Mass Effect & Resident Evil are the properties of Bioware and Capcom respectively. I do not own them. All rights go towards them.

Chapter 7: (Time In A Bottle)

(2181, Apr – Jun)

As we neared to the location of the distress signal, I powered down the fusion engines and used the gravity engine instead to slow down the Solace's forward momentum. This way the deceleration was much smoother, quicker and most of all the ship didn't have to flip 180 degrees and apply thrust on the opposite vector. It was kind of cheating but since when did I care about playing fair anyway.

The Solace was brought to a near standstill just one hundred thousand kilometers, one third of a lightsecond away from the distress signal and I employed the ship's extensive sensor arrays which to me felt like new sets of eyes and ears just opened for me the first time considering that I was mentlly linked to the ship itself.

But it would be disastrous for my brain if all the sensor data just flooded into my mind so the data buffers were placed beforehand to let only the summarized and important packets of refined informations to be presented to me. My mind was just not evolved enough to handle hundreds of petabytes worth of data within a split second.

"The sensors are showing one light corvette, Human by the look of its design surrounded by one light cruiser, two medium frigates and three light corvettes. The lone cruiser and two frigates are clearly of Batarian origin. Three other corvettes on the other hand are Human in design."

"And the lone Human corvette seems to be disabled and it's leaking atmosphere. I don't think the other ships are in charitable mood here, in fact they might be the one to have done the dirty deed."

"Sir, they have noticed our presence. Two corvettes and one frigate are heading our way. Interception in fifty seconds with their speed and acceleration."

"I don't think we have to rack our brains to know that they ain't going to welcome us with a hello. Ready our weapons because we are meeting them halfway." I said, bringing the PRGT (primary railgun turrets), SRG (secondary railguns) and TRG (tertiary railguns) online. Piranha missile launchers were also on standby but the Mk. IX VLTs were left alone for the moment.

"I will handle the E-War operations and point defense system." Frost acknowledged on her end.

"Kinetic barrier projectors are at one hundred percent and are pulsing nicely." One thing about the kinetic barrier was that whenever I fired the ship's mass accelerators or railguns in this case, the barrier emitters covering in that weapon's area have to be switched off for a brief moment when the slugs were passing through or else the barrier would block it and the slugs would bounce right back to the ship which would be catastrophic for the ship's wellbeing.

Considering that the Solace has railgun turrets for its main weapon instead of a spinal-mounted one, the barrier deactivation areas increased proportional to the placement and number of the turrets which could become vulnerable if an enemy slug managed to hit right at the moment when the barrier switched off to allow the friendly slugs to pass through. It was only one in a thousand chance of hitting but the fast rate of fire plus the number of ships could decrease that chance. I was quite relieved that the bridge section was built deep inside the ship's bowel. That way there wouldn't be either accidental or intentional decapitation strike to the ship.

The unknown group of ships and mine met in the middle with the enemy corvettes in front while the frigate stayed about a dozen or so kilometers behind. The corvettes in general didn't possess any serious armaments and they would usually use their maneuverability, light caliber mass accelerators and GARDIAN lasers to strafe their target at knife fighting range and might occasionally deploy disruptor missiles in small numbers.

A single corvette alone might not be dangerous but like the frigates, with enough numbers they could be organized into a wolf pack formation of six corvettes. Right now there were only two corvettes and before they even reached a thousand kilometers from my ship, I fired a KE slug from the PRGT1/RG-1 to its bow which was kind of overkill for a corvette as its kinetic barrier was shorted out by the quarter ton slug and I finished the pathetic excuse of a ship by simultaneously sending out a hollow point round from the PRGT1/RG-2 which expanded on impact thus creating a larger wound in its unarmored hull, spilling its guts and what little crew members it had. The small ship was officially dead and only tumbling/moving on its residual inertia.

The second corvette went for evasive maneuvers, trying to avoid the primary dorsal railguns but what they didn't know was that the Solace also has ventral railguns in the form of tertiary railguns. The 76 mm railguns fired 20 kg slugs with the speed of 200 km/s at 540 rounds per minute. Each shot packed 400 gigajoules of energy and capable of firing at an incredible rate for a railgun.

Dozens of the 76 mm railguns tracked and fired at the erratically moving corvette as the Solace sped closer and closer. The corvette's kinetic barrier was clipped when it reached just two hundred kilometers away from my ship's starboard bow when a 152 mm secondary railgun on the starboard side drained the barrier after the ventral railguns weathered it down considerably.

"Launching Piranhamissiles. Let's see how the missiles deal with a ship on the evasive maneuvers and its GARDIAN lasers."

Thirty Piranhamissiles were launched from their box launchers and six missiles assembled together to form a group, totaling in five which headed for the corvette. In each group, six missiles linked each other to pool their ECCM capacities which further enhanced their ability to befuddle the enemy corvette's tracking system of the GARDIAN lasers.

Only twelve out of thirty missiles were intercepted, while the rest slammed into the corvette's hull, especially on the engines and the reactor sections of the ship. The last three missiles slipped right inside the ruptured hull and exploded near the ship's reactor. The corvette finally exploded in a brief fireball before the harsh vacuum snuffed out the fire.

"The frigate is starting to panic, sir. It's firing its mass accelerator wildly in our direction. I believe the 254 mm slugs will do nicely." Frost advised.

"Acknowledged. Two KE rounds are on their way." I returned.

The first slug hit right on the frigate's port side but the second one just grazed the ship as it tried to dodge out of the way. So, one more round was fired with predictive firing solution and it slammed on the amidships of the frigate. But the third round didn't just disable the frigate's barrier but also managed to retain enough kinetic energy to dig a deep gouge on its dorsal hull.

By now the Solace was just a few dozen kilometers away from the frigate so the pulsed laser turrets (PLT) began firing on the frigate's port side. Single PLT was capable of firing three shots per second and each shot has seven megawatts of power with an effective range of fifty kilometers. More than that range, the firepower would diminish over the distance until the laser simply became ineffective but the obvious advantage was that the Solace's point defense lasers have more than twice the effective firing range of most GARDIAN lasers, not to mention they also packed more punch per shot.

However, the free-electron UV lasers of the Solace fired in pulsed mode instead of beam (continuous) mode as the former has the explosive effect on the target and also used less energy. By firing the laser in pulsed mode, it caused worse damage because the laser would act like a machine gun loaded with explosive bullets that would blast wider and deeper craters with each impact.

On the other hand, the continuous firing of laser beam was inefficient and power consuming as the continuous beam would have to spend more power to get through the cloud of ionized plasma that was formed from the ship's hull which would act as a shield against the laser beam.

At the moment, the enemy frigate's port side was stung by hundreds of laser bursts from the dozens of turrets. It was truly death by a thousand cut as the entire frigate's port side was riddled with laser shots. And the 152 mm railguns dealt with the rest of the frigate which finally put it out of its misery. The other ship couldn't even manage to retaliate in kind as the Solace was out of its GARDIAN laser range. Typical range of the GARDIAN lasers were usually around twenty and maybe thirty kilometers and any more than that, they would become ineffective due to diffraction.

I accelerated the Solace towards the last three ships. The cruiser posed the greatest threat out of them since it has more powerful weapons, stronger kinetic barrier and thicker armor. The Batarian cruiser was obviously prepared for my arrival and without hesitating a bit fired its primary mass accelerator followed closely by the secondary mass accelerators. The cruiser was trying hard to make sure my ship couldn't get close to it and at the same time, tried to present its broadside constantly where a lot of its mass accelerators were present.

Reserving the primary railguns for a while, I targeted the cruiser with the 152 mm and 76 mm railguns but clearly it was not enough and the cruiser's mass accelerator rounds were pelting on my ship's barrier. At this rate, both ships were going to deplete their respective barriers and that was when the last frigate appeared from behind the cruiser to screen my ship in a pincer move.

The frigate this time, instead of firing its mass accelerators or the GARDIAN lasers, launched multiple disruptor missiles in an attempt to disable the Solace's barrier but most of them were intercepted by the longer ranged pulsed UV lasers. Though two disruptor missiles succeeded in hitting the starboard side.

"Barrier integrity down to eighty-two percent. Pumping more power into the barrier's capacitors. The ship's different type of barrier is quite effective in repelling the space-time warp effects."

"You're right but the barrier can still be disabled under mass disruptor strikes. Let's hope that they don't send more than what point defenses can chew up or before the barrier can recover." I said, already noticing the barrier integrity climbing back up to ninety-six percent.

The two enemy ships were quite effective in trying to block my ship from getting a good shot on the cruiser but unlike other main weapons which were usually fixed, the Solace could swivel its primary railgun turrets and just a brief opening was needed to fire a two KE rounds in rapid succession to the frigate's starboard side before it could launch more disruptor missiles.

Suffice to say the KE rounds smashed into its side, nearly flipping the ship but ended up killing its barrier and fatally crippling the frigate to the point where it was no longer capable of any combat operations.

Also, the momentary focus on the frigate allowed the Batarian cruiser to get a good salvo at the Solace's port bow.

"Barrier integrity down to seventy-nine percent. No damage to the armor or the hull."

"I know. It's time to take off the kiddie glove and get serious. I'm loading a nuke round. Ready for proximity detonation." I warned, knowing that the nuke's EMP would travel in omni-direction.

I pivoted the PRGT2 and made sure that there was some distance between my ship and the enemy cruiser.

When the cruiser was about seven hundred kilometers away from the Solace's broadside, I fired a nuke round at the cruiser's stern. The nuke round reached the cruiser in less than a second and crashed into the ship's barrier then promptly exploded on impact, the bright flash of nuclear detonation noticeable even from afar as the flash of blinding light nearly enveloped the cruiser.

When the light receded, the cruiser was in a nasty condition with its barrier flickering erratically and the uppermost layer of the ship's hull just melted away with many of the weapon ports destroyed by fusing with the hull. The cruiser also stopped accelerating and became sluggish in its movement as if the EMP has affected its propulsion system. The barrier then finally died and I put an armor-piercing round through its engine blocks in a diagonal fashion to completely cripple its movement.

The only other enemy craft left was the light corvette which was docked side by side with the distressed corvette. "How about we check out the damaged Human ship first then the cruiser?"

"I will prepare accordingly for our boarding action, sir." Frost reciprocated, leaving the bridge quickly.

"You do that while I disable the enemy corvette." I muttered while zooming on the enemy corvette's stern section.

When the Solace approached near the two conjoined ships, I opened fire with the PLTs on the enemy corvette's communication arrays and propulsion system. A few invisible shots of pulsed UV laser peppered the comm dishes and antennas while plenty more was unleashed upon the engine units till it started spewing molten blobs of the engine nozzles.

Ten minutes later, I arrived at the hangar deck on level eight where Frost was waiting for me in a Raven dropship. The hangar bay occupied the Solace's entire eighth deck and twelve Raven dropships were stored and maintained there. There were four exits from which a craft either a dropship or a fighter could launch from the hangar bay.

First was through the ventral doors which were usually part of the designated dropship landing pads and the Ravens were most suited to use the ventral doors to launch from the ship as they were slow moving in initial launch when compared to speedy fighter crafts. And if the dropships were to exit from other three exits by way of the port, starboard, or even the bow hangar doors (where they were mostly reserved for the fast launching fighters) then the dropships would be vulnerable to enemy fire which in turn was also potentially dangerous to the ship's deck itself if a dropship was to be shot down during the initial take off from the ship.

The crafts could be launched in either vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) mode or electromagnetic assist launch (EAL) mode like the one from the 21st century Ford-class aircraft carriers. Ravens were also designed to launch in both modes in addition to the drop mode. But for the Ravens, the drop mode launch method was the safest, and it was kind of fitting, considering that the Ravens were technically designated as dropships.

As of right now, there were no aerospace superiority fighters in the hangar bay because they were still on the drawing board. Seeing that the pre-flight checks were done by Frost, we immediately dropped from the Solace through the ventral exit. The Raven passed through the atmospheric retention (kinetic) barrier and once it cleared the ship's threshold, I willed the craft's fusion engines through my nanite link to full power.

The Raven accelerated quickly and easily achieved speed of Mach 6 in seconds. We reached near the damaged ship a few minutes later. It was pockmarked by light caliber mass accelerator rounds which point out that the ship was hit not to kill but to disable. If they really wanted to be done with it then the Batarian cruiser could have easily obliterated the Human corvette with its primary weapon yet from the look of it, the five ships ambushed and crippled it but what about the three Human corvettes, two of which were destroyed a while ago.

Were they accomplices working with the apparent Batarian ships? Since the last enemy corvette was docked with the distressed ship then it might be safe to assume that they wanted someone alive from the ship.

The Raven's sensors beeped alerting me of the power spike from the enemy ship which I expected. Not a moment later, the enemy ship fired its GARDIAN lasers to which I reacted in microseconds by juking the craft around in a barrel roll and before Raven could complete the maneuver, I unleashed a handful of high-explosive fragmentation missiles at the offending ship while the chin-mounted eight-barrel 5.7 mm rotary railgun fired thousands of slugs at high-hypersonic velocity.

Two seconds later just as I leveled the dropship to normal plane, the missiles slammed into the area of the kinetic barrier where the rotary railgun was firing. With just a few kilometers away from the enemy corvette, I opted to finish its barrier with a barrage of semi-guided high-explosive rockets. The barrier glowed red by the rocket bombardment and finally popped like a soap bubble. The corvette couldn't dodge or maneuver my attacks as it was still attached to the damaged ship but it tried its best to leverage the GARDIAN lasers and light caliber mass accelerators to shoot down my bird but the ECM which Frost operating was doing a great job messing up its targeting sensors and instead of dodging the laser beams, I went for evading the barrel aim of the weapons.

With the barrier down, I fired what was left of the guided missiles to its GARDIAN laser turrets and mass accelerators hence leaving the enemy corvette basically toothless.

I turned my attention towards the other ship and brought the dropship close to a docking port near the stern. A few seconds of scanning later, the dropship adapted to the ship's docking access, creating an airtight and pressurized seal between the two vessels.

I exited the cockpit followed closely by Frost who picked up a Ravager full-auto combat shotgun which was capable of firing 8-gauge shells from 20-round auto-revolving detachable quad-tube magazine that ran parallel to the barrel, a Honey Badger tactical submachine gun which could fire 4.6 mm armor-piercing rounds with 72-round detachable magazine and a handful of assorted cylindrical-shaped grenades from the small weapon locker. These were mainly chemical propellant (gunpowder) based weapons that I kept inside every Raptor as standard onboard small firearms package.

I on the other hand didn't take any from the locker considering that I started storing weapons in nanite form inside my body. Until mentally commanded, all sorts of weapons were kept inside as nanite particles. That way I didn't need to spend time choosing a weapon for a mission. Of course, the weapon blueprint/design must be programmed in advance so that I could just mentally summon a weapon by its name.

Nanite Construction — Heavy Pistol "Heartbreaker"

With a mental command, silver-gray color nanites started pooling out of my right palm and the nanomachines almost instantaneously formed into one Heartbreaker heavy pistol in my hand while I summoned one more weapon on my other hand. This time it was not a firearm but instead a blade weapon in the form of a 20-in (51-cm) Xiphos double-edged short sword which was aesthetically similar to the one from the movie 300 instead of the traditional leaf-shaped design. Aside from the design and appearance, my version of short sword was a thermal atomic-edge blade capable of cutting and thrusting into virtually anything.

We exited our craft and entered the corvette where we found ourselves in what looked to be an auxiliary storage room. Frost took her position a meter from my side hefting her Ravagercombat shotgun with the Badger tactical SMG strapped to her left thigh. My short sword was currently sheathed inside the scabbard and the heavy pistol held just below my line of sight, railing the gun close to my body and at the same time protecting my upper extremities from being hit if and when a CQB presents itself. Just because I was a superhuman with advanced alien nanites that didn't mean I could afford to simply forget about the combat stances and trainings. No matter what, it was better not to get cocky and get shot unnecessarily even if you have the healing ability.

Always vigilant and never complacent.

Battle sensors were activated and digital telepathy was being used to quietly talked to each other. I could see a fireteam of four approaching to our location. By the look of their arrangement and movements on the sensors they were rather professional compared to the usual thugs and mercenaries. We took our position behind the support pillar just five meters away from the storage room's entrance in a flanking formation.

It didn't take long for the four-man fireteam to open the door and before they could even take a step inside the room, Frost tossed a stun grenade right in front of them. They attempted to cover their eyes but the flashbang detonated just as it hit the ground.

That was the cue for me so I squeezed the trigger and a 45 cal (11.43 mm) caseless-telescoped magnum compact (CMC) armor-piercing round punched right through the first armed man's forehead after penetrating his combat helmet. The monolithic (jacketless) copper round with tungsten carbide penetrator retained enough muzzle energy to hit the man behind him. The lightweight composite ceramic helmet of the first man was simply not enough to protect against a high-powered AP round at a close range.

Frost was not idle either after she lobbed the grenade considering that she blasted the heavy armor wearing hostile's knee cap. Before the guy could even whimper, she finished him off with another load of buckshot to the face.

Two other hostiles were quick to recover from the flashbang effect and took cover on either side of the entrance. They were certainly cautious and even smart but it didn't matter when I launched a tech attack from my hand. The Armor Breakdown basically turned a combat armor with motorized joints and combat exoskeleton upgrades against its wearer by causing the joints to bend in hazardous and fatal ways leaving the target instantly dead at best and permanently injured at worst. This tech attack didn't work on simple combat armors but I saw two of them were wearing combat armors with mechanical augmentations.

It didn't take too long to hear their bones started breaking and the joints snapping along with the muffled screams from the doorway. It was quite cruel yet very effective tech attack against hostiles that were safely hidden behind the cover. The term 'cyber' attack would be more of an appropriate word than tech attack since it was a hack program that was launched against the armor system.

We passed by the two hostiles outside the room and saw their limbs contorted in unnatural shapes but not quite dead yet.

"It seems that the cyber core is doing a great job and it works perfectly, undeterred by the targets being behind the wall and cover." Frost commented, observing the twitching bodies of two hostiles who were most likely hired soldiers from an, as of yet, unknown PMC.

"Definitely. Let me get some intel from their omni-tools." I raised my hand with palm wide and generally aimed at the mercs' omni-tools. Mentally launching a remote smart hacking, a hack program was sent to smash down the firewalls and any other security systems. After that, the retrieval of the data commenced right away.

Two seconds later, it was done with all the data and credits from their omni-tools stripped away from their possession.

"Hmm, a covert PMC by the name of Black Adder. Very secretive group of mercenaries who mainly serves the elites and powerful corporations. We will dig further once we finish cleaning this place up." I said, processing the recently acquired data which was then put in the background.

"Did you find any motive for attacking this ship?" Frost asked.

"No. It appears that the information dispensation within their PMC is compartmentalized to a high degree. We will need to find the head of this assault party." I replied, aiming my heavy pistols and discharging one round to each of the mercenaries' heads.

The two mercs' heads slumped and they gladly welcomed the sweet relief of death over the agonizing pain.

We moved on, passing through the shuttle bay yet finding none of the mercs which was strange. So, when we reached near the bulkhead, the battle sensors started showing blobs of mass, indicative of presence behind the door.

Enhanced Vision — Radar (Enabled)

Contrary to popular belief, infrared (thermal) sensors couldn't penetrate and see through the wall. Ultra-low power (ULP) radio signals on the other hand could not only detect persons but also track their movements in fine details behind the wall.

"I'm detecting two four-man fireteams in ambush formation. Confirm?"

"Confirmed."

"You start with a Smokescreen once the bulkhead is opened and I will follow up with a Wide-Area Misdirect."

"Affirmative. Ready when you are."

Not bothering to wait, I remotely hacked the door open and Frost followed up the Smokescreen. A plume of smoke discharged from her wrist, covering the two hostile fireteams. They tried to fire through the smoke but failed miserably in scoring a single hit as they couldn't even see what was in front of them and the smoke interfered not just visually but also electronically on account of their combat sensors being blinded by the charged particles of the smokescreen.

Without giving them a chance to recover, I unleashed the Wide-Area Misdirect and multiple holo decoys appeared which they fell for and started shooting at them, probably thinking that they were combat drones. We dashed in guns blazing with Frost firing both her shotgun and SMG while I went full gun fu with the Heartbreaker heavy pistol in my right hand and Exultant Supreme short sword in the other.

I went for the nearest one with the assault fire and grabbed his wrist, pulling his hand away from his weapon and firing two rounds to his upper torso. Another merc tried to bash my face with the butt of his rifle which I blocked it with my right arm and mentally ignited the short sword of its thermal feature. The Exultant Supreme glowed bright red-orange almost instantly and the merc in front of me stared with wide eyes but I snapped him out of his terror by bringing down the blade diagonally from his shoulder, passing through his ribcage and finally ended with slicing across his heart. His armored upper torso was cleaved slantwise with his blood sizzling on my glowing blade.

I didn't waste time admiring the clean precise cut of my handywork so I moved to another subject and thrusted my blade into a female merc's abdomen. Then I put a bullet through her throat which neatly severed her spinal cord. I pulled out the blade and sheathed it back to its scabbard then proceeded to Spartan-kick the corpse with enough force to send it flying to the next person.

With said person dazed from the impact, I Flash Step in front of him and grabbed his helmeted head and fired two more rounds from under his chin. I looked across to find Frost who was mercilessly mowing down with her high-magazine capacity Badger SMG and finishing up with her 8-gauge Ravager. She ejected her SMG magazine and slapped a new one with inhuman speed and precision but two mercs were already behind her. Before she could turn around to deal with them, I hurled the Exultant Supreme with considerable force. The superheated atomic-edge blade entered one of the mercs from the back of his head which exited from his forehead without expending too much effort. The thermal blade then continued to puncture into the shoulder of another merc who was sneaking up on Frost.

The merc let out a yelp to which Frost was ready to act in return so she blasted her shotgun at point blank range with a slug this time. The specialized solid propellant offered bigger bang at 823 m/s (2700 ft/s) of muzzle velocity. The depleted uranium (DU) slug travelled below the barrier-intercept speed limit yet fast enough to explode the merc's armored head like a pinata through sheer kinetic energy the DU slug offered.

Frost gave a nod of thanks in my direction but I simply returned with a gesture of 'not a problem' as I picked up my blade.

When we realized that there were no more mercs left to slay, we continued our way and entered an elevator.

"Here's the plan. You go for the Bridge deck and take control of the ship while I go for the Engineering deck."

"Roger that, sir and be careful, I don't think that all the hostiles have been dispatched."

"I'll keep that in mind, Frost." I pressed the button for the Engineering and it didn't take long to reach the deck. I got off quickly, giving a small nod to Frost before the elevator doors closed.

I checked my heavy pistol to find that eight rounds were left in total. As I got closer to the engine room, I began seeing flashes similar to that of blowtorch cutters and then it suddenly stopped. Knowing that it would only stop when the doors have been breached, I hastened my pace and raised my heavy pistol. The two guards that were standing at the entrance were served with one round each through their eye holes before they could even bring up their assault rifles.

I entered the engine room and five more mercs jumped out from behind a reactor monitoring console. With no cover for me to hide behind, I launched a Sonic Anti-Personnel towards them, affecting three mercs who dropped and started convulsing violently on the floor. The other two mercs didn't stop to look after their comrades but instead fired their assault rifles at me. I performed multiple combat somersaults to move away from the weapon fires.

Though I succeeded in dodging them, I still felt the bullets striking on my body which I realized that was coming from another merc who was hiding behind the door. I crouched on the floor once I landed from the somersault and emptied the rest of the heavy pistol at the merc's chest and abdomen with the last one hitting her in the head.

I jumped towards another console when the other two mercs continued their assault. I ejected the magazine and slammed a new one from my belt. The spent magazine reabsorbed into my body since it was made up of nanites in the first place.

Five more hostiles arrived to the scene while the initial two mercs were providing suppressive fire on my location. One thing I had to say about these Black Adder mercs were that they were good. Competent and disciplined unlike the Eclipse or the Blue Suns mercs.

"Sir, prepare for a little assistance. I'm disabling the engine room's gravity."

"Thanks, Frost. I'm ready. Do it."

I immediately felt the weightlessness but I commanded the nanites that made up the sole of my boots to stick to the floor similar to that of a gecko's feet. The Van der Waals forces between my boot and the floor increased thus grounding me to the floorboard while the mercs were flailing in the air helplessly. Which was a literal target practice for me and so I started blasting rounds after rounds hitting them in their glass visors and mouthpieces. Seven seconds later, all of them were dead with blood leaking out of their wounds. Soon the gravity returned and the corpses dropped on the floor with some piling up on one another.

Just as I stood up, I heard more weapon discharges and tech attacks exchanging between the mercs and the unknown, probably the last surviving crewmembers of this ship.

I stealthily sneaked inside another section of the engine room and moved towards the oblivious mercenary who was firing her weapon in short bursts. I covered her faceplate with my hand and thrusted my short sword through her back which exited from her chest. Even though the thermal function was turned off to preserve the stealth element, the blade was more than enough to cut down almost any materials.

I performed two more stealth kills before they realized that there was someone in their midst disposing them quietly. Their focus on the ship's surviving crewmembers stopped abruptly to find their predator. I remained in stealth mode and hid between a gap when two mercs came to my way. When they passed in front of me, I fired one round through his exposed neck and the other one from the back of his head. Both of them dropped like meat puppets.

I leapt up to the alcove of the ceiling and another merc came to check on his downed comrades and once he looked up to the alcove, I unleashed another round through his helmet.

Instead of jumping down from the ceiling, I opted to move from above and finally found what was left of the hostiles in this ship. Three of them were standing back to back in front of the thick armored door with their weapons pointing everywhere to wait for their inevitable confrontation. What they didn't realize was that said confrontation was coming from above and not from any other direction.

I stuck out the heavy pistol's barrel from the ceiling and fired two rounds in succession. The AP rounds penetrating their heads vertically downrange and before the last merc could bring up his weapon, I jumped down on his shoulders and twisted his head with my knees. The body slowly fell down and I stepped on the floor without any hassle.

I closely examined the armored door and it was obvious that the mercs were very adamant to get their hands on whatever or whoever was inside the room. I unsheathed my short sword, switched on the thermal function and cranked it up to max. Most armored doors have hinges all around and since I didn't see any digital components to hack, I shoved the superheated blade and began cutting from the edge. The metal bolts were melted one by one like a hot butter. It only took around fifty seconds before the cutting was completed and with an effort I kicked in the heavy door.

It thudded loudly on the floor and as I entered the door an Incinerate shot nearly hit me in the face if it was not for my quick reflex. I looked at the culprit and saw a Human of Slavic descent in her mid-thirties with beige blonde shoulder-length hair. Her clothes were in tatters and she clearly looked exhausted from the whole debacle.

"Please, I'm here to help. I'm not one of them." I pointed at the three freshly killed mercenaries from behind.

"I don't believe you. And don't you come a step closer." She yelled, aiming her omni-tool while looking at my short sword warily. I knew she saw me using that to carve the vault door with ease. I slowly sheathed my blade and brought up my arms to show her that I meant no harm to her.

"My name is Albert Wesker. My ship was passing through this system when I detected the distress signal coming from this ship. I came here to assist." I explained, slowly walking towards her but she immediately re-aimed her omni-tool so I stopped on the spot.

"Then how did you get here? You could have been part of a good cop/bad cop routine to get me. I don't believe you." She shouted, on the verge of collapsing.

I turned my head around to look at the curved-out vault door, then the three dead mercs and if I could see through the ship's wall, a handful of ships that I obliterated and crippled to get here.

"Lady if I wanted to kill you then you would be dead before you could take another breath. I just melted this eight-inch thick door and if I'm a part of the mercenary group then I would just allow others to flood this room with their weapons blazing."

She glanced at the dead mercs just beyond the door and became thoughtful of my words.

"And I don't know if there are more reinforcements coming but I'm sure as hell don't want to be here when they arrive." I added, becoming a little less patient.

"Ok, alright. Wait! Did you just say that your name is Albert Wesker? The Albert Wesker?" She asked, a bit uncertain.

I reached for my trademark sunglasses which discreetly materialized in my inner pocket and put it on my face. "Yes, the one and only. Now let's go back to my ship. Your boat is done and the atmosphere is leaking if you haven't noticed yet."

We went back to the elevator and met up with Frost. After a brief introduction which the recently rescued woman introduced herself as Svetlana Belikova, all three of us returned to the auxiliary storage's airlock where the Raven was docked. I noticed her being a little disturbed by the some of the more disfigured dead bodies but not to the degree of puking her guts out which showed that she might have some spunk in her.

We departed her ship and the Revan dropship was hoisted up the ventral doors by the magnetic tractor system. When the craft was inside the ship, Svetlana had already dozed off from her fatigue.

I bridal carried her to the medical bay and laid her on the medical diagnostic bed. I ordered the bed to run a quick scan which would take at least five minutes to complete.

While I waited for the scan results, Frost spoke to me via the shared nanite link.

"Sir, you might want to hear this. There has been an attack on our weapon factory on Bekenstein."

"What!? Any fatalities or injuries?" I asked. All of a sudden, I was alert and on my feet.

"Eleven workers are dead and about two dozen are injured." She answered.

"What about the suspects? Do we know who might have fucked with us?"

"The preliminary evidence suggests that it's the Batarians, sir. But I need more data to confirm whether it's just a rouge group or a state sanctioned one. The attack happened just nine hours ago."

"Frost, plan new route. I want you to set course for the Boltzmann system right away."

I left for the bridge deck and when I arrived there, Frost informed me that the crippled Batarian frigate was trying to escape with the cruiser providing cover for its retreat. Initially I was planning to storm the cruiser with two companies of Myrmidon GIUs to perform some invasive investigations and intel gatherings but that plan was blown out of the water with the current predicament and now I would have to content myself with blowing up the ship.

"Deal with the cruiser first. It's more critical than the frigate." I ordered and Frost complied who was already sitting on the NCT (Neural Command Throne) manning the ship.

A few seconds later, two hollow point slugs slammed on the cruiser's dorsal surface, nearly snapping its spine and the third round was launched which sealed the fate of the 660 meters long cruiser. The nuke round slipped through the crack formed by the prior rounds and detonated inside the cruiser, consuming the entire cruiser in a nuclear fire.

When the turrets swiveled to the frigate's trajectory, the heavily damaged ship managed to accelerate to FTL.

"Damn!" Frost swore quietly but I patted her shoulder to convey a good job.

She nodded in response and entered the ship into the Fluidspace for a split second before flying towards the mass relay. We exited the mass relay of the Serpent Nebula and continued for a few minutes of military thrust with the fusion engines. Once we were done putting some distance between the Citadel station and the Solace, once again we entered the ship into the Fluidspace for a few seconds. Afterwards, we exited the ship in the gas cloud of a moon orbiting the Veltman, a hydrogen-helium gas giant that orbits the star Boltzmann. It was done to hide our FTL exit from the system's monitoring sensors.

We continued the rest of the journey on max thrust with the gravity engine assisting greatly in cruising at thirty percent the speed of light. It didn't take too long for us to reach around Bekenstein's orbit and we parked the Solace in the geosynchronous orbit directly above the factory. Normally ships weren't allowed to park in whichever orbit they chose to but I have a handful of the planet's high-ranking authorities in my pocket so I retained some special privileges.

We took a Raven down to the surface and landed on a pad reserved for the Raven dropship. I had called my employees on the ground ahead and they were already waiting for my arrival at the LZ. I exited the craft and was immediately greeted by a Quarian marine and the superintendent of the facility.

"Sir, thanks for getting here quick." The Quarian marine greeted as he shook my hand and the superintendent did the same who still looked a little shaken.

"I would have gotten here earlier if I was not on the other side of the galaxy. Brief me along the way, Lieutenant. Tell me everything and start from the beginning." I ordered while we walked our way to the main assembly line.

"Yes, sir. At 0200, approximately twelve hours ago we detected a sensor trip on one of the parameters. We thought it was nothing more than some stray wildlife mistaken by the motion sensors, still we sent a two-man team to check it out and when they didn't return fifteen minutes later, we realized that something was up." The lieutenant began, he was outfitted in a medium-sized combat armor emblazoned with both the logos of the Migrant Fleet Marine Corps and the Lethal Weapon Incorporated.

"Then the proximity alarms and biometric sensors started blaring. The weapon discharges followed soon after. The security forces rallied and the head of security initiated a lockdown of the facility but the small group of intruders were already inside." The marine explained, walking with me from my right side.

"The intruders were decked in full combat armor and they were well armed with decent training. They indiscriminately killed any night-shift workers they encountered along the way."

"What were they interested in this facility?" I asked.

"They were mainly interested in the manufacturing blueprints for the weapons but the lockdown protocol ensured that the terminals with proprietary data were hard-locked so they didn't get away with anything."

"What happened next?"

"They tried to bug out ASAP but realized that the facility exits were shutdown with blast resistant doors which they didn't have firepower to tear down so they decided to take a few of our workers as hostages to negotiate a safe passage and a standoff ensued but we, marines were not having it and one of the intruders panicked. He opened fire and as they say, the rest was history, sir. The hostages only received some cuts, bruises and maybe some emotional trauma."

The marine looked proud but then his outward expression became crestfallen as he continued, "But we were unable to prevent earlier deaths of our workers when the intruders first arrived. The bastards managed to kill hardworking defenseless Quarians before we got to them."

"In the early report, it stated that the attackers were Batarians?"

"Yes, the small infiltration team was made up of those four-eyed bastards." The marine confirmed. He looked like he would have spat if he was not wearing his helmet.

"I will see their corpses later and Frost will do some works on them. Give her access to the morgue afterwards." I said, noticing the marine looked a bit uncomfortable when I mentioned Frost's name. I always noticed that the Quarians were pretty tense around Frost as if they subconsciously knew that Frost was a self-aware AI in an android body. Or maybe because Frost was just good at acting out the ice queen persona.

"You did well and most of all, you did your people proud. Remember that, Marine." I voiced in an authoritative tone and the marine stood up straight, automatically responding to my voice triggering the military drill instilled in him by his drill instructor.

I turned to the superintendent of the facility and said, "I want you to stop the assembly lines after finishing the current batch of weapons."

I looked around the facility, seeing the workers busy with their tasks at hand. The factory hasn't even been opened for a full year and already there was trouble and frankly I wouldn't miss this place or even this planet. Too exposed here for my liking anyway.

"We are relocating in a few weeks. Prepare to move everything that is not bolted down to the ground which I understand is almost everything." The superintendent of the facility looked surprised and shocked even, then resignation kicked in and finally nodded in understanding.

"You are dismissed." And the superintendent went back to the manufacturing lines.

"Since the head of security didn't come to greet me, I assume that he was killed in action." I guessed to the marine.

"Yes, sir. The good Major died while spearheading the counter-attack."

"Well I read the security reports and reviewed the surveillance recordings on my way here. Also, the detailed accounts from the other marines stated that you were also pivotal in the counter-offensive efforts."

The marine looked puzzled and clueless. "I don't know what you are getting at, sir. I was just doing my duty."

"Yes, you will be doing your duty as the head of security starting from tomorrow."

Again, he looked a bit stunned but he immediately replied, "But sir, I'm just a first lieutenant, a company-grade officer not even field-grade yet."

"True. I can't promote you because I'm not your officer but I can give you this position because it is within my ability in this company and yes, there are other officers with higher ranking than you on this planet but they are not you. So, congratulations because you earned it.

Now get back to your post Lieutenant Reegar."

Said lieutenant gave a crisp salute and yelling, "Sir yes sir!"

A few minutes later, Frost appeared beside me and I faced in her direction and asked, "Were you able to confirm whether it was state or rouge?"

"I'm afraid it is the former, sir"

"Batarian SIU?"

"No. Batarian External Forces."

"If the intruders were Special Intervention Unit members then this place would have been blown up to kingdom come." I stated, putting my hands behind my back.

The External Forces was another known Batarian military branch which Balak, a future terrorist that would try to crash the Asteroid X57 into the Human colony of Terra Nova. In the canon, he was a high-ranking member of the External Forces and the leader of the terrorist group that tried to crash the asteroid. If the attack was done by some rogue Batarian raiders trying to score a quick paycheck, it would have been of little consequence but this was not done by some belligerent foes. This was a state-sponsored hit and I would not damn well take it lying down.

"What's on your mind, boss?" Frost asked tentatively.

"I kind of expected something from the Batarians after I made that public statement a week ago but not like this. Looks like we are going to have to accelerate our plans. Once we finished relocating this factory to the Deliverance. We will have to quicken our pace with the legitimization process of the PMC."

"I will get right on that, sir. What about the immediate action against them?"

"Oh, I've a target in mind that will hurt them pretty badly." The Batarian Hegemony had fucked with the wrong person and I already have a retaliatory plan in my line of sight.

Putting a faux thoughtful look on my face, I asked Frost, "Don't you think that it's time for the Batarian Hegemony to have a regime change on their hands. A change in leadership that will greatly benefit the Batarian people and a few certain someone like maybe, I don't know, us?"

"Undoubtedly sir." Frost replied with a grin and we were both smiling together like a pair of hyenas.

"Since we agreed on the issue, the Hegemony is definitely ripe for a regime change."

The Batarians had wronged me and my workers and in my eyes, that meant war.

X-X-X

Citadel Station/Kithoi Ward

Amethyst River

"…With that being said, I can't in good conscience sell weapons of war to a regime that openly practices slavery of not just their citizens but also of other species as part of their culture. They may claim that practice of slavery is a part of their society but the yoke and tyranny of sapient beings shall never be considered as innocent customs by the civilized societies…"

That rousing speech was given by Mr. Albert Wesker, founder and CEO of Lethal Weapon Inc. a few days ago and in reaction to his speech, the Batarian ambassador responded by saying that it was nothing more than blatant discrimination and xenophobia against the Batarian people as a whole under a thin veneer of faux moral concern. And that Mr. Wesker has no say whatsoever on the cultural norms of the Batarian society.

On the side note, when the founder of the newly burgeoning Lethal Weapon Inc. was asked for the reason on stepping down from his CEO post, he replied that he wanted to dedicate his time for one of his latest company; the X-Gen Tech. He also announced the succeeding CEO chosen for his weapon company by introducing a middle-aged man named Anatoly Sokolov who was standing beside him during his speech.

Aside from the name, not much was known about the new CEO.

This is Irish Dunnigan and you are watching the Alliance News Network's "Headlines Now"

The replay of the news footage from a week ago faded away and I puffed on the last inch of the Redstone cigarette sharply before squashing it inside the ashtray that was placed on the dashboard.

"It might have earned you some PR brownie points but it certainly didn't end well for your factory." Tevos said who was sitting beside me.

"It didn't. I didn't expect that the Batarians would be so bold in getting back at me." I replied.

"A minor miscalculation on my side, mind you. It won't happen again." I added.

Tevos just looked at me with a slightly amused expression but didn't say anything and we stayed silently for a few minutes by just admiring the ward's landscape from our unique position until she spoke again.

"I presume that you will want to do something about the Batarians." She asked, turning her body to face me directly.

"Yes, you assumed correctly." I returned.

"May I also assume that you already have a plan to strike where it hurts them?" She suggested.

"You may assume, my dear Councilor." I replied with a smirk.

"So, do I get to know a bit of your diabolical plan for the Batarians?" She in return asked sweetly.

"No, you may not."

"Why not? I know a thing or two about keeping secrets you know." She responded; mischief apparent on her face.

"I don't doubt that dear."

"Then why?"

"It's simple. Plausible deniability for you of course. Don't worry, you will know about it right after the plan is executed. It will be something you can't possibly miss." I assured her while gunning the engine, the speed quickly reached to fifty kilometers per hour (31 mi/h) and I flicked on the cruise control switch. I fished for another cigarette from my breast pocket and lit it up with a sleight of hand.

We both sat quietly not uttering a word while enjoying the relative silence and passing scenery around us.

The gentle spray of water lightly brushing my face felt nice along with the tender vapor of the cigarette exhaled out of my nostril. I looked at Tevos who was sitting beside me and enjoying the unique experience of the ride. She looked almost carefree and relaxed. I too found it relaxing to cruise along the famous artificial river of the Kithoi ward in a speed boat.

Yes, riding a fucking speed boat down the stretches of forty-kilometer long fake river from one of the Citadel's wards in the middle of a nebula in deep space. It was a pain in the ass to apply for the special permission to ride this thing around. I had to pull some strings to make it happen because it sounded so ridiculous that the request was almost shot down. I honestly wouldn't blame them and I did it for the hell of it anyway.

Of course, there were many regulations for riding the speed boat like the obvious speed limit, the type of engine, the noise level and a bunch of other things that I must take care of if I wanted to cruise around.

The 12 meters (39 ft) long speed boat's design was based on the Wellcraft Scarab 38 KV but produced with modern technology. Twin hydrojets (pump-jet) powered by eight hydrogen fuel cells generated about 3600 horsepower and capable of hitting the top speed of 290 kilometers per hour (180 mi/h). The boat's structural design was constructed with maximum hydrodynamic efficiency in mind. The hydrojet marine propulsion system was picked because of its considerable advantages over bare propellers which also aligned with the stringent regulations. The new propulsion system has improved shallow-water operations, protection of the rotating element that made it safer around aquatic life, noise reduction (low sonar signature), high power density and so on.

The end product was a sleek and supermaneuverable two-seater speed boat that I affectionately named it the "Sabrina".

As far as I knew there was only one speed boat speeding in the river and it became a sensation overnight among the station's residents and visitors.

"Any interesting news on your end to share?" I asked the Asari Councilor, passing my half-smoked cigarette which she accepted without hesitation and promptly puffed on it.

She blew out the inhaled smoke slowly and answered, "There is this intriguing piece of news that not even the mainstream media know of. Yet. Apparently, there are rumors of the Na'hesit faction's resurgence on Anhur after their defeat back in the 2178."

"Ah, the Anhur Rebellions which was between the Batarian pro-slavers and the Human abolitionists. Last I heard the Humans, while victorious were struggling to get back on their feet after much of their infrastructures being destroyed in the civil war."

"Exactly. They are still getting their bearings and the pro-slaver faction is making a return. I can't imagine the Human faction winning this time with their precarious situation."

Suddenly I experienced a light bulb moment. The regime change effort for the Hegemony could potentially start from there. In order to effectively start the regime change, not only economic destabilization was required but also starting fires in the Hegemony territories in the form of rebellions from the slaves against their masters, arming discontent groups of people and supporting already existing rebellion forces like the Humans on Anhur. Also wide spread propaganda campaigns and exposures of life under the Batarian slavers to the galaxy as whole would garner much needed public support and sympathy. It just so happened that I have a slowly forming PMC on my hand to make use of.

But honestly, the Batarian regime change was part of my agenda way before their attack on my weapon factory. This was not being carried out solely for vindictive reason of my own rather because it was necessary for when the Reapers finally arrived. In the canon, the Batarians were the first to get utterly crushed by the Reapers which I have to admit was partly because of the sizable number of indoctrinated Batarians among them but most important of all, whether I liked them or not, in order to fight the Reapers, they were necessary in the war efforts.

As they say, a chain is as strong as the weakest link.

Which also meant I would definitely need a network of organic informants and spies to carry out covert operations aside from the cyber/electronic spy network. I would need operatives and wet work teams in the field doing my bidding. A lot of planning ahead for me. Not going to be easy.

"Hey!" Tevos prodded my arm pulling me out of my thought. "You spaced out for a while. You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little preoccupied with my mind." I returned, taking in a deep breath of fresh air.

"You know I can personally recommend you to Sha'ira. She can help you clear your mind and impart you with an advice or two." Tevos offered, her hand still touching my elbow.

"Thank you for your suggestion but I'm not there yet." I politely declined and even if I was stressed out which I was not, I would never go to the Consort; that glorified shrink with benefits who I wasn't inclined to trust let alone picked my brain.

It was a theory but skilled and powerful mind meld could be used to uncover secrets. Not directly to read the mind but sort of interpret the signals. It was a hypothesis Frost and I came up by studying the captured Ardat-Yakshi in my lab. Also, I wouldn't put it past the Consort being either an operative or an informant for the ARIA (Asari Republic Intelligence Agency).

After we had exchanged words for a few more minutes, we said farewell to each other with a promise of future dates and quickly returned to our respective busy lives. I also have to conduct interviews in choosing my own personal assistant for the X-Gen Tech office. I couldn't waste Frost as my personal assistant all the time when she could be so valuable for other important tasks.

X-X-X

Citadel Station/Presidium

Ethereal Penthouse

Svetlana Belikova silently gazed outside from her room's window at the distant wards. She has been staying at her savior's penthouse for nearly a month after her near capture and death from the mercenaries. She usually prided herself for her cool and calm demeanor but the latest near brush with death shook her like never before. She couldn't dare imagine what might have befell upon her if her rescuer didn't arrive in the nick of time.

She didn't know who or why would anyone attack her, and she was especially baffled on how the attacking party knew of her personal ship's route. Sure, she didn't make a habit of keeping where she went a secret but she didn't particularly shout it from the top of the roof either. She remembered it well how her ship came under attack without any early warning or detection. It was not some fluke that the other five ships stumbled upon her vessel. It was a textbook ambush that caught her ship unaware.

Since it was a small ship possessing a light crew with light defense weapons, it didn't last long against even one of the enemy corvettes let alone four others, one being a cruiser-class. Once the ship was disabled, it was boarded and her crew members were hunted down. She was completely helpless to do anything for her crew members who prioritized her safety above theirs and was scared out of her wits witnessing the execution and subsequent spacing of her crewmen. It was the worst moment of her life that she wished she could simply forget but she couldn't.

Doing that would be a grave insult to the memories of the ship's crew and she would always remember their sacrifice to keep her safe.

She sighed softly averting her lengthy gaze outside the window and moved towards the elegant tall armchair to sit with an antique hardcover book on her lap.

She was the sole daughter of Nikolai Belikova, a major shipping magnate and the owner of EAS's (Earth Systems Alliance) largest shipping company, Orion Express. While she was taught about the inner workings of her father's business and was fairly competent at it, she strongly felt that it was not her true calling with the science of biological being her lifelong passion. She just could not imagine herself becoming a business tycoon like her father. She was an emerging biologist with two PhDs in genetics and biological engineering under her belt with the third one in virology on the way.

In a highly competitive galaxy where the fields of science and technology were dominated by the long-lived Asari each holding their version of at least half a dozen PhDs and fast-thinking super intelligent Salarians, two PhDs soon to be three were barely enough for her to enter into the prominent mainstream science academia. She would need one hell of a miraculous creation on par with that of Jonathan Sirta's medi-gel to get recognition.

Anyway, she was generally a private and quite person who almost all the time occupied herself with her favorite subjects and hobbies. She was not anti-social per se. It was just that there were not many close peers who could keep up with her in terms of interests and discussions of intellectual nature.

She also realized that her rescuer was none other than a rising star in both academia and media who was making multiple rapid strides in the galaxy. She later discovered that he was also a fellow biologist and had no problem in keeping up with her whenever they have an intellectual debate. Granted, he was a man of few words but when he spoke his words were efficient and straight to the point which she was starting to appreciate.

She just wished that he would allow her access to his lab. She knew the man was a bit of an enigma and certainly an interesting person so she was kind of hopping to get a peep of his lab, with his permission of course. Character of a man could be interpreted by the look of his workplace and she was itching to know the man who just popped under spotlight not even a year ago.

She tried to use what little hacking skill she has to try to enter his lab but it was ultimately a futile effort. She couldn't even hear anything from the inside but curiously when she listened carefully at certain spot from the lab's exterior, she swore she could make out muffled moaning and growling from the lab. She deduced that it might be nothing more than lab animals but at the back of her mind, she couldn't help but think that it sounded eerily like that of a Human or an Asari.

She also learnt that he knew about her failed attempts to enter the lab probably due to the security VI that was ever present in the suite. When she attempted to apologize for her intrusion, he would just give her a small smile and nothing more. She was both relieved and bewildered at the same time. She thought he would surely kick her out of his penthouse, also she was sticking with him for the safety of her life and she could have left any time she wished to but she didn't. To be frank to herself she was staying because she found the man to be not just stimulating intellectually but also in term of his personality. There was something more to him just beneath the surface that she couldn't put her finger on it.

It was a peculiar situation that she hasn't encountered before.

Mild frustration welled up inside and she got up from the comfortable armchair still holding the ancient book in her arm.

She left her room which was a guest room on the first level of the suite. She liked the quaint looking interior of the penthouse and found it to be well-equipped with simplistic elegance. It has everything she could ever needed, to take not a step outside of the suite.

Just as she reached the kitchen, a voice sounded much to her slight irritation.

"Good evening, Ms. Belikova. How is your day this evening?" A rather haughty tone greeted her.

"I'm fine, VI. Thank you. I'm just busy reading this interesting book that I found on the table from the library." It was actually found in the study room on the second floor but the VI didn't need to know that.

She held up the book in her hand for emphasis but she felt silly as the VI holo projector was not even showing the VI's avatar. She refused to call the VI by its given name which was Frost when introduced by the penthouse' host since she always got this snooty vibe from the VI. She didn't know why would her host put up with a VI with defective personality.

"Good. At least you are not trying to sneak inside my boss's lab." The VI named Frost replied with even more snobbish voice.

"Hey! I told him that I was sorry and I stopped doing it afterwards." She raised her volume. She knew it was irrational to think that she could intimidate an inanimate object but she also thought that Frost was way too Human-like to be a VI. Not even the best programming could ever imitate an organic's antics and quirks. An eerie notion came to her mind that Frost might be more than a VI.

She shook her head and grabbed a glass of water. She returned to her room to further read the very strange and engaging book named, Natural History Conspectus, a 72-volume non-fiction book series written by Henry Travis. The book detailed about the author's 35-year trip around Africa mostly detailing about plants, animals and the people of Africa along with their culture. What was more bizarre was that the book was written way back in the 19th century, over three hundred years ago except she couldn't find anything about the man or his book. Not a trace of names like the Travis Enterprise or person like Dr. Oswell E. Spencer could be found on the Extranet or even the old internet of Earth.

She was currently reading on another subject that again couldn't be found on any other sources. It was a flower by the name of Stairway of the Sun which was allegedly found in the area known as Kijuju. An as of yet unknown flower that could create great strength to those who ate it. But the book further stated that it was a virus named Progenitor that was the cause and not the flower itself.

Svetlana Belikova was thoroughly intrigued and she couldn't put the book down until she got some answers or she might have to confront the man that owned this book. After nearly two hours of reading she closed the book with the red ribbon marker bookmarking the last page. She gulped down the rest of the water from the glass and switched on the VidScreen. She spent a minute or two changing between channels but in the end, she stopped at Alliance News Network since there was nothing better to watch.

…On another news, the Alliance Geological Service (AGeS) has stated that they may not be the first to arrive at the new star system in the Siguard's Cradle cluster as their scout team has found the system to be marked by another team from the recently emerged Final Frontier Enterprise. Though the AGeS's space probes were the first to spot the planet, a ship from the FFE was found orbiting the first planet with the metaphorical flag planted in the planet's orbit.

The exploration team has named the first planet as Despoina, a Greek goddess of the Eleusinian mysteries.

It is certainly a win for the new exploration firm whose goal is to reignite the golden age of galactic exploration…

X-X-X

Citadel/Presidium/Section 16 Block 19

Serenity Tower

Mia Solheim stood in the middle of the office which belonged to the CEO of the X-Gen Tech Corporation. She was here for the CEO's personal assistant position and she has been coming here for last two days to wait for her turn. She couldn't lose her chance at the interview that she deemed it to be very important. It was quite imperative that she secured this specific position or she didn't know what to do anymore.

She has seen plenty of interviewees left this very room empty-handed and while she was very much relieved that they didn't get the job, she was afraid that she might end up the same. This interview was not the same like any others. Despite seeing many who were turned back from this interview she was a bit amazed to see that even more were waiting for their chance at becoming a personal assistant for the galaxy's rising corporate leader. She would not put it past the Asari to try something of questionable behavior towards the male CEO. After all the CEO himself was the interviewer and it was not going to be easy.

With slowly mounting pressure from multiple factors like the supposed interviewer, the anxiety of not getting the job and the horde of barely restrained interviewees on the outside, she was starting to feel the strain. She couldn't sit, yet couldn't stand still either so she looked around the office to get the man's impression. She started with the overall décor of the room.

She found that the office was rather spartan instead of pretentious like she had witnessed before in most CEOs' offices. A modest glass and steel table stood at the back of the room with two separate wooden shelves flanking the table and chair. There was a row of softly lit spot lights softly emitting pale light on the emblem and title of the company. Above the corporate emblem, there was a motto, no, a proverb in Latin which read as, "Fortuna audaces iuvat" which basically translated to Fortune favors the bold. Personally, she preferred the "Fortis fortuna adiuvat" (Fortune favors the strong/brave).

She found it odd that a man like him, an industrialist, would use a slogan that was mostly used by the military forces. She has to wonder whether if he was a former military member. But it was not the slogan that interested her. No, it was the life-size portrait of painting that was hanging on the right side of the room from his chair.

She moved closer to appraise the painting. There were two people on it; a man and a woman. The man was obviously the CEO but younger with an all-black attire that was quintessential of him consisting of suit jacket with turtleneck and his hands covered in a pair of gloves. Of course, not to forget about his ever-present dark Aviator sunglasses. He was sitting on a leather armchair while the woman next to him was standing, dressed in all-white with her right hand on her hip. Both of them have pretty neutral expression on their faces.

'Who is she anyway? Did he used to have a sister that no one knows about?' She pondered silently, her body inching closer while her eyes were roaming across the painting in intense scrutiny that she might have bumped her forehead if not for the voice behind her.

"Remnants of a longtime past where she and I had dreams and aspirations together."

Mia immediately turned to where the voice came from and found that it was the CEO himself standing just inside the office's threshold. Unusually he was not in his typical black suit, instead he was wearing a baby blue collared shirt, gray vest and red tie with a pair of vintage Wayfarer sunglasses. He looked like a man from the 1960s with the hard part comb over hairstyle.

"I assume she is your sister?" Mia asked tentatively.

"She was." The blonde man replied, walking slowly towards the painting and stopping just a few feet away.

"I'm sorry to hear that. How did she uh…?" Mia inquired, not sure if she should finish her question.

"Die? Don't be shy Ms. Solheim. People under my employ are encouraged to be bold and confident. After all that's what the saying is all about, isn't it? Those are not some empty words." He said, pointing at the Latin proverb behind his chair.

"Well dear Alex was a brilliant individual in fields of biology but there was no bound when it comes to irony and she contracted an incurable disease. She perished some time ago." He answered sorrowfully, his facial expression stern and unyielding refusing to shed tear.

"Anyway, shall we begin the interview?" She heard him asked, snapping her out of the slight reverie.

"Of course, sir." She responded, taking a chair in front of his desk while he did the same. Just as she was about to sit, the door opened again letting another person to enter. She turned her head to see a woman who was usually seen around the blonde CEO lately. In her opinion, the woman was one of the most beautiful women she had ever encountered in her life, though she herself was definitely not bad looking at all, she felt a little overwhelmed by the sheer gorgeousness and gracefulness of the woman before her.

"Ah, Ms. Solheim let me introduce to Ms. Frost. She will be my partner in the interviewing process." The blonde man stood up to give some space to his partner.

"Oh, okay. Sure." She said hesitantly, wondering what would be the newly arrived woman's purpose in this interview.

"So, your parents were both Norwegians who moved to Australia just before you were born, correct?" The first question was asked.

"Yes, that's where my surname came from despite my Australian accent."

"And your blonde hair. Scandinavian heritage. A rare trait nowadays." The woman, Frost, butted in.

"Yeah but not so rare considering that everyone in this room each has a shade of blonde." Mia chuckled, trying to ease in the conversation.

"So, tell me about your childhood. What was it like? Do you have any cousins or siblings?" The blonde CEO asked her which she found it to be quite odd.

Nonetheless she tried her best to indulge in the questions and it went on for nearly two hours which was twice the length of a typical interview. Most of the questions were about her personal life and very little about her qualifications or working experiences. She tried her best to answer the questions even though her frustration and anger slowly rose up. Not just the type of questions but also the way questions were worded made her felt weird. At the very end of the interview she has to stifle her emotions lest it blew up in the face.

Fortunately, her time and effort were rewarded when they hired her on the spot. She thanked both of them a bit hastily for her liking but she was barely holding back her emotion. When she exited the building, she nearly burst into tears. Not because she got the job but something in the interview questions rattled her.

She hurriedly arrived at her apartment in the Bachjret ward. She rushed into the kitchen and took a big gulp of wine to calm her nerves. She sat on the living room couch for a few minutes recalling the unexpectedly stressful ordeal but she couldn't rest yet. She went inside her bedroom and secured the room. After the necessary protocols were completed, she manipulated the light bulb from the lamp on the nightstand and a small pedestal rose up from the floor.

The orange-hued hologram appeared showing a man in his mid-forties.

"Operative Lawson, I assume you have accomplished your mission?"

"Yes, sir. I managed to get into the position as his personal assistant." She replied, her whole demeanor shifted when giving her answer.

"Any hiccups in the process?"

"No, sir. It went well." She answered but the man caught a brief moment of her uncertainty.

"Spit it out, Operative Lawson. What happened during the interview?"

So, she gave the gist of how the interview went and saw the man on the other side contemplating to himself for a while.

"From what you just described; it seems like they just performed a mild PSYWAR (psychological warfare) on you. But the real question is how do they know what subject to rattle you with. You are one of the organization's top operative and was trained to resist PSYOP (psychological operations). It looks like the threat level of Mr. Wesker just bumped up a few notches."

"So, my objectives remain the same then?" She enquired.

"Yes. You are to learn everything you can about him. His habits, his way of thinking (psychology profile), his goals and so on. I expect weekly report about him from now on. In fact, I'm hearing that he will be inviting some Alliance top brass to demonstrate a new type of missile in the near future. Keep an eye on it." He ordered, exhaling a plume of smoke.

"Will I be getting any backups in the future?" Not that she needed any but it was always nice to know that there was one.

"You may request Bravo team's assistant if you need it. They have been surveilling Mr. Wesker's movements for quite some times now." He instructed, taking a sip of his favorite drink.

With that done, he signed off and the last thing she saw was him taking another sip of his whiskey, his glowing cybernetic eyes and the backdrop of the dying red star.

X-X-X

Citadel Station/Presidium/Citadel Tower

Private Council Chambers

Councilor Valora Tevos darted into one of the private council chambers where her fellow Councilors and their respective aides were already there. She was rudely awakened from her sleep when she was summoned to the Citadel Tower on account of alert level 4. She was quickly escorted by a SpecTRe and two security details in their respective air cars. Level 4 alert meant that the situation was severe but not immediate and contained at its source.

The Asari Councilor saw almost all the personnel inside the chamber were giving all their collective attention towards the holo display. When she got closer, she caught sight of what the display was showing. It was an aerial view depicting what looked to be a factory on fire. It was fierce how the fire was swelling in every direction. There were many who were trying their best to extinguish the hellish flame but it looked pretty futile. She also noticed that the smoke from the fire was exhibiting multiple colors.

"Is this live?" She asked no one in particular but the Salarian Councilor answered.

"Yes. Live from one of our SpecTRe on site."

"Where is this taking place?" She asked next.

"Khar'shan. The situation, not good. Extremely volatile."

Before she could ask for more, Councilor Valern continued, "Batarian state-owned hydrazine plant. A carcinogenic monopropellant fuel they used for their ships' maneuvering thrusters. Hydrazine, highly toxic and extremely unstable inorganic compound unlike our ships which use liquid hydrogen/oxygen."

"The fire has been raging on for hours now. No one can get close to the factory. The temperature is nearly a thousand degrees and they are just trying to make sure it didn't spread any further down below." Councilor Sparatus spoke up for the first time, filling her of the missing pieces.

The sudden thought slammed her like a brick when she realized by what Sparatus was saying. "Oh Goddess! The underground reservoir below the factory. What is the estimate of the volume of the reservoir?"

"Millions of liters. That's the best estimate the STG has come up with. We can't know exactly for sure."

The situation on the screen abruptly changed and the people that were trying to put out or curb the fire started bolting away from their positions. It didn't take a genius to figure out that what was going to happen next. With bated breath, the entire room waited for the inevitable and a few minutes later, just as she suspected the raging fire reached the huge underground reservoir of rocket fuel and violent exothermic reaction resulted. The bright light filled the whole display like a small star, the shockwave traveled in every direction and finally it reached the SpecTRe's location shaking the feed violently.

And the fire ball and the flame seemed to calm down. It looked like that was it but she was proven wrong when another even bigger explosion ripped through the air. The blast wave was visible even from afar and the thundering boom was heard later as it seemed to split the very sky apart. It was an explosion on par to that of a low-yield tactical nuclear detonation.

"A total of 4.7 kilotons TNT equivalent were detonated. Billions worth of credits were just turned into explosive chemical reaction. One of the worst disasters in the Batarian history or even the entire chemical explosion history. But what bugs me is that it shouldn't even happen. The Batarians are not keen on safety and protocols like we are but they wouldn't be so careless with such matter on their home planet. The VI monitors and around-the-clock personnel should have easily prevented that from ever happening. It just doesn't make sense. I'll have to look into it further in the future." Councilor Valern said, shaking his head while looking at his omni-tool and replaying the footage over again.

Tevos was also feeling the same but before she could deliberate more, her omni-tool buzzed and she unlocked it to find a text message so she opened it to read the content. She nearly got a heart attack after she finished reading the message.

"That my dear was my diabolical plan for the Batarians. Revenge is best served cold, don't you think or in this case, best served hot and explosive."

~W.