Omega Nebula
Sahrabarik System
Omega
Omega Departure Lane Alpha
60 Hours post Mindoir
Wrex, Clan Urdnot, was an old man. A very, very old man, who had seen more than just about anyone else still living in the galaxy his race, and dozens of others, called home. Hard to miss things, really, when you had 1500 years (or so, he'd stopped counting a few decades back) under your belt and had spent most of that as a roving mercenary. He'd fought in the Rebellions, leading soldiers into battle with everything from bayonets and gauntleted fists to artillery and tanks. He'd killed untold multitudes. killed his own father in self-defense, watched as his people lost everything that made the krogan a species instead of a collective of breathing weapons. He'd seen thousands of children born dead thanks to the genophage, seen his race slide inexorably towards oblivion with the tacit approval of the Citadel Council, and he'd watched as they had done it all over again to the Quarians, trapping them on their ships and condemning them to a slow, painful death. Yes, all this and more had one old Krogan witnessed, and he had not only long since given up on his people and the galaxy, he had also given up on caring about much of anything besides his next job and the next worthy fight.
Then his old friend, his old rival, his old ally and enemy, had found him on Omega. Oh, she had a different name now, or perhaps she had had a different name when they had been young and foolish, but whether she was Aleena or Aethyta, it was the same woman. Married now, to Benezia T'soni of all people, and with a brat! That had been a surprise, to say the least, but she had always had a soft side to her, hadn't she? A soft side that was entirely absent now, he thought with a dark, rumbling chuckle, her old cold ruthlessness back with a vengeance. And he chose that word deliberately. If he didn't despise slavers as much as she did, he might almost thank the stupid bastards who had stolen her little girl's human friend.
A human friend he was looking forward to meeting, if he was going to be honest with himself. Wasn't every day that a child, even by her own short-lived race's standards, sacrificed herself to save her friend. Wasn't every day that she killed a couple dozen of her attackers either, if what Benezia's and the human's investigators were speculating was true. Besides, this might give him a chance to meet the kid's mother, and he'd been wanting to do that for years. Anyone who could stack Turian corpses the way that she had above Shanxi, out-numbered and out-gunned, was someone he wanted to share a drink with.
Wrex shifted his weight, the ancient plating of his armor creaking softly as he settled into a more comfortable position. The transport shuttle hummed beneath him, its sleek design a far cry from the rusted buckets he'd ridden in during his mercenary days, and he knew that somewhere ahead of them was the Silence, a ship that (much like Aethyta) he hadn't seen in a long, long time. Nice ship though. Almost krogan in design. Get in close and hammer them until they die. Heh. He glanced at Aethyta, who sat across from him, her face a death-mask of cold hatred and predatory anticipation.
"So," he rumbled, breaking the tense silence with all his usual 'grace'. "This human kid. What's her name again?"
Aethyta's eyes flicked to him, a spark of something - pride, maybe - breaking through her anger. Yeah, it was pride. Pride, and almost affectionate aggravation. "Cassandra. Cassandra Morrigan Shepard. Your memory must be starting to go in your old age, I told you that earlier."
Wrex nodded, ignoring the jab with practiced ease, especially since he hadn't forgotten the kid's name in the first place, and Aethyta was well aware of that fact. He wasn't the best at comforting someone, but for an old friend he could dust off a few skills. "And you're sure she's still alive?"
"She better be." Aethyta growled, her fists clenching. "For their sake." Then she sighed, hands relaxing again. "She probably is fine. Humans are valuable, and pretty young females even more so. They won't risk damaging their 'product' too badly, and they won't ship her off too quickly either. No, there's going to be a special auction, and I'll have that planet surrounded by ships before they can even dream of getting her off-world."
The old Krogan nodded, aware that she wasn't exaggerating. The list of friends, followers, debtors, and hero-worshipping brats that she could call on was a damn long one, and a dangerous one at that. Jona Sideris might have tried to make Eclipse hers, even reversing the color scheme (he had laughed for hours when he had seen it for the first time.) in some childish attempt to distance the group from it's founder, but the vast majority of it's members lived and breathed devotion to the Captain of the Silence. She would call, and Anhur would be drowning in Sisters. He couldn't wait to see it.
Wrex grunted, his scarred face twisting into something that might have been a smile. "Good. Wouldn't want to miss out on all the fun, go all that way for nothing." He paused, considering his next words carefully. "This kid, there's more to it than her just being your kid's friend. I know you, Aleena, I know you're holding something back."
Aethyta's lips thinned, a flicker of uncertainty crossing her features. "It's... complicated. And not entirely clear. But from what we've pieced together, Cassandra seems to possess some kind of special biotic abilities that go beyond anything we've seen before. During the attack, witnesses reported seeing her surrounded by a fiery aura, and there were bodies found that showed signs of... well, incineration from the inside out. And the outside in, for that matter."
Wrex's brow plates rose slightly, and he hummed thoughtfully. "Sounds like more than just your run-of-the-mill biotics, I agree. Never met anyone that would describe those as 'fiery', kind of the opposite really. And incineration isn't much of a biotic thing either. Crushing, tearing, shredding, pulping…but not incineration."
Aethyta nodded grimly, drumming her fingers lightly on her thigh. "Exactly. And that's not all. The reports from the survivors... they said she seemed to be in some kind of trance. Her eyes were glowing, and she was speaking in a language no one recognized. Some even claimed they saw her levitate, and they were able to pull camera footage from when and where her grandparents were killed. She, she screamed, and it didn't sound human. And I don't mean that poetically, I mean she didn't sound human. That shriek, the pitch…and then things started exploding."
Wrex let out a low whistle, more interested in this kid by the minute. "Now that's something you don't hear every day. Sounds like something out of some mythology, or a fantasy novel. You know, the one's where some mortal child of a god uses their power."
"I thought the same thing, and you should have heard what some of the humans had to say about it." Aethyta admitted, her voice dropping to a near-whisper. "But there's more. She…she knows things. The first thing she did when we met was identify me as Liara's father. She said it was because we look similar, and I had a 'Daddy look' when I looked at Liara, but…there was something about her eyes, Wrex. They didn't…they looked too old. And when they were trying to escape the slavers, she took the right route at the right time to avoid them over and over and over again, until it wasn't possible to do it again. And even then, she destroyed the panel before they could reach her. She knew exactly how to avoid them."
The old Krogan leaned back, eyes narrowing as he considered that. From anyone else, he'd think they were drunk, lying, or too stupid to do anything but breathe without someone helping them do it, but this wasn't anyone else. Aethyta had her head on straight, she always had, and she'd certainly seen plenty in her lifetime. She wasn't prone to exaggeration or telling stories, especially not to people who were already on her side. It had always been one of the things he had liked about her, really, her blunt honesty and clear-sightedness. If she was saying stuff like this, to his face, when he was already on her shuttle? Well, it meant she trusted him alot, and it meant that she was deadly serious.
"Sounds like this kid's more than just a biotic prodigy. You think she's some kind of... what, psychic? Precognitive? Seeing things before they happen?" he finally grunted, and Aethyta shook her head, frustration seeping from her voice.
"I don't know, Wrex. That's what's driving me crazy. I've seen a lot in my thousand years, but nothing quite like this, almost as much as you have, but this…I've never seen anything like it, and the only stuff that sounds remotely similar is from those same sorts of stories that you brought up. And those stories never have a happy ending."
"No, they don't. And if you're right, and more people learn about it, every government and criminal organization in the galaxy will be after her." Wrex agreed grimly, scratching his jaw lightly. "Not to mention the religious nuts who'd probably see her as some kind of messiah or demon."
"All the more reason to get her back." Aethyta growled, her eyes flashing dangerously, and he had to hide his surprise at the fear that lingered behind that anger. She wasn't just worried, wasn't even just frightened. She was terrified for this little human. "Whatever's going on with Cassandra, I won't let anyone hurt her or use her. We're going to find her and get her home, and then we're going to figure it out as a family."
"Heh. Well, you know I've got your back. I already wanted to meet the kid, now I have to." he promised, before glancing down at his omnitool as it pinged at her. A message, from the Shadow Broker? What did he want? Opening it, he read through the message, eye ridges steadily rising, before dropping sharply, and Aethyta blinked at him in surprise as he looked back up to meet her eyes. "We've got a problem, a big one."
Before she had the chance to ask, he shoved his omnitool at her, forcing her to read the message from the Broker. A message that had gone out to dozens, even hundreds, of accounts. All promising a vast sum of credits -enough to buy a full-sized warship with plenty of extra- for the capture alive and subsequent hand-over of one juvenile, red-haired human girl, one accompanied by an Asari matron. The pair had last been sighted on Anhur, and it was open season.
"…fine, change of plans. We save Cassie and her new friend, and then we kill the Shadow Broker. I can live with that." Aethyta ground out, getting to her feet and heading towards the cockpit to order her pilots to fly faster, and Wrex chuckled again. This was shaping up to be the most interesting thing that had happened to him in a century, and he had the feeling it wasn't going to calm down any time soon. Just the way he liked it.
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Cassandra was not a happy camper, by any stretch of the imagination. Pleased that she had save her Lia from being captured as well, of course, that went without saying. She was even pleased that she had met her newly-revealed partner, as terrifying as it was to be sharing her soul with a primordial concept of creation. God, she was even happy that one of her kidnappers had turned out to be…well, Spectre Vasir wasn't a good person, but the asari was well aware of it and simply wanted to make a positive difference in the galaxy. The point was, she was a good enough person, and that was pretty great. No, the thing that made her distinctly unhappy at the moment was the fact that all of that was completely irrelevant when she was stuck on a slave-filled planet with a massive bounty on her head.
Currently, she was gritting her teeth as she peered around the corner of yet another dilapidated building, her eyes scanning the bustling street for any signs of pursuit. The cacophony of alien languages and the pungent mix of unfamiliar scents assaulted her senses, but she forced herself to focus. Beside her, Spectre Vasir crouched low, her own gaze sharp and calculating.
"We can't stay here much longer," Vasir muttered, her voice barely audible over the din of the crowd. "Every merc and bounty hunter on this rock will be looking for us by now, and we can't lose ourselves in the crowd. You're too unique, humans are too rare. Goddess, why couldn't Saren answer his fucking comms. Useless fucking turian bastard…"
"I know." Cassandra acknowledged grimly, resolutely ignoring Tela's mumbled rant towards the end, stretching out with her untrained, newly-revealed powers as she searched for threats and solutions in equal measure. Nibbling on her bottom lip, she glanced at her kidnapper/rescuer and raised an eyebrow. "Do you think we could find a set of armor that would fit me? I could just pretend to be an asari maiden, we hide in plain view?"
"I like your energy kid, but it's too obvious. The Broker might have fucked up by thinking I'd go along with his bullshit, but he's not stupid. Everyone in the galaxy knows how similar humans and asari are. A matron/maiden pair will draw attention, they'd probably catch us even faster. Our best chance is to lie low as long as we can, then figure out a distraction…" Tela shook her head, a note of approval in her tone, and Cassandra resisted the (at the moment) wholly inappropriate desire to grin at the thought that flickered through the front of the Spectre's mind, a thought that she considered an older Cassie a good prospect from the SPECTRE branch. It was a hell of a compliment, in her opinion, but the sound of a shock and a squeal of pain drew her attention away from her glee and towards a slave and master pair. The slave, a spindly salarian, was on his hands and knees in front of his turian master, and Cassie felt a familiar, seething heat collect in her heart and behind her eyes. The same heat that had killed dozens of pirates back on Mindoir, but she didn't dare. If she revealed herself, she wouldn't be able to help anyone, least of all…hmmm…now that was an idea, wasn't it?
"Tela, this is a slave world, right?"
"Yeah, obviously. What's your point, kid?"
"Slave worlds usually have some sort of underground group, right? Trying to free slaves or hurt the slave-masters however they can?"
"Usually, yeah, I doubt Anhur is any different."
"Well, we need a distraction, right? And we both hate slavery too, right?"
"Kid, I admire your principles, but…"
"Look, they won't turn us in, right? And they can probably help us cause a lot of chaos, free a lot of people. We'll be safe, and we'll be heroes." Cassandra wheedled, sensing Tela's reluctant approval of the idea in concept, as well as her utter unwillingness to put 'the kid' at risk. For several reasons, but one was the most prominent in her mind, and Cassandra gained a shark-like grin as she mentally thanked the Spectre for giving her a handy button to press. "Besides, it will buy you a lot of good will with people like Lia's mom and dad."
Tela's eyes narrowed as she studied Cassandra's face. The girl was too clever by half, and the Spectre wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Still, the kid had a point. An underground resistance movement could provide them with cover and resources, not to mention the potential for creating the chaos they needed to escape.
"Alright," Tela conceded with a sigh. "But we do this my way. No heroics, no unnecessary risks. Your safety is my priority, understood? I got you into this goddess-damned mess, and I'm damned well going to get you have out of it, in one piece."
Cassandra nodded eagerly, barely containing her excitement. "Understood, I promise I'll follow your lead. So, how do we find these rebels?"
Tela's lips quirked in a wry smile. "In my experience, you don't find them. They find you." She glanced around the crowded street, her keen eyes picking out details most would miss. "We need to make ourselves visible to them, and recognizable, which is the easy part. The hard part will be getting caught by them, and not by people working for the Broker."
She sighed heavily, and met Cassandra's eyes.
"This could get ugly, kid. Really ugly. I'll do what I can to protect you, but you might have to protect yourself. Can you do that? Honestly? Because if you're not sure, we're coming up with a different plan." she asked, holding up a hand when Cassie opened her mouth angrily. "I saw what happened back on Mindoir. I figure you're responsible for it. Don't know how you did it, don't much care at the moment. But the fact of the matter is, you did that in the heat of the moment after your grandparents were killed. You'll be coming at this cold, for the sake of strangers. So…can you do this or not?"
Every word was true, of course it was, and her bravado faltered underneath the weight of Tela's eyes as she was rather bluntly forced to confront the reality of what they were about to do, and what would be (to a greater or lesser degree) the inevitable result. She took a deep breath, centering herself and reaching out to that burning presence within her, the cosmic entity that had bonded with her soul. The Force stirred, comforting warmth spreading through her chest, and she had an image of a previous host having the same conversation with a mentor. Taking a deep breath, she met Tela's eyes and mimicked that host's words.
"I can do it. I don't want to do it, I don't want to hurt or kill anyone, but I'll do what I have to do because it has to be done." she said firmly. "I won't let you down, and I won't let these people suffer if I can help it."
Tela studied her for a long moment before nodding. "Alright then. Let's make ourselves visible, then."
They moved out onto the bustling street, Tela's hand firmly on Cassandra's shoulder, the Spectre's eyes constantly scanned their surroundings as they wove through the crowd. Cassandra tried to look small and frightened - not a difficult feat given the circumstances - while surreptitiously reaching out with her newfound abilities as she tried to figure out how to get them spotted but still maintain control of the situation. Something that would get them noticed by the planet at large and, more importantly, the people whose help they were searching for.
A series of loud zapping sounds, just like before, followed by a chorus of screams drew her eyes to where a burly, and surly, looking Batarian was dragging a group of chained humans through the street. Some of whom she recognized in passing from back home, and she felt a particularly harsh, white-hot coldness spread through her veins as a girl no older than she was, wearing little more than scraps to keep her just barely modest, was slapped across the face by the chain-master. Well, they wanted to make an impression and prove they weren't against slavery, didn't they? Seemed to her she had just found the perfect way to do just that…
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Milky Way Galaxy
Eagle Nebula
Amun System
Anhur
L2 Orbit
120 Hours Post Mindoir
Afothor Dhen'gras hated just about everything about his life, and had for the last several years. Orbital patrol of Anhur wasn't the most exciting job in the world, especially when you were patrolling in a lightly-armed Kodiak shuttle with nothing to do but stare at the stars and hit a button the transmit an automated challenge call to any ships jumping into the system. No one liked to do it, which is why lower-caste members were constantly stuck with the job. The pay was shit, the hours were long, and he wasn't permitted to bring a slave up. By the Pillars, he wasn't even allowed to play games or watch vids on his 'tool! He needed to 'maintain his awareness at all times', as if anything was ever going to happen, and even if something did, what the hell was he supposed to do about…
The thought, and his life, came to an abrupt and ignominious end as the Silence dropped out of FTL and plowed right through his shuttle, the impact vaporizing the comparatively miniscule craft and its pilot instantly. But the Silence was not alone, and dozens upon dozens of other ships started flickering into existence around her as alarms began to blare in every security station and pirate hideaway in the star system.
"Tighten the net, Honora. I don't want a single ship leaving this star system until I tell you otherwise." Aethyta growled from where she stood before the bridge viewport, watching as Anhur's orbital traffic scrambled in a panic from the sudden appearance of the majority of the Eclipse battlefleet, and more than a few 'independent operators', on their proverbial threshold.
"Aye, aye, Captain." the matron acknowledged from her command chair, an expression of cold hunger on her face. "Communications, order the fleets to advance into the system and take the orbitals. If fired upon, they are to cripple their attackers and board them. All un-aligned ships in Anhur's orbit are instructed to either land or prepare to be boarded. Guns, begin calculating approach vectors and targeting solutions, I want us able to crush the fight out of anyone stupid enough to pick one. All commandoes to their shuttles, stand-by for combat drops."
Wrex watched, eye ridge raised, as the crew smoothly obeyed, and he gave a tooth-bearing grin as the rest of the fleet followed suit. Frigates and cruisers, surrounded by a halo of fighters and shuttles, swept further into the system, spreading out as they began to form a glittering net of weapons and warfighters around the planet. It was a beautiful sight, even to an old ground-pounder like himself, and he certainly appreciated the near-autocratic power that his old friend was shamelessly wielding. Oh, the batarians would scream, some of the other races might even complain about Aethyta wielding her personal army so blatantly and ruthlessly, but they would have better luck spinning the galaxy backwards with their bare-hands than they would getting anywhere with their complaints. Frankly, he hoped some of them tried something stupid. It would give him a chance to see just how much his old friend was 'back in the saddle', as the humans would say.
Aethyta's eyes narrowed as she watched the planet grow larger in the viewport. Her fingers tapped an impatient rhythm on the railing as she waited for any sign of resistance or communication from the surface, her expression steadily growing more and more aggrieved as nothing happened. Well, nothing besides a few very stupid -or brave- people trying to run the blockade with speed or violence, neither of which worked.
"Anything yet?" she finally barked at the communications officer, who shook her head.
"Negative, Matriarch. No response to our hails. Picking up a lot of chatter planetside though - sounds like panic." the officer responded, one hand to her ear and listening carefully. "I…I don't think it's all down to us, either? I'm picking up references to fighting on the ground. I'm requesting your permission to brute force my way into the ground networks."
The answer went without saying, and after another handful of minutes, the communications officer looked up with wide eyes. "Matriarch, there is a full-scale slave revolt on the planet, and from what I'm hearing, Miss Shepard and the matron she is with kicked the entire thing off with the local resistance groups. The planetary government wants them dead, the bounty hunters want the money on their heads, the slavers want their product back under control, and the slaves and resistance groups are fighting all of them at the same time."
Aethyta's eyes blazed with a mix of pride and concern. "That's my girl. Shoulda known better than to think you would have waited for a rescue." she muttered under her breath before turning to address the bridge crew. "Alright, people, let's move. Honora, I want every strike team not assigned to searching ships on the ground. Focus on the major cities and known slaver strongholds. Priority is locating Cassandra and her companion, but I want every slave freed and every slaver dead. Looks like it's time for a little government restructuring. You have my permission to deploy air support, including frigates, as needed."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Honora responded, her fingers already dancing across her console as she relayed orders to the rest of the fleet.
Wrex stepped forward, his scarred face set in a predatory grin. "I'm going planetside. Sounds like there's going to be one hell of a fight down there, and I wouldn't miss it for the world. Besides, I can't wait any longer to meet this girl. Not even old enough to have kids, and she's already starting planet-wide wars. I like her."
Aethyta nodded grimly at Wrex. "Good. I want you leading one of the main strike teams. Find her, Wrex. Find her and keep her safe. And try not to level the planet, okay? We don't want to bury the slaves under the same rubble as their masters."
The old krogan's grin widened. "You got it. One small human firebrand, coming right up! I'll bring her back in one piece, even if I have to headbutt every slaver on this rock to do it. As for the damage, well…I'll try. Consider it a favor to an old friend."
As a chuckling Wrex lumbered off to join a strike team, Aethyta turned back to the viewport, her eyes fixed on the planet below. Somewhere down there, her daughter's best friend was fighting for her life and the lives of countless others. Pride and fear warred within her chest.
"Hang on, kid," she murmured. "We're coming."
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Miles below the watching fleet, chaos reigned. Rubble littered the streets, the air was thick with smoke from burning buildings, air cars, and God-only-knew-what-else, bodies were everywhere, blood stained every surface imaginable, and the screams of the dead, the dying, and the damned echoed from every direction. Gunfire chattered, and Cassandra ducked instinctively as the upper half of an apartment complex erupted in a gout of flame, the explosion sending debris raining down around her, nearly a hundred yards distant.
An instant later, Tela had tackled her to the side, shoving her down behind the tattered remains of a delivery truck, narrowly avoiding a hail of gunfire. The acrid smell of smoke and blood filled her nostrils, and she could taste ash on her tongue as she watched the Spectre shoot back at their latest batch of attackers, choked screams heralding her successful marksmanship.
"This is insane!" Cassandra shouted over the din of battle, leaning around the car to take a few pot-shots at an enterprising shotgunner that was trying to flank them, and he was forced to duck back into cover as his shields flickered and failed. "I didn't think it would get this out of control!"
Tela's lips quirked in a grim smile. "Welcome to revolution, kid. There's a reason that they're never 'clean'. Once you light the fuse, there's no controlling the explosion."
A nearby explosion punctuated her words, showering them with debris again, and Cassandra growled in frustration as she looked around. The slave revolt had spiraled far beyond anything she could have imagined when she and Tela had first made contact with the resistance. Now the entire planet seemed to be tearing itself apart, and the death toll had to be climbing to horrific heights at this point. A shrieking howl had them both ducking, and she looked up just in time to see a gunship in Na'hesit colors sweep overhead, strafing a rebel position a block down the road. Cassandra swallowed heavily, imagining how many more people had just died because of her, and watched hatefully as it banked up and away to make another attack run…only to explode in a fireball as a trio of missiles slammed into it's side in rapid succession. As the wreckage plummeted to the ground, secondary explosions wracking what was left of the air-frame, another trio of gunships swept into view.
"Eclipse! The Eclipse are here! Looks like we're going to get out of this in one piece after all, kid!" Tela crowed, as a veritable storm of shuttles and transports followed on the heels of the gunshis, and Cassandra swallowed at the sight of an asari frigate breaking through the cloud cover and unleashing a hail of fire from it's deck-guns at a section of the district that she knew for a fact was a heavily-fortified command center for local anti-abolitionist forces, setting off what felt like a small earthquake beneath her feet as the rounds slammed into the ground.
Cassandra's relief at the arrival of reinforcements was short-lived as she realized the implications. "Wait, Eclipse? As in, the mercenary group? How did they know to come here? And why do you think they're on our side?"
Tela's expression turned grim. "They didn't come for us, kid, not the way you're thinking. This is Aethyta's doing. She founded the group, a couple of centuries ago. Jona Sederis is a wannabe hack that took over when she retired and married Lady Benezia."
A chill ran down Cassandra's spine at the mention of Liara's father having access to this kind of firepower. She had known that the 'Black Sheep of the Matriarchy' wasn't to be underestimated. For God's sake, she had met the woman because she had somehow snuck a platoon of commandoes onto an Alliance planet and had them following her home from school when she was barely more than a kid! But access to commandoes and access to fleets were two very different things. That she had founded one of the biggest mercenary groups in the galaxy? Well, that was one hell of a thing. "She's going to be furious with me, isn't she?"
"Furious? Probably not, you saved her little girl after all. Worried sick and ready to tear the galaxy apart to find you? Very much so, from the looks of things." Tela replied, her eyes scanning the streets around them as she considered their options. "We need to find where her troops are hitting the ground. The fighting is only going to get worse, now, and we don't want to be anywhere near it. Especially not if she's bringing in frigate support."
Cassandra nodded grimly, her eyes darting around as she tried to spot any landing zones nearby. The chaos in the streets had only intensified with the arrival of Eclipse forces, slavers and bounty hunters now fighting a desperate battle on two fronts, and from the looks of things no one was bothering with even the slightest hint of restraint any longer.
"There!" Tela suddenly hissed, pointing to a clearing about half a mile away where several shuttles were touching down under heavy fire. "That's our best bet. Think you can make it that far?"
Cassandra took a deep breath, steeling herself. "I have to. Let's go."
They darted out from behind their cover, Tela taking point with her pistol at the ready. Cassandra followed close behind, her own borrowed weapon clutched tightly. They weaved through the debris-strewn streets, ducking into doorways and alleys whenever the sounds of fighting drew too close.
As they rounded a corner, Tela swore and Cassandra squealed, because instead of finding Eclipse commandoes, they found what looked to be thirty members of the anti-abolitionists, all heavily armed and armored. Which would have been bad enough by itself, but unfortunately for them this particular group was being led by some of Haliat's surviving men. Men who seemed very, very happy to have their pay-day, and the woman who had killed their boss, walking right into their collective grasps.
Cassandra's heart raced as she took in the hostile group before them, the Na'hesit levelling their weapons at the two of them while Haliat's men regarded them with expressiosn that could only be called 'vengeful glee'. A quick glance around their surroundings had her whimpering softly in the privacy of her own mind. No cover to make a run for, the majority of the alleyways nearby were either dead-ends or blocked by burning rubble, and while they could go back the way they came, she doubted that would end enemy better than charging them.
"Well, well, well." one of Haliat's men sneered, his scarred face twisting into a cruel grin. "Look what we have here. The blue bitch that killed our boss and Shepard's little brat, walking right up to us. I'm going to enjoy this, I'm going to enjoy this a lot."
Tela stepped slightly in front of Cassandra, her own weapon raised. "Well, gentlemen," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "I see the galaxy's finest have finally caught up with us. I'd say it's a pleasure, but I try not to lie to armed idiots. Especially not armed idiots that work with slavers. Pride of the Hierarchy, you are."
They really didn't like the reminder that they were disgraced, cashiered former members of the Hierarchy Navy, and Cassandra had to wonder at Tela's decision to make them even angrier. It seemed a bit counter-productive, but maybe she just figured that it didn't matter. It wasn't like the two of them could talk their way out of this, after all, and if she had learned anything about Tela Vasir since they had met, it was that she tended to let her mouth do whatever it damn well pleased.
"Shut your damn mouth, you whore! The Broker wants you dead, and he wants that brat alive, but he didn't say anything about the condition she had to be in!" was the snarled response, the turian jabbing an angry, threatening talon in their direction. "We're going to kill you slow, and then we're going to mail this little bitch to her mother in pieces! I…"
His tirade was cut off by a thunderous bellow and the sound of fast, heavy footsteps. Every eye turned in the direction of the landing zone, and Cassandra's eyes widened as she saw an honest-to-God krogan storming towards them, rust-red armor pockmarked with bullet holes and yellow skin smeared with blood. A biotic aura flickered into existence, his face stretching into a savage grin as he lowered his head and squared his shoulder like a bull about to charge, and the simultaneous realization struck everyone at once. The Na'hesit split down the middle, half of them trying to escape the danger zone while the rest opened fire, while the turians turned their attention back towards Tela and Cassandra with fell intent.
Intent that they never had the chance to follow through on, as the krogan -completely unaffected, it seemed, but the gunfire that had been unleashed upon him- completed the process of gathering his biotic power and unleashed it, flashing across the intervening distance in a quaking clap of displaced air to slam right into them. A half-dozen bodies went flying from the impact, killed instantly, and another handful were down with near-fatal injuries of their own. Taking advantage of the opportunity provided, Cassandra started shooting alongside Tela, and within moments the last of the attackers were either dead or dying.
"Heh heh heh." the crimson-clad battlemaster rumbled out his grunting chuckles as he looked around at the bodies, rolling his shoulders and slamming his fists together in satisfaction at his handiwork. "I haven't had this kind of fun in decades." Turning his back on them, he looked over at the two rescuees, offering a frankly frightening, teeth-bearing smile, one that was made all the more disturbing by the significantly increased amount of blood staining his armor and exposed skin, not to mention the fragments of what Cassie was pretty sure was either turian carapace or armor that still had some flesh attached to it. Neither of which was a pleasant possibility.
"Well now, little Shepard, you've started something interesting, haven't you?"