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Osiris	By : samanthalee Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 8333 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This work of fiction is meant for entertainment purposes only, and no profit is being made from it. Mass Effect is the property of Bioware

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
Author’s Note: So after a bitch of a dissertation and a fantastic year in the States I am finally back to my keyboard. To any Americans out there, I LOVE your country so much. Don’t think I have ever been to a more beautiful, diverse and (contrary to international stereotype) friendly place in my life. Only in the USA could I wake up, skydive, eat the best steak of my life, shoot something then be stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon by sunset.

So anyway, back to the story. I hope I still have some readers out there, I still have so much of this story to get through and havn’t updated in so long! To any readers new or old I appreciate and BEG you to review, good or bad.

Please enjoy, hopefully this is my most kick-ass chapter yet. Let me know.

As he charged across the training yard, Grunt could feel his blood starting to surge faster and faster through his veins. With the alarms still wailing loud enough to wake a volcano, stealth was out the airlock and he was charging headlong into a fight. One pure Krogan and a Drell assassin against a full mercenary barracks, they could be outnumbered by a hundred to two ... it was what he was made for! He had hated sneaking through the shadows, hiding from his enemies; hiding was an act of the weak and the fearful. Now he was rushing to keep up with the nimble Drell that was gliding over obstacles towards the battleground in front of them.

As he approached the open drill yard in front of the barracks Grunt could see that beyond it lay a maze of training grounds with make shift shelters, obstacles and mock-up battlegrounds, a lot of low cover and tight corners, perfect for shotgun and assault rifle fighting. He saw Thane at the corner of the final building before the yard, leaping from the stairs to the railing and finally onto the roof, letting off his first shot only seconds after he reached his position.

Finally into the courtyard, Grunt could see that the barracks were already coming to life. Over the assault grounds, which were now illuminated by the huge floodlights, he could see windows lighting up one by one. He couldn’t see the entrance from his level but from the frequency of Thane’s viper sniper rifle sending rounds over his head he knew that at least some of the mercenaries must already be coming out to face them.

Grunt started towards the eastern edge of the square to defend the most direct route between the barracks and the Command Centre. He didn’t intend to let any mercs get to Shepard before she hit the C.C. However, he had only made it halfway across the square before a small group broke from cover and made straight for the south-east exit towards Shepard’s position. The second in the group hadn’t even gotten six feet from cover before Thane’s rifle slug punched a hole through his temple, sending him sprawling into the watery mud. Grunt raised his assault rifle and sent a storm of bullets towards the mercs as they ran. He had never been a fan of the sniper rifles or the Mattock, he didn’t have the patience to make every bullet count; he liked the feel of fully automatic fire against his shoulder, the constant thumping of the rifle butt into his armour and the sound of it set his blood on fire. Unlike the other team members he used one of the Collector assault rifles that they had brought to the Normandy for study. He would have preferred the heavier, more powerful Revenant machine gun but it was only effective at a very short range and at that distance the shotgun was king. The collector rifle was a good mix of having a good chance of hitting the target in the first place and making sure that it hurt like hell when it hit.

Between Thane, who was picking off the group members with a few well placed rounds and Grunt’s maelstrom of bullets the mercenaries, although moving targets, didn’t stand a chance. They had obviously stumbled out the door in not much more than their bedclothes, with whatever weapons they had by their bunk. Without armour or shields Grunt’s barrage only had to catch a target once to cause some damage. The first, most accurate shot caught the front runner in the chest and he dropped instantly, while a few more were caught two or three times and fell wounded or dead. The remainder only got hit mildly enough to throw them off their stride, slowing them for an instant, but Thane was waiting. Grunt couldn’t help but admire the skill as he saw runners stagger from one of his shots, each slowing only for a second before a heavier, more powerful shot took them from a different angle, either through the centre of the chest or clean through the skull, killing one after another within heartbeats. It was all over in seconds and Grunt barely even had to break his stride before reaching the assault grounds.

He put his back to the wall as he swapped his rifle for the shotgun that sat clipped to his lower back. The cheaply constructed mock-up buildings, rooms and corridors would make the perfect hunting ground for such a weapon: a close quarters maze where you could stumble onto an enemy round any corner. Usually survival would come down simply to whoever was able to fire first, accuracy would be next to pointless in such close spaces and Grunt had better armour and shielding than any of the mercenaries. But Grunt had an even bigger advantage, he could see through walls.

“Krios,” Grunt said into his comm. unit “You got a good view?”

“Yes,” came the response as Grunt heard another shot crack over his head into the assault grounds behind him. “I will lead you to the targets.”

“... And I will kill them all.” Grunt said with a smile.

Shepard could hear the blood pulsing in her ears, every surge felt like sand slipping out of an hourglass. Each heartbeat was more time lost, and she had very little time she could afford to lose. The alarms were still wailing in the buildings all around her and she could already hear the sound of distant gunfire echoing above it all. With every passing moment the mercenaries would be increasing the pressure on Thane and Grunt. She had to get to the control room before they were overwhelmed.

She only slowed her pace to check each intersection or turn. The interruptions were infuriating but it could be the difference between life and death if she came across any guards. At the end of the second cluster of buildings she slowed to a stop and raised her rifle before she took a steadying breath and stepped around the corner, her rifle muzzle leading the way. The control centre stood in front of her. The door was still open, but she could see multiple people moving frantically inside and the door was guarded by four mercenaries in full armour. They were on alert and spotted her the moment she stepped around the corner, raising their weapons as quickly as they could.

Shepard, however, already had her Mattock rifle up, sighted and was in a more static, steady position. She shifted her aim slightly through the tactical scope and squeezed the trigger. She aimed low on the first target and, using the trick that Garrus had taught her, kept her grip loose and didn’t fight the recoil. She let the natural muzzle climb from each shot carry her aim slightly higher and let off two more shots in quick succession. The first round caught the human at hip level, the second in the chest and the third hit just below his collarbone.

She shifted her aim to the second target as the guards began to fire back at her. She let her shields absorb the first few rounds as she loosed another two rounds. The second target had shields, the blue ripples of energy absorbing her rounds. Shot placement didn’t count; each round would sap the shield’s power no matter where it hit so Shepard dropped to one knee and fired as fast as she could, trying to take down the shields before her own broke. As her shield warning alarm started sounding in her ear she saw another guard coming out of control room, adding his firepower to the already punishing barrage. She spun back around the corner into cover just as Jack came up and took cover beside her. Tali and Saren followed behind her soon after. The hail of gunfire pummelling the corner of the building was unrelenting, too much to leave the cover of the building for more than a couple of seconds. The mercenaries were obviously poorly trained, but they evidently had no shortage of ammunition and were not shy about using it.

“Tali!” Shepard shouted over the cacophony of gunfire and alarm sirens “Heat ‘em up.”

Tali brought up her omni-tool and keyed in a command. “Ready.” She confirmed.

“Jack, you watch Saren.” Shepard said “Tali, you crack that door the second they seal it, I don’t wanna give ‘em a second to breathe in there.”

Jack switched places with Tali, who checked her weapon before raising her omni tool again.

Shepard ejected a thermal clip and readied herself behind the corner of the wall. “NOW!”

Tali activated her omni-tool just before she and Shepard stormed around the corner. Her overload hit the mercenaries in the same instant, over heating all of their weapons as they tried to fire at the two women who were now unleashing a devastating salvo of gunfire. Those few seconds were all Shepard needed to turn the tide. Without shields two of the remaining guards fell quickly while the third used his remaining power to fall back inside the control room. His shields failed at the last instant and Shepard saw him reel from an impact to the shoulder and fall to the floor just as the thick metal door slammed shut.

Shepard and Tali reached the building a few seconds later, each taking cover on different sides of the door as Tali worked her omni-tool’s hacking systems for a few second before cursing in frustration.

“What is it?” Shepard asked.

“Its an old tech blast door. There’s no system to hack its just slabs of metal. I can’t get in.”

“Jack!” Shepard called to Jack who was coming toward them with Saren. “Knock on the door.”

“My FUCKIN’ pleasure!!” Jack shouted as she charged towards the huge metal slab that was blocking their entry. Her entire body erupted in blue biotic energy as Jack exploded into a biotic charge just before she hit the door. The structure couldn’t stand the astonishing power of her biotics and she thundered through into the control room, taking the blast door and a large portion of the surrounding wall with her in a cloud of concrete dust. Shepard and Tali were ready and waiting and stormed in right behind her, each sweeping a different side of the room. Tali swept to the left and took out a control operator as he reached for his weapon while Shepard tackled a human dressed in heavy armour and a command headset, obviously the base commander, who was frantically typing commands into a console.

“Clear.” Tali called.

“Clear.” Shepard replied as she pinned her struggling captive’s arm behind his back.

“Clearly fucked.” Jack joked as she pointed to the crushed body of the guard protruding from beneath the section of demolished wall that still housed the blast door.

Shepard knelt on her captive’s back and snapped a magnetic restraint band around the wrist of the mercenary commander as he screamed insults into the floor. Looking around the room she saw that Tali was already working away at the workstation while Jack made a quick scan of the room for anyone else who may be hidden away. She used the moment of stillness to take a slow, steadying breath as she watched Jack survey her own destructive handiwork.

So much for a quiet in and out mission. She thought to herself.

Grunt wiped blood from around his eye as he jogged through the training grounds, he was spattered in blood both red and blue. The droplets felt like fire on his skin, the smell fuelled the savage animal in his blood, he had never felt more pure as a krogan than in the heat of battle. The artificial, tank bred memories were swept away by the instinctual savagery of the Krogan battle rage, washed away in the blood tide. His breathing came as short growls as he tried to focus on the voice in his comm system, struggling to be heard over the rushing pulse in his ears.

“Three targets.” Thane’s voice came through along with the sound of bullets ricocheting against metal in the background “The other side of the building to your left. Moving south towards you.”

“Ten seconds.” Grunt responded. He turned left at the edge of the building, shotgun in hand, and jogged to the other corner and waited. He heard the mercenaries coming down the parallel path, checking around each corner, he could smell their fear, they didn’t know who they were hunting, where he was, or that they, in fact, were the ones being hunted.

Sweet terror in his nostrils.

Grunt waited, trying to quiet the breath that burned in his throat as the flashlight beam lit up the wall that he was hiding against, sweeping clumsily across without even a second glance before moving on. They were stupid and afraid, seeking comfort behind a couple of flashlights that pretty much acted as a giant “come shoot me” signal.

Grunt came thundering around the corner as he heard the mercenaries move to continue their search. He tried to keep quiet, but the rage turned his vision red and he let out a thunderous roar as he got to within a few metres of the closest man. The group, two humans and a turian, were advancing forward in a line as Grunt came at them from their flank. The first man, dumbstruck by the fear of having a charging half-tonne krogan materialise from the shadows, didn’t even raise his weapon as he turned to face Grunt. The other two were a little brighter, trying to bring their guns to bear on the threat, but their formation left them both perfectly lined up behind their useless comrade.

Grunt’s shoulder hit the first man low in the chest, his momentum cracking a few ribs and picking the human’s weight up into the air. Grunt continued the charge with the man on his shoulder, through the other two sending them sprawling in the mud as he slammed into the wall on the other side of them, crushing the human’s ribcage between Grunt's weight and the unyielding concrete. The other mercenaries were scrambling in the mud to get to their feet. The turian was at least half competent and quickly spun into a firing position on one knee. Grunt pushed his weight away from the wall, freeing his shotgun arm and letting the crushed body of the first human to drop into the muck as the first rounds were soaked up by his shields. He raised his shotgun and fired a round barely a foot from the turian’s light armour. The armour was good quality and may have withstood a blast from distance, but so much force in such a tight spread shattered the ceramic armour and sent a hundred shards of it into his torso. The impact kicked him into the mud like a railroad spike, where he lay motionless.

Turning, Grunt saw the third man already lying face down in a shallow puddle that was slowly turning red with blood. While recovering his footing he must have stumbled into a clear sightline for Thane to take a shot between the buildings.

“Grunt? Thane?” Shepard’s voice came through the comm system. “What’s your status?”

“Having fun, Shepard.” Grunt replied. “This is easy.”

“Shepard.” Thane’s voice cut in. “The enemy is poorly armed and unorganised, we are holding so far. I am keeping my sights on the exit to your position, none have gotten through so far.”

“Good job. Be careful and hold your ground. Out.”

As she cancelled her comm unit, Shepard turned back towards the struggling mercenary commander on the floor. As she dragged him to his knees, he took a moment to survey the scene around him, as well as his three female assailants.

“What the fuck is this, ‘Charlie’s Angels’?” He said, sounding much more irritated than afraid, probably overconfident of his men in the barracks, his political connections on the planet, or his credit chit.

“Shut up.” Shepard said dismissively “Jack, secure the door ... hole. And bring in the informer.” She left out Saren’s name but watched the man’s face intently.

“Has one of my men turned rat?!” The mercenary seemed furious at the concept, “I’ll feed him to the fuckin’ slaves. What’s his name?”

“What’s YOUR name?” Shepard fired back calmly.

“Fuck you, bitch!” he spat at her feet.

“That’s no way to talk to a lady.” Saren’s voice came crawling over Shepard’s shoulder, sending chills down her spine. She watched the mercenary’s face intently for any signs of recognition as his eyes went to Saren who was stepping through the hole where the door used to stand. She saw none, but couldn’t be sure whether that made her feel more secure or less.

“You’re not one o’ mine but I’ll skin you nonetheless, you blue-blooded bastard.” He spat again as he turned his attention back to Shepard. “You too, bitch. I’ll let the lads have their turn with you before I kill you. Who are you? A cop?”

“Me?” Shepard said, trying to swallow the urge to rip the man’s tongue out. “I’m Commander Shepard, Council Spectre.”

That shut him up, she thought as she watched his face turn grey as he finally recognised the face in front of him, framed by her now famous red hair.

“You see, your operation here might have enough cash to turn away the local law enforcement, but you made the mistake of sending some men to kill me last week which got my attention and unfortunately for you, I’m not for sale.”

“Wha-“ the commander began, his voice now cracking with fear. “That wasn’t my hit, I was just the contractor. I just supplied the men, I didn’t have nothin’ to do with the plannin’. I’m innocent!”

“Innocent?” Tali said from where she was working in at a computer station, she sounded outraged “There are thousands of slaves starving out there and you dare call yourself innocent?”

“It wasn’t supposed to be like that.” The merc said, “They were supposed to be sold.”

“To who?” Shepard asked

“I can’t tell you that, they’ll kill me.”

“He doesn’t know shit.” Jack said, sounding bored “Can I light him on fire?”

“Wha-?”

“Fair enough.” Shepard said casually.

“Are you fuckin’ crazy?!” the mercenary screamed at Shepard.

“No, but she is.” Shepard said as she pointed towards Jack who was grinning sadistically as she slowly stalked towards him. “Who was buying the slaves?”

“The Collectors!” he said, obviously fearing the tattooed psychopath more than the repercussions of spilling the beans on his clients. “They’ve been buying as many as I could lay my hands on, they pay enough to make a profit even from buying and reselling. This was supposed to be the biggest shipment yet but they cut contact weeks ago. They just disappeared! We’ve been trying to sell as many slaves on as we could but there’s too many.”

“So you’re letting them starve.” He didn’t have an answer for that.

“I have a lot of money,” he said, “You can have it … please-“

“Blood money.” Shepard said flatly “Not interested.”

The commander’s head sank.

“What about the hit on me, did the Collector’s call that one in?” Shepard asked. She knew they hadn’t, it was too simple and too clumsy for the collectors, and had probably been arranged after she had destroyed them. The mercenary glanced at Jack nervously before shaking his head.

“Who hired you?” She pressed as she circled around the captive, getting into a position where she could watch both him and Saren at the same time.

“The turian, the big guy. I don’t know his name, I swear!”

“You aren’t exactly giving me a lot of reasons to let you walk away from this.”

Shepard saw his eyes bulge in desperation at the implication that he could actually talk his way out of the hole he found himself in.

“Otherwise …” Jack said as she began to glow blue with biotic energy. “You’re mine.”

“Jack really doesn’t like slavers.” Tali said from the console. “Personal history

“I like ‘em when they’re screamin’.” Jack said with a dark smile on her face, not taking her eyes from the slaver’s.

“He left something!” he shouted desperately “A data-box. He left it. I heard him say something about ‘phase 2’ to one of the guys when he left it.”

“Where?”

“In the safe, he changed the combination.” Looking to the opposite wall, Shepard saw a high-tec safe set into the concrete. She moved over to it and began the hacking programme on her omni-tool. It didn’t take long for the safe to slide open, revealing a small, grey databox, a credit chit and nothing else. Shepard pocketed the credit chit, they may be able to trace the money back to a source. She returned to the mercenary with the databox in her hand.

“What’s on it?” She asked.

“I d,d,dunno ...”

“Jack...” Shepard began. The mercenary fell backwards onto his back as she advanced.

“NO!” He screamed, tears rolling down his cheeks “I DUNNO! I swear I don’t know. He didn’t say anything else, I promise. PLEASE!”

He was trying fitfully to crawl away from the glowing biotic, he was terrified, the stench of urine hit Shepard as the mercenary broke down into a pitiful sobbing fit. Slavers were all cowards at their core.

“Jack,” Shepard said “leave him be.”

“Shepard.” Tali called her over. “We have a problem.”

“What is it?”

“I downloaded everything I could from the terminal. There’s not much here, but then I looked at the last programmes he attempted to access before we breached. It was encrypted with Salarian Zeta-class quantum key distribution encryption system-“

“Tali,” Shepard interrupted “You just said about six words in a row I didn’t understand. What’s the problem?”

“I managed to crack it. It’s a killswitch.”

“A what?”

“There is a canister of some form of nerve agent in each container. The killswitch releases all the nerve agent at once, enough to kill every slave out there.”

“Can you disable it?” Shepard asked.

“I already disconnected the switch here, but there are multiple remote killswitches all over the planet. It must be a security measure for their political contacts. An easy way to clear out and leave no witnesses if there is any trouble. If any of the mercenaries get word out of our attack, they could hit the killswitch.”

“Can you disable the remote switches?”

Tali shook her head. “Each switch is independent; I would have to track each one down individually.”

“Well then,” Saren’s voice came from behind, “Only one thing to do.”

Shepard and Tali both spun around, guns raised as the muffled scream of the mercenary captain cut through the control room. Saren was stood behind the kneeling mercenary, one clawed hand gripping his lower jaw, holding it shut as the other pressed against the back of his head. The mercenary was frantically reaching over his head with his bound hands, desperately clawing at empty air, trying to dislodge the powerful grip around his head. His wide eyes locked onto Shepard’s in a desperate, pleading look before his head snapped round to the side with a sharp crack and the eyes jerked up towards the ceiling, staring blankly into space as he fell forward to lie motionless.

“Motherfucker!” Jack shouted as she came through the door, weapon raised.

“Stand down!” Shepard shouted as she lowered her own weapon.

“What?!” Jack shouted, weapon still pointed at Saren as he let out a low, condescending chuckle.

“What other option was there?” Saren said condescendingly “If we leave him here he could trigger the kill switch or at least contact those who can.” Shepard walked towards him, staring at the body at his feet. “Or would you drag him into a gunfight with his hands tied? He’d take any chance to get you killed. Any mercenary left alive after we leave could raise an alarm. Face it –“

He was cut short as Shepard slammed her boot into the back of his knee before she used the stock of her rifle to smash over the back of his head. The impact sent him onto all fours. His head was still spinning when Shepard’s boot thudded into his stomach, crushing the air from his lungs and pushing him onto his back. By the time he opened his eyes, he was staring straight into the muzzle of her Mattock hunting rifle.

“You might not be synthetic anymore, Saren, but you’re still a machine inside.” Shepard said, venom dripping from every word “You don’t care about life. You don’t care about anyone.”

“I’m right, Shepard.” Saren said, still looking smug.

“I don’t care. Nobody executes prisoners on my crew. Nobody.” Shepard backed away, gun still pointed at Saren. “Tali, if we level this control room is there any other buildings with a communication unit on site that the mercs could use to raise an alarm to the kill-switch holders?”

Tali went back to the control terminal for a few seconds before answering. “There’s a small comm system in the barracks meant for internal communication. The would have to patch into a relay system manually which would take some time but they could get planetary contact if they have a decent technician.”

Shepard was silent for a few moments. There was no easy option.

“We have to level the barracks and the control room.” She said finally before raising the Normandy. “Joker, get ready to bring the thunder. We need a low level strike on the C.C. and the barracks on the Northern edge of the compound on my go.”

“That’s a precision strike, Commander.”

“Eye of the needle, Joker. We can’t have any collateral, we’re gonna be stood right outside.”

“Roger that, Commander. You want the buildings brought down?”

“Turn ‘em to dust, Joker.”

“We’ll need to disable the Anti-Air.” Jack called. “it’ll tear ‘em a new one if we don’t.”

“Tali, find me the primary AA gun, if we take out that one and the whole battery should go offline. Jack, let’s get ready to move.” She said as Tali turned back to the control module, “Thane, Grunt, things still quiet over there?”

“A moment, Shepard.” Thane said as he watched the barrack’s entrance through his rifle scope. He focused on his breathing as he moved the crosshairs over every possible exit point from the building, over the rooftop and whipped back to the entrance. Something wasn’t right. There had been no activity for minutes, the mercenaries had fallen back into the barracks as soon as they realised that the enemy was on their doorstep and had killed the first wave of responders. Now Thane sat patiently waiting for any unfortunate enemy to come into his crosshairs, but suddenly he found himself tense. He hadn’t seen any movement from the doorway, nor any other sign of life for minutes. He hadn’t heard anything unusual –

It was TOO quiet.

Although there had been no attack, there had been the constant din of movement and commotion coming from inside the barracks as the mercenaries mobilised their forces within. But it was silent now. They were ready, but not attacking. What were they waiting for?

He focused on his breathing, a slow, steady rhythm. The rise and fall contained by his taught core muscles and straight back, not causing any sway in his shoulders or arm that would cause his aim to falter for even a moment. The only sound was the wet thuds of Grunt’s armoured boots pacing back and forward behind a low wall in the courtyard below like a bull in a cage.

Suddenly the door to the barracks swung open. Thane centred his crosshairs on the entrance but could see nothing, it was pitch black inside. An arm whipped around the doorframe and threw three objects into the air. Thane followed them with his scope, they were not grenades, they reached the top of their arc high above the courtyard before stopping in mid-air. He heard an almost ultrasonic whir building as the devices began to spin.

EMP Concussion Flares. He realised too late as a blinding blue light erupted from the balls, sending out a shockwave that sent him sprawling onto his back. His head was spinning as he regained his position. The courtyard was pitch black as he brought his weapon back to his shoulder, the EMP blast had taken out all of the courtyard lights and night-blinded him in the process, it would take a while for his eyes to readjust to the darkness.

Through the ringing in his ears Thane heard the gunfire erupting less than two seconds after the flares detonated. Five weapons, assault rifles and SMGs. Now six, seven. They were already out the door and into the training yard, targeting Grunt who had already begun to answer with his own Collector rifle. Thane’s night sight had still not recovered. He sighted the muzzle flashes and aimed roughly two or three feet behind them. He fired twice at the first target before he heard the faint grunt of pain and the firing stopped. He was tracking to the next target when three more mercenaries broke from the cover of the doorway, weapons all trained onto Thane’s perch. Rounds hissed passed his head and ricocheted of the ledge below him as he rolled sideways away from the main arc of fire. They had obviously been waiting in the doorway, waiting for his muzzle flash to reveal his position. He spun into cover behind an air filtration unit as rounds thudded into the metal.

“Shepard, mercenary counterattack has begun. They are well armed and organised.”

“Can you hold?” Came Shepard’s response.

“For now.”

With that he spun back out from cover and sighted the nearest cluster of enemies. He targeted the mercenaries in light armour first. Two shots at center mass was enough to penetrate the shields, he paused for half a heartbeat to make sure that his third shot hit the heart. His second target proved to not have any shields and went down with the first round. He ignored the more heavily armoured targets, he had to reduce the number of guns on the field as quickly as possible and the impact on the mercenaries’ morale would be greater seeing more of their comrades fall quickly.

In the control centre, Shepard turned back to Tali, who was still working away at the computer terminal.

“Thane and Grunt can’t hold for long, I need the AA server now!”

“Hang on…” Tali said, her voice tense with concentration, “Got it! The main server for the anti-aircraft battery is located at the base of the North-East cannon. About 150 yards away.”

“Get ready to move!” Shepard called out “Tali, sabotage that terminal, if any mercs get here before we blow it I don’t want them to be able to communi-“

She was cut off as Jack fired two shotgun blasts into the base of the terminal, sending explosions of sparks in every direction.

“Sabotage complete.” Jack said with a smirk.

“Let’s go.” She said as she tucked the mysterious data drive into her armour and powered up her weapon.

The counterattack was relentless. Thane had been forced to relocate twice along the rooftop to more covered areas. Now he was directly above the assault mock-ups and miniature buildings. Grunt had been moving erratically around the yard, following no particular pattern or strategy beyond causing as many casualties as possible until a group was destroyed or had retreated, then moving on to another area. Although he could not see Grunt at present, it wasn’t difficult to track his movements as he saw the flurry of gunfire, screams and explosions everywhere the Krogan war machine went.

Thane had structured his response far more systematically. His first problem had been the overwhelming volume of gunfire as the mercenaries had come out in force, firing endlessly at his position. He had begun by taking out as many lightly armoured opponents as possible in his first few volleys. The sight of so many comrades falling so quickly had caused the mercenaries to be far more careful, taking cover and firing in short bursts. This had given him the opportunity to pick out and target the leaders and the well armoured targets. Each took more ammunition to put down but the impact on the enemy morale would be significant. He could feel the momentum shifting back into their favour as he carefully lined up another shot, exhaled, and sent a round straight through the helmet of another target who hadn’t crouched far enough behind cover.

It was then that Thane heard a low thrumming sound starting in the barracks, followed by a high mechanical whine. A large bay door slowly slid open to reveal the two heavy mechs powering up inside. They stepped out into the assault yard in mechanical unison and immediately turned towards Thane’s vantage point. He knew that the weaponry on the heavy mechs would reduce the cover he was using to scrap, and there was nothing more substantial on the rooftop to use. As he saw the bright bursts explode from the mechs’ arms as they each launched high explosive rockets in his direction, he reacted with the only option left to him and jumped from the rooftop into the courtyards below.

He felt the percussive blast of the explosions hit his back as he fell, followed by the heat a moment later, then the stinging impacts of hundreds of pieces of rubble hitting the back of his jacket mid-air. However, he blocked the sensations from his mind and focused on the area in front of him. He would be landing in an exposed space in sight of three armed mercenaries: two who were already coming up from behind their low cover, and another only a few yards in front of him who’s shotgun would rip apart his shields as soon as he hit the ground.

Focussing his mind, Thane used his biotics to create a brief but powerful mass effect field between himself and the closest mercenary just before he reached the ground. The intense burst of gravity pulled the man off balance and sent him staggering towards Thane, who used the shift in momentum to execute a quick forward roll as he hit the ground, breaking his fall and coming up only a couple of metres from the still off balance mercenary. Thane had dropped his sniper rifle in midair, the long ranged weapon would be a liability in such tight quarters, instead he came out of the roll with his pistol in hand. He kicked the shotgun from the stumbling man’s hands before using the sturdy composite frame of the pistol to deliver a crunching blow to his helmet, spinning him around and putting the mercenary between Thane and the other two enemies ahead.

He brought his forearm up under the man’s throat and pinned him in front of Thane as a human shield. The other mercenaries had not hesitated, whether by ruthlessness or fear he did not know, but neither of them seemed to falter at the prospect of shooting through a comrade to kill their enemy as Thane felt the mercenary jerk and twitch with each round fired into his torso. The combination of the man’s bulky armour and large frame were all the cover Thane’s slight body needed as he concentrated on the two enemies, focused, let the energy build up inside him and released a biotic pulse that hit the two men. The wave effectively made the men completely weightless, causing each of them to drift above their cover helplessly as the gravity of the world beneath them was completely counterbalanced. Thane let his human shield drop to the floor as he raised his pistol and carefully fired three rounds into selected weak points in each enemy’s armour.

Two biotics bursts in quick succession had made his head spin, and he staggered sideways as he tried to steady himself. He was just shaking his head to clear his senses when three more armoured and shielded enemies came round the corner with weapons raised. With no time to stage a proper response and too many enemies to handle, Thane dashed sideways and down the nearest alleyway, rounds shattering the concrete behind him as he went.

The alley was littered with the ruins of the battle going on around him. Grunt had obviously been through here and had made liberal use of high explosives that had left it almost impassable by most. Thane, however, moved through it like smoke; vaulting over a fallen pillar before slipping through a mangled piece of wire fencing and round the burning remains of large storage unit. Ahead the alleyway was cut in half by a stairway that had come away from the building to his left and fallen across the alley, smashing the opposing wall. The frame had come to a stop a few feet from the ground, and below it Thane could see the armoured boots of mercenaries beyond it. He heard gunfire from behind him crack against the rubble around him as he ran and sped up, using the wet mud and dropping to his knees just short of the obstruction, sliding himself under without breaking pace.

As he passed beneath the fallen stairway he saw four men on the other side, all facing away from him as they moved down the alleyway in the opposite direction. His slide brought him right up behind the first, a human who had already started to turn back to investigate the noise. Thane came up with a pistol in one hand and the dark shadow of his Umbranemus knife in the other. Thane drove his leading foot into the back of the human’s knee while he was still sliding. The man was forced to one knee and brought down to Thane’s level.

He gripped the man’s chin firmly and used his own momentum to roll over the mercenary’s back, whipping his chin round and snapping his neck. The roll brought him to a crouch right between the middle pair. Reversing his grip, he threw the Umbranemus knife end over end, landing it in the thin collar skin of the Turian who was leading the group, who roared out in alarm and pain, grabbing at the handle that was now protruding from his neck. As the other two panicked at the appearance of their new enemy, Thane swept his right leg in a wide arch at knee level, knocking the cumbersome human onto his back as he delivered a straight punch to the knee of the Salarian to his left. The Salarian went to one knee, but the fast mind of the species meant that it was already countering, bringing down the SMG in a downward blow aimed at Thane’s face. Thane used the slick mud to spin and slip around the blow, kicking away the human’s assault rifle in the process.

Coming back round to face his opponent, Thane swatted away his attempt to bring up his SMG and brought his own pistol up and pressed it under the jawline. A split second of shock and fear flashed across the Salarian’s face as Thane pulled the trigger and his body jerked, going rigid as the sudden brain trauma sent random surges through every nerve in his body.

At the same moment a pair of large, armoured arms closed around Thane’s chest from behind. The human had grabbed him a clumsy bear hug and was pulling him to his feet while the injured Turian staggered closer. Thane kicked hard with both feet against the wall, pushing both himself and the human backwards and out of balance. The impact against the opposite wall was hard and stunned the human long enough for Thane to slip from his grip. By then the Turian was on them. Thane absorbed a brutal swing with an elbow block before he struck back with a thrusting open palm to the face, more of a push than an impact, which sent the Turian staggering backwards a step.

Thane thrust his elbow back into the ribs of the human behind him before spinning to face him, placed a hand on the heavily armoured helmet and slammed his head against the wall, stunning him again. In the same motion he spun back to the Turian, who again was coming forward, slipped under a weak swipe of his talons, grabbed the handle of his Umbranemus knife and wrenched it up and out. The blade had served to plug the wound when he had thrown it into the Turian’s neck, but pulling the serrated blade free had done the real damage, tearing and opening a bloody fissure in his neck. Thane only heard a drowned gargle as he spun back to the human and punched the blade under the armpit, between the armoured plates and into his lung before he brought up his pistol and ended it quickly.

The whole confrontation had lasted seconds, perhaps ten at most. He could hear Grunt roaring his battlecry somewhere ahead and took off running again, leaving the Turian to slowly sink to his knees, clutching the wound that was pouring the final moments of his life into the mud.

“Tali!?” Shepard shouted over the gunfire as rounds thumped against the low wall that she pressed against. Round were snapping against the concrete all around her, showering her in debris. Tali was tucked into an alcove at the base of the Anti-Aircraft tower, furiously working away with her omni-tool.

“I’m going as fast as I can.” She called back.

“Faster would be better!” Shepard replied as she popped up from cover and returned fire. They had reached the AA gun tower seconds before the mercenaries and taken cover around it to give Tali time to sabotage the systems. There were only a few enemies at the moment, the main force was obviously too busy with Grunt and Thane, but they were well armed, armoured and shielded. Shepard’s shields could only take a few seconds of sustained fire before she had to duck back behind cover and recharge.

“Shepard.” Thane’s voice came over her comm unit.

“Thane,” Shepard replied, “What’s your status?”

“They have deployed heavy mechs and well equipped units. We cannot hold much longer.”

“Understood.” She said before turning back to Tali “Tali!”

“It’s done!” She shouted back, “AA batteries off line.”

“About fuckin’ time!!” Jack shouted over the gunfire.

“Joker,” Shepard said. “Guns are down, bring the thunder!”

“Roger that, Commander.” Joker responded “80 seconds out.”

“Thane? Grunt?” Shepard called down her comm

“Yeah!” Grunt’s voice was almost drown out by gunfire from both ends. “We’re still here!”

“Get ready to move, storm hits in 1 minute! Don’t you dare die before I get there!”

“I’ll be alive.” Grunt responded, before she heard two more blasts of his shotgun. “Can’t vouch for these fuckers, though.”

Shepard turned back to Jack, Tali and Saren, all hunkered behind the wall to her right.

“We need to get to the courtyard, push forward!” She said before vaulting the cover.

The air smelled of battle and blood. Grunt’s once pristine armour was chipped and scorched in half a hundred places from where rounds and shrapnel had made it past his shields and the armoured plating over his head had a few marks to match. His armour, his arms, his face, they were all spattered in his enemies blood. The feel of it wet and warm against his skin and the smell of it in his nostrils was boiling his blood. He was fighting against every fibre of his being not to charge forward, to get close enough to his enemies to taste the blood in the air. But an air-strike was coming in seconds, and he had to stay back. Instead, he turned back behind the corner of the building he was stood beside as another barrage of gunfire came in. He ejected the spent thermal clip from his shotgun and found the magazine empty.

“Running low!” He shouted as he swapped the empty shotgun for the collector rifle. Thane had found him a few moments earlier, and together they were falling back, away from the barracks. Grunt stepped back out from cover and started returning fire. The mercenaries had obviously figured out that Thane and Grunt were together, and were all converging on their position. They had also fielded their better equipped men along with the heavy mechs. The exchange had quickly turned the area around Grunt and Thane into a flaming ruin. The hastily built cluster of mock up buildings around them had been completely destroyed by gunfire and grenades and a dozen fires were now burning around them. Grunt saw the lumbering form of a heavy mech lurching through the ruins behind the mercenary line. Their half demolished cover wouldn’t be able to protect them from the heavy weaponry on the walking tank if it got a clear line of fire.

“MOVE!!” Grunt roared as he unleashed a full clip full auto towards the mercenary positions. He kept his aim low, aiming more for the cover than the mercenaries themselves. He wasn’t trying to kill them so much as just get them to keep their heads down behind their covers, and the sound of rounds cracking off walls and shattering concrete around them would be much more panicking than simply whizzing over their heads. Thane used the moment to slip from his cover and bolt past Grunt, further away from the barracks. Grunt emptied the last of his clip at the heavy mech and followed Thane just as the mech fired the first rounds from the twin mass accelerator cannons on its right arm.

Shit, Grunt thought as he followed Thane down a short alleyway between the last two buildings. they had reached the end of the buildings, the training yard before them was fifty yards of empty killzone. Even with their top-of-the-line shields and Grunt’s heavy armour, the mercenaries would tear them to shreds in seconds. As they approached the end of the short alley, a single human whipped around the corner with his shotgun levelled straight at Thane’s head. Grunt flinched, expecting to see Thane’s body lurch and drop into the mud, but was instead sent stumbling into the wall as he felt the blast hit his own shields and armour instead. Thane had somehow managed to escape the blast in the impossibly short time between seeing the merc and the shot. Grunt’s superior shields and armour had saved his life for the hundredth time that day, Thane would not have been so lucky in a leather jacket.

He recovered his footing and looked up to see Thane standing over the human soldier lying crumpled and face down in the mud. He didn’t have time to figure out exactly how the Drell assassin had killed the man, or how he had done it so quickly, he followed the Drell to a lone shipping container on the edge of the buildings, the last piece of cover before the open courtyard, and took cover behind it. It was only moments later that the mercenaries took their new positions and were peppering the side of the container with fresh rounds.

“Grunt!” Shepard’s voice came through over the comm unit. “We see you. We’re on the south-east corner of the courtyard. Grunt looked over to the far side of the yard and saw the team in cover by the far buildings.

“We’ve got you covered, get your ass out of there, twenty seconds!”

“Hold on.” Grunt said as he clipped his shotgun back onto the holding locks on his back. He turned around, grabbed the metal door of the container with both hands and pulled with all his strength. There was a moment of groaning metal before the hinges gave way under the pressure and the door came free. He heaved the huge slab onto his shoulder and turned to Thane.

“You ready?” He asked, receiving only a resilient nod in reply.

“Go!” He shouted and started for the far corner as he heard Shepard yell “Covering fire!”

Grunt ran as fast as he could under the weight of the door. As slow as it made him, the shield was invaluable, rounds drummed against the metal constantly, sending vibrations straight through into Grunt’s muscles that made it seem even heavier. Thane kept pace at a light jog.

They had only made it about a third of the distance when he faintly heard Shepard screaming something indistinguishable over the storm of gunfire and the drumming of rounds right beside his head. The next instant, a blazing trail of heat screamed passed so close to him that he felt the heat of it against his face. The rocket impacted a few yards ahead of him, directly next to Thane. He saw Thane’s shields absorb the shrapnel as he was thrown sideways through the air, landing heavily in the mud. Another rocket detonated against the metal door he was holding a second later, punching the heavy slab into his chest with vicious force. Grunt was blown sideways and forced to his knees by the impact. His ears were ringing and his head was spinning. He could faintly hear the commander’s voice

“INCOMING!”

Shepard’s voice echoed in his own head as he dragged the now buckled door towards Thane, who was now on his knees in the mud, obviously dazed by the explosion. As he reached him, he could hear the rising rumble of the Normandy approaching that most would mistake for thunder. He planted the door as firmly as he could into the mud, facing it directly towards the barracks and braced his shoulder against it. With his free hand he grabbed Thane by the collar and pulled him in behind his makeshift cover as he heard the rumble rise into an almighty crack as the Normandy flew overhead. He gritted his teeth and braced for the shockwave.

“COVER!” Shepard shouted as the Normandy passed overhead. She saw the flash of the mass effect cannons firing and tucked as far behind the corner as she could without losing sight of Grunt and Thane.

The blast was catastrophic. The shell punched through the roof of the barracks and the explosion reduced the entire building to a deadly wave of debris. Every part of the building seemed to shatter in the same instant, propelled outwards by the force of the blast. The shockwave was no less devastating to the array of mock buildings in front of the structure that Thane and Grunt had been battling amongst only moments earlier. The hastily and poorly built mock ups were blown apart like houses of cards. The screams of the mercenaries were cut off a microsecond after they started as the shrapnel and debris pulverised them in a heartbeat. The wave of destruction swallowed Thane and Grunt a half second after the impact. Shepard had to dive back from the corner as the blast reached the far end of the courtyard, a wall of gray death, followed by a searing heat that made her shield her face with her hand before it vanished as suddenly as it had hit.

After the initial blast, the morning went eerily silent. Before her stood a wall of dust thicker than smoke that sat like a blue-grey cloud in the first light of dawn. The only sound was her own breathing as she got back to her feet. Checking around her, she could see Tali, Jack and Saren stood behind her, a safe distance away from the blast that had come a bit too close for her own comfort. Jack was still guarding the stoically quiet Saren like a hawk. Shepard used hand signals to get Tali’s attention and signalled to follow her. Raising her rifle, Shepard stepped out into the cloud of dust. The visibility was only a few yards with the thickness of the cloud of concrete that had once been the barracks building. She moved slowly, choosing her footing carefully as she moved over the rubble and debris that littered the whole yard. The ground was completely covered in the shattered remained of concrete blocks, twisted pieces of metal girders and piping and more disturbingly, the occasional piece of armour. Moving forward, she heard a faint, echoing sound of something heavy landing in the wet mud.

“Thane?” Shepard called out cautiously “Grunt.”

As she inched forward into the dust, a sudden breeze swept in from the east, parting the thick, choking cloud enough for her to see the forms of Thane and Grunt emerging from the rubble. They were both covered in dust, caked to them by sweat and blood. Grunt was carrying the twisted remains of the large door they had taken cover behind, which he dropped as they neared her position. Despite their battered appearance, Grunt had a savage grin on his face and couldn’t have looked happier and even Thane looked quietly satisfied with himself as he came face to face with Shepard.

“You look like shit.” Shepard said.

“My apologies, Commander.” Thane said flatly “Our back-up decided to call an airstrike on us.”

The comment caught Shepard off guard and she barked a rather loud laugh at him.

“Did you just sass me, Thane?” Shepard said “You’ve been spending too much time with Jack.”

“Perhaps.” Thane said with a reserved half smile “I doubt there are any survivors, but we should sweep the area.”

“Agreed,” She activated her comm. unit “Outstanding work, Joker. Get on the horn to Hackett and have him send a relief team, emergency medical teams, victim recovery personnel and plenty of food. Miranda, prep the shuttle for dust off, we’ll be back soon.”

“No problem, Commander. Did you find some answers down there?”

Shepard pull out the databox she had taken from the command centre and stared at it, wondering what she would find on it. She then looked across the courtyard to where Saren was standing amongst the middle of the scattered debris, taking in the sight of such destruction like a tourist walking round an art gallery. Shepard felt the same chill run up her spine despite the warmth of the dawn sun on her back as he finally locked eyes with her, staring her down with the same self-assured, piercing blue eyes that always made her feel exposed, vulnerable. He was still hiding something from her. She knew, from somewhere inside of herself deeper than logic or rationale that there were still things he wasn’t telling them. There were secrets behind those eyes, she could see it plain as daylight.

And cruelty.

“We’ll see.” She replied, not taking her eyes from Saren’s “Soon.”

Another Note: Holy crap that was so difficult to write! Action scenes are so difficult for me so I am sorry if I have not quite captured how bad-ass these characters are. Please let me know what you thought, good or bad (fingers crossed for good) and come back for more chapters soon!
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Osiris