Omega, the scum bag Capital of the Milky Way. Rich in thieves, killers, smugglers, prostitutes, and home to some of the most dangerous Mercenaries in the Galaxy. At the heart of this scum-pit, is the Afterlife Club. Species from all over frequent Afterlife for all sorts of unspeakable reasons. If you're looking for a good time, you'll probably find it here. You'll most definitely find a lot of bad times here as well, even if you're not looking for it. Whether good or bad, it all starts with a drink at the bar..

Loud music blares, the sound of people chatting and laughing in the distance drowned out by the bass from the speakers all around. Strobe lights flash on the dance floor while Humans and Aliens alike spill their freshly poured drinks as they bump their way through the crowd. Among all the chaos, a Krogan and a Man stand alone, watching the drunken madness..



"This place never gets old, does it?" The Human standing next to the Krogan says over his shoulder. "Everything you could want, all in one place. Drinks, music, pussy. No wonder I've never left this place!". "Ha! You Humans, all you ever think about. If you had a Genophage wipe out the reason for your reproductive rituals, I wonder if you would be able to function.". The Krogan replied with a quip. "Well what about you, Drex? You like to throw back some Ryncol yourself! What is it that a Krogan Mercenary like yourself lives for?". "Ryncol! You're right about that, Human. Speaking of, how about the first round on you?". "I knew even the mighty Drex couldn't pass up a drink, ha ha!". Drex signals the way for the Human towards the bar. Drex and the Human take a seat at the bar, and the Human waves to the Bar Keep for a round on his tab.



Drex and the Human cheers their glasses, as they both take a sip; Drex's closer to finishing his in one "sip". "Ah, Ryncol really is the highlight of this scum hole. If it weren't for the abundance of bounties to be collected here, without Ryncol this place would be useless.". "So that's it! You stay here for the bounties, huh? Credits is what motivates a Krogan to stick around.". the Human continues to sip his drink as Drex takes another big drink, finishing it off. "Credits, to buy Ryncol. But unlike you, Human, there's more to a Krogan than drinking. Do you see blood on my Hammer, Human?". The human lowers his glass while he glances at the Krogan Hammer hanging from Drex's back. "No. No, I don't see any blood on it. What does th-". The Human is cut off by Drex talking over him before he can finish his sentence. "There lies the problem, Human. Do you think there is no blood on my Hammer because I choose not to swing it at the head of my enemies, right before they take their last breath? I'll help you with that answer - NO. There's not blood on my Hammer because I've been waiting to collect a bounty. Bounties are so abundant here, some people never know they are a target, until it's too late. Hell, even you, Human, could wake up one day, and not even know there was a bounty on your head.". The Human's eyes widen from Drex's words. He sets his glass on the bar as he finishes the last sip. In a shaky tone of voice, the Human responds to the massive Krogan. "Drex, uh, wh- what are you getting at?". Drex motions to the Bar Keep for another round. "Human, have another! On me, this time. Drink up, friend!" The Human reluctantly starts to sip his drink. "Blood, Human. Blood is what keeps a mighty Krogan like myself around a scum hole like Omega. The bounties I collect pay for the copious amounts of Ryncol that I ingest, but the blood of my enemies dripping from my Hammer; that, my friend, is what I collect for. So when I don't have a bounty to collect, I don't have Ryncol; and if I'm not having Ryncol, that means there has not, or will not be blood on my Hammer.". The Human gulps the sip of his drink that he just took, almost dropping his glass as he puts it on the bar. "You're drinking Ryncol right now, this round was on your tab, friend. But..there's no blood..". "Ah, Human, you are correct yet again! There is no blood on my Hammer. Just like we are different in what we live for in this shit hole, we are also different in one crucial matter. Drex has no friends.". The Human spits his drink out as Drex smashes his glass against the Human's head, catapulting him off the bar stool onto the floor. Drex casually stands up and walks towards the Human, reaching his right hand toward his back, where his Hammer is hanging. Drex looks the Human in the eyes, as he lie on the floor motionless, staring at the massive Krogan. "I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not. Someone has to pay for that drink.". Drex pulls the Hammer from his back, and with one swift swing, the Human's head flew from his body, crashing into drinks on a nearby table. Drex grabs the tags from the Human's body, as proof of a bounty collected. He wipes the blood from his Hammer as a voice comes over the Comm Unit. "Greetings, everyone!". Drex puts his Hammer on his back, and grins.

"You won't be dry for long.". Drex speaks to himself out loud, as though as he is talking to his Hammer. The Krogan Mercenary finishes one more Ryncol drink, and heads out of the Afterlife Club, in pursuit of the author of the Comm message..

---

The sniper follows her set of directions to the meeting point, hiding and listening. "Blue Suns? I'm gonna make em piss their pants." She spends this time checking her gear and grabbing bountiful amounts of thermal clips for her sniper. She cloaks and heads up to the catwalk, sitting down and uncloaking behind some cover. She looks towards the offices, her eerie green sensors staring them down. "Children... Using children to fight, just as bad as fucking Cerberus..." She looks out from behind cover, aiming down her sniper rifle. She opens comms with everyone behind her, using a voice changer to hide her identity... She sounds gender neutral. "Blue Suns spotted in the distance, prepare for combat. Yes, White Glint is here to assist, however, if you're a liability to survival I will train my sights onto you. Back onto the subject, it appears to be mainly comprised of infantry units. Easy pickings if you ask me. Arm your guns and be prepared to unleash all hell on them." She seems to be asserting her position as a battle commander.

She aims up and her sensors take in data... She then fires, a round slamming through a Blue Suns infantry merc. "Scratch one tango." She doesn't seem to actively enjoy killing, perhaps old memories.

Drex makes his way through Omega in pursuit of the originator of the Comm Message. Bullying his way through crowds, eager for more blood than the last head spilled over his Krogan Hammer. The blood thirsty Krogan finds his way into a corridor that leads to what appears to be a warehouse. There is a large Transport Mech stationed near the center of the room, next to a congregation of other species. Drex stops walking for a moment, almost as to take in the scene.

"Humans, Turians..Where is the real fire power; Krogans? Ha. Lucky I'm here.". Drex scoffs as he continues his path toward the group. Drex makes it just through the corridor entrance to the Warehouse, right as a loud bang rings through the room. Gunshot. Drex stops in place, noticing where the shot came from, and where the shot landed; straight through a Blue Suns Merc. "Damn Blue Suns. I couldn't have wished for anything better!". Drex shouts to himself, rips his Spike Thrower from his back, and charges directly towards the direction of the Blue Suns. "Lets see what you sons a bitches got!". Drex cocks his Spike Thrower as he runs straight toward a Blue Suns Merc who is distracted from the gun shot that rained down from the catwalk. Plowing headfirst through the Merc, Drex pops off a couple shots from his Spike Thrower, hitting another Merc multiple times. Drex swings back around to the Merc that he smashed with a headbutt, and quickly uses his Krogan Hammer to finish the Merc off. The Blue Suns are caught off guard by such a forward attack. "Never saw me comin'! Ha ha!". Drex may have got the upper hand on the Blue Suns with his brutal attack, but he put himself straight in the focus of the entire Mercenary group.

"Which one of you wants it next?!"...

Drex is a fierce Krogan, no doubt. Fierce, but also foolish..

---

Standing just outside of the offices beneath the control room, Alexis had busily been at work. She didn't have much to work with, but she'd make do. Ugh, last time she was in this situation she was in an old Cerberus base with just a dinky pistol, Cinnis, and a handful of grenades. Fun times, if only because of the explosion. She wasn't sure if she could pull another victory out of her ass, but damn it if she wasn't gonna try.

"More vital signatures in the area. More of Saris' people?"

"Maybe." Alexis replied gruffly, positioning one of her turrets near the edge of the offices, taking note of Lokea and the kids heading inside. Well, good. As irritated and annoyed as she was, she'd really be pissed if something happened to those kids. Fuck, she might just shoot Saris and then find whoever was leader of the Blue Suns and ventilate their brain. "Focus, Cinnis. Linked up?"

"Affirmative. Checking sensors...calibrating...all green. Turret is working at full capacity. I will gratefully use them to slaughter a countless number of fleshy things in blue armor."

Leaving that one at the door, Alexis quickly got to work on another one. She had a few on hand, but setting them up in strategic points was going to be a problem. No cover. No high ground. An overall shitty situation. Quickly finishing setting up the second, Alexis paused before heading inside the offices after Lokea and the kids after setting up another turret on the other end of the other end of the door.

Lets see them try to get in now.

Just one thing to make sure of...Alexis headed inside the offices herself, setting up a third turret off to the side. Just a little something in case some suns decided to get sneaky and the kids needed a bit of extra help. Now for the fun bits - Alexis pulled out some of the ammo for the Hydra she was carrying. Carrying ammo for it was a bitch. Heavy, limited supply, but damn if it wasn't powerful. With a little know how, you could turn it into a fun hand-held sized surprised for whoever was unlucky enough to piss you off. Alexis spent the next few minutes rigging the extra ammo into some portable grenades...gah, too bad she didn't have any movement sensors to make some mines. Oh well.

"Oi, Lokea. I left something for ya in the office if you need it. A fun little surprise if some suns decide to get tricky. Few quick and dirty grenades for ya." She quickly said over the short band to all parties.

"I hope they do. Watching their entrails splatter all over the floor would be most pleasing."

"Shut it, Cinnis - Everyone else, the turrets should be calibrated not to shoot your faces off. Just don't go doing anything stupid. I'll be out front with the turrets and the lifter bot." With that, Alexis grabbed the Hydra and her shiny new 'grenades' and sat in front of the office. This was going to be the best place for her, for now. All she had to do was wait.

She didn't have to wait for long.

"White glint? Seriously?" Alexis grunted, frowning beneath her helmet.

"Seems this rotund Volus' pockets and connections are deep indeed."

"Got it, Glint." She said over the comms. "Suns are here, folks! Lets show 'em a good time!"

Unfortunately for the suns, they were dealing with some pretty clever girls and boys. As soon as they made their appearance known, Cinnis had already taken control of the turrets he was linked up too, unleashing a volley of rounds right in their direction - and with machine precision, nearly mowing down three or four of them with relative ease. Alexis booked it to behind the transport mech, taking a few potshots at the suns with a surprising amount of accuracy. She was momentarily surprised by the Krogan showing up from nowhere...but that was a good distraction.

Ah, she was feeling much better already.

Smirking under her helmet, Alexis grabbed one of the hastily made grenades attached to her armor's belt...and chucked it right in the group of Suns that was just now starting to focus on the Krogan.

"HOPE YA LIKE FIREWORKS, JACKASSES!"

The hastily made explosive device left her hand...and clinked to the floor in front of them, before promptly blasting them all into a fine red mist.

Mass Effect: Seraphim Post

The battle was starting, and Ashton quickly began using the increased computing power of his personal computer and the office's own devices to hack into the nearby camera feed, showing the point of entry of the Blue Suns troopers - A frontal assault, really?. He double-checked to see if anyone was trying to flank the control tower through the catwalks or other approaches to the building; there were none for now. Perfect.

A few light presses of his keyboard later, and he was getting the hang of the network used by the Blue Suns for this operation. The next few split-seconds involved him finding a hole in their cyber-security and sneaking into their online networks.

Now came the fun part; a good student of computer and programming history knew what web-bots were; automated programs designed for a specific function. These web-bots, if used right, saved a computer specialist a lot of work by removing the need for micromanagement. Why was this important, because Ashton had created several custom bots, including one designed to enter individual comm devices and relay their transmissions to his personal computer and omni-tool. That was how he had escaped the group trying to enslave him in the first place.

With a swipe of the touchscreen, several copies of those bots were sent into the omni-tools used by the Blue Suns troops, exponentially multiplying until every communications device was infected.

At a flash, Ashton's computer began flashing with pop-ups of each message that the Blue Suns Soldiers sent to each other; every aspect of their communications was open. Using the contact info he had been given by Cicero, Alexis, and the Mysterious Intruder, he began sending them and the rest of the group copies of the already-sent messages with a one-second delay; a small precaution just in case one of the three was a traitor.

He was so busy arranging this that he had forgotten about the Lifting Mech he had used as a fortification for the rest of the mercs until the Blue Suns had reached it. A few presses of the keyboard later, and the normally sedate machine was tossing Blue Suns mercs high, while crushing others with its huge feet. This was his moment, even though the boy knew that the enemy had not yet begun to fight.

Finally, the sounds of orders, footsteps and weapons fire started to echo around the crate. Contacts approaching. Identification: Blue Suns. Status: Hostile. Consensus: scans inconclusive. Additional data required for direct targeting. Alert! Entering active combat zone. “Engaging hostiles.” the platform messaged all local Omni-tools that had its address as its shields kicked in and it rose to its full height, revealing itself to both the Blue Suns and the mercenary party.

The box came apart like a house of cards and the Unit found itself staring down a Blue Suns merc taking cover behind an adjacent crate. All external lights on the platform turned from blue to red and the flaps around its face flared up, mimicking an aggressive expression. The Unit grabbed the mercenary by the throat, raised him in the air and smashed him into the ground, transitioning into a crouch as it did to shield it from any incoming fire. Where there was one Blue Suns mercenary, a whole squad was never far behind. The impact shattered the merc’s skull, leaving the Unit in a somewhat protected position and free to properly digest the situation. It would appear the mercenary it just killed was hiding from a krogan rampaging through their ranks. The Blue Suns were engaging the individuals it saw earlier, even the two children. There still wasn’t any indication of who they were, what they were doing there, who they were working for or if they were a group or an assortment of individuals. Since this was Omega, it was safe to assume they were criminals as well, but that could be resolved later. Tactical disadvantage: enemy numerical superiority. Consensus: seek an advantageous position, aid the unidentified forces. Alert! Automated defenses detected, IFF setting unknown.

Unsure whether it was safe from the turrets, or the krogan for that matter, the platform disappeared from the visible spectrum, leaving a slight shimmer behind and hustled to find a better position, drawing its Black Widow as it moved. It crouched behind a support beam near one of the walls, with a good view of the area, though flanked by several of the unknown operatives. With the last second of its cloak, the Unit fired, removing another Blue Suns combatant from the equation. Thanks to its synthetic body, the platform was completely motionless with the exception of changing targets and absorbing recoil, allowing it to acquire targets and fire much faster than most organic soldiers. It kept firing with machine precision, prioritising Blue Suns units trying to break through around the sides of the cargo bay, leaving the main body of the assault force as well as any heavy units to others.

Its cooperation with the organics was already paying off, as messages from the Blue Suns, their authenticity confirmed by examining the metadata of the original messages, started to flood into its Omni-tool. The Geth had the advantage of not needing to actually read or listen to the messages and being able to process several messages at once, granting it lightning fast response time.

To make its job even easier, it focused its electronic warfare equipment on two of the LOKI mechs the Blue Suns brought with them. The mechs froze on the spot, looking almost confused, before turning 90 degrees and opening fire on their masters. The Unit dedicated two hundred of its runtimes to actively control each mech, using them as attack dogs to flush the Suns out of cover, right into either its, the group’s or the turrets’ sights. It didn’t bother making sure the mechs remained active for too long, as controlling the two meant the Unit was down to two thirds of its normal capacity. If they were destroyed, so be it.

---

"Shit, they have a krogan down there. Hurry and get into position before AAAUGH!"

Talia jerked her head to the side to watch the flanking Blue Suns scatter, their team leader tenderized and flung off the balcony by the proximity mine. Rising from cover, she shouldered her rifle as the Blue Suns mercs shook off their confusion and spotted her.

"Weapons hot!"

A quick accurate burst of fire to one merc's chest dropped him like a rock before Talia ducked down behind cover again, the return fire from the Blue Suns scattering across the top of the metal crate she ducked behind. Waiting for the familiar pause, she swung back out to take another shot but quickly dropped down, a sharp pain striking her in the stomach. A cursory glance revealed a burn where a stray shot had hit her, but thankfully her bio shield ate most of the impact this time.

"Damn it, don't get lazy on me now," Taria thought to herself. "Focus..."

"Did we get her?" one of the Blue Suns asked aloud as Taria surveyed the environment, spotting the now empty case of her gear where she last left it.

"I thought the boss said these guys would be tough," came a triumphant response. Concentrating, Taria proved the boss right by throwing the case in the direction of the fire team, prompting panicked shouts from the Blue Suns as Taria popped out of cover again and took aim at another Blue Sun, who went down with a neat row of holes in the center of his forehead. Leaping over the barrier, Taria charged to a closer vantage point, sliding behind another sturdy barrier and firing a few shots in the team's direction. Counting down her ammo, she used her biotics right as her rifle went dry to fling a second Blue Sun down the catwalk and slamming him into the far wall, leaving a visible dent. Just three left now

"What the hell, did that come from her? I thought she was Turian!"

"You're joking right? A Turian with biotics?"

Capitalizing on the Blue Suns being rattled, Taria jumped back out and biotic charged into the closest merc, sending him sailing with an elbow strike and immediately recovering to grab the gun of a second merc, hurling it at the third to distract him before cracking the second alongside the head with her rifle, then dropping the gun and tackling the third merc, slamming him to the ground and disabling him with a blow to the head. Getting back to her feet, she walked by and nonchalantly levitated her rifle back to her arms, slamming in another clip.

"It's good to be back," Taria mused, rolling her shoulders as she braced herself for more. Spotting Galm making quick work of the fire teams he was facing, the Turian smiled, encouraged by the thought of fighting alongside one of her best friends, and took position on the balcony to lay down some covering fire for the fighters below, throwing a quick casual wave as one of them spotted her.

As Lokea was setting up defenses in the control offices, she looked out through the small windows that peered into the hangar. She saw everyone take defensive positions, sighing in relief that no one was out in the open. She watched as Alexis made her way into the office, and started setting of fortifications. Lokea helped where she could, setting up a few choke points and barriers with her biotic abilities, placing the furniture and cubicles around to create some cover and choke areas. Once Alexis finished and spoke to her, Lokea nodded, giving Alexis the Alliance 'OK' signal. Those planted memories from the human colonists were infinitely useful. "Thanks." Lokea said as she levitated the grenades to her, keeping them stashed right next to her. After Alexis left and notified the party of the turrets, Lokea took note of the ones inside and outside of the office, grateful that they were not completely fucked in defense. She spoke back into the radio to Alexis. "Copy that, and much appreciated. Just give me a shout if you need covering fire."

Making sure her M8 Avenger rifle was ready one last time, she listened carefully on friendly communications and heard a rather unfamiliar voice. This 'White Glint', despite not even meeting or discussing strategy with the others, seemed to be asserting an air of dominance over the airwaves. Sounds a bit like a fool too, what did they mean by liability to survival? Well at least Lokea got some solid intel on them. To confirm what this White Glint said, the asari pulled out her rangefinder and scoped out the area far away. Indeed, there was a large contingent of Blue Suns infantry. Humans, batarians and turians all wearing their trademark blue armor, carrying shotguns, assault rifles and pistols, heading straight into the group's killzone as the White Glint predicted. Perfect. She turned to the kids. "Got a huge infantry contingent inbound as I speak. Stay sharp." Lokea spoke, her face obscured by her helmet still. She turned back to the windows, the fortified position nicely arranged to allow firing ports in three directions, Lokea facing towards the empty space the hangar provided. Bringing her rifle to shoulder, she watched as the Blue Suns made their way towards their position, about ready to fire until...

BANG! Lokea watched through the scope of her Elkoss assault rifle as one of the humans leading the assault took a round straight through the chest, having been killed instantly. Damn. Clean shot. Lokea smirked just a little, aiming down the scope once again. Having had plenty of target practice on cannibals, husks, marauders, pirates and terrorists, Lokea brought the rate of fire selector from 'SAFE' to 'SEMI', tapping two rounds towards a turian that continued to charge at them... one round in the neck, next in the head. The turian collapsed instantly, and Lokea smirked. Wow, all of that weapon maintenance has really paid off this time. Lokea took aim again, ignoring the two small holes she left in the glass and the gunfire from the turrets outside, until she heard a synthetic voice speak through their comms channel, letting the team know that it was joining the fight by 'engaging hostiles'. Do we have a robot now? Before she knew it, a Krogan charged into battle.

Wait, not only did Saris bring a robot, he also brought a krogan? Lokea hoped that he was one of the cool Urdnot guys that she met on Illium rather than the stupid ones she's already ran into just an hour ago. She caught sight of Drex, and seeing how he entered the fight almost right after the White Glint did, it seems as if they were much later to the party than Lokea herself was. She watched as he mowed down mercs left and right with his shotgun, smashing others with the hammer. While the krogan was already causing a lot of damage, he was also drawing a lot of attention to himself. She spoke into the radio. "Lokea to team, we got a surprise guest out in the hangar. Mind giving him a little covering fire before-" BOOM! A grenade exploded, and quite a few of the Blue Suns mercenaries exploded into a gory mess. Lokea blinked before speaking again. "-never mind." She then started letting off a few double taps, getting some mercs in the chest, a few in the head, gunning them down one by one, trying to keep the pressure off of Drex and Alexis. POW-POW! POW-POW! POW-POW!

Suddenly, her omni-tool lit up, and after parsing the notifications, it turns out that it was the Blue Suns' communications channel that has now been decrypted. Every single text message, attachment, data piece and radio transmission was the group's to digest. Lokea put on the audio channel, listening into their communications on a separate volume so she could tell the difference between friendlies and enemies.

"What the... they're gonna blow us all to hell!" One Blue Suns merc called out over the radio.

"Don't be a wimp! There aren't that many of them!" Another called out.

Lokea smirked a little, dimming down the volume just a little to where she can tone it out easily, but can hear important info if necessary. She turned to Ashton. "You did the decryption, right?" If given an affirmative answer, she would smile underneath her helmet and give him a thumbs up. "Good work, kid. Figured you were here for a good reason." She turned back to the fight, and squeezed off a few more shots at the enemy, downing another few mercs. One of them was a particularly nasty batarian with combat shields, but with about ten rounds to the center of mass, the batarian only had a split second to realize that his armor was only as good as its unprotected parts. A bloody hole emerged right between his four eyes, his head well exposed after his shields were dropped.

Lokea looked up to the catwalk to keep an eye on their flanks, seeing two friendly turians up top giving them some fire support. She gave them both a little wave. "To the friendlies on the catwalk, we didn't introduce ourselves, but I appreciate the fire support." She said to them, and once she turned around, she saw a Geth Trooper standing right outside the office walls. Standing behind the pillar that held up the catwalk in front of the control office that Lokea fortified, the Geth Trooper seemed to have appeared there when Lokea was looking away. She blinked, looking to the geth platform. She was already having some light flashbacks to Zhu's Hope, memories of Saren's geth gunning down innocent civilians. She thought that almost all of the geth were destroyed when the Crucible hit, maybe this one was rebuilt and came here with friendly intentions? She had a hard time trying to comprehend just who came to this fucked up party. She called out to the geth platform verbally, her helmet obscuring her face and filtering out her voice. "Hey, Geth...uh, platform! You're friendly, right?" She asked it before she promptly returned fire at several mercs that fired at her position. She managed to keep them suppressed for now, as some of the Blue Suns had enough functioning brain cells to take cover. Unless all of them were tripped up on Red Sand or something.

Elijah

Elijah nodded his head to Alexis. "Sounds like this just got more interesting. Their rank and file are easy pickings. Just gotta wait for their more elite units. Those will be more of a 'challenge'." He stated. After Alexis had walked away, Elijah turned to Lokea. "So they got air support as well? Well that's gonna be a bit of challenge, hopefully someone as anti armor. If not our best bet is to hit it with as many biotic or tech detonations as possible. I'm gonna position myself in the building over yonder, try to make some type of cover really quick. If you guys need me, here's my contact info." Elijah said as he forwarded his info to the others nearby.

As he made his way over to the far off building he sat his duffel bag down and grabbed the last few pieces of his equipment. "Helmet check, rifle, shotgun and pistol, check, knife, check. Alright looks like I'm all set." He said touching all of his equipment to double check if it was really there. Closing the bag he tossed it near the wall of the bay so it was out of the way and less likely to be shot. Once he made his way into the furthest building. Finding the building to be mostly empty save for some old office equipment. Flipping a few of the tables and pushing them closer to the window just to give himself a few more layers of protection. Elijah readied his rifle.

Through his comms he hears someone with a very neutral voice state that the blue suns were here. "What a pretentious prick. Acting like they are something. 'White Glint' the fuck kinda name is that?" He muttered. Raising his M-7, Elijah started to fire at the blue suns, killing a few in the process. Softly under his breath he muttered "ils ne passeront pas" In a way it was in homage to his ancestors who had held the line. And as they had held the line so shall he. More round spat forth from his rifle some hitting some missing. Even if his rounds missed they provided cover forcing the blue suns to attempt to stick to cover.

From his current position he had difficulty seeing where his new teammates where or their status. But from what he could tell things were going decent at least. Spotting a small group of blue suns, Elijah gathered his biotic power into his left hand threw one of his most devastating abilities at them, Flare. When the flare landed it sent the small group flying. "How many Blue Suns did our glorious employer say there was again?" Elijah asked through the group comms.

---

Galm quickly gets to work, taking a flattened pre-built Sentry turret and sliding it across the ground, while it slides it springs to life, lifing up from its pod and gunning down Blue Suns, once it comes to a stop it begins focusing on the main force, shooting relentlessly. It seems to be firing faster than the other sentry turrets, likely custom modifications. Ethen hides with Galm, as the turian begins assembling a... Drone. A large one at that. He runs out and fetches one of the higher end assault rifles from a Blue Suns who tried to sneak around, but got riddled with bullets in return. He steals all the thermal clips, proceeding to run back to his drone, shields taking a few shots. He begins hotwiring up the gun to the bottom side of the drone. "Cover me! We're gonna rain down rounds from all angles! Glint, good to hear you're sniping stuff, but stop bossing us around!" He peeks around the corner and sabotages one of the LOKI mechs from his omni-tool, the head and arms of it exploding. "Taria, why didn't you tell me you had biotics? Isn't that impossible?" He seems to be ignoring the Geth, it's the least of his concerns.

---

Looking up from checking her M-29 Incisor she was greeted by the batarian she had noticed earlier when seeing all the others who had seemingly been messaged by the same person. She followed where he pointed and gave a roll of her eyes behind her mask."Fine you watch mine I'll watch yours," she stated all ready making her way to the place he pointed. She gave a simple nod when he gave his name.

"Alya, hope you are a good shot Cicero," She replied after reaching the catwalk spot and getting in position. By then the Blue Suns had made their presence known, a few all ready being taken out by the few others there ",These bosh'tets won't know what hit them." She peered into the scope of her weapon gazing down its sight finding her target and letting off a round, nailing one Blue Sun in the head.

"That's one," she stated quietly to herself as she began picking her targets, aiming to keep the front-lines of the forces thinned while also watching for any of them that might of had some air superiority with jetpacks. She scoffed listening to some bosh'tet on the comms called themselves White Glint with some speech on anyone being a liability would be shot by them. Having some higher then though complex or acting like a pompous commander. The quarian simply shook her head while keeping focus on the enemy debating if the payout this Solis guy had was worth working with some ragtag set of fools.

Of course her interest was peaked when she noticed her omnitool acting up, noticing that it was oddly familiar before later in the fight catching a glimpse of a Geth."Huh so they still live... Maybe I can take it apart," she thought to herself as she switched over to assault rifle and rained shots on the Blue Suns.

The Krogan was an interesting addition though she wondered if he simply was there to kill and didn't care what side lost, either way she was more then happy to have him on their side. Along with spotting a biotic turian which was an interesting sight to behold.

"Which one of you wants it next?!"...

Blue Suns Mercenaries fill the warehouse surrounding Drex. The Krogan readies his shotgun for the next onslaught of Blue Suns, ready to take out anything that is stupid enough to be in his sights.

*Shotgun cocks* "Which one of you wants it next?!" ..*BOOM! A huge a explosion goes off not far from Drex, taking out a group of Blue Suns that had their aim trained on him. The Krogan flinches his head to the side, covering his eyes from the blast. "Well damn! It's getting hot in here! Lets turn up the heat a little!" Drex hurls a pair of Inferno Grenades into another group of Blue Suns, lighting them up like a wild forest fire. With a smirk on his face from the destruction he has already caused to the Blue Suns, Drex kicks on 'Heavy Fortification', increasing his Battle Armor's damage resistance. With a loud Battle Cry, Drex rushes into the enemy line ahead of him with ill intent. Blasting off rounds from his Spike Thrower, crippling Mercs one right after the other. Firing a 'Carnage' blast into a group of the Blue Suns in the distance, and before even watching the impact of the shot, Drex turns his attention to four Blue Suns that have an unfortunate fate of being distracted by the large Lifting Mech that came to life, wreaking havoc on all the Mercenaries around it. Drex rushes the unlucky four, crushing his head directly into the forehead of one of them, sending him flying across the floor. Without a second to realize what had just happened, Drex had already pulled his Krogan Hammer from his back, taking out both knees of a second Blue Suns in one sweep. Like poetry in motion, the Krogan doesn't stop from one swing to the next, going straight from the knees of one Merc, right into the shoulder of another, shattering the shoulder into nothing. Before the Merc's gun can hit the ground, Drex has his Spike Throw placed against the Merc's head - *BOOM*. Mercenary number three's head disintegrates. Following up with a blast from the Spike Thrower into the gut of the fourth Blue Suns Mercenary. Blood drips from Drex's Hammer, blood splatter paints across his Spike Thrower and Battle Armor. "Ha ha! Now this, human! THIS is what a Krogan lives for!". As Drex relishes in his brutality, he notices the first Blue Suns Mercenary, staggering to his knees. Drex nonchalantly walks up to the Merc. Using his massive Krogan foot, he pulls the disoriented Merc's head up so he can see the Krogan's face. "Look at me, you foolish half-assed Mercenary. Take a look into Death's face. I'll spare you this sight being the last thing you see. Go on, crawl away now.". Drex pulls his foot back, dropping the Merc's head back down to the ground. The Blue Suns Mercenary tries to turn its body to crawl to cover, but is stopped abruptly by a Krogan Hammer crushing his skull. Drex smirks, and laughs to himself. "Ha ha, good one Drex. You're hilarious!". The odds of Drex sparing an enemy's life are far from favorable. Don't be a betting man whilst in the presence of Drex..

Drex shakes the blood from his Krogan Hammer, and reloads his Spike Thrower while he gains some knowledge of the battlefield, now in full fledged warfare. A Lifting Mech crushing Mercs, two Turians raining down gunfire from the sky, and..a Geth?! Drex prepares for another battle..

"Mechs, Biotic Turians, and Geth? What the hell..".

---

Pixy keeps up her sniping game, kill after kill, head after head. She notices the Krogan charging into the mass of enemies. "Krogan, back off." She fires a shot "That Heavy was about to turn you into a splatter party." following up with "Krogan, are you clinically stupid? You risked your death there." in a mutter. She fires one last round, the thermal clip clattering to the ground far below her. "They seem to be shaken up, they'll be back soon with reinforcements... I bet it." She turns to the rest of the group behind her, growling at the presence of Geth. She puts the butt of her sniper against the catwalk "We have at most a few minutes to rearm and get to know each other. Hey, explosives chick, nice work." She glances back and spots a group of Blue Suns who managed to hide next to an... Explosive crate, she Sabotages it, blowing them to hell. "I'm White Glint, the ex-Cerberus master sniper. Of course, I'm not a one trick pony. I'll be moving in a bit." As she talks, she observes everyone. "What a bunch of misfits... Beautifully strong misfits, though."

Mass Effect: Seraphim Post

Lokea smirked a little, dimming down the volume just a little to where she can tone it out easily, but can hear important info if necessary. She turned to Ashton. "You did the decryption, right?" If given an affirmative answer, she would smile underneath her helmet and give him a thumbs up. "Good work, kid. Figured you were here for a good reason."

Indeed, Ashton had nodded, before saying slightly smugly, "See? This is why you guys needed me."

"How many Blue Suns did our glorious employer say there was again?" Elijah asked through the group comms.

"Two hundred!" Ashton shouted in reply, "And twenty Mechs!"

Ashton had noticed the Geth coming out of the box and then cloaking itself, and the two enemy Mechs closest to said Geth turning against their Blue Suns Masters. This gave him an idea; Geth were essentially bot-programs that interact with each other to form a conciousness, right? And it was spending a percentage of said conciousness to maintain its control over the enemy Mechs, right? Well, Ashton had a plan to lift its burdens.

In a short message to the Geth Platform, Ashton said, I am going to open a link to the two Mechs you control; with their cyber-defenses compromised, I will be able to send a river of... spambots that will take the place of your programs in controlling them. Then you can withdraw your programs and use them on two other machines instead, which will compromise their cyber-defenses and allow me to send in more spambots and computer viruses, which in turn will allow you to use your programs once more. Rinse and Repeat. Give me an 'affirmative' if you agree.

As for Flame, he was still guarding Ashton with his life, but with Lokea keeping out most enemies, his part in the battle was to use his Biotics to swat away bullets that came close to him and Ashton. He would then say to White Glint through the comms, "You're Ex-What?! Of what kind?! Were you enslaved by them or did you fight for those people freely?!"

Hopefully it's the former, Flame did not like Cerberus.

The only fire the platform was taking was coming from the Blue Suns, that was a good sign. The unknowns seemed to take its presence quite well, and even the quarian just glanced in its direction without a word. The only words of doubt came from the asari. Green asari? Now there was something the Geth had no data available about. “We will assist you against the Blue Suns.” the Geth briefly turned to Lokea before shifting their attention back to the Blue Suns. They didn’t directly say they were friendly, they still didn’t know what these people were doing here. For all they knew, they could end up hunting the group down when this situation was resolved. But until they knew more, these people were under attack by Blue Suns, and there was no doubt about them.

“Affirmative, and much appreciated.” the Geth replied to Ashton. Once Ashton’s payload made its way into the compromised mechs, the second half of the plan could begin. “Withdrawing programs. Next targets: FENRIS, chassis number FS-1041. LOKI, chassis number MOB-1316.” Since it didn’t need to seize full control over the mechs, less programs sufficed. Not only did the hacking dumb it down less, but for a shorter period of time. It would continue calling out targets to Ashton, allowing him to turn the two squadworths of mechs the Blue Suns brought in against their original masters two at a time.

“Suggestion: existing access to Blue Suns network can be further exploited to disrupt enemy communications or disorganise their attacks with false or contradictory instructions as opposed to simple communications interception.” the Geth offered, unwilling to act without consensus for fear of disrupting some plan the group agreed on prior to establishing communications with them. “Breaking enemy morale may also be possible.”

---

"Remind me who put this bosh'tet in charge," the Quarian sighed in annoyance while shooting a few more of the Blue Suns. They seemed to retreat back after awhile, no doubt to regroup like the annoying White Glint stated. It didn't take much brains to figure that one out, especially after visiting Omega multiple times. The gangs were like cockroaches, no matter how hard they were hit they just never died out. To many young people buying into their crap.

She focused on reloading her weapons and getting ready for another attack, ignoring most of the conversation but stopped and laughed hearing the mention of Cerberus."Oh yes, now I really want to listen to you," Alya states sarcastically. At that point she would or rather follow the orders of a Vorcha over anything White Glint said. She could only hope the Volus was paying good enough to make her have any remote desire to work along side an ex-Cerberus member.

"The bot has a good idea, messing with their means of communication would weaken their attacks and make them easier to pick off in the long run," she stated about the Geth's suggestion ",Loosing communication, lack of any progress being made and disorganization probably would make them eventually give up and leave once morale is low enough and seeing that the fight isn't worth it for them."

---

Ha! Were these guys supposed to actually be tough? They were dropping harder than she would in a lake. Alexis grinned, watching the mech that kid had hacked have its way with them, before deciding it'd probably not make for good cover any more now that it was activated. Turning on her Omni tool, Alexis blasted the nearest sun with a well placed Incineration, before blasting two more near him with almost implausibly accurate head shots, until there Blue Sun presence was almost gone. Probably rethinking their strategy and regrouping. They'd probably be back with some heavier stuff.

"You just leave any unhacked mechs to me." Alexis shouted over the comms in response to Elijah and Ashton. "I got a nice little explosive surprise for 'em - huh?"

Was...was that a Geth?

"Saris brought a Geth?"

"Oh dear. I now have some competition. Can I hack it?"

"Don't try it, Cinnis, or I'll stuff you in a FENRIS Mech."

"Ugh, fine, fine. Flirt with it later though. It's made a decent suggestion in disrupting enemy comms.

Alexis couldn't believe it. Oh what she wouldn't give to crack one of those open and study it. She almost wanted to accidentally send a grenade its way so she could attempt repairing it later, but that'd be a bad way to greet the thing. Cinnis was right though, she'd hold off on nerding out over the robot for now.

"The robot is right. In a fight like this disrupting and intercepting their communications is a good idea." Alexis said over the comms. "The kids alright so far, Lokea?" She cast a glance back to the Offices for a visual confirmation before reloading her guns. "And don't worry about that right now, kid. We can all shoot each other after we're all safe." Alexis grunted. White Glint being ex-Cerberus though...that wasn't something she was expecting. Seemed they might have something in common, then. She'd need to check that out.

"If she's gonna be trouble, I wanna know, Cinnis." She spoke quietly to herself, shutting off the comms.

"I will run through my data files to see if I can find anything of use."

She had gladly exchanged her contact info with Elijah several minutes earlier, and during the firefight she witnessed his awesome biotic ability. Well this mercenary hotshot might not be so bad after all... Lokea thought to herself as she covered Drex. A few more exchanges of fire later, she asked her question to the Geth platform. Hearing that answer, she was satisfied with it. She was a little surprised that this geth can speak their language, so she may as well keep up the conversation if she can. Speaking to the platform, gave it a thumbs up. "Good to know. Keep up the pressure on them, we could use someone of your talents." Lokea noted before a well-placed shot from a particularly nasty Turian sniper dropped her shields. Immediately taking cover and casting barrier, Lokea kept a light focus on herself to retain her safety while her shields slowly recharged, remaining in the fight.

Once she heard Galm, she looked around to find out where he was, before getting eyes on him. She spoke into the radio. "Copy that unknown friendly party. I'll do the best I can." She focused her fire towards enemies that were closer to Galm while he worked his turret. She continued the covering fire until he was done, pausing every now and then to keep herself covered. She witnessed Drex use his inferno grenades on the enemy, seeing a large explosion spreading fire along the enemy front line, and witnessing him smash a few mercs with his hammer. Damn. She was already impressed with the abilities of this barely cohesive unit, not seeing the heavy unit that Pixy sniped just now. Okay, I take that back. She thought as she kept some more mercs off of Galm. She had listened to Ashton earlier, but she was a little busy trying to cover some of the units ahead of her. Thankfully, the Blue Suns were a bit too busy to deal with the team in the front to deal with anyone that was in the control offices, so Lokea didn't have to worry about any incoming fire anymore. She kept up the pressure, firing a few shots towards the enemy to keep them suppressed and away from the others, using two-round bursts to down the lightly armored foes, or at least keep them down. Once the Blue Suns advance had halted and started dying down, she lowered her weapon and listened in on the friendly transmissions.

Hearing the geth's suggestion, she spoke to the Geth platform. "I like the suggestion you brought up. I don't have the tech necessary to pull that off but... I know someone that does." She says, turning to Ashton with a thumbs-up, before turning back to the platform. "By the way, what do I call you? 'Geth' is a really impractical name to address you as so... I feel like we can give you a callsign that can make things easier for all of us, or at least me." Lokea chortled. Once Alexis brought up her concern for the kids, Lokea turned to the two boys in question and spoke into the comms. "Affirmative, the kids don't even have a scratch. You can rest easy now." She said, her smile hidden by her helmet. She took a look out into the battlefield once more. She noticed the Blue Suns fall back slowly, and since the gunfire towards her position sort of stopped, she stood a little more freely, stretching a little. After hearing what Pixy said about their retreat, she spoke into the comms again. "Copy that uh... White Glint. To all friendly parties that we just met, name's Lokea. I'm the green-skinned asari-" She cut herself off, realizing that she was wearing armor that covered her entire body head to toe. "-outfitted in camouflage armor. I'm in the control offices near the geth. Pleasure to meet you all." She got off the comms for the time being. Speaking of... she looked back to the geth platform. She tried to think of a name, searching through her blurry but still coherent planted memories. She wanted something that started with G like the word Geth, finding the name Gideon. Further recollection on that name revealed that it was the name of a colonist's son, the name having been ripped straight from the bible. The character was a tactician who was victorious in some historical battle of some sort, so she figured it may be appropriate for this rather tactical platform. "Do you like the name Gideon?" Lokea asked.

As everything died down a little, Lokea set up the fort a bit more. She made some more cover from the walls and desks to accommodate for some of the newcomers, before looking to the Geth. "You can come in here if you like, just stick around near the windows where I can see you." Lokea said softly. While the the platform didn't seem too bad, her flashbacks to Feros makes her distrust it somewhat. Having seen the geth massacre civilians in the memories planted within her, she didn't have any qualms of using her Slam ability to crush this geth platform into scrap. But Alexis did bring up a point earlier, from the comm chatter there did seem to be a whole lot of distrust between everyone. She did see the batarian have a hostile attitude earlier, and you got some Ex-Cerberus bitch providing sniper fire for folks. At this point the only thing bringing them together was Saris and the Blue Suns attack. She hoped that at least half of the people hired are reasonable individuals, but if push comes to shove, she's not going to let anyone hurt the kids, Saris be damned.

Meanwhile, she unpressurized her helmet and took it off, revealing her very green asari nature to the newcomers. She decided to keep it off for the time being, but she kept it near Ashton and Flame, swapping it out with some snacks using biotic levitation. She popped some high-calorie crackers, chewing on them. "How are you boys doing?" She asked Ashton and Flame, levitating the chips into her mouth while she carried her assault rifle with both hands. Biotics are great for combat, but for lazy multitasking? They are even better.

Mass Effect: Seraphim Post

“Suggestion: existing access to Blue Suns network can be further exploited to disrupt enemy communications or disorganise their attacks with false or contradictory instructions as opposed to simple communications interception.” the Geth offered, unwilling to act without consensus for fear of disrupting some plan the group agreed on prior to establishing communications with them. “Breaking enemy morale may also be possible.”

"I'll splice up a few contradictory orders right away!" Ashton then began recording some of the Blue Suns officers' voices, brought out a voice synthesizer program he had bought from the extranet, then had said program create new instructions and calls for help and false reports of 'enemy reinforcements' using the recorded voices. Only a keen ear can tell the difference between their actual officers' voices and the fakes. Note that as he needed to devote attention to other parts of the battle, he had to distribute the altered transmissions randomly...

He then continued, "By the way, you need a callsign, considering the fact that you're fighting beside us for now. What about 'Buddy - Or Gideon, Gideon would do as well!"

Ashton then ate a few bites of a cracker while Flame ate a few more while waiting for Pixy to respond to him. Ashton had noticed Pixy identifying herself as Ex-Cerberus, which was a cause for concern along with her bitchy and arrogant temprament. So he turned to Lokea and said, "I have a sneaking suspicion that Mr. Fen will want us to stay together, as a permanent outfit, once we're done with this battle. But I think that an Ex-Cerberus member - and even the Geth - would be beyond the pale for most of us, even when homicidal Krogan and a Batarian with a mysterious past are not. So that'd be a conflict of interest between Mr. Fen and some of the party versus the majority."

Laurence had finally decided to put his armor on, after many irritated noises from Saris, who was still at his desk. During that time, he had zoned out the noises from the screens, preferring to make sure that his armor would hold, his omni tools could both work properly, and he hadn't picked up one of his deliberately sabotaged guns. He really needed a system for warning about that.

Even so, he hadn't been able to take much of his weaponry here from the ship. A cerberus harrier, painted black and modified with armor piercing and thermal clip extension mods, an AT-12 Raider shotgun, Batarian made (ironically) and an M-5 Phalanx heavy pistol. All of which...modified, to his own liking.

Saris didn't even look up from his work as Laurence walked past him towards the door. There were sounds of footsteps outside. Saris had locked the door, but he didn't fancy them blowing it open. There was expensive equipment in this room, Saris had spent enough money today.

Laurence raised his pistol, the omni-tool on his hand taking the form of a Batarian enforcement gauntlet.

Saris pressed a button, remotely unlocking the door.

Laurence kicked the door open with his foot, it swinging open and knocking a blue sun into a wall. Before the other five members of the squad could realize what had happened, a gigantic armored shape strolled casually through the doorway, and shot the stunned blue sun in the head with his phalanx.

The others opened fire. Two assault rifles, three shotguns, all aimed at a single target. It should have been a slaughter.

It was.

A jet of fire burst from Laurence's omni tool, enveloping two of them in a storm that burned clean through their armor, melting it to the also melting flesh inside. Laurence didn't even bother to deliver the coup de grace, instead strolling past the shrieking mercenaries, pulling his harrier and aiming it at his next target.

A Turian, female, tech armor indicating them as the squad leader. Despite being less then four meters away, Laurence's rifle burst missed her head, instead proceeding to strike them in the shoulder, tearing away tech armor, real armor, and flesh, sending the scaled arm falling to the floor, with the squad leader closely following, clutching a stump on their arm.

Laurence, like before, ignored her, and dashed forward, his gauntlet smashing into a merc's face and slamming it against a wall, causing his skull to come apart like a grenade. In a instant, he dropped his harrier and formed the omnitool on his other hand into a forked blade, which he drove straight into the chest of the fifth, and last of the mercenaries. He pulled the impaled blue sun close to him, trying to listen to the last, dying words, only to realize that the sun wasn't going to say anything with a omnitool through the heart and lungs.

Letting the corpse fall like a piece of trash, he looked around. The burning duo had stopped, evidently either dying from the heat or heart failure from the stress of burning alive. Perhaps it had been a mixture of both.

The squad leader was still alive, crawling towards her severed arm, which had landed about a metre away. Laurence walked over her, kicking the arm away, and sighed.

"Turian, before i kill you, i just want you to know. I'm the one you want, or maybe one of them. The anti-Batarian terrorist you were warned about. You could have lived like a queen for catching me."

He smiled under his helmet.

"But you fucked up. Threw it all away."

His omni tool once more took the shape of a flamer, and...

____________

Shortly afterwards, Laurence realized he didn't really know his way around the offices. He had just followed Saris around for the day he had spent here. Briefly wondering if he should contact Saris for a building layout, and briefly wondering where the closest enemies were, when some random human blue sun thought he would be a hero, ambushing him with an omni blade. Said blade scuffed off Laurence's wrists, and, with a straight face, Laurence proceeded to grab the blue sun by his neck and, motors in his armor straining, smashed him into a nearby wall. He expected the merc's neck to snap like a twig.

He was wrong.

The wall almost shattered, the unfortunate merc going almost clean through it. Laurence stopped for a moment, processing what just happened, before climbing through the hole himself, pulling another small part of the wall down to help his armoured bulk get through.

"No wonder Saris got this place so cheap, did they build it with hardened vorcha shit?"

The merc was on the floor, half concious as Laurence walked up to him. Laurence stared down at the merc for a moment, ignoring everything in the room around him as he felt a small sense of deja vu, and brought his boot down on the blue sun's neck. He felt something struggle underneath his boot, and did it again. And again. Fourth time was the charm, and he felt something snap. He wondered if the merc had already been dead when his neck brok...

Oh.

He looked up, seeing several people that didn't look like Blue Sun troops. Not that it stopped him from resting a hand on his pistol. This must be the help. Two kids and the possibly STD affected Asari. He felt safer already.

He stood up straight, his boot meeting the floor instead of a neck, and waited for them to comment on his situation as people so often did.