Day 13: ...And Into the Fire

Day 13

    

     Omega: home to the galaxy’s most infamous criminals and mercenaries… and Lúthien. Once we arrived in the Sahrabarik System, we quickly became aware through some quick scanning of the presence of several Ascension-class dreadnaughts in deep orbit around the star, which is never a good sign. Even worse, the scans revealed several Sovereign-class Reapers in the asteroid belt. I can’t imagine what would bring them to Omega, but I’m guessing that the Asari dreadnaughts probably have something to do with it.

     As we approached Omega, we were contacted and told about the state of affairs on Omega. The station had been hit with a fatal plague affecting all species currently living on Omega except for Asari, and a group of Asari commandos had invaded and taken over and stopped all mining on the asteroid. This just keep going from bad to worse don’t they? There has to be something fundamentally wrong with this galaxy… We suited up, docked and were quickly escorted to Afterlife, Aria’s headquarters.

     Once there, Aria debriefed us herself on the situation and what she needed us to do. She asked for our help instead of calling in actual doctors and researchers (as I’m sure she could have en force being the ‘Queen of Omega’ and all) was due to the fact that the Asari team that had invaded the asteroid and lodged their ship deep into the rock and was rigged to explode at any moment Asari High Command saw fit. So she had us brought in to use the medical ‘expertise’ of Lt. Cornelius Joe. Of all the people in the galaxy, she could think of only Joe to save her rock! Lúthien must not be doing a very good job of reporting the state of this crew to Aria, or their both insane which I guess you would have to be to have run Omega for centuries. But, she does have a good point, that given his knowledge he should be able to use all the equipment here to synthesize a cure… I hope. Aria also told us the hidden agenda of the Asari in creating the plagues: they created each plague as they came in contact with a new species to ascertain Asari dominance in the galaxy. She also explained a bit of what happened to the Shepard: apparently he is in control of the Reapers, by somehow becoming their ‘conscience,’ through the use of the Crucible. She explained that the Asari were a little… pissed off, that the Shepard had effectively become the most powerful force in the galaxy and that he was human, not Asari and that they are planning on somehow replacing him.

How they thought this up is beyond me. I guess the Reapers have become too meddlesome for their politics. I don’t know. It seems pretty dim witted to me. I mean, he Reapers have been destroying galactic life for eons, they almost succeeded a few years ago, what makes them think that they can just waltz in and rebuild the crucible and reprogram the Reapers to do their bidding. This is just going to cause another Reaper war in which we will probably lose. What a stupid idea.

Anyway, Aria wanted us to route the Asari commandos in charge of stopping the mining operations, and Joe to begin curing the various plagues on Omega. Aliya was ordered to stay behind with the LT to help him stay focused. The rest of us went to a fortress the KQO found in the station’s systems.

Once there we rebooted the turrets and set everything up to funnel the commandos in to our line of fire. We signalled KQO to start bringing the 200+ commandos in waves toward the fortress while hiding the existence of the turrets. It quickly turned into a blood bath, as the Asari came through the corridor into the line of fire of our rocket-firing turrets.

KQO then proposed a plan to cause the Asari to retreat and clear off of the station. While poking around the enemy systems she was able to find the command codes, and with our help, she composed an order from ‘high command’ to evacuate the station the Reapers were coming. Thankfully they fell for it, and they eventually all cleared off the station. And were subsequently blown out of the sky judging by the explosion we heard a while after they left, poor bastards.

While we were engaged with the commandos Joe was able to synthesize a cure for all the races, with some motivation and help from Aliya, but the LT being who he is decided to run the cure out himself while screaming at Aliya, which resulted in him getting shot in the leg by some commando who had missed their ship spying on Joe’s progress. Aliya made quick work of the Asari while Joe went sprinting away blood just gushing away to distribute the cure. I took a sample of the Turian cure to send to the Hierarchy with a little explanation of what it is and why it was necessary; just in case.

Aria then thanked us for saving her station and we all went for some well-deserved rest and relaxation while Lúthien had a little chat with her mother.

Day 10: 101 Ways to Cook Salarian

Day 10

    

     The Quarian knows how to take a person down I’ll give her that. Damn, I don’t think I ever want to be on the receiving end of a neural shock. She isn’t the brightest though when it comes to handling bodies. When by the time I reached her and the Asari they were both tugging on the unconscious Salarian trying to bring him back to the bar; Lúthien pulling on his horns, and the Quarian pulling on an obviously broken arm (you could see the arm stretching). So I quickly took over and heaved the Salarian onto my back and carried him back to the rest of the squad.

     As we returned to the ship, an official-looking skycar pulls up and drops the Commander off, with K8 following quickly behind. Once aboard, we parted to interrogate our prisoners: the Quarian, Krogan, and the LT to interrogate the doctor we apprehended last week, Lúthien and I to interrogate the Salarian with the broken arms. Lúthien and I decided to play the whole “good cop/bad cop” routine. I walk in with some painkillers and water, and explain to him the only way to get these was to answer my questions or he would have to meet the other not-so-nice interrogator, and at this point we could hear a rather distressed and desperate scream from the other interrogation room, which was rather handy. He quickly conceded in giving me all the information that he could. Lúthien then comes in, saunters over to him, places her hands lightly on his shoulders and repeats the questions, and lightly brushing the fractures in his arm to assure the veracity of his information. Once we concluded that we couldn’t get any more info out of him I pushed the pill and water closer to him and we left the room. As the door shut we heard a thud and a yelp of pain, I sent in a serviceman in to help the poor bastard out.

     In the hallway we met up with the rest of the crew as the Quarian raced by us crying. I guess the other interview didn’t go so well, looking at the Krogan I think I saw a piece of skin in between his teeth, no wonder the Quarian ran off, she wouldn’t be able to stomach a Krogan feeding, few people in this galaxy can! It turns out that the doctor has a secret data cache in his apartment that needs to be taken care of, as well as our doppelgangers. The Commander decided to inform President Tali’Zorah of our situation and to ask for help in either of our plights.

     Before leaving the planet, we had out ship upgraded and ID changed to the Phoenix, a fitting symbol if you ask me. Our stay on Rannoch has been anything but boring, it’ll be interesting to see what the future will bring.

 

Day 9: A Little Piece of Omega

Day 9

     We made it to the Quarian home world: Rannoch, a pretty impressive sight. It’s a marvel of organic and synthetic engineering, in quite an inspiring way. And given that the Geth and Quarians have been working together for only the past 40 years is an even greater testament to the Shepard’s influence.

     Seeking asylum on Rannoch has had its perks. Most of the team decided to improve themselves by having various cybernetics added to them. I decided to increase the muscle weave in my legs and an internal computer installed to increase my capabilities, and proficiency as a soldier. You need to be ready for anything, and now that we are all fugitives we need all the advantage we can get. An interesting by-product of these improvements is the doctors accidentally installed a direct interface along with the internal computer, so I can interface with my omni-tool without manually accessing it. That should come in handy with my new incendiary ammo I picked up in the bazaar. We spent the next three days recuperating.

     Upon our release we decided to celebrate and regroup by honouring the time-old tradition of hitting the bar. Lúthien, being the most street savvy, picked what she considered to be the best one. We probably should have known something was going to happen, I mean the daughter of the “Queen of Omega” is bound to pick the seediest, most-likely-to-get-killed-in bar in The Capitol. As we walked into the bar I noticed that the patrons began leaving and certain individuals setting up, or revealing rather, some pretty tactically advantageous positions, when suddenly the deafening sound of a sniper rifle shatters the silence and Lúthien barely manages to throw up a barrier in time to stop the bullet from hitting anything vital. I quickly kick a table over and pull Nienna down, and whip out my rifle and activate my incendiary ammo, how convenient having that mistake at the hospital turned out to be. The other Turian (Artemis I think that’s her name?), the prisoner we freed from the Salarians, was with me behind the table and seemed surprised that there was another Turian in the squad, which I guess I can forgive her as she was pretty reclusive on the ship, having just been freed and all, and didn’t know who I was! ME! Major Terryck Corinthus, Nova Cluster recipient and Saviour of Aephus! The Salarians must have done something to her mental capacity during her tenure as prisoner to have forgotten something that important! Anyway, our attackers were a group of Salarian mercs, how they got on Rannoch is beyond me, but they were quickly dealt with. I detained the one that I fired at, shoved him behind the bar, right as I turned I saw Aliya getting ready to sprint out the door! The damned Quarian was trying to get away! As her guard I started to run after her, I can’t disobey my orders and let her get away, not after I know what she’s capable of now.