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Another Realm: Vengeance

Well... I'm back to writing fanfiction. I should probably say something pithy or amusing here, but honestly I just can't think of anything right now lol.

So here we are, AR: IV – Vengeance. There will be a very short intro section, and after that we'll be getting right into things. Instead of the usual Arc – Interludes – Arc pattern that the prior stories used, Vengeance is going to be a little different. Instead the story is going to be grouped into 'Operations', each of which will cover a specific mission or operation. In between will be Interludes that cover what's going on with everyone in between missions during their down times.

Again kudos to The Blocked Writer for sticking around and still acting as my beta, and I hope that everyone continues to enjoy my fic. A note: This story assumes that you've at least read Another Realm: Ronin, there isn't going to be a dedicated recap section.

Thanks,

Kat

Prologue: One for the Road

Date: 11-27-2184

(Two years, 5 months after AR: Ronin)

"Another." Trena grumbled, glaring at her empty bottle as if it had just betrayed her. Working her pipe around in her mouth, she breathed out a cloud of vanilla scented smoke before clarifying her request. "Good shit this time ape, not this swill."

Rolling my eyes, I reached across the deserted bar and grabbed the first levo-drink my long arms could reach. "Wine from... somewhere on Thessia. That good enough scales?"

"Whatever." Wasting no time in grabbing it, she promptly took a long pull straight from the bottle. "Not bad."

Grunting, I settled back onto my stool and tried to enjoy my own alcohol with a bit more restraint. Although... honestly I had no idea why. Guess I just wanted to face my death reasonably sober instead of being hammered when the time came.

"How many levels now?" It was an expected question. She knew the first thing I'd have done when I woke up from our very brief rest period would be to check with the Warlord to see what had changed.

"None." Exhaling, I took a slow sip of some kind of rum. "They're on this one now. Ten blocks away and closing fast on the main run."

Her little blue nose flared. "Two hours. Maybe three."

"Assuming the Eclipse and the Brotherhood can hold the side tunnels and streets." I reminded her quietly. "If either of them collapses we're done for inside of an hour."

She winced a little. "Yeah. Athame's... how'd I let you talk me into this shit?"

Raising an arm, I punched her shoulder hard enough to hurt through the armor. "Don't start that crap. I didn't even want you with."

"Asshole." She glowered at me, but didn't offer any further contradiction. "What do we have to defend the CIC?"

"Same shit we had before we got a break. The five of us for the upper levels, Nyreen and the Talons covering the main doors, a few cabals from the Wave down below." My left shoulder twitched. "So enough to make them know they were in a fight."

Trena glanced over at a couch, where a woman was curled up beneath a ragged blanket that wasn't large enough to hide the twitching prosthetic hand, nor the dull reflection on a metallic leg.

"She's not standing on the firing line with us." A longer sip from my drink made my throat burn furiously, "Unless it gets that desperate."

Which it would, and we both knew it. Thankfully she had enough sense not to say anything on that, shifting to another topic as if I hadn't spoken. "Nothing from Archangel?"

My lips twisted at the mention of that particular Turian. "No one's seen him since he lost half his team trying to take out Ganar. Could be hurt, could be dead, could be biding his time."

Not that him being here would really help regardless. Don't get me wrong, Vakarian was pretty fucking good at killing things, but he'd already took his best shot and missed. And either way, we were running out of bodies. We'd held longer than we'd had any right to, something to which I at least partially credited myself. Egotistical or not I was damned sure we'd have all been dead more than a week ago if I hadn't done what I had.

Would have been nice if it had been enough though.

"Last transmission said the Black Fleet is clearing the relays as we speak." Me, and everyone else with a brain, had already done the math a thousand times since we'd heard that bit of news. "But they still have to cross the entire system, moving around Sahrabarik, then dock with the station, then fight their way here to relieve us."

And they'd have to. Ganar wasn't an idiot, he'd have the largest detachments he could afford guarding the closest hangers to the command center. The fact that we'd fought like demons to hold onto them in the first place wouldn't help matters, since that had ended up leaving them utterly trashed. Disembarking was going to be a massive pain in the ass.

My friend bowed her head slightly. "That's longer than two or three hours ape."

"Yeah." I didn't doubt that Aria and the army she'd taken with would be able to take the station back once they returned, but it was probably going to be a long and bloody campaign before she took her throne once again. "You get a message to Ghai?"

"Why do you fucking think I'm drinking right now?"

I let out a slow breath. "You could make it to Doru scales. We still hold the lifts, you'd have a straight run to the docks. Most of our crew is still alive, they could get you back to Illium."

"And live another seven or eight centuries knowing I left you here?"

I shrugged laconically. "Yup."

A blue fist promptly smacked my shoulder, nearly knocking me from my seat. "Go bother someone else ape. Let me know when it's time to head back to the line."

Snorting, I slid off the stool and onto my feet, but made sure to grab the wine she was drinking just before she could take another long gulp. "No more scales. If we're going to die I'd rather it not be because you were so drunk you immolated us with your biotics."

Ignoring her muttered comments about my parentage, which were accurate enough that she winced after she said them, belatedly realizing how close to the mark she was. Waving her off before she could apologize, I moved behind her as if I was going to head out of the bar.

Then I took a deep breath, turned, and slammed a fist into the back of her head. My best friend's skull promptly bounced off the bar before she collapsed sideways, saved from a long drop to the floor only because I grabbed her by her arms.

"Joa!" I winced as I gently lowered Trena to the ground, I hadn't meant to hit her quite that hard. "Get in here!"

Armored footsteps quickly sounded, a purple skinned Asari wearing light armor in the same navy and silver paint scheme as mine appearing as she dropped to a knee. "Goddess, I think you over did it Commander."

My lips twisted as she carefully inspected scale's skull for fractures, only relaxing when she nodded to show that she was all right. Well, as all right as someone could be after being knocked unconscious. "I think so too. And I told you not to call me that, we've fucking slept together."

"We did both, but I would have liked to have done it more than once." The former slave pointed out, the white swirling tattoos that covered her face gleaming in the red light. She hesitated before continuing, biting her lip for a moment. "You sure about this?"

"Yeah. Get her home, the ship is yours after that."

"Cieran... you don't have to..." Her head bowed slightly. "No. You do, don't you?" Not waiting for me to reply she turned and waved a hand to beckon two more people over. "Get her downstairs, and make sure to get a disruptor on her neck so she can't try and bolt."

"Captain." The human of the pair nodded, her midnight skin blending in with the dark light. "Beal, grab her other side, I got this one."

The Asari nodded, and between the pair of them they got Trena upright, her feet dragging slightly on the ground as they hauled her back down the hallway that they'd come from.

"She won't thank you for that."

"No." I waited until they were out of sight before lowering my head. "But her bondmate and her daughter will."

"Probably." There was a quiet sigh before a hand reached out to cup my face, her armored fingers trailing through my goatee before reaching the scar that ran vertically down from my left eye. "Going to miss you Commander."

My lips curled a little before I stretched my own arm out, grabbing her chin and pulling her close. Our mouths met for a brief moment, her breath warm on my face, and then I pulled back. "One for the road. Get going Joa."

Sliding her hand up, she ruffled my long hair. "Save me a seat at Athame's bar Cie. And if she doesn't have one, you should get one started."

Snorting, I pushed myself to my feet. "I will. Now get."

She did, giving me a last glance over her shoulder before accelerating to catch up with her people.

Which left me alone, having just sent away the last help we could have drawn on, along with my best friend who would flip her shit the second she woke up. But she'd be breathing and able to do so, able to go back to Nos Astra and take care of her daughter like she should. And that's what mattered in the end.

Sighing, I turned away and left the bar, heading up one darkened ramp, across an empty dance floor, and then clambering along a small stairwell eventually saw me on a platform overlooking Afterlife's main floor. Not that Aria would recognize what we'd done with the place in her absence. Barricades covered the main doorway, fashioned from tables and chairs hastily welded together after we'd made sure they were mostly bulletproof. More had been cut into pieces to reinforce the railings around the upper floors, giving our people at least some cover to hunker behind.

Anyone coming through the front door would walk into a massive crossfire, which would make nearly anyone but our current opponents think twice. Since I and everyone else trying to coordinate the defense knew better, we'd kept a tiny stash of biotic nullifiers on hand. There wasn't enough of the small grenades to do more than break up one or two rushes by the fucking berserkers Ganar loved to use, but if we were lucky most of them would be dead during the fighting just to get here.

Of course, that assumed Ganar was an idiot and didn't keep them back in reserve. And two and a half years of fighting that asshole made me sure that, no matter what his many other failings, a poor tactician he was not.

Not that I'd be on the main floor. When the time came, the companions that I had that were still breathing would be up near the entrance to the VIP lounge. We'd sealed the doorways but that wasn't anything that a few explosives couldn't resolve. If they came through we'd need people up there, and if they didn't we could still join the main cordon.

It was a decent enough plan. Problem was... there just wasn't enough of us left. We could probably hold off one or two waves. Maybe. But they'd take their pounds of flesh in the process, and when Ganar himself showed up...

Shaking my head, I shifted my gaze a bit. Below me and on the left, on the ledge where Aria's couch had been before it had been broken in half and thrown onto the bar below, a small knot of gang leaders and advisers were trying to coordinate the battle raging just a few station blocks away. One, Nyreen, saw me watching and gave me a tired nod before turning back to an Eclipse commando as the exhausted huntress pointed out something on their holo-table.

I waited a few moments to see if whatever it was was critical, stepping back from the edge when it merely provoked shaking heads and tired gestures elsewhere.

Shuffling back, I ended up collapsing in a booth with a clatter of armor plating. There obviously wasn't a stripper on the table in front of me like there would have been less than a month ago, which was rather disappointing. A distraction would have been nice.

"Then again, Ghai did say I shouldn't seek distractions to help repress crap anymore." Ignoring the fact that I was muttering to myself, I leaned back as best I could, trying not to groan as I forced my aching body to relax for once. "But at least she and Ethy aren't here."

"Talking to yourself again?" An exhausted voice asked rhetorically before a slim form dropped into the chair on the other-side of the table, gleaming eyes barely visible behind her armored helmet. "Not a good sign."

"Voya." Electing not to respond, I asked a question I already knew the answer to. "He gone?"

The Quarian's helmet shifted, looking away. "Yes. Never woke up."

Closing my eyes, I tried to feel... something. Maybe I was just too tired. Maybe I'd already lost too many friends. Maybe I'd already accepted it. Shit. More crap for Ghai to help me work through if Athame granted us a miracle. Which she wouldn't. Damned bitch. But at least Ghai would put her skills to better use, treat people who weren't monsters like us. "Dammit."

"That leaves just the five of us to cover the entire third floor." She reminded me quietly.

"Four. Plan went off without a hitch, Joa took scales." My head dipped to one side as I brought that shoulder up in a little Asari shrug. "What else can we do? They need everyone on the front doors."

"We could leave, catch up with them." I gave her a slit-eyed glare that was apparently severe enough that she shrank back a little bit and averted her eyes again. "Just an idea. We could make it to Doru and the ship before it leaves."

"One." I brought up a finger. "Krom is here, so no. Two, if he or Ganar gain access to the control center they could kill half the people on this station. Three, they could also turn the big guns upstairs against Aria's ships. Four, if we bolted and Aria does win this, we are very, very dead for doing so."

"She might kill you anyways, for what you did."

That was a distinct possibility. I was at least fifty percent responsible for the fact that her couch was now in pieces and stained with booze. "We'll worry about that if we live that long."

Voya held up both of her three fingered hands in acquiescence. "So... we guard that floor, hope Krom does his usual sneaking flank thing, and kill him. Then we can die contentedly when Ganar smashes our heads open with his stupid hammer thing."

I mulled over that for a moment before nodding. Ideally we'd have taken Krom alive to give to Aria to torture to death, but since we were going to die anyway... why not just get it over with ourselves? At least we'd get a bit of pleasure before the eternal night. "Sounds about right."

"At least it's simple." She seemed to exhale. "And at least I was able to go back to Xentha for a while. I'd forgotten how much I missed the Old District."

"It was... an experience." That was about the only word I could think of that encapsulated what that particular place had been like. Taking a slow breath of my own, I let my head loll backwards. "Was good to see Nos Astra again too."

"That was... an interesting trip." From the sound of her voice she was as uncertain about my hometown as I'd been about hers. "Then again, it's been an interesting war, hasn't it?"

"It has." Interesting. Terrifying. Depressing. Infuriating. All of the above. "Few more hours of it to go, then it'll be over. One way or the other."

Voya bowed her head slightly, her fingers entwining as she breathed. "One way or the other."

We sat in silence after that, the pair of us trying to get what rest we could as we waited for the signal. She kept her head bowed, quietly murmuring as she asked her ancestors for guidance and strength in the fight that was coming. A little ritual that she did before every fight.

As for me... I closed my eyes, relaxed in the way Ghai had taught me, and lost myself in memory.

Next up is Operation I: Trial Run

Never tried opening a story like this, figured I'd give it a shot. The next chapters will jump back to right after AR: Ronin ends, to the first mission the Silver Blades did for Jona Sederis. Eventually we'll get to the point where this chapter is located chronologically, near the end of course.

Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."

Thanks, Kat