Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mass Effect.

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Escaping Hades

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Chapter Fifteen

"Alright, let's see what we've got." Naruto mumbled as he activated the holo-projectors built into the desk in the room he often used when briefing Alpha Squad on their next mission. Off to the side, Aria was leaning back against the wall with her arms crossed stubbornly, a scowl decorating her face. Her scowl slipped, however, when countless images flickered into existence above the desk, each one detailing almost everything they needed to know about Cerberus, Omega, and even more specific things like a fully detailed background history and countless other documents on Cerberus's General Oleg Petrovsky. "A half dozen cruisers, about a dozen frigates, a command ship...Hm. If I know that prick Oleg as good as I think I do, he's undoubtedly made some improvements to some of the defenses and scattered all kinds of traps for us throughout the station. Not only that, but he's probably already stationed most of his troops on Omega with a handful of groups positioned just right for ambushes. Probably has a few other ships on stand-by elsewhere to act as reinforcements in case he's attacked. Kurama, give me a complete map of the target area."

"Yes, Major." Kurama suddenly acknowledged, startling Aria a little bit while a holographic projection of Omega and the surrounding space took form in the middle of the room.

"I want ship positions according to our most recent scans of the area and plot their projected patrol routes. Also, highlight any and all defense turrets on the Omega station." Naruto instructed the unshackled AI before the last known locations and positions for the Cerberus ships flashed into sight with dotted lines showing the estimated patrol routes for the ships that were scattered all around the space station. Following right behind it, little red specks started popping up all across Omega itself, marking the locations of all known defense turrets. "Alright...If we're going to do this, we're doing it my way."

"Like hell we are. These are my men and that's my space station." Aria argued with a glare, only to get a cold look of indifference from Naruto, something that quickly reminded her of just who she was dealing with.

"Look, I don't have to help you. I don't have to waste my time fighting your battles for you or risk the lives of my men because you got kicked out of your station by a jackass like Oleg with a few bots, troops, and...whatever the fuck those other things were." Naruto explained as he casually leaned back against his desk, taking a sip of his beer as he made sure to hold eye contact with the Asari across from him. "However, I can't exactly let him hold on to that space station either. It gives Cerberus a stronghold in a key spot and it is a very well-defended stronghold at that. If we do it your way, a lot of people are going to die and we'll be lucky if we even succeed in this little suicide run of yours. If we do it my way, however, there'll be less casualties on our side, less damage done to Omega, and Oleg will be dead along with his forces. So...what say you?"

"...Fine. We'll do it your way, but if you try to cross me, Wraith..." Aria growled threateningly, only to get a raised eye brow from Naruto as he set his beer down on the desk.

"First off, seriously? What would I really gain from stabbing you in the back other than one less person bitching at me all the time? And second..." Naruto paused for a moment as he narrowed his eyes, which flashed scarlet with his biotic power. "Are you really going to try threatening me again, Aria T'Loak? Pirate Queen or not, I will not tolerate such hostility on my ship."

"Tch..." Scoffing irritably, Aria looked away from him and resumed her previous stance. After a couple seconds, she looked back at him as he took another drink of his beer. "Whatever. What do you have in mind?"

"Well...That command ship will be a pain in our asses if we don't take it out first. However, in order to do that, we either have to sneak in using that Cerberus cruiser you managed to collect recently and take it out directly, losing the element of surprise..." Naruto trailed off for a second as he started circling the large three-dimensional holographic image of Omega and the ships around it. Pausing for a moment, Naruto squinted slightly before grinning. "Or we can use the Trojan Horse to sneak in with a strike team, take the command ship out from the inside without alerting anyone, and then move on to Omega. With a smaller attack force, it'll be easier to infiltrate the station undetected and move about more freely."

"But with a smaller group, that means less fire power." Aria countered as she sauntered over to the mini-fridge set in the corner and retrieved a beer for herself. "How're a handful of soldiers going to take on all of Oleg's forces and win?"

"For one, we wouldn't be taking just any soldiers and two, we wouldn't be fighting them alone." Naruto corrected before zooming in on one particular area of Omega. "Right here. There's an old hangar where the Trojan Horse can drop us off. You, me, and the rest of the strike team will head straight for the generators powering the shields once we're aboard Omega. When those go down, they'll definitely know we're there, but if we do this the smart way, we can deal them a heavy blow that'll open up the defenses for the rest of our troops to join us on the station and wipe out Oleg's flotilla at the same time."

"And just how do you propose we do that?" The long-lived Asari drawled sarcastically, trying to poke holes in the blonde's plans to either make him 'pass' his seniority in their warped little chain of command back over to her or see if she could steer him towards the direction of her own plans for everything. Naruto simply grinned rather wolfishly in response to her question.

"Sorry, but we're gonna have to put a couple holes in that shiny new cruiser you took from Cerberus." Naruto sarcastically 'apologized' as he started formulating a full-scale strategy in his head. "Gotta make it look believable, now, don't we?"

"Make what look believable?" Aria questioned suspiciously, her eyes narrowing slightly as she wondered whether she wanted to know what was going through the Major's head or not...

xXx

"Cruiser, I don't have you on the flight plan. Identify yourself." The Cerberus control officer ordered over the communication link. A moment later, he recieved a response.

"This is Captain Lentz. Run voice recognition: alpha, tango, zed." The officer glanced at the automated voice recognition program on a secondary haptic screen just as it confirmed the identification code. Another showed a scanner read out displaying the ship in question; definitely a Cerberus cruiser with a few rather noticable holes in its hull from what was obviously ship-to-ship warfare. "We took damage. Seeking repairs."

"Identity confirmed, Captain. Hold for approach authorization." The officer responded, blissfully unaware of the small stealth shuttle clinging to the bottom of the damaged cruiser as it drifted closer to the command ship. Once it was within range of the large dreadnought-sized ship, the Trojan Horse detached from the damaged cruiser's underbelly before slowly and cautiously making its way below the command ship. Excluding the shuttle's pilot and co-pilot, it carried a sizable strike team of eleven, each one having their own specific objectives and personalized load-outs.

"I can't wait to put down some more Cerberus dogs. Fucking bosh'tets..." Ta'meera snarled under her breath as she double-checked her equipment; her knife was strapped to her calf, both of her gifted Predators were mag-locked to her thighs and hidden under her chaps, her twin Locusts were set behind her hips, a bandolier loaded down with thermal clips and grenades was strapped across her slender torso, a pair of smaller arm-bandoliers were wrapped around her biceps with a few more clips and grenades, and a customized dark grey M-15 Vindicator with a touch of neon green and black markings decorating the weapon was set on her back behind her right shoulder.

"You will have your chance, Creator Ta'meera. Be patient." Obelisk attempted to soothe the natural disaster that was the Quick Quarian. The Prime was fully armed with its usual load-out of a Geth Pulse Rifle, a Javelin sniper rifle, the Geth Spitfire it had picked up back on Rannoch, the Geth Plasma Shotgun it rarely used, and the many black bandoliers crossing its torso and limbs with several dozen thermal clips and grenades stashed in each one. The Prime even had an extra pair of specialized heat sinks for the Spitfire; just in case.

"Oh, I'll show you patient!" Ta'meera growled as she swiftly flicked out her knife and brandished it towards the Prime, who simply stood there and stared at the tiny Creator. They'd spent enough time around one another that Obelisk knew the difference between her 'joking around' and being serious whenever it came to her threats of violence. The most obvious sign of whether or not she was playing around was if she gave any kind of warning. If she was serious, Ta'meera wouldn't hesitate to strike unexpectedly and she certainly wouldn't give her target the opportunity to escape, evade, or counter.

"Put that away before you hurt yourself." Natalia admonished quietly as she strolled past the Quarian, dressed in her Phantom body suit with her sword set on her back, the handle within easy reach of her left hand. Naruto had given her suit a few extra upgrades recently, but it was mostly just stronger and lighter armor plating, a more effecient power supply for her new top-of-the-line cloaking device and upgraded Palm Blaster, and even a couple new optic settings installed into her helmet.

The Major had even recolored her suit so that the original off-white portions were now a light grey digital camouflage scheme while yellow markings had been colored a fiery red-orange. The old Cerberus insignia that decorated her suit was gone, but it hadn't been replaced with the Alliance insignia. Instead, it was the emblem of the Major's Hoplite marines; crossed spears behind a circular Greco-Roman shield that had twin gladius short-swords crossed on top of everything.

"For a stealth mission, a few of our teammates sure are being quite noisy." Azote mumbled under his breath to the 'defected' Cerberus Phantom from his spot on the bench while making sure his Black Widow sniper rifle was still in perfect working condition, his newly acquired M-11 Suppressor heavy pistols holstered at his hips instead of his old Predators. He had taken to carrying a small supply satchel that sat along his lower back with a handful of explosive charges to sabotage anything that required something a little less subtle. He also had a couple breaching charges, a few grenades, and about a dozen thermal clips in all strapped to the sides of his thighs and around his biceps.

"This'll be the first time you'll be working out in the field with me as an actual combatant. You excited yet?" Naruto asked of the seven foot tall mechanical body his AI was actively controlling.

It looked like a giant humanoid fox made of dark crimson metal with the chassis being pitch black underneath the thick outer shell of armor plating. Its legs were digitigrade like those of a fox's and it even had a fully articulated tail. Its fox-like head bore two backswept fox ears that had the edges of the dagger-like tips painted snow white while the dimly glowing slit-like optic sensors that acted as its two eyes were a calm ocean blue, but its jaws weren't quite so friendly in appearance. Looking like it was giving everyone in sight a predatory fang-filled grin, 'Kitsune's' jaws were comprised of only a handful of snow white razor-edged triangular metal 'fangs' for both the top and bottom parts of its jaws. It even had retractable snow white metal claws on its paw-like hands and feet that could be utilized alongside its powerful jaws in close-quarters during certain hostile encounters.

"I am still unsure of what emotions are, but I believe so." Kurama's soft and melodic female voice came from the mechanical beast as it looked down at Naruto before glancing over its body yet again, flexing its hands experimentally as it shifted its rather immense weight from one leg to the other; she was getting anxious. "I can not wait to test this unit's combat capabilities. Judging from the schematics and statistics, this unit should prove to be very effective against most enemy types on the battlefield at varying ranges."

"Well, don't go getting ahead of yourself now. This is still your first real mission in the field, remember?" Naruto reminded, wanting to keep the AI from developing any sort 'ego' or arrogance, if it was even possible. "No show-boating and nothing unneccessary. We need to stay focused on the tasks at hand. Got that?"

"Yes, Major." The AI responded as it continued flexing its hands a little more. Naruto could only shake his head and chuckle quietly at her behavior. Kurama was almost like a child with a new toy at the moment and in some ways, the analogy couldn't have been more accurate.

Most of the platform's weaponry had been built to be stored inside of its body and were all easily deployable, but some of it was visible regardless such as the two small barrels set on either side of its fox-like head at the corners of its mouth, which belonged to what once were two N7 Hurricane submachine guns prior to being disassembled and rebuilt as something more fitting for the machine. It even had two more short barrels hidden inside of its grinning jaws of pearly white 'fangs' that were once a part of two M-451 Firestorm flame throwers. The remaining two Hurricane SMGs had been built into its wrists for quick 'emergency' usage, and twin Typhoon machine guns had been built into its back with the ability to deploy from their housings and either rest on top of its shoulders or stay on its back while in its quadrupedal form.

Unfortunately, Naruto hadn't been able to get the 'Kitsune's' kinetic barrier system working right just yet, so he had been forced to leave it inoperable for the time being. Still, the Kitsune's chassis had been built with heavy armor plating, turning it into nothing short of a well-armored and well-armed all-terrain anti-personnel autonomous combat mech. There was even what used to be an N7 Valiant sniper rifle mounted inside of its body directly along its 'spine'. However, it was only usable while in its quadrupedal mode, which would allow the 'rifle' to realign itself and extend a short distance out of the back of its 'throat'. The biggest downside was that while using the Valiant, the Kitsune would be rendered completely immobilized outside of the most basic and minor of adjustments to its joints and stance for better accuracy and precision that allowed it to hit its targets from such incredibly long distances that even the best snipers in the Alliance wouldn't be able to hit their mark as effectively as the Kitsune; theoretically. He still needed to test it.

"We're ready when you are, sir." Vasquez reported over the radio from outside of the Trojan Horse, all four members of Alpha Squad currently anchored to the corvette's hull via magnetic plates in the soles of their boots. They each had their own Valiant sniper rifles out and shouldered, fully prepared for the initial strike. Currently, the Trojan Horse was just hovering directly below the stationary command ship's stern where the hangar was located. They weren't in the line of sight for any of the other ships and being a Stealth Recon Corvette, the Trojan Horse was virtually invisible to their sensors, but it wouldn't last for long once the 'party' got started.

"You ready for this?" Naruto asked as he looked to his temporary partner-in-crime, so to speak; Aria T'loak. Double-checking her Carnifex to make sure it was loaded with a fresh thermal clip, Aria mag-locked it behind her waist as she grabbed the Turian-made Phaeston assault rifle that had been on her back. Nodding to the Major in acknowledgement, Aria waited for everything to get started. Putting his index and middle fingers to the side of his helmet, Naruto opened a comm-link with the pilot and then Alpha Squad. "Trojan, move into position. Alpha Squad, open fire on my mark."

Outside, all four members of Alpha Squad were kneeling near the corvette's rear, their sniper rifles aimed towards the command ship's shuttle bay, which was fully open with only a mass effect field keeping the ship's artificial atmosphere contained inside. Slowly and steadily, the Trojan Horse began to rise ever so slightly until the hull on top of the shuttle was almost perfectly level with the hangar's floor. Double clicking their radios to signal that they were in position and had their targets lined up, the four marines waited for the signal to open fire.

"Mark." Came Naruto's order and before he'd even finished saying the word, all four marines had squeezed their triggers. Due to the vacuum of Space, there was no noise or muzzle flare while four Cerberus operatives dropped to the deck in boneless heaps, each bearing a single hole in their heads. Just as their bodies hit the ground and alerted the few other occupants in the hangar, Alpha Squad fired another simultaneous volley that dropped another four crew members before the final one was taken out by Arcaino.

"All targets eliminated. The hangar is clear." Vasquez reported before all four marines stood and leapt from the edge of the corvette, already switching out their sniper rifles for their Valkyrie assault rifles. Drifting the short ten feet or so in the zero-gravity environment, Alpha Squad passed through the mass effect barrier and landed a bit heavily on their feet as the ship's artifical gravity weighed down on them. As if they were of one mind, they spread out and swept the hangar more thoroughly while the Trojan Horse rose a little higher and backed in just enough for the troop bay to open up without breaking the artificial atmosphere in either ship. As the rest of the strike team unloaded from the corvette, Naruto triple clicked his radio to signal the pilot to proceed with the next phase of their part of the plan; anchor itself to the bottom of the command ship just beneath the hangar for later extraction.

"Azote, Natalia. Take out their communications. Ta'meera, Obelisk. Locate the main security control room and take over the defense systems; I'm going to need you to be my eyes while we're here just so we don't have any unwelcome surprises." Naruto ordered, moving from one team to the next. "Alpha Squad. Sweep and clear. Aria, Kurama. You're both coming with me to the bridge. We've got fifteen minutes to get this done or the whole plan will go to shit. Until their communications are disabled, keep the noise to a minimum. After that, fire at will. Move out."

As everyone split up to take care of their individual objectives, Aria couldn't help staring at the Major's back with an odd look in her eyes. Of all people, she hadn't expected the Wraith to be such a good field commander and strategist. Sure, she knew he was a cunning bastard and a terrific soldier, but his plan was...damn near perfect so long as everything was done in time. What really had her going was the fact that they weren't even the main attack force; thus the reason for the cruiser she had hijacked just a few days prior to the assault. While Naruto's corvette was called the Trojan Horse, the cruiser was the real trap.

Even as they silently made their way through the command ship, the rest of Oleg's flotilla was en route, consisting of two six-frigate 'wolf packs' and a prototype Cerberus Carrier-class ship that was actually designed and outfitted to operate as a mobile shipyard repair station; the underbelly would open up to allow a ship no bigger than a cruiser to dock with it internally so that even major repairs could be made. Naruto hadn't been lying when he said he knew how Oleg operated. Once the damaged cruiser was docked with the repair ship, all of Aria's ground forces would swarm the Carrier-class ship and take control of it. From there, they'd quickly get out of range of the Omega's defense system, drawing Oleg's flotilla away as well, where Aria's small fleet would be waiting for them.

During the chaos, the team of eleven would set the command ship on a collision course with Omega in a location that would cause the least amount of damage to the station itself in order to take out its kinetic barrier while they all escaped on the Trojan Horse. Once the barrier was down, they would land in one particular hangar that hadn't been used in some time, according to Aria, and begin the real battle for control of Omega. By that point, the Troy would come in and help finish off any stragglers in Oleg's flotilla while the strike team focused on disabling their initial target aboard the space station; Omega's defense turret system. After that, the Trojan Horse would rejoin with the Troy where the remaining marines still aboard the Destroyer-class vessel would pile into the corvette before being dropped off at the nearest hangar to join the strike team while Aria's forces would do the same to combat Oleg's troop placements in other parts of Omega.

From there, the playing field would be leveled back out and they could focus solely on retaking control of Omega. Still, Aria couldn't help thinking the whole plan was just a little too...perfect? No, it was too crazy to be perfect. Whatever it was, something felt a little off about it. She'd never fought battles of this scale with guerilla warfare and subterfuge tactics like Naruto was. She was more of a direct conflict kind of fighter. Naruto, however...He was on a whole different level than what she was used to dealing with.

"Comms are down. All non-allied communications are now jammed." Azote rasped over the team's radio channel. A moment later, Aria could hear the heavy report of Alpha Squad's Typhoons in the distance as they mowed down anything that got caught in their path while a faint rumbling sound shuddered through the ship as an explosive went off; most likely the work of Ta'meera or Obelisk. In front of her, the hulking metal automaton that was with Naruto deployed its twin shoulder-mounted Typhoons as Naruto settled for dual-weilding two of his Hornets.

'These guys might look like a rag-tag group, but they work like a well-oiled machine.' Aria mused as she trailed behind the heavily armored Major as if he were a walking barricade. Then again, he pretty much was...

"Targets acquired. Engaging." Kurama vocalized as she raised her arms and started firing with her wrist- and head-mounted SMGs while her shoulder-mounted Typhoons boomed with heavier suppressive fire. Further down the hall, Cerberus troops were trying to rush them, but it was a long corridor with little cover and nowhere to ambush them from. It was the main reason why Naruto had chosen this particular route to the bridge in the first place because so long as they stayed on the offensive and kept advancing, the Cerberus troops wouldn't stand a chance against them.

As she shouldered her Phaeston and started firing bursts of gunfire into the fray from the back of their small group while using Naruto for cover, Aria found herself losing her doubt in the Major's skill and discovered that a lot of the stories she'd heard about him and his conquests against Cerberus to be almost entirely true. Hornets barking with burst-fire, Naruto never slowed down or sped up, holding a steady pace the whole time even as the grain-sized mass accelerated rounds of enemy gun fire uselessly ricocheted off his kinetic barrier. Even amongst the chaos of the battle, Naruto's aim was always on-target and his movements appearing almost effortless and premeditated.

The most infamous of traits about him in those stories was definitely true; once he started moving, he would not be stopped...

xXx

"Damn, Fox was right after all." Ta'meera mumbled as she and Obelisk entered the ship's main security control room, the Prime's Pulse Rifle shrieking in broken fits as Obelisk gunned down the handful of crew members manning the control consoles. "It was exactly where he said it was."

"The Major was working undercover within Cerberus for a long time and had worked directly under the Illusive Man himself." Obelisk reminded as it loaded a fresh thermal clip into its assault rifle while securing the room more fully, making sure there weren't any stragglers hidden away anywhere. Rolling her eyes, Ta'meera bashed the door controls outside the room with the butt of her Vindicator and stepping back inside before the door could seal itself shut. "It is only to be expected that he would have an in-depth knowledge of how Cerberus operates and the set-up for most of their ships among other things."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah...Whatever." The Quarian grumbled while taking a seat at the master control console. Cracking her knuckles and flexing her hands, Ta'meera wasted no time starting to hack into the ship's security control systems. "Just make sure no one gets in here, alright? This might not be a critical target for us, but it'll make this whole operation a little easier to accomplish."

"Acknowledged, Creator Ta'meera." Obelisk responded before taking up a vigilant post between her and the only door leading into the control room, its Pulse Rifle shouldered and aimed directly at the door. Rolling her eyes at the Geth once again, Ta'meera focused solely on the computer console in front of her as her fingers flew across the console's haptic command keys, deconstructing the Cerberus ship's firewall as quickly as she could...

xXx

Miranda stayed silent as she sat in the Captain's Chair aboard the Troy's command bridge, one leg casually tossed over the other. Despite how calm she appeared to be, the raven haired woman was actually quite nervous. Naruto had told her what they were expecting to encounter. The flotilla and other ships would barely be a warm up for the Troy's weapon systems, but Omega's defenses...If they strayed too close before Naruto and his team could take out the turret control systems, not even the Troy would be able to handle such a level of punishment for long. Each phase of the plan was precariously balanced on one another. If one part failed, the plan fell apart and they would most likely be wiped out in the process.

Not only that, but she had been feeling inexplicably...ill recently. It worried her, honestly. If it was what she thought it was, Miranda was unsure of how she would go about handling it. How would she manage such a thing and fight a war at the same time? What if they didn't win the war and were wiped out by the Reapers? How would she even tell Naruto, to begin with? Before her thoughts could wander too much further, a small holographic panel popped up from the arm rest of her chair, notifying her that the stolen Cerberus cruiser had just docked with Oleg's 'experimental' mobile-shyipyard carrier. It wasn't long before another notification popped up, informing her that the Carrier-class ship had been successfully taken over by Aria's 'troops'.

"This is it..." Miranda mumbled quietly to herself as she waited for the signal, mentally reviewing the plan for the naval conflict from that point on. The Omega's defense turrets had an effective detection and firing range of roughly seventy-five kilometers. The Troy and Aria's fleet of pirates were stationed a hundred kilometers out and 'running silent' to avoid detection. The newly acquired Carrier-class ship was sixty kilometers away from Omega, leaving them with fifteen kilometers to traverse before they'd leave the detection range of Omega's defenses. Any Cerberus ships that gave chase were to be ambushed by the Troy and Aria's fleet once they were out of range of Omega's defenses.

Once Oleg's fleet was dealt with, they were to wait for the next signal from Naruto and his chosen strike team. By that point, Omega's defenses would be disabled, allowing the Troy and Aria's fleet of pirates to enter Omega's immediate vicinity so that they could deploy their respective ground forces to retake Omega completely. Until then, however, they could only wait...

'Please be okay, Naruto.' Miranda thought worriedly, lightly chewing the inside of her cheek as she gripped the arm rests of her chair a little tighter...

xXx

"And voila...No more pesky defense turrets to worry about." Naruto proclaimed with a smirk on his face as he turned away from the console he, Obelisk, and Ta'meera had been working at while the others had stood guard in various spots all around the room. "The new VI has taken control of the entire system for the defense turrets and should help clear out any of Oleg's lingering ships. Once that's done, the VI will deactivate the entire system and put it under lockdown. We can remove it once Omega is back under your control."

"...You surprise me too much, Wraith." Aria responded quietly while narrowing her eyes at the heavily armored Major, her arms folded under her bust. "I don't like that."

"Keep it up, Pirate Queen. I can still pull my troops back and just leave. Hell, if I wanted to, I could actually just take over Omega myself." Naruto cooly fired back, eyeing the Asari woman with a look of bored disinterest. Aria, on the other hand, was livid, infuriated with the cocky blonde. Her pistol was trained on Naruto's unhelmeted head from a meter away.

"We had a deal, Wraith!" Aria shouted angrily, only to suddenly become aware of how everyone else in the room had trained their guns on her. "You bastard..."

"Remember how I don't like being threatened, Aria?" Naruto questioned in a low voice as his expression darkened. "If I were you, I'd put the gun away and calm the fuck down right about now before things got out of hand."

"...Wraith." Aria growled out cautioningly as she grit her teeth, slowly and begrudingly lowering her gun. As strong and experienced as she was, she would be gunned down the moment she pulled the trigger. As she holstered it, Naruto hold up a single finger.

"Strike One. Two more and this bullshit little 'partnership' we have going on is over. Am I clear?" Naruto quietly declared, getting a very angry growl out of Aria while everyone apart from Alpha Team lowered their respective weapons. The four marines kept their Typhoons trained on the Asari, patiently waiting for the Major's orders. When Naruto casually gestured for them to lower their weapons, they hesitated for a split second before doing as they'd been instructed. "Good. Obelisk. Message the Troy and let them know that the defenses are down. We're going to need as many boots on the ground as possible if we're going to get rid of Oleg."

"Right away, Major." The hulking Prime responded before turning back towards the computer console to do as it'd been ordered. Aria could only keep staring back at Naruto, who had retained the dark expression on his face without breaking eye contact once. How dare he threaten to take over her station! She'll make him pay for his arrogance after they've dealt with Oleg and his men...

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A/N: First, I am so, so sorry for not updating anything in so long. I'm not 'dead', but...I've been dealing with a lot of issues these past couple years. Obstacles keep popping up and fucking things up for me. It's caused my depression to get worse and has heavily cut down on my inspiration, my 'muse' for my posted stories. I haven't even been all that successful with other 'conceptual' fics that I haven't posted (yet?), the fics I've been trying (and failing) to write for a while as a side-hobby, the ones I've been trying to rewrite, and even the ones I'm still contemplating. I've been going through a lot of personal issues that have my mental state teetering like a seesaw and before anyone says anything, no, I don't want to talk about it...

Anyways, I'm only 'glossing over' the Omega DLC campaign story for a couple reasons. A) I haven't played ANY of the ME3 DLCs. B) I don't want to just 'copy/paste' the storyline from canon with a simple change of cast and whatnot. C) Staying 'canon' with things hasn't really been my style (thus why fanfiction writers exist). Regardless, I'll be honest. I kind of shot myself in the foot back when I wrote Chapter Nine; specifically, the part when Aria 'hired' Naruto to 'help' her take back Omega. Back at the time, I hadn't quite thought things through all the way with some of my plans for the storyline, but I'd wanted to include it at the same time because it lined up perfectly with Naruto's vendetta against Cerberus. So, despite my admittedly lack-luster attempt at covering the Omega DLC Arc, I'm doing it as best as I can manage in lieu of my current literary shortcomings. I hope it makes up for my unintentional hiatus, readers/followers. I'm still here and while I haven't gotten the rewrites done, as I'd promised in the past, I'm not letting my stories die. Have a little faith...