A/N

Hi everyone! I decided to upload this one a little more than a week early as it was getting a little far ahead on pat-re-on and I thought I needed to keep it even. Ten chapters ahead was too much, so I am pulling it back by a chapter or two. I will still be putting another chapter out on the normal day, which is the 30th of the month, so this is just a bonus release. If you want to read ahead, then head to pat-re-on and look up Bored Peasant's Written Works and you can see me there.

Thanks so much everyone for your support. I couldn't do this without you. Special thanks to Aaron, Amorac07, Andr, Austin, Ben wanless, Brian, BuzzGrave, Chris, Christopher Herring, Eligah Moreno, Endervslender, Ezoz, FallenMetalGod, Freeman, Hyaaa B1tch, Jason Bourne, Jason Moreno, Jermaine Key, joshua scruggins, JotunAltHist, Lasted, liam darrell, liquidpotato, Luke, MathTheOriginal, Michael Scott, My Name is Klondike, Nathan Block, Nathan Duncan, Orangerazor120, Patiflops, Paul Fischer, Proxy, r4p16, Randall Cook, Ranger, Robert Tipton, Sam Tollefsbol, Sith_Paladin, sonic, Terror, The Senn Master, Thezombiegamer707, Tlingit97, Tristan d'conceicao, UtopiaKnight39 and Voidwolf 1994.

Anyway, on to the story!

…

CHAPTER 47 – EVENTS ON OMEGA

(Beau POV)

Beau did a final check on his gear, making sure everything was ready to go. As he expected, everything was all correct. Like always.

As if he would ever let it be otherwise.

It had taken careful planning, but they were hitting up three of the Blue Suns bases on Omega all at once. Two different teams of four and Beau's personal team of three, all stood at their selected rallying points, waiting to take the fight of their targets.

While Beau's team might sound like it was at a disadvantage in only having three people, it was misleading. They had a different mission to the others. The first two teams were combat assault teams. A mix of human, turian and asari members who would be going in guns blazing to catch their enemies unaware and destroy as much property as possible.

Beau's team, on the other hand, was all about infiltration.

Their mission was to conduct a raid on a warehouse that was used to store slaves before they were sent to market in Hegemony space.

The place was well defended and nondescript, being a place that the Blue Suns tried to keep quiet about. After all, they also did legitimate business with the different governments of the galaxy, such as their maximum-security prison ship that drifted around the different star systems. If those governments felt like they would be exposed as supporting slavery, they would drop all of their business with the Blue Suns so fast that they would leave an afterimage.

He looked to the two that were with him. The first was a quarian pilgrim named Lutem that they had rescued awhile back that had decided to stick around until he finished his pilgrimage. He specialised in hacking. He wasn't as good as Hectar, but Hectar had been seconded to dealing with the prothean VI on the Balrog until they squeezed all of the information that they needed out of the thing.

The third member was the asari that had joined him when he visited Aria, Aneta, who would be his fellow combatant and biotic support if things went south.

Darren was leading one of the other teams and the third team was headed by a turian named Kanaes. Darren's team would be hitting a supply store and barracks using mostly heavy explosives, while Kanaes would be targeting a vehicle depot. While there wouldn't be tanks, there would be aircars and a gunship or two that they could take out, which would lower the Blue Suns' ability to rapidly move their troops around the space station.

They couldn't bring any of their own Grim gunships as air cover. Something that blatant would tell the entire galaxy that Shieldstar was at war with Blue Suns. And with the amount of anti-slavery raids they had conducted, it was possible that there might be quite a few other mercenary bands out there that would want to take a shot at them. No need to make themselves that big of a target right now.

He looked at the other members of his team and gestured, giving the signal that he was ready. Once they gave their own signals, he activated his active camouflage, disappearing from normal view with a muted white flash. Two more muted flashes announced that Aneta and Lutem had done the same.

He activated his SONAR, letting him keep track of the others. It was a weakness of the camo. The physical body still bounced off sound waves, letting SONAR see anything that was trying to hide through technological means. There were ways to counter it, but individual infantry units in mercenary gangs didn't use them.

Beau led the way across the street, moving to the warehouse that was his target. His SONAR told him that his team stayed with him, in proper formation. He moved down the side of the warehouse, making use of a walkway that would lead to the side door that would be his point of entry.

The warehouse was longer than most people would expect to find on a space station, but not as long as one would expect to find planet side. However, it was a little out of the way from the residential quarters so it would not draw attention. At the same time, it was close enough to a set of docking bays that would allow the Blue Suns to get in and get out without drawing attention to their… merchandise.

They approached a side door and stopped on either side of it. Beau took a few moments to investigate with his SONAR. He frowned. There were far less mercs in the base than he had expected; nearly none, in fact. This was good in that it meant there was less danger, but it also meant there were likely to be less slaves, which was not desirable.

Still, he didn't see anything in particular that would prevent their entry. No close guards, no booby traps on the door. Nothing.

It spoke to a level of arrogance and confidence that they had, to have such low security at such an important base. No one was likely to take action against a mercenary group as large and well established as the Blue Suns. At least, not without either a death wish, or a lot of allies.

Or without tech and people that were good enough to make it possible to attack them and get away scot-free.

He made a gesture and Lutem moved forward, and hacked the door in a few seconds. Instantly, they pushed their way inside, being careful for any squeaks that came from the door's hinges.

It was a simple warehouse. The main floor was a single story that was partitioned in several places to create rooms for a kitchen, bathroom, sleeping, and securing the slaves. There were some offices in the south end that had a second-floor staircase leading up to it. It would give a foreman the perfect view over all the warehouse and anyone still in it. Or the guard captain.

Unfortunately, the offices were out of range of SONAR for the moment. But that was easily remedied.

The group split, with Beau heading to the offices, while Aneta and Lutem went to clear out the sleeping quarters and the slave pen. He kept a close eye on his HUD, making sure that the reader for his camo wasn't falling too low. By the time he reached the staircase, he hadn't passed anyone, which only made him more concerned.

By all rights, there should have been at least a few mercs wandering around as guards, even if they felt secure. The only reason that someone would need to leave the base empty, is if it was empty. And if it was currently empty…

That meant someone was going to come back.

He moved up the stairs as silently as he could, more grateful than ever for the sound dampeners on his boots. Not only that, he was grateful that the metal staircase was solid and wasn't creaking as he ascended to the offices.

A look with SONAR revealed that there were only three people in the office, two turians and a batarian. It made him feel a little better that there were actually mercs here, and it wasn't a complete waste of time. Still, it would have been better if there was more on hand.

"Ghost 1, this is Ghost 2. Sleeping quarters and slave quarters are clear. No slaves in the pens. Over."

Just like he had feared. Other than killing a few Blue Suns mercenaries, they wouldn't be able to do much at this facility right now. The timing was off. Blue Suns were expected to be here by now with a fresh batch of slaves. Time to finish up and go.

He hid behind the door to the office, listening to the conversation going on inside for nearly a minute. It was the standard hazing he heard around soldiers everywhere, but nothing important was revealed. Even SONAR could only show that they were wearing armour and carrying weapons.

He pulled his Butcher off his back with one hand and grabbed a flashbang grenade with his other one, getting ready to throw it when he heard something.

"Ritt, Bix," a voice crackled from a comm somewhere near the back of the room. "This is Vett. We are ten minutes out with our newest acquisitions, coming through the back door."

On his SONAR, Beau watched one of the turians head over to a desk at the back of the room and hit a button on a terminal. "Copy that," the turian's flanged voice replied. "We'll see you when you get here. Pens are ready to go."

"Copy."

Well, that was good to know. It looked like their sojourn to this here Blue Suns base won't be a bust after all. They could come away with something from it.

Beau watched on the SONAR that all three of the aliens met together and started to come towards the door Beau was crouching behind. Making up his mind quickly, he activated the flashbang, waited for two seconds, then opened the door and tossed it in, right at the three aliens.

One of the turians made a startled noise, but that was it, as the delayed throw meant they didn't have time to move away from the explosive. It went off with a bang that was muted by Beau's helmet. Seeing as the three aliens didn't have helmets, they had no such protection.

The instant it went off, they all let out stunned cries. They didn't cry out for long though, as Beau burst through the door and gunned them down with his Butcher, the heavy booming shots killing the aliens quickly and violently.

"Clear up here," he said into his comm. "Heads up though, we have incoming nine minutes away. Slaves have been identified as possible targets. Make your way to the back door. Whatever vehicles they have will come through there."

He received two confirmations and took a quick look at the terminal on the desk at the back wall. It was still on, having been left that way after the mercs had received the call from the incoming slave run.

He jogged over to it and took a quick look. He wasn't a whizz on computers like Hectar was, or even as competent as Brock, but he wouldn't have made N school if he couldn't use one decently. Special forces didn't accept idiots.

He quickly tapped through a few files before he hit paydirt.

It was a complete list of clients for the Blue Suns that had ordered slaves that had passed through this warehouse. It was the sort of blackmail material that people could only weep at the idea of getting. Many of the clients were batarians, of course, but many were not. He even recognised the name of a turian diplomat that he had come across during his time in the military who had been extremely anti-human. He couldn't hold back the vicious grin he got from that.

He linked his omnitool to the terminal and activated the copying program that Hectar had so thoughtfully created, getting everything from the file that he could get within two minutes. He didn't have time to get everything, but he was confident that he had gotten enough information that they would be able to… 'convince' people to leave them alone for a good long time. Or whatever else Brock could come up with.

He disconnected his omnitool from the terminal and rapidly made his way down to the entrance at the back of the warehouse, which happened to be on the east side so he didn't need to run the long way to get there. He arrived down there with only a couple of minutes to spare. He looked at the available space and made a quick plan.

"Aneta you hide there," he pointed to a shadow alcove that would hide her asari features for a few moments. "Lutem, I want you right behind the doors, hidden behind that locker." He pointed that out to them. "When their vehicles stop, I want you to launch the biggest overload you can both manage. Do it while their guard is down and synchronise with each other for maximum impact. I am going to immediately follow up with flashbangs to keep them disoriented. That will also affect the captives, but it won't kill them.

"While they are stunned, open fire. Slug rounds," he instructed. "I don't want any collateral damage from pellets or stray shots hurting the slaves. No Warps or Singularities either," he said to Aneta. "If you think you can hit the slaves with a Barrier or shielded version of Stasis then do so. But if you are pressed, focus on protecting yourselves first."

Both his teammates nodded and headed to their designated posts. Just in time too. Less than a minute later, he could hear the sound of a shuttle coming closer. The warehouse door jolted and started to open with a loud rattling sound. Before it fully opened, a large passenger shuttle with blacked out windows came flying through the door.

Beau palmed his two remaining flashbangs, waiting for the mercs inside the shuttle to open. He could see the shuttle rocking slightly as people moved around inside it. Finally, the door opened and another turian stepped out, followed by four more armoured mercenaries.

"Ritt! Bix!" the first turian shouted, looking towards the office. "Get down here and get some food for the merchandise! We got them, you look after them."

Beau watched as a fifth merc, a human this time, led four little human kids, and a small salarian out of the shuttle. Go time.

There was a loud electrical crackling sound and a yellow flash as two overloads hit the group at the same time. The entire group froze as the electrical discharge shocked them all.

Beau side-armed the flashbangs out of his cover. The first was aimed at the group, the second into the shuttle, just in case there was anyone else in there. A loud bang and bright flash blinded them and he had to ignore the screams of the children as they all threw their arms up as if to ward off the blindness.

The lead merc was good, having drawn his sidearm the instant that the overloads landed, though it was only a dead weight until it overcame the discharge. He moved back towards the shuttle, clearly looking to get behind cover but only made it two steps before Beau nailed him with the slug rounds from the Butcher.

It only took two shots to take him down. The rest of the mercenaries fell before they had a chance to recover from the effects of the flashbang.

As soon as they were down, Beau holstered his weapon and moved forward slowly towards the kids. He got to his knees in front of them to make himself as non-threatening as possible.

"Hey kids," he said softly, cursing that his voice was modulated to ensure that no one could get a trace on his actual voice. "Are you all ok? I'm sorry about the loud noises but we had to stop the bad guys taking you away."

The children were scared and crying. A little girl was clutching at a boy who was a couple of years older than her. Not that it said much as he was probably only about seven years old anyway.

"My name is Beau. It's my job to save people from the bad guys that would take you away from your families. I'm going to take you back to your families now," he said softly, as the children were regaining their vision and squinting at him. "I'm sure they are worried sick about you all. Do you want to come with me so we can get you back to your families?"

The children looked frightened and their faces had tear tracks running down them, even the salarian's. It was a scene he had seen dozens of times over the last two years, and a few more times in the military. It never failed to make his heart ache at seeing it, and cause anger to well up at their captors.

Luckily, he also had plenty of experience in hiding those emotions to make sure he didn't frighten the kids.

The children all nodded their heads slowly and Beau pointed to the door that they had used to infiltrate the warehouse. "We are going to go that way," he said. "We have a large aircar out there and we are going to go to our ship so that we can get away before any more of the bad guys come back to try and hurt us all. Is that ok?"

The kids nodded again, not even questioning it. "Now," he continued softly, "I can't take my helmet off here because they might have cameras in here that would show my face. If they see my face, I won't be able to help other people that get taken by the bad guys. So, I am sorry that we have to wait until we get back to our ship before I can take my helmet off for you."

The kids nodded again and he stood up slowly. "I have two more friends here that are going to help me get you to safety," he explained before they moved anywhere. "Then we are going to meet up with some more friends that we came with and we will get you away from all the bad guys. Ok?"

Another nod.

"Ok then," he said as Lutem and Aneta came out of their hiding spots. "Follow me children. I will lead the way and make sure it's safe. My friends here are going to make sure that no one comes from behind so they will walk at the back. Let's go."

Slowly but steadily, he led the way out of the warehouse, keeping his head on a swivel to ensure they were not caught off guard. It wasn't as many slaves as he had been hoping, but five more kids would get a chance to reconnect with their family, or at least live long full and, most importantly, free lives.

He felt the anger stirring in him again at the thought of Blue Suns and their role in this, but also their clients who put them up to it.

He was looking forward to going through that list. One by one.

…

(Liselle POV)

She pushed the crate containing her belongings on the hover sled, or at least the belongings that she had been told were acceptable, towards the docking bay she had been instructed to go to. She still didn't really see the need for this whole thing, but her mother could be quite scary when acting as a mother. It was even weirder for her to see the older asari in a mothering role, seeing as she had to act so tough to everyone around her. Not that it was an act. Her mother was tough, fierce and powerful, but in her own weird way she could be extremely doting and, dare she say it, smothering.

Even when trying to keep their relationship a secret from everyone on Omega

Still, she knew that once her mother started to talk in that certain tone, she had no choice but to obey. Nearly three centuries of living on Omega had taught her one, undeniable truth about her mother.

What Aria wants, Aria gets.

Still, Liselle was astute enough to know the implications of this journey. While she may not know exactly what the reason for her being told to leave her mother's space station to go journeying with one of her mother's… friends might not be the right word, but it was the one she was using for now. So, while she might not know the reason why she was being sent off with her mother's friend, she knew enough that this Nielson person had been acting very firmly against slavery.

In fact, she had heard reports that a whole bunch of attacks had been made against Blue Suns mercenaries on Omega in the last few hours. While she hadn't heard that it was specifically done by Nielson's people, she'd overheard enough things from her mother to suspect that it might be the case. If that was true, then that might be a reason for Liselle to be moved off Omega for a while. Because, while not many people were aware that Liselle was Aria's daughter, it probably wouldn't be too hard to figure out by a determined individual.

But that only led to the other implication that would change things. Omega had a tightly maintained balance between the mercenary gangs that had operations run out of there. The big three, also known as Eclipse, Blue Suns and Blood Pack, would be enough on their own to make people concerned about them attacking. If Aria allowed one to be attacked on her space station, it would lead to an imbalance of power between them, risking a gang war that Aria wouldn't want on her station.

Additionally, Aria had always sided in preference to mercenary gangs over any others in general. She withstood the demands of governments who sought to bring her to heel. Her own mercenary forces were enough to make even the big three wary about attacking her head on, at least individually. But if Aria allowed someone to attack one of the big three, then sent her daughter off with the attacker… it meant that for the first time in centuries, Aria was publicly standing against the mercenaries on her station.

If anyone found out that Liselle was Aria's daughter and that Liselle was seeking protection with the ones that attacked the big three on Omega… there might not be an Omega left for Aria to call home.

At least Liselle wasn't an Ardat Yakshi. If she had to flee because of her mother, she could be relatively safe in asari territory, not having to worry about the Justicars hunting her down. They were known for being relentless, after all. A relatively small blessing, though she would need to avoid any Eclipse mercenaries for a few decades.

The sound of an aircar approaching drew her out of her thoughts and she looked up to see one, two, three of them approaching the docking area. There was an aircar landing zone just at the entrance and the three aircars immediately steered towards it.

She waited next to the docking bay door, watching as armed and armoured beings exited the three aircars, making their way quickly towards her. She counted eleven being all told, a mix of human, asari and turians, with a quarian thrown in for variety. Strangely enough, they also had a small group of human children and a salarian child between them, all of them looking dirty and scared. He heart went out to them sympathetically. The armed beings stood protectively close to the children, looking everywhere for any danger that might present itself at any moment.

They all marched past her, moving to the docking bay airlock, ignoring her as they moved quickly, keeping the children in the middle of their group for the most protection. She turned to watch them disappear as the airlock door closed behind them. Considering how they were armoured, she could assume that her guess that they had gone up against the Blue Suns holdings was probably not far off the mark.

A cough came from behind her, making her jump and turned around, cursing herself for her inattention. She would never hear the end of it from her mother if she heard that Liselle had been taken by surprise so easily.

Standing behind her was a human male, slightly taller than herself, though that wasn't saying much as she was rather short for her people. He was also fully armoured, with a blocky weapon on his upper back and a thick barrelled shotgun on his lower back. As he was still wearing a helmet, she couldn't see his face, but he was looking right at her.

"You Liselle?" he asked gruffly, his voice coming out slightly modulated. Smart, if he was doing things that would make Blue Suns want to hunt him down. They had plenty of practice hunting people and biometrics were notoriously annoying at revealing your location at times.

She nodded. "Yes," she confirmed. "I was told to meet you here."

He nodded in reply. "Can you show me some identification?" he asked. "I'm not just taking anyone's word on it out here."

She grimaced a little, knowing that it was probably a good way to think. While there wasn't as much crime on Omega as people believed, after all Aria did run a tight ship, there were still plenty of criminals and con artists that came here to escape the law somewhere else.

She activated her omnitool and showed him her ID, he scanned it with his own omnitool for a moment before lowering his arm and nodding.

"Good," he said bluntly, moving towards the airlock. "Come with me. We need to get off this space station, sharpish. Bring the sled. We'll keep it on the ship for you."

She fell into step behind him, pulling the hover sled into the now empty air lock, the previous group having cleared it through the corvette on the other side.

"You will be under observation for a while, and your movement around the Balrog will be both restricted and monitored for the immediate future," the human continued as the door hissed closed. "You will need to earn trust if you are going to be given more access to the internal ship."

She frowned. "I'm here on behalf of Aria T'loak," she objected. "I am not a prisoner for you to keep locked up."

The inner airlock door hissed open, granting access to the corvette. The human didn't move though, turning to look at her. Reaching up, he took his helmet off before responding. Once he was free of it, she noted that he was slightly older than Nielson was, by her best guess. He had dark hair that was flecked with grey, tanned skin and brown eyes that were frowning at her. His face was smooth, not having that odd facial hair that humans seemed to be able to grow.

All in all, not bad to look at, if he wasn't frowning at her.

"I don't care who your mother is," he retorted. "She could be a princess or a pauper. It has no effect on how you are treated on our ship. You might claim your mother sent you here to be a liaison, but we both know the truth. She sent you here to keep you safe. For some reason or other, she doesn't think that such a thing is possible for you on Omega, nor on the Citadel.

"Because of that, we are having to play babysitter to a pirate queen's child," he continued, not letting her speak. "I am not trained to chase kids around, so you are going to be a good little girl and do what you are told or my boss is going to give me express permission to spank you, before keeping you confined to your rooms. If you don't want that, you'll do what you're told, when you're told and if you show that I can trust you, then you will be allowed more."

Despite his short stature, he seemed to loom over her as her glowered. "Do I make myself clear?" Liselle had been around her mother enough to know when this question was asked, it wasn't really a question. She nodded stiffly.

He turned forward and marched into the corvette. "Good," he said, not looking back at her. "You'll be allocated quarters when we rendezvous with the Balrog. Until we get there, you can either stay in the galley with the kids we just rescued or you can wait in the hold with your luggage. Your choice."

She knew instantly that she would be going to choose. She had always had a soft spot for children. "I'll come to the galley," she said, moving to follow him into the ship, feeling a tiny shudder as the corvette disconnected from the airlock and started heading towards hard space quickly.

"That's where I am going now," he said, still not turning around. "I need to make sure the kids are doing ok." He hesitated briefly and frowned a little more. "They don't look like they have eaten much for a while and I want to help them be comfortable while we look into returning them to their families. They deserve that much. I think we even have some toys left over they can have."

Liselle blinked, hearing the genuine concern in the man's voice. She looked at him with new eyes. Sure, he came across as serious and no nonsense, but she had no problem with that, not after having been around Aria and Omega. But clearly there was more to the human underneath, such as a soft side for children. He had a commanding side who took charge and committed to action, and a caring side to defend, provide and comfort.

She felt an involuntary shiver run down her spine, but not an unpleasant one in the slightest. She herself had a soft spot for children… and the people who looked after them it seemed.

The human continued forward, unaware of her new interest in the workings of the ship… and its crew. Or at least one of the crew.

She was going hunting. The poor prey had no idea what was coming for him.

Huh. Maybe she was more alike to her mother than she realised.

…

1 film, 4 reviews

Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi

Thessian Suns Publication

By Helia Mis'audis

A fine conclusion to the original trilogy in this franchise. While it doesn't quite reach the heights of the previous films, and it sadly rehashes the same plotline of the first one, it was different enough that it was still fresh.

The evolving relationship between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader reached a full conclusion and the ending does leave it open to future sequels. The whole adventure was well paced and the action was entertaining, engaging and filled with enough tension to give real emotional investment.

Those Ewoks were so cute! I just wish they were real so that I could cuddle them and have them around going 'Yub nub'. I think I would die from cuteness overload!

Sur'kesh Leaf Script

By Silarn Moduk

Unfortunately, this vid fell prey to what so many vids in a series do, and that is fall short of the original. If one was to look at this vid in its own right, it would admittedly do better. It was entertaining, it had interesting character interactions and dynamics, the action scenes were intense and enjoyable and the conclusion stunning and emotional. It just is unfortunate that the vids prior to it were of greater quality.

That said, it was certainly enjoyable and did a good job in concluding the current story arc, while also leaving it open ended enough that there could be sequels that spawn from it.

On a side note, the original creator sold the rights to these vids, and the new owners created the sequels. They do not stand up. Eventually they were rejected and replaced with new stories. I would recommend those instead.

Palaven Daily Call

By Marticus Lossus

I had someone come up to me after my last vid review for Empire Strikes Back and complain that in a series about wars through space, there are a distinct lack of large-scale spaceship battles. Well, I don't believe that person will be complaining any more.

The story was lacking a little freshness compared to the previous vids, but the visuals were stunning for its time and the remastered version that we watched made it hard to tell that it wasn't actually happening. If it wasn't for the completely different technology, it would be hard to tell that it was a different galaxy.

It does re-raise some questions that arose from the first vid, such as the effectiveness of fighter craft against capital ships and space stations. I imagine that there will be a council assembled on Palaven that will be assigned to discuss the effectiveness and determine if there is a need to expand turian fighter craft production to a level that humans appear to use.

I have no comment on those… Ewoks. The make no tactical sense.

The Krogan Word

By Ognut Grax

They got to blow up the big stuff again! And not just one, there was lots of big things destroyed! The Death Star, the Super Destroyer! That shield generator! Those walker things! The regular Destroyers! The slug guy's barge! So many explosions!

And the snacks! Those Ewoks made me hungry. I may have drooled more than when I am with a woman. And the explosions may have [REDACTED BY CITADEL NEWS DUE TO SEXUAL CONTENT] me more too!

No complicated stuff. Just lots of things going boom, followed by a snack. That would be my perfect day!

…

A/N

Poor Beau doesn't even realise that he made an impression.

There is very little that I have read about Liselle, so I am going to be using a lot of creative licence when I do anything with her. I realise that she is probably expanded on in one of the books that were written for the ME universe, but I haven't read it. And while she was raised by Aria, she isn't Aria. I am also pitching her as late maiden stage, nearly matron. But I could go full matron if anyone knows more about her age.