. She could see them now, ranks of Krogan stuffed in a row by the tunnel wall with weapons out and ready. She pulled her pistol again, expecting this to fail as it always had and watched it arrive. It spun and glowed… then shrank out of existence. Jack screamed in frustration and it ripped all the emotion she was feeling out from every crevice for anyone and everyone to see.
The singularity exploded in a blaze of black light. Everything around it spun, but instead of being pulled into the calming regular suspension she saw when Liara used it they were tossed; repulsed violently in every direction. The Krogan disappeared behind it and the Tomkah groaned, it's back end lifted and spun until the whole thing landed on its side, underbelly exposed. There was a stunned silence as if nobody was there at all before Jack heard repeated rifle fire from behind and to her right, pinging off the metal bits below before finding the fuel tank.
The rocking explosion filled the enclosed space, and Jack's eyes absorbed the sight. She could feel its warmth, though the flames bent around the barrier enclosing her before dissipating into a veil of smoke. Elation flooded her and her eyes widened while she gasped again and again. She'd sent a Singularity, but it ended up a Flare, just like Aria's favorite party trick. She'd been told humans couldn't do it so it didn't make sense but by god it was… everything . She was broken out of her reverie by arms pulling at her and she turned to see EDI and Kat begging her to go. After one more look, she went.
Grunt sighed, shoulders slumped. "Time's up, you stubborn jackass," he breathed toward the shadowed plastic enclosure housing Kravorog's mutated form. He stood and Dulak guards lifted weapons from where they stood around the throne room. "There's no stopping this, now."
"Well then," Krav growled. "Now that's settled there's no reason for you to be here."
Grunt snarled, "These are my people! They're coming home, now!"
The giant Krogan padded to the barrier where he could be seen and looked down at his 'brother', sneering. "No. They're going to die here, because of you."
"Why won't you see reason?" he spat, curling his claws into fists.
"We had a bargain with Urdnot," Dulak said, spelling out every word like a sentence. "Wrex's last orders were to attack Sur'Kesh. We did our part but now you're here cowering at the prospect of justice and glory. Pathetic."
Roksar spoke softly from where she stood next to her mate's container. "Grunt raises fair points. We may have revenge, but most if not all our troops will die on the Salarian homeworld. How does this help us? How does having them die here help us?"
"You too?" Kravorog shouted, tossing his head toward her. "If Clan Urdnot will not honor their agreements, they are not worth following! We may die here today, but there are millions of children on Tuchanka. If we die here it will be because of HIM!" he cried, pointing at Grunt. "His cowardice and betrayal will make him a target for the rest of his days . Our progeny will see to it."
"If we don't evacuate now," Roksar insisted, "It will be hundreds of years before we have enough adult warriors to threaten anyone, much less the Salarians."
Grunt pointed a finger at Kravorog. "I'm gonna go out there and tell those warriors they need to get out of here. If you wanna try and stop our fleet when it comes, we'll put you down.." Grunt looked to Charl, who'd been sitting quietly in a corner and said, "We're leaving."
"You do that and I'll kill you, " the Krogan leader said with calm assurity.
He looked back at the throne and said, "If I don't leave here, you'll have broken the sacred terms of the Crush. We will hunt you down."
Kravorog spread his hands. "Doesn't matter. I'm gonna die here anyway."
A perplexed look crawled all over his reptilian face. "Are you sick in the head? You don't have to stay here!"
Dulak just looked at him for a long moment, then banged a fist against the clear barrier between them.
"He's completely adapted to this planet's climate and atmosphere," Roskar interjected sadly. "He will not breathe the air of Tuchanka again."
Grunt took the statement in for a few seconds before shaking his head dismissively. "We can rig a bay for you on one of the ships."\
"There's not enough ships for us all, already." Krav took a deep breath and released it before speaking again. "I have children of my own here. Dozens of them like me. I won't leave them."
His confusion only worsened. "But, how? Why didn't you say anything?"
"This was supposed to be my home forever," Dulak said with a shake of his head and a curl of his lips. "But the Salarians have screwed us over so many times this all just feels temporary . It needs to end and if I have to die to make sure it's done, so be it. The only way you're leaving here with these men is on warships bound for Sur'Kesh, Grunt. Keep Urdnot's promise to us or pay the consequences." He lifted his steel-hardened gaze to him. "I'm paying either way."
Before Grunt could respond he heard shouting and gunfire from the entrance. The throne room guards took up positions, one of them with a weapon pointed at Grunt, himself.
"Don't kill him!" he heard a strange voice say.
"For fuck's sake! FINE!" said another, followed by a few loud thumps on the wide doors. "Don't shoot!" came the voice again that now sounded like Jack. "We uh, come in peace!"
Okay, that didn't sound like Jack? Regardless, the big doors swung open and the biotic's face was revealed; along with EDI's unmistakable form and… his breath froze for a moment.
"Shepard?" he asked, eyes widening hopefully.
The figure turned to look at Jack before looking back at him. "Sorry pal, no."
The whole room seemed to collectively release a breath, except for Kravorog. "I told you to kill her!" he roared at Roksar, whose expression said this wasn't the first time he'd been angry at her and she wasn't impressed.
"My lab is my own," she said despite the giant creature banging both giant fists on the barrier nearby. "You have no say in my decisions there."
"Well she's here now !" he yelled at her, but Grunt was still gazing at the N7 armor the newcomer wore while the pair argued.
"Took you long enough," he said to Jack finally. The guards' attention was torn between the intruders and Kravorog, so Grunt kept his tone calmer than it might have been.
"Suck it. I'm here," she spat. "What's the sitch?"
"You're too late, is what," he said brusquely, but lifted a welcoming hand to EDI, who smiled for his benefit. "He's not gonna let us leave unless I agree to attack Sur'Kesh and we needed to go hours ago."
"Yeah?" Jack sneered, "I might have something to say about that."
"We don't have time," the human marine said, though the direction her helmet faced never left Kravorog. "Fighting our way out will just get us all killed."
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Katrin Turner," Roksar interjected, "And as she is armed and I don't see Leelia I must assume she has escaped captivity.
"Leelia's just fine," Turner said reassuringly before Krav could start demanding her death again. "She's already off-world, which is where you should be."
Roksar, however, didn't look convinced.
"It's cool, Roks," she said. "We even got the guards to head to the spaceport so they'd have a shot at evacuating." Then she tilted her head and shot a pointed stare at Kravorog. "You know, since this asshole doesn't even give a shit about his own people." She pointed a finger around at each of the guards, mouthing, "You heard right," to them silently.
A low rumble of laughter came from Dulak's container. "There's plenty of time to evacuate my people. In fact," he said, lifting a finger to point at his steward, "Tell them to begin."
Grunt felt his blood begin to boil in his veins as the Krogan departed. "You have no honor, brother," he growled. "I'm glad the asteroids are coming for us. You're not worth a better death!"
"You have no room to speak," Krav snarled.
The comms panel behind EDI lit up, and she turned to interact with it. Soon after, she looked over her shoulder and smiled. "It seems the planetary jamming signal has been lifted. We are being hailed."
Grunt looked at Krav and saw him straighten from his hunched and angry pose. "Get away from that," he ordered, then lifted his chin to one of the guards, who went over to have a look. EDI backed away obligingly, but seemed very pleased.
Soon he turned, looking at his leader. "It's Aralach. They want to speak to Grunt."
One way or another, this was finally going to be over. He lifted his Omni and opened the channel so everyone could hear. "This is Grunt," he said.
"We've been advised to turn the asteroids aside," a voice said. "Dulak is innocent."
The air in the room changed with the pronouncement, like a sudden cool breeze in the desert.
"Good!" he cried. "Good. Is there still time?"
There was a moment of silence before the reply. "Everyone down there needs to leave. Now."
Grunt looked up from the interface to stare at Kravorog questioningly. Dulak just stared at him belligerently. "Get your ships into position to receive us," he transmitted. "I'll contact you shortly." Then he cut the channel. "I can just broadcast, you know," he said. "Those men find out you've been keeping 'em in the dark they'll eat your whole clan for breakfast."
The beast in the cage spoke with surety. "That'll cost you time."
"You know what makes me laugh?" Katrin snickered, lazily approaching Kravorog's throne before the guards stood firm, weapons pointed. "This idea that you attacking the Salarian's homeworld will make them stop attacking yours." She twisted her torso to look at Jack, "I mean, we humans learn this lesson before we're what, five?"
"Uh…sure," Jack muttered uncomfortably.
Dulak's eyes bulged in fury but his voice was dangerously low. His desire to end this female was clear. "Please, tell me all about how the human race suffered an attempt at genocide and what you did to stop it, peacefully."
"Well not the whole race. And that's a long story," Turner said. "Several different long stories. Good news is the last few pretty much went the same way." The soldier cradled the barrel of her rifle as she considered her answer. "Smaller groups of people get abused and killed by bigger groups of people," she said. "Most of the time the bigger groups of people had better tech. Sound familiar?"
She pulled off her helmet then, and damn she was ugly. Half her head looked like it'd been melted with a torch. From the surprise on Krav's face, it must've been new, too.
"So here's the short version," she stated plainly. "See, the rest of the world thought pretty highly of these bullies, so nobody wanted to believe they were the bad guys. Shooting these assholes up would only make them look bad, so what did they do instead? They started documenting everything , past and present, and I mean everything . Then they broadcasted the proof everywhere on any outlet it could be seen," she said. "They put it in front of so many faces that it couldn't be ignored. If even half the people believed, that was half the people in the damn world who wouldn't want to be associated with it, or the people who did it."
"If half the world still supported them, how does that fix anything?"
Kat tilted her head and narrowed her eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Half is enough to cast doubt in every conversation. Half means some of them start standing with you and get to see the evil deeds first hand." She took a step forward, jaw taut. "Half makes you just as powerful as they are. Urdnot won a big part of that half by helping in the war, Dulak, but you go to Sur'Kesh?" She chuckled deeply. "You take this army to Sur'Kesh and you lose it. Guaranteed."
Grunt grunted in satisfaction, but then the old clan leader was roaring again.
"They attacked the civilians of our homeworld while our warriors were out there fighting for them !" he cried. "This holds no one accountable for their betrayal! They must pay for what they've done!"
"Is killing their civilians gonna make it right? Or does that just mean the next generation will want to kill you, too?" she declared.
"I don't need another reason to have you killed, human. Be silent!" he snarled at her.
"She's right, Krav," Grunt said impatiently. "It's only the Linron clan you want. The rest of them were there with us, at Earth."
"Then attack them!" Kravorog insisted.
"You think I haven't thought of that?" Grunt laughed, lifting a palm in the air, "They live in the planetary capital! An attack on them is an attack on all of them."
"Then kill them one by one," he growled. "I don't care how you do it, but unless you vow here and now everyone that had a say in this pays with their lives , we're all dying together."
"By the fiery glare of Aralakh…!" Grunt started screaming, then felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Jack, eyes quiet and serious.
When she saw that he'd stopped she turned to Kravorog. "I'll do it," she said. "I'll kill them."
The room went silent, each one of the occupants looking at each other in surprise and doubt before Roksar spoke. "Jack, I don't think you understand what you're volunteering for."
"Yeah," she snapped, "I do. And if I do it nobody will be able to blame you."
Kat turned, exasperated. "You don't know the first thing about who you're going after!"
"I'll learn," she replied, looking to Grunt. "You'll give me targets and I can get information on them."
"From who?" Kat cried.
"Don't worry about it," Jack insisted. "This? If it gets us outta here, I can do this." She turned to the big cage and looked up at Krav. "Okay? You warthog faced idiot? You good? Can we go now?"
Kravorog just looked at Grunt. "When she dies you finish it. Swear it."
He looked between them both, then nodded solemnly. "I swear, brother. They will die."
Charl spoke then, one of the few times he'd made a sound since they arrived. "The oath is recorded."
The enormous figure stood up straight and took his hands from the clear barrier. "Then go." He turned to the Captain of his Guard and added, "Begin the evacuation."
Everyone started to move, but Kravorog spoke one last time. "Tell them my vote is for you to lead, Grunt."
He stopped and looked back at Dulak questioningly.
"I don't know if the Krogan can adapt to this new world," he continued, glancing at Roksar tenderly before returning his gaze to Grunt. "You'll both have to show them how."
Roksar put her hand on the barrier and Kravorog did the same. Then, without a word, he turned and pressed a panel on the back wall of his cell, a wide and tall door slid open to reveal the howling white winds of Tyr. With large strides he disappeared into it.
"Hey!" Kat called from the doorway, but when Grunt looked, the woman's eyes were fixed on the last of the guards hurrying out of the throne room. She strode over to him and snatched at a long rifle in his hands. "This is mine ," she commanded and while he resisted at first, Roksar sighed and made him release it.
Jack snickered. "That's what all the fuss was about?" she joked, then motioned for Roksar and Charl to go ahead of her.
Kat scowled and moved to the exit herself. "Waste in a Krogan's hands."
Grunt called Aralakh back and told them everyone was coming, then they all ran to the last waiting tomkah and piled in.
"Nobody will know it's them, huh?" the disfigured marine said to Jack, sitting to her right on one of the columns of seats that ran the length of the vehicle.
Jack looked at her with narrowed eyes. "This gonna be a problem?"
Kat huffed. "What, me? No. Call it a thank you. But even if you pull this off, a bunch of Linron dropping is gonna paint a pretty big arrow," she said, glancing meaningfully at Grunt.
Jack turned her dark eyes to him for a second. "We'll figure it out."
Grunt wasn't so sure and he guessed his attention must've wandered, because Jack called his name to get his attention back.
"Hey," she said seriously, while handing him an almost empty bottle of clear liquid. "I was an ass. I'm sorry. Here's the liquor I promised."
Grunt took the bottle, grunted and just looked at her. "You're crazy , you know that?" he declared after a moment.
Her face lit up with a smile. "Yeah," was all she said in return.