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Slaves of Cerberus	By : NakedOwlMan Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 138070 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Mass Effect and all the characters in it are owned by people that are not me. I have not made a cent off this work of fiction

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Standing with her arms crossed, Aria watched as the shuttlecraft slowly drifted into the abandoned shuttle bay and came to a stop on the corroded metal deck. Behind her, she could feel Bray's two pairs of eyes on her, the batarian having found an out-of-sight vantage point to watch her meeting with Shepard.

Being here reminded her of the last time she and Shepard had worked together. Fighting their way through the back alleys and hidden passageways of Omega, cutting down those Cerberus bastards one after another. Thinking about that, though, made her remember Nyreen, and the unwelcome pang of emotion gave her the strong urge to focus her attention on more contemporary matters.

As the shuttle powered down, the side door hissed and swung open, and Shepard walked out with a disarming smile. For a human, she was quite a looker, Aria had to admit. Back during their fight for Omega, Aria had almost been tempted to kiss the powerful soldier on one occasion. But something about Shepard's attitude had held her back. That annoying streak of compassion in her, one that had caused her to stay her hand when Petrovsky had been at their mercy. But now, it seemed that Shepard's outlook had changed. Murdering Petrovsky proved that much, at the very least.

"You're looking good, Aria," Shepard said. As Aria watched, Shepard was joined by another human at her side. Not one of Shepard's usual band of do-gooders. This woman was different. Dark-skinned and sultry, with a face and body that wouldn't have been out of place in one of the seedier clubs down in the lower levels of Omega. That was, if it wasn't for the fierce intelligence that burned behind her dark eyes. Something about the way the woman looked at Aria gave her pause. She remembered Bray's suspicions, the strange nature of Shepard's request to meet her alone. Something about all this was... off.

"You too, Shepard," Aria said, not moving as Shepard and the unknown woman stepped away from the shuttle. As they neared her, Aria held up a hand. "That's close enough."

Shepard looked a bit confused. "Come on, Aria. After all I've done for you, I thought we were past this."

"We are past this, Shepard," Aria said. "But your new friend here... I don't know her."

"My apologies, Aria," the other woman said. "My name is Maya Brooks. I was doing research into this new Cerberus organization for the Alliance, when Commander Shepard got in touch with me. The two of us were able to track down Oleg Petrovsky and his associates, and deal with them properly."

"Then I'm very grateful to you, Miss Brooks," Aria said, again getting that strange feeling. Maya's words were respectful, but Aria hadn't lived for this long without being able to read people. And there was something cold in Maya's tone. A disdain, maybe even hatred, that was simmering just below the surface of her pleasant conversation. Aria had only known the human for about thirty seconds now, and already she didn't trust her. And the fact that Shepard did, made this whole meeting seem like a very bad idea.

Shepard stepped forward. "But it's not over yet, Aria," she said. In her hand, she brandished a datapad. "Like I told you, this goes deeper than Oleg. There's something here that I think you need to see."

Aria stepped cautiously forward, keeping Brooks in her peripheral vision as she approached Shepard. If the other human made any sudden movements, Aria was ready to hit her with a biotic strike hard enough to turn her into a bloody paste on the wall. Reaching Shepard, Aria took the datapad out of her hand and activated it.

"What am I looking at here, Shepard?" Aria said, staring down at the jumble of text on the screen. "Looks like a bunch of gibberish."

"It's encrypted," Shepard said. "Hit that button on the bottom left corner there, it will activate a decryption tool."

Aria followed the instruction, and watched as the characters flickered and realigned themselves. And then eventually formed a single sentence.

"SURPRISE, YOU STUPID ASARI BITCH"

"Bray, get..." Aria started to yell out, before a sharp pain flared up on the side of her neck and she felt herself falling to the floor.

* * *

From his hiding spot, Bray watched in horror as an armored woman materialized behind Aria. With a swift motion, the attacker drove an electrified prod into Aria's neck, and the powerful ruler of Omega fell limp to the ground.

He tensed his body, ready to go on the attack, but stopped himself from rushing out of hiding when he saw more women start to materialize. One after another, Bray counted fifteen of them before they were finished. If he charged into battle against those odds, he would be slaughtered.

"Dammit, Aria," Bray hissed quietly under his breath. "Why the hell didn't you listen to me?"

Trying his best to stay quiet, Bray activated his communication device. "Gavorn, come in," he quietly spoke. "I need you to put all of your men on alert and get them down to my location right away. Aria is in danger." He waited for a response for a few moments, and got none. "Gavorn, come in. Dammit, answer me!" He tried switching channels. "Patriarch! Garka! Is anyone on their comms?"

* * *

Garka stood up from the table in Aria's private lounge, listening to Bray panic on his comms unit. "It's been fun, gentlemen," he said to his tablemates, "but I'm afraid I have other matters to attend to. Omega is going to have a new ruler in a few hours, and I think it would be best if I give him a proper welcome. I'd invite you to join me, but... I think you've had a little too much to drink."

Gavorn and Patriarch had no response to this. The two of them were slumped in their chairs, Gavorn leaning forward onto the table, Patriarch's head rolled back and his cold, dead eyes pointing at the ceiling. On the table in front of them, their drinking glasses laid spilled across the surface, knocked over in their desperate throes of pain as the poison worked through their systems. From the bodies of the former lieutenants of Aria's administration, Garka could still hear Bray's desperate pleas coming out of their comms units, yelling at the corpses to sound the alarm.

Walking away from the bodies, Garka closed his own comm unit out, silencing Bray's voice. He had a lot of work to do to prepare for his employer's arrival, and didn't want to have any pointless distractions.

* * *

Fastening the biotic suppression collar around Aria's neck, Morgan stood up straight and began directing her people. "All of you, get moving into your designated areas. Plant those devices and get back here as soon as possible. Once our partner arrives, things are going to get really crazy, really quickly."

"What about you, ma'am?" one of the Phantoms asked Morgan, as she and the rest of the team started retrieving items from the shuttle. "Don't you have a device to plant?"

"No," Morgan said with a slight smile. "You ladies are here to make a delivery... but I'm here for a pickup." Triggering her tactical cloak without offering any further explanation, the Phantom leader vanished into nothingness, Her people soon followed suit, leaving Brooks and the clone alone with the unconscious Aria.

Brooks checked her omnitool. "Our partner will be here any second," she said, turning to the clone and arching her eyebrow. "Hadn't you better get covered up, love? As beautiful as it may be, I don't think our colleague would appreciate the sight of your face as much as I do."

Letting out an annoyed grunt, the clone nonetheless pulled down a helmet over her head, obscuring her face from view. Once this was done, the two of them watched out the shuttle bay door. After a few seconds, they saw another shuttle in the darkness of space, slowly flying in their direction.

"Promise me something, Maya," the clone said, as the two of them watched the shuttle fly past the forcefield barrier and steer itself down next to the smaller, repainted Normandy shuttle. "That once this bastard has served his purpose, we come back and blow his fucking head off."

"Nothing would give me greater pleasure, love," Brooks reassured the clone. The large shuttle came to rest, and the rear doors opened to allow a group of around twenty heavily-armed batarians to exit. Behind them, their leader looked cautiously around the shuttle bay before exiting, hand resting on the butt of the pistol at his hip as he set foot onto Omega. He glanced for a moment at Brooks and the clone, hidden under her helmet, before turning his attention to the unconscious asari on the floor.

"So... you were successful," the batarian said, delivering a light kick to Aria's side and waiting to see if she stirred. When there was no response, he turned his eyes to Brooks. "I still can't help but wonder... a human crafty enough to defeat the queen of Omega so easily, why would she so willingly hand away such a valuable prize like this station to me?"

Brooks gave the batarian leader an innocent smile. "We already discussed this. I'm not here for this station. Me and my people, we're just bounty hunters, here for our targets. Aria and the other. The idea of running a station like this... I can't say it interests me much. But you... you are a batarian who was born to lead. Once Omega realizes that Aria is gone, it's going to need someone to keep it from descending into chaos. Someone with the natural personality and strength to keep it running. And who could possibly be more suited for the job than you... Ka'hairal Balak."

Balak still looked suspicious, the terrorist leader regarding Brooks and her helmeted partner with suspicion. "I hope, human, that you don't believe that this act of generosity will spare the members of your species that reside on this station. I fully intend to give every human on this station the punishment they deserve for what they have done to my people. The fact that it was a human that defeated Aria and gave me Omega will change nothing."

"I didn't expect it to," Brooks said. "Just remember our deal. Tell your people to leave my people alone until we've retrieved our other target. Once she's been found and apprehended, we'll take her and Aria away, and leave Omega in your capable hands." Balak still looked uncomfortable, his men reaching for their guns as the clone suddenly pulled her weapon and pointed it at the unconscious Aria's head. "Or if you'd rather go back on the deal, we could blow Aria's face into bloody shreds, and screw up any chance you have of getting the support you need. Your choice."

Letting out a frustrated grunt, Balak signaled for his men to lower their weapons. "We will honor the bargain, human," Balak agreed. Turning to his men, he muttered instructions to them, quiet to not allow Brooks and the clone to hear. Nodding, most of them headed toward the shuttle bay exit, three staying behind with Balak. With that handled, Balak instructed his remaining men to activate their omni-tools, each of them dialing up a different frequency. Walking over to stand in front of Aria's unconscious body, Balak stood at attention as he waited for the extranet calls to complete. His men took positions in front of him, holding up their omni-tools in Balak's direction.

The first call connected, Balak's batarian guard calling up a hovering holographic screen and revealing an image of a krogan in Blood Pack armor. "Morg here," the krogan said.

The second screen came to life, showing an asari in the distinctive yellow armor of Eclipse. "Nylina here," the asari responded.

"And Vestron here," the last screen showed a turian in Blue Suns colors. "So, Balak, you finally ready to put your money where your mouth is?"

"I've done as I promised," Balak said. He directed his people to point the cameras of their omni-tools downward at the ground, and the unconscious body of Aria. "Aria T'Loak has been defeated. I have removed the queen of Omega from her throne, and this station is now ours for the taking!"

"I thought we did that," the clone hissed to Brooks.

Brooks leaned in close to the clone. "Let the little fuck have his moment of glory," Brooks whispered back.

"Son of a bitch," Nylina said in awe. "The batarian bastard actually did it."

"Hmm... Aria isn't looking so tough now, is she?" Morg said.

"And now that I've done my part, it's time for you to do yours," Balak said to the three gang members. "One of my men is already in position at Aria's command headquarters. Within the hour, we will have complete control of this facility. And once that is done, I'm counting on the Blood Pack, Eclipse, and the Blue Suns to help me keep the peace on this station. And also... to round up and detain every last human on this hunk of rock. In return, I will divide Omega up evenly between your three organizations, and allow you the freedom to do whatever you wish in your respective areas, so long as you remain loyal to the new ruler of Omega... me. Do you agree to these terms?"

"Never thought you'd pull it off, but if you were able to defeat Aria... Eclipse is with you, Balak," Nylina said. "My people will be out on the streets rounding up humans right away."

"Never liked humans anyway. Bunch of big-talking half quads," Morg said. "The Blood Pack will follow your lead, Balak."

"The Blue Suns will..." Vestron started to say, before a scuffle was heard on his side of the call.

"What is the meaning of this?" said a dark-haired human, shoving Vestron aside and taking his place in the camera view. "I don't know who the hell this is, but this is Kylia Samson, the leader of the Blue Suns on Omega. Vestron does not, and has never spoken for this organization."

Balak allowed himself a slight smile. "I believe, Miss Samson, that the Blue Suns are about to experience a change in leadership."

"What the... are you people insane?" Kylia said. On the screen, she could be seen raising her hands up in the air, as a circle of turians and batarians pointed their weapons at her. "You're not going to get away with this! I'm not going to go down without a..."

Behind her, one of the batarians delivered a blow to the back of her head with his rifle. The former leader of Omega's Blue Suns slumped to the floor, and as the rest of the group worked on securing her arms, Vestron retook his position in front of the camera. "As you can see, Balak, the Blue Suns are already getting started carrying out your orders."

"Balak," Brooks quietly said. "Don't forget our deal."

Balak looked annoyed, his tone strained as he spoke again. "There is one other thing," he said. "There are several humans currently on this station. Humans that... played a minor role in ousting Aria from power. In return for their assistance, I have allowed them the opportunity to locate a particular individual on this station before they leave. Your people are not to take any action against them, and you will allow them to carry out their mission without incident."

"That's fine, except how do we know which humans we're not supposed to mess with?" Nylina asked.

Balak clenched his fists. "They... will be wearing body armor. With the symbol of the human organization Cerberus marked on it. Any individuals with that symbol on their armor are not to be touched."

"Wait a damn minute," Morg barked. "What is this, Balak? You didn't say that we were working with Cerberus on this mission."

"And you're not," Brooks suddenly chimed in. She moved into the view of the cameras beside Balak, the batarian leader edging away from her with a slight look of disgust. "The Cerberus insignias are only there to distinguish my people from any other humans on the station. I figured it would be fairly unlikely that anyone else would be suicidal enough to wear that insignia on Omega."

Vestron looked bemused. "A good point, but I don't think I need to tell you that, even if my people leave yours alone, I can't really guarantee that the rest of the station won't want to tear their heads off on sight."

"Leave that for my people to worry about," Brooks said. "They're... fairly well-versed at staying in the shadows."

"Enough," Balak said in annoyance. "You all have your orders. Carry them out."

The three gang leaders muttered their assent, and Balak's guards deactivated their omni-tools.

"Tell your people to not waste any time," Balak snarled at Brooks. "I don't want you on this station any longer than you have to be."

"We'll work as quickly as possible, but I can't make any guarantees," Brooks said. "Our target could be anywhere on this station. It may take some time for her to be located."

Balak looked frustrated, but he made no further protest, gesturing for his remaining men to follow him out of the shuttle bay.

"Fucking bastard," the clone said once he was gone, her voice muffled under the helmet. "Can't believe my pathetic copy let him live."

"He does have his uses, love," Brooks said. "While he and the assembled mercenaries of Omega are causing havoc, our people will be using the confusion to plant the devices all across the station."

"And what about our last target?" the clone said. "We going to have time to plant the devices and track her down, too?"

Brooks let out a small laugh. "We don't have to track down anyone, love. Thanks to the message I sent her, I'm fairly positive that our last guest will be exactly where we told her to be."
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Slaves of Cerberus