Chapter 4

Bug Problem

"Oh my god."

There was honestly no other way for Jane to express her complete horror with the scene before her.

Blood was everywhere. Spilled on the floor, splattered on walls, even dripping from the ceiling. The whole scene was resembled a hellish Jackson Pollock painting. There were people hanging upside down by their ankles, with their fucking skin torn off!

"It's like a god damn slaughter house," said Zaeed. The elderly merc took one last huff of his cigar, which he then proceeded to rudely stamp out on one of the skinned corpses.

Shepard shot the mercenary a glare. "Seriously?"

"Hey, they're all dead and they're all Cerberus. It's not the good guys I'm disrespecting."

Jane let out an exasperated sigh and Zaeed just shrugged. Unwilling to reprimand the mercenary any further, Shepard moved to join Garrus. The Turian was currently crouched over the ripped apart remains of some dozen assault mechs. Having once been a part of C-Sec, investigation was basically second nature to

"What do we got Garrus?"

The Turian picked up a severed mech's head and tossed it between his hands.

"I spotted bullet pockets along the walls and in the floors. All these mechs were firing at a single direction, at a single target."

Jane frowned skeptically. "One guy did this? That doesn't seem possible."

Garrus shrugged. "I could've done it. You could've done it."

Shepard shook her head. "No, I mean that." She pointed at the mutilated hanging bodies.

"Each of those guys weighs at least…200 pounds, plus another 30 in body armor. Whoever did this had to-"

"Had to drag each one up and hang them individually," finished Garrus. He nodded and finally tossed the mech's head away. "Which should have taken hours, maybe even a full cycle considering the number of bodies."

"I counted at least a dozen, probably a few more."

"Then definitely a full cycle. But the blood is fresh, none of these men have been dead for longer than an hour. So whoever did this, did it all in less than an hour."

"Then it couldn't have been a single person. It's just not possible."

Garrus shook his head. "Stranger things have happened."

Over to the side Miranda fought the urge to heave out her lunch. "Who could've done this?" she asked aloud.

Zekk silently shook his head. "Not who, what."

The Quarian shared a knowing glance with the female human mercenary. Lydia nervously rolled her tongue around inside of her mouth as she carefully scanned the surrounding area with her weapon.

Only Aria did not seem disturbed by the scene. In fact she looked upon the mutilated bodies of Cerberus with a certain amount of admiration. The only thing that irked her about it was that she had not done the mutilating herself. Not even this was enough to pay back Cerberus for what they had done to her.

The heavy steps of approaching armored boots interrupted her inner musings.

Shepard asked, "I don't suppose this could be the handy work of one of your people?"

Aria shook her head. I picked everyone under my command, and none of them, not even the Krogan or Vorcha, are capable of this. No…this is someone else…something else."

The Asari walked over to the only body that hadn't been skinned and hanged. She recognized it as one of Cerberus's Phantom operatives. This one was a male and had apparently died with his sword in hand. More interesting however was that his head was missing. Judging from the tear marks on his neck, the head had been ripped off using pure brute force.

"That's awful," said Shepard.

Aria grunted in agreement. "I'd like to meet the one who did this, maybe offering them a job."

Shepard recoiled in shock and disgust. "You can't be serious. Whoever did this is clearly not right in the head."

"I don't care if the one who did this is a psychopath, an assassin, or a varren who learned to walk on its hind legs. I only care if they're the best. And judging from this…" she gestured to the carnage, "they are definitely one of the best, if I only I had a name."

"I know its…uh…their name," said Zekk with Lydia by his side.

Aria raised a curious brow. "Oh? Do tell."

"The skinned bodies, the slash wounds, and a torn off head. This is the trade mark style of a serial killer who's been making itself known around Omega ever since you left. A killer called: 'The Hunter'".

"Interesting name, care to elaborate?"

"The name comes from the Hunter's MO, stringing up bodies to bleed out and taking heads for trophies, just like a real hunter would do."

"How do you know the heads are for trophies?"

"I…um…well did you notice that only one body was missing its head?"

Shepard nodded. "Yeah, the Cerberus Phantom. I've fought them before, like fucking ninjas on speed."

"His head was taken because he was probably the only one who put up an actual fight. All these other troopers probably ended up shooting air more than what they were aiming at."

"Why leave the unworthy hanging like meat?" asked Shepard, gesturing to the multitude of strung up bodies.

Zekk hesitated at first but eventually explained. "Because that's what they were to it," he said solemnly, "just more meat for the slaughter."

Out of the corner of her eye Shepard saw the Quarian tighten a hand into a clenched fist. If she had to guess, judging from his knowledge of the Hunter and the way he spoke, Zekk had some sort of history with the serial killer.

"I noticed that all the wounds on these troopers are slash wounds, also part of the Hunter's MO?"

Zekk nodded somberly. "Not sure why but the Hunter likes to kill up close and personal, been known to use firearms every now and then but most of the time it's some sort of blade."

"Not a bad way to kill if you've got the skill for it," commented Aria, "a blade moves too slow for kinetic barriers to activate."

Behind his visor Zekk's eyes narrowed upon the Asari crime boss. Without an ounce of fear or hesitation the Quarian stomped right up to her and stared her straight in the eye.

"You admire it!" he accused.

Without giving an inch, Aria replied, "it takes a certain strength to kill a dozen well trained soldiers and then still have enough time to mutilate their bodies, I respect strength."

"There's nothing respectable about it! There's nothing admirable about that!" Zekk stabbed a finger at the carnage behind him. "It's a killer! A murderer! Hunting people down and butchering them for his own sick amusement!"

Aria simply crossed her arms and raised an inquisitive brow. "His?"

Zekk's eyes widened and his voice disappeared into his chest as he realized his slip up.

It seemed that Shepard's guess had been correct. Zekk had some sort of history with the Hunter. Perhaps a loved one or friend had been a victim of one of the Hunter's killing sprees? Or maybe the Quarian had even had a personal encounter with the killer?

"We should keep moving," decided Shepard. "How far is the bunker?"

The two continued to glare at one another for a time before Zekk finally broke it off.

"Not far," he said, we just have to get through that energy field. The Quarian pointed to one of the four checkpoint gates made up of pure red energy. He activated his Omni-tool and moved towards the gate, "just give me a few moments and I'll get this thing shut down."

As the Quarian worked Shepard quietly moved to stand next to him. A few moments passed where neither one of them said anything.

Zekk was the first to break silence. "I know what you're going to say," he began, "and I'll tell you straight away that I'm not going to apologize for my outburst."

"I was going to ask you to."

The Quarian paused in his work briefly before resuming. "You're not?"

"No, in fact I agree with you. I'm all for putting a bullet between the eyes of a bad guy. But not for this, this all just seems so…excessive."

"I would have used the word monstrous, but yeah, I'm glad we're on the same page." The Quarian let out a sigh, "it's my own fault really, losing my cool I mean. I knew what I'd signed up for, I knew what she was like, I just…I just didn't think she'd admire its work."

"Why did you sign up to work with Aria?" asked Shepard, genuinely intrigued. "You're a vigilante right? I'd have thought you'd rather take Aria down than work with her."

"Vigilante is a strong word. I'm not like that like Archangel guy who took down all those mercenaries. I'm more of a…." Zekk briefly paused in his work again as he searched for the right words, "A mercenary with a consciences."

"Miranda said you took down a Batarian slaver operation."

"Yeah, I was paid to do that. Some Salarian politician was in cracking down on slavery in that system. He didn't have the men to do it so he outsourced to hired guns. I took the job because it paid well and I could do it without feeling guilty."

"And working with Aria?"

"Aria might be a bitch. But at least she was a fair bitch who let people do what they want. Cerberus declared martial law and likes to use aliens for their experiments."

"So basically you chose the lesser of two evils," concluded Shepard.

"Something like that. To be honest I'm pretty selfish, it's not Omega that I'm worried Cerberus will destroy. This place can burn for all I care, but first I'm going to take my stuff and move far away."

The energy gate suddenly shut down and Zekk deactivated his Omni-tool.

"Well, if it makes you feel better. I'm pretty selfish as well."

Behind his visor Zekk gave Shepard an inquisitive look. "You are?"

Shepard nodded. "Truth is that I don't really care about Omega, or Aria. I just want to finish off Cerberus once and for all."

Zekk let out a chuckle. "I think that's a cause a lot of us could get behind."

#

Afterlife

Cerberus Omega HQ

"I'm sorry sir, the mechs have lost sight of the target."

Petrovsky silently cursed his misfortune and applauded the Hunter's ability.

Even with the latest software and upgrades downloaded into their mechanized response teams, thermal vision, short range sonar, and EM detection, the Hunter had still managed to give his pursuers the slip. It hadn't even left so much as a blood sample for them to take.

This successful evasion of their pursuit only cemented Petrovsky's theory that this particular Hunter was in fact a veteran of the species. An experienced predator that had honed its craft through hundreds of battles and hunts. They would not be able to capture it with the same techniques that they had used to bring down its compatriots.

"Disappointing," Petrovsky finally spoke, "but not unexpected. Have the mechs perform a full sweep of the area and then secure it for Forensics Team 01."

"Yes sir, initiating full sweep now." As the technician doled out the orders through hits console, Petrovsky turned to the man standing next to him.

"Well Major Vilmos, what do you think?"

"I think I'm going to have my work cut out for me sir," the Major responded without missing a beat. Petrovsky nodded in agreement.

"Your assessment?"

"Definitely more experienced," said Vilmos, parroting Petrovsky's own thoughts, "the one's my team have brought in before tended to stay out in the open once they were discovered. They'd charged head first into our firing lines, shrug off the bullets, and then proceed to kill. This one though…it doesn't operate by the same tactics."

The Major ordered a replay of the combat footage recorded by one of the response team Mechs. "Look," he said, pointing at the screen, "right there. Our mech fires at it while it tears into another. But as soon as its done it reactivates its cloak. You'd think it would take that chance to run, but instead it de-cloaks just as its about to pounce on another. It's like a…a…."

"A ghost," finished Petrovsky.

"Yes sir, a damn ghost phasing in and out of reality to tear us apart. The pattern is so erratic that our mechs can't get a beat on it, can't say that our boys would do any better. I only see a few ways of taking it down sir, even fewer if you want it alive."

"Alive would be preferable Major, this is our encounter with a mature member of the species. It would be a shame to send such a specimen to the morgue." Dr. Dufour had finally decided to chime in. As usual he voiced his preference that the Xeno-Hunter be taken alive for experimentation and analysis.

"Hmm," grunted Vilmos, "I have a few ideas to get the job done, but I'll need several squads and heavy infantry units."

"Whatever you need you shall have Major. In the meantime, let us address the barbarians at our gate."

#

"Achoo!"

"Spirits save you," Garrus said, uttering the Turian of 'bless you'.

"Thanks," sniffed Shepard as she wondered how dust had gotten through her helmet's filtration system.

"Quiet!" ordered Zekk, "I hear gunfire up ahead."

"That's where the rendezvous point is, it looks like Cerberus got there before us," said Aria.

Almost immediately after she finished her sentence Aria was contacted on her Omni-tool.

"Aria! It's Bray, you were right we've got company!"

"What's the fleet's status?" she demanded.

"Still landing inside of the bunker-" the transmission was interrupted by the sound of gun fire and nearby explosions, "damn it! We can't hold out much longer!"

"Keep the enemy out!" ordered Aria, "Lock it down! Now!"

"Roger! Lower the blast doors! Lower the blast doors!"

"Sounds like they need help, better pick up the pace! Let's go people!" At Shepard's urging the whole group broke into a sprint. Before long they arrived at the end of the street where a massive gap separated them from their objective. From across the schism Shepard could see Cerberus forces assaulting Aria's mercenaries.

Even from this distance it was clear Cerberus had the upper hand. Their superior training allowed them better coordination than the ragtag team of hired guns and the ATLAS battle suits ensured Cerberus fired superiority on the battlefield.

"Damn it!" cursed Aria, "Bray! We're at the East flank but we can't reach you, get someone to extend the bridge now!"

"Shit! Alright I'll-" Shepard saw one of the ATLAS suits fired off a volley of rockets that tore up the mercenary position.

Aria's transmission cut. "Bray?! Bray come in!" when no response came Aria stomped her foot into the floor, "shit! We've got to get over there somehow!"

Zekk stepped up to the edge of the street, looked over the end, and saw the bottom of the drop 30 decks down. The Quarian gulped and then took a calming breath.

"Hey!"

"AH!" Zekk leapt away from the edge with any sense of calm completely gone.

"Hehehe," chuckled Lydia.

"Damn it, why the hell would you do that?" asked the Quarian.

Lydia shrugged, "I dunno, I'm bored without anything to kill."

"Well then you're in luck, I might have a plan to fix that."

#

A few moments later and Zekk had gathered together Aria and Miranda, the Biotics of the group.

"You want us to…toss you?" Miranda asked skeptically.

"Yes," replied Zekk.

The former Ceberus Operative looked at the gap and then back at the Quarian. "I'm not sure about this."

"I say we go for it," said Aria, "better to try something than wait here a second longer doing nothing. Besides, it's not that far a throw."

"That gap is 20 feet at least," Miranda pointed out, "the farthest Biotics can hold something is 10 feet at best."

"I don't expect you two to get me the full way," admitted Zekk, "I just need you to get me close enough to use this." The Quarian activated his Omni-tool and immediately constructed a miniature hook from Omni-gel. "This is my grappling hook app, if you can get me far enough I'll be able to use it to get across and activate the bridge."

"I'm not so sure about this," Shepard cut in, "if you don't make it it's an awfully long drop. Maybe she should just double back and look for another route."

"No! We go with this," demanded Aria, "if we look for another route Bray and the others won't be able to hold out for long enough. This is our best chance, we toss the Quarian and hope that his hook can reach the other side."

"He could die," reasoned Shepard.

"So could any of us," Aria shot back, "you knew what could happen when you agreed to be part of my war."

Shepard's temper flared. She scowled heavily behind her helmet and prepared to chew out the Asari. Boss of Omega or no, nobody had the right to lecture her about putting other's lives in jeopardy! No after all the shit she'd went through and all the friends she'd lost.

But before she could let loose, Zekk stepped in and stopped her. "It's alright Commander, I know the risks and I've accepted them." He then turned to Aria and Miranda. "I'm ready when you are."

#

Zekk positioned himself between the two Biotics.

"You sure about this?" asked Shepard for the third time. The Quarian let out a shaky breath as she stared out over the gap between where he was standing and his destination.

"Uh…I'm a little less sure about it than I was ten seconds ago," he admitted, "but I'm ready."

Shepard placed a hand on his shoulder. "Just…try not to think about it," she said.

"Try not to think about what? The 300 foot drop that will combust my body like a soggy garbage bag if I don't make it? Try not to think about that? Is that what I shouldn't be think about?!"

"….uh….yeah, don't think about that."

Zekk gave her a thumbs up. "Wasn't going to."

Aria and Miranda's bodies suddenly became aglow with the blue aura of Biotic power.

"We're ready!" announced the human.

Zekk took in another breath and nodded. "ON 3!" he announced.

"1….2….3!"

Zekk broke into a sprint, as he neared the edge his body began to glow with the same blue aura surrounding Aria and Miranda.

With a loud yell the Quarian leapt over the edge, as he did the two Biotics cast out their hands. Zekk's scream became louder as the Biotic force propelled him forward through the air.

"Ohshit!Ohshit!Ohshit!Ohshit!" he screamed then remembered that the push granted by the Biotics would not be enough for him to reach other side. Even as he thought about it he felt himself gradually losing momentum and drifting downwards.

Without another thought he activated his grapple launcher and fired it! Much to the Quarian's own relief, the hook firmly latched itself onto the safety rails of the other side.

Unfortunately Zekk now realized that he had not accounted for the fact that once anchored to the other side, he would still fall the length afforded by his grappling hook's tether. Gravity would ensure that the arm his hook was attached to would most likely be dislocated, if not completely ripped off his body.

Not wanting either to happen, Zekk hurriedly activated the reel on his launcher. The tether began to become taunt, once it was firmly tightened Zekk felt his entire body jerk upwards while gravity continued to pull down.

The conflict of forces led to a loud pop.

"AGH!" he cried out.

"Zekk!" he heard Shepard's voice call over the Team COM, "are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied weakly as the launcher continued to reel him up like a fish, "but I'm pretty sure I just dislocated my shoulder."

"Is it going to be a problem?" asked Aria.

"No," Zekk replied, more firmly this time, "I can still make it."

It took the launcher another agonizing three minutes to reel the Quarian back up. Once he reached the top Zekk had to painfully swing his own body upwards, using his own arm as an anchor. Once he managed to pull himself up onto the deck using his uninjured arm he deactivated his Omni-tool.

"I made it," he announced over the COM, "I'll try and find the control panel to activate the bridge."

"Great, once we're over we'll get you some help," said Shepard.

"No need," Zekk suddenly bashed his dislocated shoulder into a nearby wall, painfully but quickly popping it back into place, "just get over here and deal with these Cerberus bosh'tets."

#

"See, it worked," Aria said with a same cold arrogance she said everything else.

"It was a risk," Shepard shot back, "one we might not have needed to take if we found another route."

"If we had done so we might have wasted time that we don't have. This war is about momentum Shepard, if we lose any Petrovsky will capitalize on it and wipe us out," Aria replied evenly, "if we aren't willing to make risks, we're doomed to fail."

"Don't!" Shepard pointed at the Asari, "don't start with me on risks or making hard choices. I made my fair share of hard choices during the Reaper war."

"And that's why I brought you on board. You know how to make them…or am I wrong?" asked Aria, raising a brow. "Maybe you don't have what it takes to make those choices anymore?"

Before Shepard could retort, the bridge suddenly extended from the other side, allowing them passage to their objective.

"Let's go!" ordered Shepard, motioning for everyone to move across the bridge.

Aria noted that the Commander hadn't responded.

#

"Interesting," mused Petrovsky as he watched the Commander's group move onto the battlefield.

With the addition of Shepard's group to the mercenaries holding down Aria's bunker, Petrovsky knew that it was only a matter of time before his assault force faultered. Shepard and her allies had a knack for turning the tides of battle.

The General was about to order reinforcements when one of the men at the monitoring station called out. "Sir! Our sensors are picking up activity from the Hive!"

Petrovsky smiled.

"And so new pieces enter the board."

The next few moments would prove interesting indeed.

#

Shepard's group entered the fray in a flurry of bullets and Biotic attacks.

Garrus fired three successive shots from his sniper rifle, each shot taking off the head of a Cerberus soldier.

Use of overwhelming firepower must have run in Zaeed's family. The elderly mercenary and his estranged daughter squeezed the trigger of their weapons and refused to let off until everything in front of them was dead.

"Come on you fuckers!" screamed Zaeed as he tossed a pair of inferno grenades. The explosives landed amongst a group of Cerberus soldiers. One of the troopers quickly moved to grab and toss them away, only for both to go off in his hand and set the whole group on fire.

Shepard activated her Omni-tool and fired her Incineration app. A stream of flame jetted out of her hand and enveloped a group of troopers. They screamed horribly until Shepard mercifully used her pulse rifle to end their suffering.

As she finished off the first group a trio of Cerberus Guardians advanced on her position in a phalanx. She fired her Incineration app again, letting loose another stream of flames. But the Guardian's shields held firmly against the fire and they advanced unscathed.

Miranda moved to assist her CO. She cast her physics manipulating powers and ripped the shields out of the hands of all three Guardians. Defenseless, Lawson sent all three hurling over the edge with a Biotic wave.

As usual Aria was a sight to behold. She was an absolute maelstrom of Biotic destruction. Every time she moved her hands Cerberus soldiers were tossed into the air, slammed into the ground, or sucked into a singularity.

The singularities were the worst. While most singularities were only powerful enough to suck targets together and hold them in place for a time, Aria's were enough to do that and go even further. Victims of her singularities found themselves crushed and crunched in with other victims until all that was left was a beach ball sized ball of meat and bones.

"Get the hell off of my property!" the Queen of Omega demanded as she grabbed a Cerberus trooper with her Biotics and viciously slammed him to a paste on the deck.

Behind a barrier the Asari crime boss spotted her Batarian Lieutenant Bray, nursing a bleeding gut wound.

"Bray!" she called, moving to his side.

"Boss," the Batarian weakly acknowledged, "sorry, wasn't able to hold out as long as we'd hoped."

"Why aren't the cannons online?!" she demanded.

"Something's jamming the activation signal," coughed Bray, "we tried to identify, but with everything that's going on…"

"Shepard! We need to activate those cannons!"

"It's probably a mobile jammer, most likely being held by one of their engineers. Everyone keep a look out!"

"I've got eyes!" said a familiar Quarian voice, "moving to eliminate!"

Shepard was about to protest and order Zekk to hold back for them to help. But her protest died on her lips when she saw the Quarian rush the Cerberus lines.

Armed with only his Omni-tools, Zekk fearlessly leapt into combat against armored humans wielding guns. When he landed he was surrounded by six soldiers, as they turned to fire upon him he activated both his Omni-tools and rapidly fired his sabotage app.

When the soldiers squeezed their triggers, their weapons exploded. With their advantage of range gone, Zekk activated his Omni-blades and moved in. The first soldier he finished with a quick swipe of his blade that sliced through the human's throat. Zekk moved on, leaving the man to die from aphixiation and blood loss.

He moved towards two more who both went for their side-arms, but proved too slow on the draw. Zekk's hands shot up and his blades entered both trooper's skulls through their jaw. Yanking out his blades and allowing both bodies to fall opposite ways, Zekk turned to the remaining three.

Using his left Omni-tool, Zekk deactivated his Omni-blade in favor of a miniature crossbow. As he sprinted towards the last survivors he fired the crossbow's payload, three flash-forged silicon-carbide blades.

All three blades found themselves stuck inside the left most trooper's skull. The last two actually managed to draw their weapons. The one on the right drew his pistol while the one on the left pulled out a standard issue shock baton.

Against what was expected, Zekk went after the one with the shock baton first. The trooper was bigger than Zekk and more heavily armored, but he was also about as graceful as a rhino. The Quarian dodged under the human's swipe then came back up to shank his Omni-blade into the man's ribs.

The Cerberus soldier cried out and Zekk took the opportunity to grab him in a chokehold from behind. By then the final soldier had taken aim and fired his pistol. Zekk held his hostage out in front of him and let him soak up the bullets.

Once he heard the distinctive ping of the trooper's pistol ejecting its thermal clip, Zekk dropped his now dead hostage and leapt at the final soldier. The Cerberus trooper desperately tried to load a new clip into his weapon but by then Zekk was upon him and he sank his Omni-blade deep into the Human's chest, slicing through his heart.

Zekk gracefully yanked his blade out and allowed the body to fall. But the Quarian wasn't done with this specific human. With his foot Zekk pushed the soldier's corpse over, revealing that the man had been wearing a large bulky machine.

As an engineer himself, Zekk had immediately recognized the device on the man's back. Taking a knee and activating his Omni-tool, Zekk set about hacking into the jammer's frequency.

"I found the device," he announced over the COM.

"Good!" he heard Aria say, "now smash it and let's turn these cannons on!"

"No," responded Zekk.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm going to try hacking into it. Cerberus wouldn't send just one jammer in, we smash this one and we'll just have to do the same to the other. But if I can find the frequency I can send out a counter signal that will turn their jammers into nothing more than ugly heavy backpacks."

"Fine! Just do it quick!"

"Already half way and…done! Sending the counter signal!" Just as Zekk was about to hit the button he heard two loud thumps from behind.

He turned to confront the noise and his eyes widened. Without hesitation he vaulted out of cover just as a volley of rockets struck the position he'd just been occupying.

Seeing that their forces were failing, Cerberus had sent two more ATLAS suits to assist the one already on the ground.

#

Afterlife, Cerberus HQ

"Command! This is Lancer Squad! We've arrived on the scene!"

"Good," replied Petrovsky, "focus your attention on the Quarian. If he sends out his counter signal they'll gain the edge in firepower."

"Roger that sir! We'll make him a smear on the deck!"

#

"Damn it! I can't send the signal with these damn things on my ass! Someone blow them up already!" demanded Zekk.

"You heard the man, give him covering fire!" ordered Shepard.

"Covering fire coming right up!" cheered Lydia as she squeezed Big Anna's trigger and let loose a torrent of rounds onto one of the heavy battle suits. The ATLAS actually seemed to buckle under the sheer volume of fire being poured onto it.

Lydia paused only for a brief moment to switch Big Anna to Disruptor rounds and then immediately resumed fire. The ATLAS pilot desperately tried to turn his machine to face his attacker, the amount of disrupting rounds hitting him was slowly frying the ATLAS's systems. Soon smoke was pouring of the controls. Not long after the whole suit simply failed and tipped over in a fiery heap.

"Big baddie one is scrap!" she announced.

#

"Lancer Zero-Two is down!"

#

"Vakarian! Give me covering fire!" ordered Zaeed.

"Laying it down!" The elderly mercenary heard the rhythmic bark of the Turian's assault rifle and took that as his cue to move. He mantled over his cover and charged at the ten foot tall mechanical machine of death.

With its attention turned towards Garrus, Zaeed saw the perfect opportunity to take his shot. On the back of every ATLAS was a very exposed exhaust port. Once he was close enough to shiv a knife up it mechanical ass Zaeed took out one of his inferno grenades and began to climb.

It was difficult, especially given Zaeed's age. But thankfully he was granted the small mercy of the ATLAS staying in one spot. Once he was within arm's reach Zaeed armed the explosive and dunked it into the port.

Not wanting to be part of the aftermath, Zaeed quickly let go and rolled away.

A few seconds later and the grenade went off. The ATLAS's cockpit was filled with flames and the muffled screams of the pilot. By the time he managed to hit the emergency eject and pop off the hubcap it was already too late and his smoldering corpse slipped from its seat and hit the deck.

"Two down! One to go!"

#

"Lancer Zero-Three is down! Damn it! We need back up now!"

"Roger Lancer Zero-Three, diverting troops to your-"

"Belay that order," interrupted Petrovsky.

The COM operator looked back at the General, surprised. "Sir?"

"Order all forces to retreat instead. The time for a cultured battle is over..." Petrovsky watched as his holographic chessboard deactivated itself. "…now is the time for survival."

#

Zekk slid behind cover as the last remaining ATLAS continued to pepper his position with mass accelerator rounds.

When there was a brief lull the Quarian popped up and fired his Overload app, striking the mech suit with enough watts to kill an elephant. Unfortunately its shields took the brunt of the damage and it continued to fire on his position.

"Damn it," he cursed, "does someone want to help me with-"

"Cerberus reinforcements incoming!" announced Garrus.

This time Zekk cursed in his native dialect. "Right, I'll just deal with the bosh'tet myself. At least it can't get any worse."

As if on cue an unnatural earsplitting shriek broke through the constant chatter of gunfire. An icy pit formed at the bottom of the Quarian's gut.

Another shriek broke out.

For a brief moment every single combatant forgot about the battle and listened to its unearthly echo.

"Oh no."

#

"What the hell was that?!" demanded Aria as a single unearthly screech became a chorus.

Shepard scowled. Something about that screech was familiar, it took her a moment but she finally realized where she'd remembered it from.

"Oh god," she paled, "everyone regroup! Everyone regroup right now!"

"Regroup? Why? What the hell is that?" Aria demanded again.

Suddenly a new scream broke through the air, but this one was different. Aria and Shepard turned to face its source just in time to see one of Aria's Asari mercenaries get pulled over the edge of the platform.

A second later they heard another scream as a Cerberus trooper was dragged into a nearby vent. "Jesus!" he shouted, "HELP! HELP! HEL-" The rest of his words were drowned away as his hands finally gave out and he was pulled in fully.

"Zekk!" Shepard called over the team COM, "turn on the cannons! Turn on the cannons right now!"

"I did!" the Quarian called back, "the damn things are taking forever to boot up!"

"Shepard! What the hell is going on?" Aria demanded for the third time. The Commander was just about to explain when suddenly they heard yet another scream.

"HELP ME!" yelled a familiar voice.

Aria and Shepard whirled around to see Bray getting dragged into a ventilation duct. The Batarian had luckily found a pipe to grab on to, but that had only afforded him half of his body. The rest was still stuck inside of the vent.

"HELP!" the Batarian cried out.

"Bray!" Aria and Shepard rushed over and grabbed the Batarian's hands.

"Pull!" ordered Aria.

"What the hell does it look like I'm doing?!" Shepard shot back.

"FUCK! JUST SHOOT IT!" screamed Bray. Aria let go of the Batarian's hand and pulled out her sidearm to do exactly that.

"NO!" shouted Shepard, knowing what would happen.

Too late, Aria fired her weapon three times and a horrible high pitched shriek came out from the vent. But then Bray began screaming about his body burning.

"Oh Gods, they're burning me! It's burning me! Pull me up please! Please!"

Together the Asari and Human pulled the Batarian out of the vent, only to find out that they hadn't been able to save all of him. The entirety of Bray's lower half had been burned off.

"Oh god! Oh god! My legs! I can't feel-" Aria fired her pistol again and Bray felt no more.

"What the hell!" demanded Shepard, stunned by Aria's decisive mercy killing.

"I did him a favor trust me, now you tell me what the hell is going on-" The bloody ventilation shaft that the two had just pulled Bray out of suddenly rattled. Both women quickly pulled out their weapons and aimed down at the vent.

A few moments passed and nothing happened.

Then suddenly there was a screech and mass of silver teeth and claws came rushing out. It happened so fast that neither woman could react quickly enough. The mass of limbs, teeth, and claws tackled Shepard and pinned her to the ground.

"Jesus!" the Commander cried out, on pure instinct Shepard threw her hands out and held back the black mass trying to bite her face off.

#

Aria for her part, and to her credit, was only stunned briefly by the scene in front of her. A large insect like alien with a phallic dome and a sinister looking stinger had tackled her human partner as was now attempting to bite off her face with a small inner jaw that kept pistoning out its mouth.

"Get it off! Get it off!"

Shaking off her initial shock Aria walked up to the strange creature and placed the barrel of her gun on to the thing's dick shaped head.

"Nonononono! Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" begged Shepard. Deciding not to question the human's pleas, Aria instead struck the thing with a biotically empowered kick.

The strike sent the thing tumbling across the deck until it struck some metal piping where its body then proceeded to dent the metal. Amazingly enough however the thing still had enough strength to pick itself up and bare its silver fangs at them.

"Now can I shoot it?" asked Aria,

Shepard's answer was to level her pulse rifle at the overgrown bug and empty a whole clip into its body. The thing fell to the ground a pool of green blood. That green blood soon began to sizzle its way through the metal deck it had landed on, answering Aria's question of why Shepard had begged her not to shoot it while it had been on top of her.

"What is that thing?"

"A long story," Shepard answered cryptically.

A series of screams garnered their attention. The two turned to see that the over grown bugs were tearing into both the Cerberus forces and Aria's mercenaries.

The Cerberus forces had gathered themselves around the ATLAS, allowing the massive battle suit to do most of the heavy lifting while the infantry provided support. Unfortunately even the ATLAS's massive armament could not hold back the black tide of claws and teeth for long.

Eventually the bugs would sneak close enough to strike down one of the soldiers, lessening the number of guns holding the back. One by one the Cerberus soldiers died, until their force had been whittled down to just four men and the ATLAS.

The group of four supporting the ATLAS did not last long. The first, the Centurion Commander who had been placed in charge of the group, was ironically the first to go. As he moved to reload his weapon one of the bugs leapt on top of him and tore out his throat with its claws.

A nearby trooper attempted to save his commander by filling his killer with holes. The bug died and the Commander spent his last few minutes of consciousness cursing the trooper and feeling the agonizing pain of an acid bath.

That same trooper was suddenly skewered by one of the bug's stinger like tail. The remaining two troopers fell under a sea of black insects, but instead of being killed they were simply knocked unconscious and taken away.

The Cerberus ATLAS stood alone. The gunner religiously fired his heavy machine gun and rockets, barely holding back the constant tide of teeth and claws. But eventually the pilot slipped and the horde of insects moved in.

At first only a few managed to jump on to the ATLAS's back. The pilot desperately tried to shake off the hitchhikers. "Get off you fucking-" A bug landed on the ATLAS's windshield and clawed at the silicon-glass.

"Jesus!" In a panic the pilot drove his rig into a nearby wall, splattering the bug onto the windshield. Unfortunately that also meant that the bug's acidic blood splattered its way all over the ATLAS's exterior.

"Shitshitshitshit!" The pilot cursed as the smoke coming off his burning windshield obscured his vision.

The bugs took this chance to charge the massive metal machine. They leapt onto its body and clawed at its chassis. The pilot's panic became stronger and he began to wildly fire his weapons in hopes of hitting anything.

But soon the bugs found their way to the hole in his windshield left by the blood of their hive sibling.

"No! I know what you fuckers do! You won't take me!" The pilot drew his side arm and fired into the mass of limbs clawing their way inside of the cockpit. He fired again and again, when his thermal clip was overloaded he ejected and reloaded.

He fired until soon he only had one shot left.

With one bullet left the pilot had a choice to make. Fire it at the invaders in a vein hope of escape, or the alternative.

The pilot chose the alternative.

He pressed the barrel of his pistol under his chin and pulled the trigger.

#

"Zekk! Where are those cannons damn it!" Shepard roared as she and her team fought tooth and nail to hold back the endless waves of horrifying nightmares. Her pulse rifle proved to excel in combating the horrors, its massive clip size and nonexistent recoil were perfect for keeping up a constant stream of fire.

Lydia's Big Anna also proved to be as useful as she used it to mow down droves of them at a time without a single pause or break.

Aria showed why she was the Boss of Omega. Her biotics tossed dozens of the bugs back at a time and her singularities drew them into a single spot to be finished off by another.

Zaeeds Inferno grenades were a boon. Shepard didn't question as where the elderly mercenary kept getting the damn things or how he seemed to have a near infinite supply of them, and at the moment she didn't really care. The things were great for incinerating whole bunches of them.

But still, even with all of them working together the horrors edged their way further towards their line, inch by inch. Shepard knew that it was only a matter of time before it was all over and they were overrun.

"Zekk! Come on man!"

"It's a really old system alright! There's nothing I can do!" he shot back as he gunned down two of the nightmares and monitored the progress of the cannons on his Omni-tool at the same time.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity the cannons completed their boot up process and came online.

"Cannons are up! Everyone get back!" he warned.

Three massive rotary cannons perked up on either side of the bunker's entrance as though having just woken up from a pleasant nap. Then immediately the cannon's barrels began to rotate and soon all six were spitting hot molten metal death onto the oncoming tide of horrors.

With the addition of the VI assisted targeting software in each cannon the bug soon realized that this prey simply wasn't worth the losses the Hive would incur to procure. As one they turned tail and slinked back into their vents and crevices, and Omega was silent for the first time that night.

"Holy shit," Zaeed spat out, "talk about a bug hunt."

"It's over now, those dick heads will think twice before coming at us again!" cheered Lydia cockily.

"That won't be the last we've seen on them," said Shepard, causing the mercenary to lose her cheer. "They're not beaten, just done with us for now. But these cannons should help keep the back for a while."

"What exactly are 'they'" asked Aria, "and why the hell are they on my station? You said it was a long story."

"It is," said Shepard, "I'll tell you all about it, for now let's get inside where it's a little bit safer." Aria noted that the Commander said 'safer' and not 'safe'.

The crime boss nodded in agreement. "Everyone let's get inside," she shouted to her remaining forces. "Bunker team, retract the bridges and lower the blast door. We're coming in."

As she and her team entered the bunker, Shepard sighed heavily and shook her head in despair.

"It just couldn't be easy could it?"

End

Hi everyone! I apologize for the wait but I've been real busy with college classes. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long to put out but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Anyway this was mostly a chapter with action and introducing the Alien into the mix.

You might have noticed but the Mass Effect: Omega character Nyreen did not make an appearance. That will be explained next time.

In the next chapter we'll also be seeing more of the White Hunter and his purpose on the station. Cerberus will also be seeing some extra action, but they will mostly be dying as they always do.

Until next time!

Bye Bye!