After the conversation with Aria T'Loak, we headed away from the place we actually intended to go; there was a transport prepared there that was supposed to drop us right on Archangel's head. However, when we appeared at the destination, I was very much surprised...
"EDI?"
"Already checking... These were Aria T'Loak's mercenaries. I don't have one hundred percent proof, but a group was moving here, discussing that there was a transport here that Aria T'Loak could use to escape. Then communication was lost, and afterward, they left by another path, discussing how unpleasantly surprised Aria T'Loak would be by their gift."
I looked at the clearly broken and demonstratively booby-trapped Aircar, and my eye began to twitch. The realization that Aria T'Loak's games had significantly complicated our lives was so clear that a desire to go back and give her a thrashing was waking up in me.
The only thing stopping me was the understanding that it was far from certain I would emerge the winner from a short confrontation. Mother, of course, praises my progress in biotics, and even before she took over our training, I was far from weak... but Aria T'Loak has not only power but nearly a millennium of experience.
By the way, Samara, along with me, began to train the rest of my sisters, including Morinth, which made the latter quite stunned. This became the occasion for a great number of jokes at her expense.
"EDI..."
"Alternative route selected, information about the suspects passed to Aria T'Loak..."
** Perspective from the side. **
"Get Print to me, now!"
Aria T'Loak's shout made her guards flinch, as it was clear that the Queen of Omega was currently very angry. Angry enough that she might well start killing left and right.
"And his group! All of them to me, now!"
The guards didn't dare say anything and hurried to fulfill the angry boss's demand; so the Batarian's group was summoned, and naturally, the head of the group was warned that Aria T'Loak was very dissatisfied with something.
Aria T'Loak breathed deeply, calming herself so as not to kill all the idiots—no, she would finish some of them off, but at the same time, some of them could still be useful, so killing them might interfere with her plans, and some were simply idiots, but loyal to her to the core. Though, regarding the latter, if not for the knowledge of the impending coup, very few would have remained by this point. And even if in the story John calls canon, she held onto power, she later lost the station incompetently. And that could only mean one thing... her counterpart at that time had very few loyal sentients left who were ready to die for her.
While Aria T'Loak indulged in reflections and tried to calm down, the summoned Batarian arrived at her club, along with his squad.
"Aria, Print has arrived..."
"Well then, let him in..."
Hearing the traitor's name and realizing that he hadn't fled but had come to her, she calmed down.
"Aria..."
The Batarian entered her box, which offered a beautiful view of the club, although the club itself didn't interest her much right now. She was more interested in dealing with the traitor, as well as watching her daughter, whom other dancers had begun to show their disapproval toward.
"Print... you know, you were right."
The Batarian blinked in surprise. He couldn't remember a single moment when he had spoken about anything with this Asari and had shown that he disagreed with her. And she could have no other reason to say so.
"Aria?"
"Well, of course..."
The future dead Asari—into whose corpse he had mentally, for control purposes of course, pumped over a hundred bullets—spread her hands.
"...did you really forget your words about a gift for me, by which I would be very unpleasantly surprised?"
The Batarian blinked in confusion. He couldn't remember saying anything like that. However, Aria T'Loak's gaze said that it had indeed happened. At least, she was sure of it.
"Aria..."
"Forgot?"
Notes of pity appeared in the Asari's voice.
"Well, no matter..."
She shook her head.
"...they sent me a recording, let's watch it together and refresh your memory."
Print tensed and gave what he thought was a subtle signal to his subordinates to be ready for a fight. Aria T'Loak, through her Omni-tool, activated a holographic screen, and a video appeared on it where Print was indeed saying that phrase.
"It's a montage..."
"Oh..."
Aria T'Loak was able to appreciate that Print remained calm and was able to come up with at least some excuse. Moreover, somewhere deep inside, she was sorry that he had chosen the other side, because he was a decent commander after all. However, the decision had been made; all that remained was to carry out the sentence.
"...I would have thought so too, if a group of my acquaintances..."
The words "student" or even "friends" were on the tip of her tongue, but such words were impermissible for the Queen of Omega. The fact that she called them acquaintances, rather than mercenaries, already elevated them above many others.
"...whom I asked to perform a delicate task, hadn't discovered your gift in the form of a broken and booby-trapped Aircar."
Print tried to snatch his pistol, and his subordinates, realizing why they had been summoned and reaching for their weapons, froze after Aria T'Loak applied a mass Stasis.
"What is it that you all lack?"
This question was asked into the void; Aria T'Loak herself pulled a monstrous-looking pistol from under the table and fired the first shot, which, easily overcoming the effect of the biotic power, literally evaporated the head of the first member of Print's squad...
** End. **
EDI quickly found us transport; of course, it wasn't as comfortable as an Aircar, but it could perform its functions, and in our situation, it was foolish to wish for more. So we boarded the hacked transport and headed toward Garrus Vakarian.
"I won't be able to deliver you exactly to the spot..."
EDI said this in a slightly apologetic voice.
"...the mercenaries have set up a very good defense there. In an Aircar, I would have guided you through the defenses, but in this..."
Disdain for our current transport could be heard in the AI's voice.
"...even your barriers won't be able to protect you from the massive attack that will fall upon you there. So I will deliver you to the technical tunnels, and you will reach Archangel through them."
We weren't against such an approach, which we informed EDI.
A short flight by Omega Station standards, which took only an hour and a half, and now our transport was landing in one of the alleys where it theoretically had no business being.
"What the hell?! You weren't allowed to fly here!"
An old woman leaning out of a window immediately notified the neighborhood that something wrong was happening.
"You know, this is quite funny..."
"What exactly?"
Tali asked the question with genuine curiosity in her voice. The other members of the squad just listened to us with interest.
"When we were landing, you could see one Krogan who, seeing a squad in armor and with weapons getting out of this jalopy, didn't start a fuss and hurried to clear out into the sunset. And at the same time, the old lady..."
I nodded toward the window from which verbal shit had already begun to pour over us.
"...clearly doesn't even consider that a creepy, diverse squad might do something bad to her."
"Ha!"
Chifuyu Orimura, casting a short glance at the old woman, laughed quietly.
"This is Omega Station; I wouldn't be surprised if she has a rocket launcher hidden under the windowsill, and if we try to do something wrong, we'll find out about that circumstance."
Laughing quietly at this, we reached the technical tunnels with EDI's help.
"Inside, be extremely careful; there are no cameras there, and opponents could have ended up in the tunnels through any of the entrances across all of Omega Station. I will track you by the beacon, using the LOKI Mechs controlled by Tali and... Tali, can you activate a drone? I'll connect to it and use it to at least scout the road ahead."
"Of course."
By the way, in the time since meeting EDI, Tali had begun to treat her significantly better. And that couldn't help but please me.
The drone was activated, and control over it passed to our AI, after which it flew ahead.
"Straight for three hundred meters, then turn right."
I laughed quietly at the fact that EDI decided to use the intonations of a standard navigator for these words.
"EDI..."
Samara quietly addressed our support.
"...please, don't joke like that. We might not have time to react to a threat."
"Don't worry, I understand perfectly, so in case of danger, there will be no jokes."
Samara nodded gratefully, after which we continued walking.
For about half an hour, we made our way through the technical tunnels to Garrus Vakarian's base until we heard a warning from EDI.
"Enemy ahead... Blood Pack."
"Many?"
"Yes... fifty Krogan and over two hundred Vorcha with a hundred Varren."
"Fuuuuuck..."
Jack looked at me in shock.
"Don't tell me we're going to take them on; that's suicide! Pure suicide!"
"It's time for you to watch and participate in the squad's work..."
Chifuyu Orimura said this with a light but still slightly nervous smile, while Rebecca Lee simply patted her on the shoulder.
"The main thing is not to be arrogant..."
Tali said this in a quiet voice.
"...don't forget to use cover, because in such a brawl, barriers help, of course, but not as well as if there were fewer opponents."
"And it's even better to warn your comrades early so we can prepare a new barrier, rather than keeping quiet and letting your comrades get wounded."
"I understand that..."
Jack said this in a grumbling voice.
"EDI, did they notice you?"
"No."
"Excellent. Then, Samara, Jack, prepare powerful singularities. When we're ready, we'll throw them at the opponents. Samara in the center relative to where we emerge, me on the left, Jack on the right."
The girls nodded to me and began preparing the named technique.
"Freeze..."
EDI didn't let us go out to the enemy.
"What happened?"
"They are checking heavy weaponry, and there's a chance that if you appear, they'll manage to fire at you. Yes, not everything, but even three grenades will be enough to make things very sad. Armor, of course, won't let you die, but you won't be able to fight after that. And without biotics..."
"The squad will be slaughtered."
I nodded in agreement, and for the next fifteen minutes, we waited for EDI's signal.
"What are they even doing there?"
Jack asked this question clearly out of boredom.
"Preparing to storm Archangel's 'fortress' from the rear. He has an exit from the tunnels on his base's territory. And they plan to either distract him from the front line, forcing him to split his forces, or, if he doesn't take this seriously, kill him in the back while he's fighting those in front of him."
"How did you find that out?"
Tali asked the question with unhidden interest.
"I just doubt they were discussing it now, and hacking the Blood Pack..."
She shook her head.
"Not all of them even know how to use a calculator!"
"Well... in your description of the Blood Pack, you're definitely right."
A light smirk was audible in our AI's voice.
"However, Archangel is being attacked not only by the Blood Pack but also by the Blue Suns, as well as Eclipse, and the latter are extremely active in using complex technology. That's what I hacked."
"That simple?"
"Jack..."
A light note of disapproval was heard in Tali's voice.
"...imagine a biotic technique that takes several hours to prepare, got it?"
"Um..."
Jack blinked in confusion.
"Now imagine that someone who doesn't know the first thing about biotics, after you use such a technique, looks at you and says: 'That simple?'"
"Well... I think I understand..."
Jack nodded thoughtfully.
"Begin!"
***
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