Author's Note: This will be the third in a loose trilogy of fanfics, following 'Something from the Citadel' and 'Archangels of Light and Darkness,' and will therefore be narrated by Garrus Vakarian. Unlike the other fanfics, which were original works, this will be a novelization of ME3: Omega. Readers who follow my other works may wish to note that the events of 'Aria's Lament' take place between Chapters 46 and 47 of 'The Hero Rises.'

Aria's Lament

Chapter 1: The Queen Strikes Back

They were waiting outside the Citadel.

Pirates who'd spent their lives preying on the weak and innocent. Hardened mercenaries willing to sell their soul for a few credits. All answering the call of Aria T'Loak. Yeah, that Aria. The so-called Pirate Queen of Omega... before Cerberus took over and drove her into exile. She'd been stuck on the Citadel ever since the war began, biding her time, gathering her forces. Forces that had been parked outside without anyone challenging them.

Maybe C-Sec hadn't noticed them at all, in which case a serious review of hiring procedures and security protocols was in order. Or maybe word had come from the top to leave them alone—rumour had it that Aria and the asari Councillor were… close. Somehow, I don't think the average civvie would sleep well knowing all these dangerous men and women were lurking nearby. Certainly they wouldn't think of going to join these criminals and guns-for-hire.

I'd known these dangerous criminals and so on and so forth were here for almost a week now. I was now on my way to join them. There are times when I think I need my head examined.

Especially given the state of the shuttle transporting us to the fleet. The flying junk heap had seen better days, judging by the sheer amount of rust that covered her surface, the sparks that spat fitfully from one of the consoles and the violent shaking that ran up my spine as soon as we powered up the thrusters. Not to mention the spirits-damned alarm that was howling away. "This is a promising start," I managed.

"Yeah," my companion frowned. "Hang on." He ran a quick diagnostic.

"Well?"

"Stabilizers are a bit wonky."

"You don't say."

"And life support seems to be failing."

"What?"

"Hang on." He entered a few commands.

To my relief, the alarm stopped. "Oh, that's much better," I said. "Now maybe you could fix the stabilizers too."

"Oh, I didn't actually fix anything. All I did was disable the alarm for the next hour."

My eyes widened. "You what?"

"Relax, Garrus. We'll rendezvous with Aria's fleet well within that time. And if we don't, we still have another four or five hours of breathable air to call for help.

"Assuming the shuttle doesn't spring a leak and the comm system's doesn't crap out."

"That's what I love about you, Garrus: your enduring optimism."

Needless to say, I held my breath as much as possible during the trip.

It quickly became clear that our destination was a cruiser. What surprised me was the fact that it was a Cerberus cruiser. You could tell it was Cerberus by the enormous yellow and black hexagonal logo stamped on her hull. Either Aria had decided to make nice with the Illusive Man after everything he'd done or she had captured the cruiser and chosen this particular bit of ill-gotten spoils as her flagship. My bet was on the latter.

As the cruiser grew closer and closer, I cast my thoughts back at how things had gotten to this point.

It started, as many things do, with a woman.

It was evening when she came in. I heard her footsteps first, heels heralding her arrival. She could wait, I decided. These calibrations wouldn't finish themselves and I had a vested interest in their success. Tapping the controls with my talons, I waited for the numbers to scroll across my screens: 0.01. The weapon system calibrations had been improved by a net total of 0.44 percent. A miniscule number, but sometimes it was the little things that mattered. Especially when you don't have much of a life.

Saving the latest settings, I turned around to greet my visitor. She was human, like most of the crew and guests currently aboard this ship. Her hair was black like the void around us, gracefully flowing down to her shoulders. Her skin was pale, like alabaster or pearl. Her clothes were reminiscent of a military uniform, but made of the finest and most expensive fabrics and cut to show off every curve of her body to stunning perfection.

I knew she was trouble the moment I saw her.

"Miranda," I greeted her.

"Garrus."

"This is about Shepard."

"Naturally."

That would be Commander Shepard. You've probably heard about him. Systems Alliance soldier who'd completed the elite N7 program. Hero of Elysium. First human Spectre. Madman who'd warned about the coming of mythical creatures bent on our annihilation. Traitor who may or may not have sided with Cerberus. Supposed war criminal who'd wiped out the Bahak system. Hero tasked with stopping the Reapers—see earlier, under mythical creatures. Miracle worker who'd spearheaded efforts to cure the genophage and bring peace between the quarians and the geth.

His recent accomplishments were all made with the goal of taking back his homeworld, stopping the Reapers from slaughtering or harvesting just about every sapient species in the galaxy and winning the war. But there had been setbacks and failures, some due to Cerberus—a xenophobic pro-human group who had gone from acts of terrorism to launching a full-fledged military campaign, dividing our focus when we desperately needed to consolidate and gather our strength against the Reapers. They had to be stopped. And we had a plan to do that.

Unless things had changed. "Second thoughts about attacking all those targets?"

"No," Miranda shook her head. "As we discussed during our last meeting, Cerberus has been running amok for far too long. It's time to arrest their momentum. Furthermore, if there's any chance we can draw some of the forces away from Omega, we have to take it."

"Then it's the Omega part of the plan that has you concerned."

"Precisely."

I wasn't really surprised. Earlier today, Shepard had met with Aria. At long last, she had decided to take back what she thought was rightfully hers—and she wanted Shepard to help her. By himself. Shepard, Aria and an army of ne'er-do-wells were expected to storm through the mass relay and attack Omega, which was no doubt heavily fortified by this point. Hence why we had decided to fold this operation into a larger offensive against Cerberus. Our hope was that we could draw off some of the ships and troops guarding Omega, thus turning Aria's plan from a suicide mission to something that had a minute chance of success.

But there was no getting around the fact that Shepard would be going solo, with no backup whatsoever—something that I couldn't help but be concerned about. If he went on this idiotic venture all by himself and wound up KIA, his death would be disastrous for the war effort. The damage to our collective morale alone was incalculable. Besides, he was my friend. If I let him go alone and something happened, I don't know what I would do with myself.

"You have an idea," I guessed. Well, not much of a guess: this was Miranda we were talking about. She had a vested interest in Shepard's wellbeing too, given that he was her boyfriend.

"Several."

I knew it. "And the best one is…?"

"You go with him."

"Me?"

"You've been there, Garrus. You lived and fought on Omega for months. You know the territory, the layout, the players."

Yeah. For all the good that did. I'd spent months after Shepard died trying to figure out what to do. I'd failed Shepard by letting him die, but maybe I could still make a difference. So I decided to travel out to the Terminus Systems and clean up Omega. Yeah, just like that. I put a crew together. I started hitting back at all the criminal filth with my new comrades-in-arms. Intercepted their shipments of weapons, drugs and contraband. Shut down their operations one by one. Made the predators and monsters afraid for a change. We were starting to make a difference.

Then I was betrayed by one of my own. Lantar Sidonis. Fellow turian, fellow vigilante… until he was captured by the Blue Suns and sold us out. Thanks to him, my squad was wiped out while I was off chasing a false lead. I'd failed them, just like I'd failed Shepard. And my punishment would have been to die at the hands of the mercs I had fought, just another casualty in the dim streets of Omega.

Miranda knew that, or she should have. So all I said was "I did fight on Omega. And almost died there." I tilted my head towards her, showing her the scars I'd gained from a rocket to the face, and added, "Or don't you remember?"

"I remember. I also remember that the Blue Suns, Eclipse and the Blood Pack—the three strongest and most organized mercenary groups in the galaxy—had to combine their forces to take you down because you had become an intolerable threat to the security of their operations. And even then, you were holding your own."

"That was over a year ago, Miranda. The streets—and the players—can change awfully fast in that time. Especially when Cerberus has a free hand in the interior decorating."

"Granted. But you still have a local's perspective on how things operate on Omega. Shepard could use that. More importantly, he could use someone who's on his side. Someone who will have his back, no matter what. Unless you trust Aria to have his best interests at heart."

She had me there. "What about the rest of the plan? If I go with Shepard, that leaves you with three teams and one team leader."

Miranda had an idea about that too. "Consolidate Teams One and Two together under my command. Kaidan can lead Team Three."

"Call them something else to avoid confusion," I advised. "A and B, for instance."

"Fair point. I'll consider it. What about you?"

Rather than giving a reply, I simply reached behind the console and pulled out a go-bag. It was packed with clothes, hardsuit components, weapons and thermal clips—all the essentials one might need when embarking on a suicide mission with virtually no chance of success whatsoever.

"You were already prepared to join him," Miranda beamed.

"Naturally. Someone's gotta keep that idiot out of trouble."

One of Aria's flunkies, a cranky batarian by the name of Bray, met us in the shuttle bay as soon as we'd docked. He escorted us to the bridge after making a few snide remarks. The crew—a mix of batarians, salarians and vorcha—were hard at work. But it was very clear who was in charge: Aria T'Loak. A strange mix of mouth-watering sex appeal, hard ruthlessness and cool confidence, she drew the attention of everyone who wasn't hard at work. She commanded authority through sheer force of will, and her presence was undeniable.

She was talking to another asari when we arrived, one who was definitely worried. "—we're out-shipped four to one, and most of our vessels are transports with limited firepower."

Which pretty much lined up with the intel we'd gathered, much to my dismay.

"We're not here to win a space battle, Jarral," Aria reassured her. "We just have to punch through their line."

"That's all?" I called out. "And here I thought it would be difficult."

Aria cut the transmission and turned to face us. Shepard waved at her cheekily. "So you've commandeered a Cerberus cruiser," he chirped. "Love what you've done with the place. Very homey."

"The guest of honour has arrived," Aria said sarcastically, ignoring his attempts at humour. "We can finally start." She gave me a steady stare before adding "And you brought a 'plus one'. Garrus, isn't it?"

Figured she would recognize me. She'd had ample time to gather a dossier on Shepard's known associates, and I'd spent a lot of time with him over the last few years. For that matter, I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that she knew of my previous stint as Archangel. But I couldn't let that bother me. Nor could I let any fear or doubt show itself. Aria would pick up on that in a heartbeat. So I walked up to her with a confident swagger, as if I owned the cruiser and was only suffering her presence out of the goodness of my heart. "That's me. Sorry to disappoint, but I don't do autographs."

"He knows his way around a gun," Shepard added, without adding I was someone he could trust. Some things don't need to be said out loud. "Besides, this'll be challenging enough as it is. We need all the help we can get."

Aria's eyes narrowed. It was obvious she wasn't thrilled about Shepard's decision. Probably because Shepard had once again flouted her authority. Still, she was nothing if not pragmatic. If his decision would help her achieve her goals, I was confident that she would overlook this one deviation.

"Let me guess," I said, "you're planning on infiltrating the enemy fleet."

"Exactly." While Bray sat down at the helm, Aria pulled up a holographic map of the Sahrabarik system. She zoomed in on Omega before continuing. "We position ourselves to strike a crippling blow, then my forces join the fun."

"Your associate Jarral wasn't wrong," he warned, lowering his voice so only the three of us could hear. "We may not be fighting a space battle, but our ships do need to survive long enough to deliver the troops and they're seriously outnumbered. A lot could go wrong."

"The assault's been planned for weeks, Shepard. For now, just sit back. Let me steer."

Shepard's eyes narrowed. "Not the best start to our partnership, Aria."

"How things begin isn't nearly as important as how they end," Aria replied.

I took a step forward and held out a datapad, trying to defuse the situation. "We've managed to gather some intel on the ships Cerberus uses. Schematics, structural weaknesses, that sort of thing. At least let us transmit the data to your fleet so they can have as much 'fun' as possible."

She stared at me silently before snapping her fingers. A salarian dropped what he was doing and leapt forward. "Yeah, boss?"

Aria snatched the datapad from my talons and tossed it to him. "Look it over. If there's anything new there, send it to the fleet."

"Got it."

With that done, she walked around the holo-table to the helm. "Bray, move through the relay. Signal the fleet to wait. They only follow on my command." She added the emphasis as a reminder of who was really in charge around here.

"Yes, ma'am."

Bray might have had some attitude problems, but he was a decent pilot. The trip through the mass relay was one of the smoother ones I'd faced. Before long, we'd entered the Terminus Systems.

It had been a year since I traveled the Terminus Systems, but one constant was still true: at its blackened, twisted heart was a space station of horrors called Omega. Even now, I could remember its streets, all slick with blood and piss and vomit. Every corridor lit up by gaudy neon signs the colour of childhood candy, the kind that you desperately wanted no matter what the cost. Every street teeming with bars and clubs and shops, offering everything at bargain prices. Heroes rubbed elbows with villains there, making bargains and deals that could ruin some poor sucker's life. Because there was always a sucker, a patsy, a pawn. The trick was to make sure it wouldn't be you.

Aria marched around the holo-table and pulled up the sensor logs of the fleet guarding Omega. The intel was right: there were a lot of them. She singled out one ship and sent the coordinates to Bray. "Head for the command ship," she ordered.

Everyone fell silent, as the tension became thick enough to cut with an omni-blade. The command ship grew larger and larger as we approached. The beeps and chimes of the computers were the only noises we heard.

Then the comm crackled to life. "Cruiser," a harsh, guttural voice droned out. "I don't have you on the flight plan. Identify yourself."

Aria signalled to Bray, who pulled up an audio file on his console and hit the start button. "This is Captain Lentz," a tired voice said aloud. "Run voice recognition: alpha, tango, zed. We took damage. Seeking repairs."

"Identity confirmed, Captain. Hold for approach authorization."

"Do I want to know how you got the captain to say that?" Shepard murmured as soon as Bray closed the comm channel.

"Probably not. Let's just say we gave a choice between the easy way and the hard way."

Undoubtedly, they extracted the intel from him the hard way. And probably enjoyed it. Shepard had come to the same conclusion, judging by the look in his eyes. But neither of us said anything. We had to look forward, not back. So forward we went, drifting between Cerberus ships towards the one we were interested in.

"That's right," Aria said softly. "Nice and slow."

"Be patient," Shepard added. "Get as close as you can."

Unfortunately, Aria chose that point to run out of patience. "Fire!" she barked.

The floor plating trembled as the gunnery crews opened up with everything they had. High-yield rounds spat out to strike our target, setting off fiery explosions along its flank. As the command ship lurched to the side, a trail of debris in its wake, Aria's ship darted through. "Signal the fleet through the relay!" Aria called out.

I turned to look at the tactical display. The sensors detected that the mass relay powering up. Within seconds, ship contacts began popping up one by one. Before long, the entire fleet had arrived. Powering up their shields and weapons, they began an attack run.

"We're through," Aria nodded in satisfaction. "Head straight for the station."

"Three ships closing to starboard on an intercept course," Bray warned.

"Full power to engines," Aria ordered. "Hold your fire until we're within five hundred metres."

"We might get pretty singed at that range," I reminded her.

She gave me a feral smile. "Not as singed as they're going to get."

The floor rocked as we took a direct hit. Our shields were still holding, but who knew how long that would hold. "Fifty thousand metres," Bray intoned. We barrelled onward towards the Cerberus ships, shrugging off hit after hit—though not without cost. Before long, our shields had dropped to eighty percent. "Two thousand metres," Bray called out.

At last, we got close enough. "Five hundred metres."

"Fire!" Aria yelled.

Our ship opened up with a full barrage of mass accelerator rounds and torpedoes. The lead hostile exploded. We flew right through the backlash, weapons still firing, taking out a second ship and seriously damaging the third.

"We're out of their weapons range," Bray reported.

"Resume course."

Bray nodded, making a few adjustments to his console. Then he frowned. "We're being hailed by the general," he told us.

"This should be interesting," she smirked. "Put him through."

Aria marched straight for the holo-table as Bray complied. The display of Omega shrank and disappeared, replaced by a tall human with dark hair—including a goatee—and darker eyes. He was wearing a Cerberus uniform, carefully cut to convey the image of a high-ranking officer. "Aria," he nodded, crossing his arms. "I knew this had to be you. You'll never make it. Call off your attack now."

"You're barking up the wrong tree, General," she smiled coldly, "but maybe you can convince my partner."

Taking his cue, Shepard stepped forward. "General Petrovsky, I assume."

"Commander Shepard," Petrovsky returned, favouring him with an elegant nod. "I've heard great things about you."

Shepard smiled politely. "I doubt the Illusive Man thinks of me that highly."

"I do my own research, Commander, and I draw my own conclusions. You've received several commendations for your accomplishments during your service to the Alliance, all of which were well earned. And you continued your record of accomplishments during your time with Cerberus, which was why I was sorry to learn you left us. We all sabotage ourselves in nefarious ways. Perhaps deep down, you believe you haven't earned the accolades and praise you received. Perhaps you fear success."

Whether he knew it or not, I suspected he'd struck a chord with Shepard. I'd seen him at his best, but I'd also seen him at his worst. When he was at his lowest, overwhelmed with his duties and responsibilities, broken in the belief that he had failed. I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. This was yet another battle that Shepard would have to wage on his own.

"I left Cerberus because I didn't want to live in a galaxy where hatred was praised and atrocities were commonplace," Shepard said. "Humanity's future lies hand in hand with the other races. You knew that once. Is that what you feared, Petrovsky? The idea of being part of something bigger and greater than yourself."

"Hand in hand, you say? Is that why you allied yourself with criminals and thugs? On an ill-advised assault with such a paltry handful of ships? You must be desperate to begin this game with such a reckless move. Your partner clearly thinks that seeing you will unsettle me. An interesting gambit, but ultimately futile. Now it's my turn.

"I see you've gone to the trouble of augmenting that ship with Silaris armouring, Aria. An exorbitant waste. I've made improvements to Omega's outer defences. My cannons will cut through you at will."

"He sounds pretty confident," I whispered to Shepard.

He gave the barest of nods. "Yeah, he does."

"So again, I say turn back."

Leaning forward, Aria favoured him with a cold smile. "Let's see what you've got, Oleg. End transmission."

Petrovsky's image shimmered away, replaced by the previous status display of Omega. "That went well," I tried.

Aria ignored me. "Set preset course—we're ramming the station. Everyone, brace for impact."

Shepard's eyes widened. "What?"

"That's your brilliant plan?" I cried out.

"Omega's kinetic barrier will stop my ships from landing. I equipped this cruiser with disrupters to take them out on impact. Don't worry," she added, "we'll probably survive the crash."

All around me, people were running to their stations or focusing on their work. They knew that this was it. That this was the big moment. The only ones who didn't know about this beforehand were Shepard… and yours truly. Like I said: I need my head examined.

"We're being targeted!" was the only warning we got before the barrage began. A blistering beam of incandescent energy blazed out. Bray managed to dodge that, along with several more bursts of more conventional fire. Then a second beam swept across the vastness of space. It only grazed us, but the entire ship shook.

"Shields gone! All systems failing!" Bray cried out.

"We can make it!" Aria insisted. She was defiant, steadfast… but her eyes betrayed her, nervously glancing at one of the screens.

Turning my head, I took a closer look at that screen. Based on the readouts it displayed, I decided that Bray wasn't joking: shields were gone, helm control was out, weapons were gone, primary power was offline. The only things still functioning were the secondary power relays and the comm—and who knew how long that would last.

Shepard came to the same conclusion. "Aria, don't be stupid!" he scolded, as another barrage hit the cruiser. "Sound the evac."

Aria looked around, perhaps hoping beyond hope that we could still make it. But even she had to acknowledge the severity of the situation. "Damn it," she cursed, slamming a fist on the holo-table. "Abandon ship! Program escape pods for the station."

"Let's go!" Shepard chimed in. "Everybody out! There's no time!"

One by one, everyone got up from their stations and headed for the door. I was right on their heels when I saw Shepard slow down. "Come on!" he shouted at one of the salarians, who'd taken the seat Bray had vacated and was trying to maintain the cruiser's trajectory. Shepard was about to go back for the salarian when the console exploded in his face. The extent of his burns, and the angle of his neck when he hit the deck, told us that he was a goner. Reaching out, I grabbed Shepard by the arm and hauled him from the bridge.

We emerged in a dark corridor. With the primary power out, only the emergency lighting provided any illumination. That and the sparks flying every which way. People were running for their lives, dodging the sparks and the random jets of pressurized gas. Not to mention the odd explosion that picked hapless men and women off their feet and sent them flying. There was no time to stop and help them. All we could do was run.

Thankfully, we caught up to Aria and dove into one of the escape pods. An asari and a vorcha were already sitting inside, staring at us with a mixture of fear and excitement. As we found a seat and buckled in, Aria shook her head. "Guess the asshole really did upgrade Omega's outer defences."

"Gee, ya think?" Shepard asked rhetorically, as a human slid in.

The escape pod launched with incredible force, shoving us into our seats so hard we couldn't even talk. We rocked back and forth as the pod shook violently. Through the window, we saw the cruiser take another hit and explode.

Then we felt another impact, followed by the shriek of tortured metal…

I opened my eyes. To my mild surprise, we were still alive. We were beaten up and bruised from all the jostling around, mind you, but we were still alive. Peering out the window, I saw something more: alleys and stained floors lit up with harsh neon. We'd made it. Against all odds, we'd made it through all the various defences, crashed through the hull and landed inside Omega itself.

"Everyone all right?" Shepard called out.

"What doesn't kill you—" I groaned.

"…just pisses you off," Aria interrupted. Either she never heard that human phrase before or she just didn't give a damn. "Everyone get ready. Cerberus must've sent troops to this location."

Through the window, I could see movement. "Count on it," I said.

"Right," Shepard nodded. "I'll go through that exit." He pointed at one of the escape pod hatches, currently located at the closest thing to the roof. "While they're distracted, you guys come out of the other hatches. We'll catch them in a crossfire."

"Works for me," I declared. Reaching over my shoulder, I pulled out my assault rifle. In close quarters, this would be a better weapon than the sniper rifle I preferred.

"Let's do it," Aria agreed, catching everyone's eye to ensure we were on the same page.

"Do we have a common comm channel to relay orders?" I asked. "If not, we should set it up now—and fast."

"Channel 38," Aria decided.

"Got it."

Shepard and I adjusted our comms accordingly. Then he stood up. "All right, then. We go in three… two…"

On "one," Shepard popped the hatch. Activating his cloak, he disappeared from view. A second later, the rest of us stormed out. Shepard was already busy, having stabbed one Cerberus goon with his omni-blade. Another one was lining up a shot, only to get cut down by Aria. Spinning around, the other asari and I focused on the next two hostiles. She took a bullet to the chest and dropped, but her sacrifice bought me the time I needed to take them out.

Shepard, Aria and I found cover behind some crates. "Hope the other escape pods made it," Aria said.

As I watched, the other human and the vorcha were cut down by Cerberus reinforcements. I fired a few burst back before ducking down. Aria cursed under her breath before turning to Shepard. "All right. What's our play?"

"You're asking him?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.

Aria ignored me. "This is what I brought you for, Shepard: ground assault. In combat, what you say goes."

Garrus and I looked at each other. "Aria relinquishing command?" he asked aloud.

"I'll believe it when I see it," I snorted.

"I can be a team player, Commander," Aria said dryly. "The fact is I know where we need to go and you can get us there."

Put that way, it made sense. Aria might want to control everything and everyone, but even she knew that Shepard's combat skills exceeded her own. She'd be a fool not to take advantage of his tactical abilities, and if there was one thing she was not, it was a fool.

"All right," Shepard nodded. "What's our target?"

"Hit the Defence System Station," Aria replied. "Shut down Omega's outer defences so my ships can land. If we don't, they'll be blown to bits like we were." Leaning around the corner, she took out a Cerberus soldier.

"Okay," Shepard said, "Garrus, take the left; Aria cover the right. Let's see how this works out."

After tossing a grenade at the nearest hostile, Shepard engaged his cloak and disappeared. Not wanting to waste any time, I switched to my sniper rifle. There was a wounded Centurion limping away, possibly the victim of Shepard's grenade. Whatever the reason, he was as good a target as any. Another Centurion collapsed as Shepard shimmered back into view. Quickly looking around, he crouched down and darted ahead.

Aria was doing a fine job keeping up with us, having dispatched a pair of assault troopers. While Shepard signalled her to advance, I spotted a third assault trooper trying to flank us. I popped his head like an overripe melon. That's two for me, two for Aria and one for Shepard. Just in case you were keeping score.

Once Aria was in position, Shepard directed me to move forward. Clearly, his reconnaissance had indicated the coast was clear. So he decided to have us 'advance by fire and movement,' as the humans say. While I pondered how they came up with that phrase, Shepard dropped another assault trooper, who was covering a prime piece of cover. Sliding behind the crate that the trooper had been guarding, I spotted a Centurion, his shields fully charged. Fully charged until I fried them with my EMP, that is. While I opened fire on the now vulnerable Centurion, Shepard tried to land a headshot on an assault trooper. To his surprise, and mine, he missed. Shaking his head, he extended his arm and set the slippery bastard on fire. The now-burning trooper screamed for a good couple seconds before Aria put him out of his misery.

Meanwhile, there were more Centurions on the way. Seeing that my EMP generator had recharged, I deployed another pulse. This time, it didn't completely drain his shields, but it got me most of the way there. As I fell back to the old reliable standby of hot lead, Shepard began shooting at another Centurion and assigned a third to Aria. That's right: we were evenly matched.

At least, until a fourth Centurion successfully flanked us and opened fire. By that point, Shepard and I had both dealt with our targets and I was ready to fire off another EMP. Poor idiot didn't know what hit him.

And that was it. No more hostiles. I ran a quick scan to make sure, only to come up empty.

"Our pod took out the main exit," Aria called out. "If we can find the control panel, we can lower the blast doors."

Naturally, Shepard was too busy searching for loot to acknowledge her. And I was busy covering him in case another hostile decided to sneak up on us. So she had to condescend to find the panel herself. By the time she did, Shepard had emptied every medkit he could find. The two of us took up firing positions as she activated the blast door controls.

As Aria joined us, she got on the comm. "Aria to fleet. You alive out there?"

"Barely," Jarral replied. "Holding our own with the Cerberus fleet, but Omega's defences are shredding us!"

"Keep my army intact, Jarral," Aria reminded her. "That is your only job."

By that point, the blast doors had lowered enough for me to target another Centurion with an EMP. While Aria and I ganged up on him, Shepard amused himself by finding two Guardians and teaching them that putting slits in their shields was a bad idea.

"Tell your boss I'm coming for him!" Aria taunted the Centurion we were shooting. He never got a chance to reply as her next shot dropped him like a rock. "Never mind," she grinned ferally, "I'll tell him myself."

"Aria, Garrus: reload and search the bodies for thermal clips," Shepard instructed. That task took less than a minute. In that time, Shepard had reloaded his sniper rifle, pocketed a few more clips, grabbed some salvage and scanned an assault rifle mod. One has to admire his efficiency, I decided. Even if his kleptomania left something to be desired.

"Through there," Aria directed, pointing to an elevator on our right. We quickly piled in. Aria selected the upper floor and hit the door controls with a little more force than would normally be required. As the doors closed, she raised a hand to her ear. "Ground team, report in. Bray, you there?"

"Affirmative, but only six pods made it. Various entry points."

"Rally them to you, then head for the rendezvous hangar," she instructed. "Start prepping for our ships to land."

The doors finally slid open and we entered a large room. It was the entrance to the Defence System, judging by the big neon sign that greeted us. Good to know we were on the right track.

"Let's hustle!" Aria urged. "Every minute, more of my ships get obliterated out there."

"First we clear the room, then we hustle," Shepard replied.

"Otherwise, we could get ambushed and wiped out," I chimed in. "In which case, everyone will get obliterated."

Aria practically ground her teeth in frustration, but even she had to concede that Shepard made the right call. Besides, she did say that she'd obey his commands in combat. So we cleared the room, checking every nook and cranny. Shepard picked up a datapad as we went along and skimmed their contents. Evidently, there wasn't anything worth mentioning.

Once we were satisfied that we hadn't missed anything, we took a right and entered what appeared to be a ventilation room. Like all the other rooms, we'd gone through, it had a strictly utilitarian and industrial feel. Dull metal all around. Large pipes the colour of rust—or dried blood—snaking everywhere. Bursts of flame flickering from various vents, occasionally bursting into a roar.

Oh yeah: and there was a greeting party waiting for us. "They're here!" one of the Cerberus soldiers yelled. "Get em! Back up is on the way."

Of course. Because why would it be any other way?

"You heard them," Shepard said. "Let's see what we can do before their reinforcements arrive."

We quickly found cover and got to work. Shepard fired a glancing shot at a combat engineer, one that managed to collapse his shields. I was about to fire my own shot when I noticed a second engineer nearby. Highlighting my new target on the HUD, I launched an EMP. Seeing what I was up to, Shepard fired a stream of plasma. The resulting explosion took out both engineers.

By that point, I had the least number of kills. Assists, sure. But in terms of scoring the final blow, I was last. Time to change that. Unfortunately, there was only one more engineer in the vicinity. He was so desperate to avoid Aria that he ran right into my sights.

"Getting close," Aria said once we were sure the fighting had stopped. "We need to move, Shepard. Those cannons have to be stopped."

We slowly made our way through the room. Well, Shepard and I did. He was busy looking for spare thermal clips, the occasional bit of loot and random datapads to read. I was busy looking for anyone who was trying to spring an unwelcome surprise on us. Aria was waiting by the exit, fingers tapping impatiently on her shotgun. "Taking the scenic route, are we?" she asked acidly.

"Clearing the room," I replied.

"What he said," Shepard said gamely. "Shall we?"

Aria shook her head. "The next area needs to be repressurized."

"Do it," Shepard said. "Those reinforcements are bound to show up sooner or later. Might as well take them out while we're waiting."

Take them out. Just like that. Gotta love that optimism. Though I suppose it wasn't completely unwarranted.

"Initiating," Aria said, entering the relevant command. "Now let's get ready to greet our… guests."

We didn't have to wait long. The steady stomp of armoured boots on metal heralded the arrival of the reinforcements. "Intruders located! Stop them here!"

"Stop this!" Shepard said cheerfully, lobbing another grenade.

To our surprise, that seemed to slow them down. Either they were really leery of things going boom or they were waiting for further reinforcements.

Or maybe they were just trying to draw our attention. I looked to the left. To the right. Then I looked in a direction that many soldiers often forget: up. "Hostiles dropping from above!" I warned, snapping off a quick shot. Sadly, I missed. To make matters worse, one of them had the presence of mind to drop a smoke grenade for cover so the rest of his comrades could jump from the level above.

Unfortunately for them, Shepard and I had long since modified our sniper rifles with scopes that could cut through the smoke and locate targets hiding within. They were just digital silhouettes, mind you, but even that was sufficient for our purposes. I emptied my clip, racking up two more kills.

"Don't let them through that door!"

"Repressurization at 47 percent," Omega's VI informed us.

As I reloaded, Shepard scored another kill. Aria did not. Evidently she didn't have any gadgets or upgrades that could pierce the gloom. Instead, she seemed to be focusing on crowd control: keeping the Cerberus goons at bay where Shepard and I could best deploy our sniper rifles. Despite our earlier concerns, she was living up to her claim of being a team player.

Time for me to do the same: spotting a Centurion trying to touch down, I zapped his shields. Well, most of them. "Aria, you packing any high-yield rounds or special ammo?"

In response, she loaded something in her shotgun and fired it at the Centurion. She raised an eyebrow when his shields flared and exploded. "Impressive," she conceded.

"Yeah. Not bad," I said nonchalantly.

"Repressurization at 79 percent."

Shepard moved ahead, sniper rifle sweeping back and forth. He didn't find anyone to shoot or set on fire. Nor did he find anything worth looting. I'm not sure which upset him more.

"Repressurization complete. Access enabled."

Turning around, Shepard joined Aria and I at the door. We moved into a corridor—and immediately stopped short. "One of our pods," Aria said.

Clearly the reason why this area need repressurizing. The entire pod was on fire—either because one of its internal fuel cells had ruptured or it had hit a gas line. I scanned the pod with my omni-tool for life-signs, but came up empty. "No survivors," I reported.

"We were lucky," Shepard said. "Let's move."

Gingerly, we made our way down the corridor, giving the burning pod a wide berth. The door at the other end was locked. As Shepard began bypassing the door's internal mechanisms, Jarral gave us a report. "We lost two more transports! Can't keep up evasive manoeuvres much longer!"

"We're right outside the defence station," Aria replied. "Hold tight!"

That was when Shepard broke through the lock and the doors slid open. With the plight of those ships—and our reinforcements—in mind, we hurried into the defence station. There was nothing to greet us but bare metal and harsh red holo-displays, so we turned left and spread out. Up ahead, I spotted a generator of some sort.

"They're here! Defend the station!" someone called out, conveniently giving away his position. Shepard and I promptly showed him just how much of a mistake he'd made. Between my EMP and Shepard's plasma, it was hard to tell for sure, but I had a feeling that Shepard landed the kill shot. Meanwhile, Aria was busy alternating between verbal taunts and hot lead, the latter being more lethally effective against the eager assault trooper who'd tried to advance on his own.

Spotting some movement, I lifted my sniper rifle and scored a direct hit on an assault trooper trying to sneak up on our right. Shepard turned to the left and killed a Guardian. Aria hurled a burst of biotics at a combat engineer, driving him back, before gunning down another trooper. Lifting my sniper rifle again, I tracked the engineer and gently squeezed the trigger. One shot, one kill.

"Clear!" Aria called out. "Get to the controls."

Shepard once again ignored her, choosing to make sure the room was actually clear—and indulge his compulsive need to loot everything that wasn't nailed down. So it was left up to Aria and I to access the controls. It didn't take long before I found the status display for Omega's outer defences. A bit of experimenting uncovered the commands needed to shut them down. Through the windows, we saw the turrets fire one last volley before powering down.

"Jarral," Aria said over the comm, "defences are down. Signal the surviving ships to converge on the rendezvous point."

"Copy that. Approach trajectories plotted. We're already queuing up."

Aria switched comm channels. "Bray, come in. Status."

"Rendezvous site secured. Hangar doors enabled. We'll have them open soon."

"Need them open now," Aria ordered. "My birds are coming in. Prep for reception."

By that point, Shepard had finally satisfied his kleptomania. "What's this about a rendezvous point?"

"That's where we're headed. It's a bunker I established on D-deck for my… more sensitive operations."

Pirate queen's doing things that she doesn't want her subjects to know about? I'm shocked, I tell you. Absolutely shocked.

"It's utterly impenetrable, with its own secret hangar and dock."

As Aria explained the details, a familiar look crept over Shepard's face. It's hard to explain if you haven't seen it before. Turians say it's the spirits trying to bring something to your attention. Given that I'm not really what you'd call a conventional turian, I'll use the human phrase: his gut was telling him something.

"Independent power source, life support, munitions. You'll see."

Shepard and I spotted the camera at the same time, but he was the one who pulled his gun out and blew it to smithereens. Too little too late, unfortunately. I crouched down and idly sifted through what was left. "Hard to say if it had audio feeds as well as video, but I'm fairly sure it was transmitting," I said.

"If nothing else, it was panning around," Shepard agreed. "Well, Aria, I hope this bunker is as impenetrable as you say it is, 'cuz there's a good chance the general knows where we're going."

"Then no time for sightseeing," Aria decided. "Take the far exit. I'll lock down the way we came."

"Sounds like a plan," Shepard nodded. "Let's move out."