Mass Effect: Massive Shock

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.

"Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger."

~Philip Emeagwali~

Ch. 28: The Chain

Part 4: The Long Walk

2:14 PM May 11, 2182

Vaga ducks under the C-Sec officer as he flies over his head and onto a table. Vaga stands and looks at the groaning C-Sec officer in surprise. He stumbles to the side as Tyrannax rams past him and strides toward the C-Sec officer.

Tyrannax picks him up and slams him against the wall. "WHERE ARE THE SLAVERS?"

"I don't know!" The officer screams back. "Don't! NO!"

Tyrannax hurls him one-armed across the room again into a pile of crates.

With a cry the officer knocks over the tall stack of crates and lies in a crumpled heap among them. Tyrannax strides over and pulls him out of the boxes.

He slams him onto the top of one and growls at him. "I'M LOSING MY PATIENCE! WHERE ARE THEY?"

"Stop!" The officer cries protecting his bruised face. "Just stop!"

"I will kill you." Tyrannax snarls.

Vaga brushes himself off and walks over and leans against a wall. "You should just tell him. He will kill you. I wouldn't put it past him."

The officer's eyes dart from Vaga who just shrugs to Tyrannax's marbled pine needle green eyes. And his eyes widen at the sight of the murder in Tyrannax's eyes.

"I'll ask, one more time. Tell me." Tyrannax growls.

"Okay! I don't know where they are! But, I know where they're going… roughly."

"Where?" Vaga asks pushing himself from the wall.

"Omega. Their ship has pretty poor fuel capacity so they'll make frequent stops. They probably won't get there until the 13th."

"Why there?" Vaga asks.

"They're going to sell Splicer and his team to the Collectors." The officer responds cringing at every breath Tyrannax takes.

"Collectors?" Vaga frowns. "I thought they were a myth."

"They're real." Tyrannax mumbles.

Vaga approaches the C-Sec officer and Tyrannax pulls away but keeps his hand on the officer's neck.

Vaga leans in. "What else can you give us?"

The officer opens his omni-tool. "I had a feeling taking that bribe would bite me in the ass… I guessed right, clearly. So I recorded the signal registration of the ship. You can use it to track the ship if you need to."

Vaga receives the information on his omni-tool and smiles as he goes over the information. "I think we're done here."

"What should we do with him?" Tyrannax asks, snarling at the C-Sec officer.

"Leave him." Vaga says as he connects to the extranet. "I'm booking a priority express shuttle to Omega. We should get there in a day or two."

Tyrannax straightens and tosses the officer aside like a wet towel. "Let's get the kid and get underway."

Vaga leads Tyrannax out of the warehouse and into the main room.

He halts and glares at his omni-tool. "Dammit! All flights unavailable…"

"Doesn't Splicer have a ship?" Tyrannax asks.

Vaga nods. "Yeah but it's being overhauled right now, we can't use it."

Tyrannax sighs. "Then how are we getting to Omega?"

"I don't know…" Vaga sighs in frustration. "Let's just head back to my place and figure something out."

Tyrannax nods. "Not a good plan but it's something…"

Meanwhile…

Zero takes careful steps forward along the walkway. He's in a long dark room lined with cube-shaped cells, from which the light in the room comes. Each one brightly is lit and is transparent from his point of view and he can see inside. Most are empty.

Except one.

Zero spots Jada in a cell. She's guarded by a lone and bored looking asari. Zero strides toward it with a purpose. He walks up to the wall of the cube and examines it, looking for a way to open it. Eventually he just nudges a panel and it pops open. Zero takes a step in and swings his head through. The asari looks confused for a second and then alarmed. Before she can even stand Zero blasts her with the shotgun. She falls backward on her chair and goes limp against the wall.

"Zero!" Jada yells from inside the weird bubble shield. "I never thought I'd be so happy to see you're ugly mug!"

Zero smirks and walks up to the bubble. "Thanks… how do I get this open?"

Jada shrugs. "I have no idea. It's practically impenetrable."

Zero frowns. "I got out of my cell by disconnecting the power. Tear the toilet off the wall and rip the wiring out. We'll see if that works."

Jada nods and walks over to the toilet she hammers a fist on it and it instantly tears from the wall and falls onto the floor. She throws the toilet and panel aside, one-handed, and examines the wiring and pipes while avoiding the water spraying at her.

She grabs a handful of the wiring and tears it out of the wall. The lights shut off instantly but the shields remain active.

"Fuck." Zero curses examining one of the shield pylons. "They must be on a separate power supply. I'm going to go look for it. Sit tight." Zero puts his shotgun down behind the dead asari. "I'm leaving this here for you. Don't worry I'll be back soon."

Zero jogs off and leaves the room.

"Wait!" Jada yells at him. "I have to pee dammit!"

Meanwhile…

Vaga enters his apartment, somewhat angry. Nelyna rushes up to him, seeming extremely panicked.

"Splicer, Zero, and Jada were kidnapped by slavers?" She screams in his face. "Why didn't anybody tell me?"

Vaga shrugs. "I don't know. Just calm down!"

Vaga starts walking and Nelyna dogs him closely.

Nelyna barrages Vaga with questions. "Where are they? What happened? Are they alright? What's going on right now? What do you guys know? When did this happen? What-"

"Nelyna!" Vaga shouts. "Calm down! We're making progress. We'll discuss it in the main room with everyone else."

Vaga leads her into the atrium and to a table where Alex, Nata, and Hirvio wait. Vaga walks up and takes a seat and Nelyna sits next to him.

"What did you learn?" Nata asks Vaga.

"We learned that they're headed for Omega. The officer said it would take them at least until the 13th to get there and it's the 11th right now." Vaga sighs. "So we have two days from this point to get there. But the problem is that all priority shuttles are booked and unavailable. So… We have no way to get them."

The room is silent. The air of defeat is heavy like a huge blanket.

"Um…" Nelyna says. "I think I know someone who can help…"

"What? Really?" Vaga frowns.

Nelyna nods. "Yeah, there's this guy I used to massage, he's a private ship owner and he transports cargo, but I'm pretty sure he's actually a smuggler. He said he could get anyone through the Attican Traverse in a day so I'm sure he'd help you guys out… for the right price."

Vaga sighs. "Ugh… This rescue is getting more and more expensive." Vaga stands again. "Nelyna, why don't you come with me so we can meet him? Everyone else stay here."

"Where's Tyrannax?" Nata asks before they leave.

"He's picking up his gear and something for Hirvio to use." Vaga responds, causing Hirvio to grin. "Come on, Nelyna, let's not waste daylight."

Meanwhile…

Zero ducks into a small alcove as a group of slavers rounds a corner and he waits for them to run past.

He waits for a while after they've left and grips his pistol tightly. Zero pokes his head out and looks up and down the hallway, searching for any more slavers.

After he's sure the coast is clear he walks out and quickly rushes down the hall. His bare feet soften his steps and make his footsteps mostly soundless. But the problem is he doesn't know where he's going.

Zero stops and opens the omni-tool he took from the guard. He opens a map and searches the various levels for anything nearby that may help him shut down the power to the shield pylons in Jada's cell.

His best bet is to get to the Core Generator Room, which is on his level. But to get there, he'll have to pass the Main Barracks. Zero sighs and looks for an alternate route. A sudden banging from his left makes him jump and raise his pistol.

A small square maintenance hatch is all that's there.

Zero frowns and examines it while lowering his pistol.

"Hello?" The sudden voice on the other side makes him jump and raise his pistol again. "Come on guys! This isn't funny! I've been in here for like 2 hours! I went all the way to the generator room and back! All the hatches are locked! Come on! Let me out!"

Zero frowns and opens the hatch.

"Ugh! Finally!" The dirty batarian says with relief. He pulls himself out and dusts off his uniform. "Thanks for getting me out of… there…" The batarian blinks at Zero's clothing and the gun in his face. "Aw… Crap."

Zero grabs his shirt and pushes him against the wall. "Where does this hatch lead?"

The batarian raises his hands in front of his face and stares at the gun with all four eyes nervously. "It leads to the Core Generator room!"

"How do I get the other hatch open?" Zero waits for a response but after none comes, Zero jabs the batarian in the face with the barrel on the gun. "Answer me!"

"Ow! I-I don't know! Just don't kill me!"

Zero sighs and knocks out the batarian by bashing him in the head with the pistol.

He crawls into the hatch, dragging the unconscious batarian in behind him and turns on his omni-tool light. "I'll just wing it…"

Meanwhile…

Vaga raps on the hotel room door with his knuckle while trying to listen inside. Loud music, however, covers up whatever is going on inside.

Vaga looks at Nelyna who shrugs and nods him on. Vaga bangs on the door as hard as he can.

He hears the music quiet and he bangs on it again to confirm for the occupant that there's someone there.

"Alright, alright! I'm coming, just hold your horses!" Vaga hears someone shout on the other side.

The door opens and a human glares out at him. "Who the fuck are you?"

The man is tall, probably around Splicer's height, with very short and dark sandy colored hair. He has short stubble crossing his chin and jawline, broken by a long thin scar question mark shaped scar on the left side of his face. His brow is creased by anger and his corn yellow eyes glare at Vaga.

"Well?" The man growls at him, his voice tanged by an accent. "What do you want?"

Vaga, being so intimidated is unable to compile words, so he says, "Uh… Nelyna?"

"What?" The man says confused. He opens the door more and leans out and sees Nelyna and instantly his face brightens. "Nelyna? What are you doing here?"

Vaga detected some affection in that statement. Vaga looks at Nelyna who smiles at him, her hands interlocked and arms straight, and her feet together. Vaga nods in approval. In his opinion, her stance looks innocent and attractive. Truly a skillful way to make requests.

"First off," Nelyna starts, she turns to Vaga. "Vaga, this is Isaac Bishop. Isaac this is Vaga Kotka." Vaga smiles and offers a hand. Isaac glances at it, gives a curt upward nod and turns his attention back to Nelyna. "Isaac." Nelyna says with a smile. "Listen… I need to ask a favor of you."

"Really?" Isaac looks at Vaga. "If it's a threesome with this guy, then sorry I'll have to decline."

Vaga grimaces and Nelyna smiles wider.

She shakes her head. "No, I need you to take him and a few others to Omega ASAP. Can you do that?"

Isaac opens the door all the way and leans against the doorway, crossing his arms. Only now does Vaga notice that he wears no shirt. He's statuesque in musculature, but flawed physically. His entire left arm is scarred from a severe burn, making it red and shiny. Clearly, however, surgery had been done to prevent severe disfiguration or malfunction, as his arm is relatively normal, other than the damaged skin. In other words, it looks like he has a really, really bad… what do humans call it? Sunburn. There's also a large scar across his belly, just underneath the naval.

"Turian." Isaac shouts at him. Vaga looks up at him. "Quit staring. It's rude."

Vaga smirks awkwardly. "Sorry…"

Isaac turns his attention back to Nelyna. "I can take them to Omega. I can do it fast. But you know I don't work for favors. What's in it for me?"

Vaga jumps into the conversation. "I can pay handsomely."

"How much?" Isaac asks with an odd smile.

"5,000." Vaga responds instantly.

"Double it."

"Okay, fine. 10,000."

Isaac smiles a smile so small it shows more in his eyes than on his face. "Double it."

Vaga frowns. "20,000?"

Isaac's smile brightens in his eyes. "Double it."

Vaga's frown deepens, and at this point Nelyna is looking confused as well.

"40,000?"

Isaac laughs. "This must be important. I want to see how far I can take this!" He sighs and turns to walk back into his hotel room. "But, unfortunately, I'm busy at the moment and I don't have time for multiplication. I don't need your money." Isaac turns and starts to close the door. He pauses and smiles at Nelyna. "See you, Nelyna. It was nice to see you again."

He shuts the door and Nelyna and Vaga look at each other.

"He was an ass." Vaga says with an angry stare at the door.

Nelyna frowns. "That was uncharacteristic of him, he's usually quite nice."

Vaga rolls his eyes. "Of course he is."

"What do you mean?"

Vaga rubs his eyes with his knuckles. "He thinks you're hot, Nelyna."

Nelyna blushes and is taken aback. "What? Geez, Vaga. You don't have to be so black and white about it."

Vaga rolls his eyes. "Whatever, we have to get him to bring us to Omega."

"What can we do? He doesn't want money. I mean he turned down 40 K for Goddess's sakes!"

"Everyone has a price." Vaga mumbles banging on his door. "Sometimes it's not credits."

The door opens again after a second.

Isaac frowns. "Oh, it's you again. I thought I made myself perfectly clear… Oh hi Nelyna."

Vaga notices a subtle look of shocked realization on Nelyna's face, followed by a blush in her cheeks. He ignores it and turns his attention back to Isaac. "Listen, we need your help. My friends were kidnapped by slavers and they're headed to Omega. They'll be there within 2 days, and Nelyna told us you could get us there in one day."

Isaac nods. "Yeah. I can get you through customs and the Attican Traverse in a day. It's not easy but I can do it. I need compensation, but it's not money I want."

"What do you want?" Vaga asks, nervous about what the response will be.

Isaac sighs and looks down at his feet… no, his arm. "A favor for a favor. If you guys are going to save your friends from slavers, then you're packing heat, am I correct?"

Vaga nods. "I'm taking two krogan as backup."

Isaac's gold eyes brighten. "That's what I like to hear. After I help you, you help me. Maybe not right away, but when I ask you to. Got it?"

Vaga nods. "Fine. I'll even get my friends, the ones we're saving, to help."

"Who are we going after?"

"You ever heard of Splicer?" Nelyna asks with an eyebrow raised.

Isaac's shining eyes brighten even more. "You've just made my day." He turns and walks into his hotel room. "Wait out there, I'm going to get my stuff ready."

Vaga sighs in relief as the door closes. "Thank the Spirits… we have a way to get there."

Nelyna nods. "I'm glad he's helping us."

Vaga nods. "Me too."

Isaac turns up the volume on the music player, drowning out noise he may make. He kneels on the ground and bows his head. He removes the necklace from around his neck and places it on the ground. He presses a small button on it and the digital image stored within lights up.

"I'll find him for you." He sobs as he says it. "I'll destroy him for you." He chokes up and a tear follows the question mark path down his face. "I'd do anything for you."

Meanwhile…

Zero reaches the end of the maintenance access shaft and he opens his omni-tool. He starts hacking the hatch to gain control of the locking mechanism. After quite a few failed attempts he finally succeeds and the hatch unlocks.

He turns over onto his belly and readies his pistol. He opens the hatch, and after a quick assessment that the immediate area is clear, Zero crawls out from the hatch and hides behind some crates.

He's in a high ceilinged long room. There's a spacious I shaped walkway down the center of the room. Zero is on one of the wide ends of the walkway, a very tall pile of crates and a vehicle with which to stack them is where Zero hides. Across from him, there is a large generator. The rest of the walkway is lined with huge generators, much larger than the one across Zero. Zero guesses, that this smaller one is an auxiliary generator, for emergencies only. Two batarian engineers stand at a terminal perpendicular to the generator across Zero, facing the line of huge generators.

"So, do you know what's going on down in detention level?" One batarian engineer asks another.

"I heard there was a power outage and they're having trouble containing the prisoners."

The first engineer scoffs. "What, all two of them? You're full of crap Tolka."

"Fuck you."

Zero stands and approaches the pair of batarians as they stand side by side, typing on their consoles.

Zero whips one over the back of the head, knocking him unconscious instantly. Zero instantly dives to the side and wraps his arms around the other engineer. He then twists him and pile drives him into the metal deck with a sickening crunch.

He lets go of the dead batarian and lets the corpse roll off of him by its own gravity.

Zero sighs. "I'm getting too old for this…"

Zero straightens with an exhausted sigh and walks over to one of the consoles. He starts running through the options and control settings. He finds one labeled Power Distribution and he tries dialing down the Power Distribution to 0.

"Error!" The automated VI shouts at him. "Power levels are unable to be reduced to 0 outputs without a ship wide emergency."

Zero sighs through his nose. "VI, can power levels in the Detention Center be shut down?"

"Negative."

Zero sighs again and stops to think.

"Okay… You know what?" Zero mumbles typing on the consoles again. "Let's make a ship wide emergency."

Zero examines the power line charts and finds the generator that is the main power supply for the Detention Center; it is also happens to be the only generator for the Detention Center.

Zero smirks and lowers the power output from the other generators to 2% each and redirects the remainder of their output to the Detention Center generator.

A loud humming starts to crescendo from the generator immediately to his right.

That's what he forgot to do, figure out which one it is.

"Crap." Zero doesn't even try running.

The generator overloads and explodes and sends Zero flying into the opposite wall. He collides with it and falls unconscious.

Meanwhile…

Jada looks up at the ceiling as the lights suddenly turn on and get extraordinarily bright. Her eyes dart to what remains of the wires in the wall, and she raises her eyebrows in confused concern at the sight of electricity arcing from the wires.

Suddenly the kinetic barrier she's in starts to grow brighter and brighter until the pylons explode. And just like that she's free.

Jada leaps to her feet. "Yes!" She shouts.

Suddenly the lights overhead start overloading and rain glass onto the floor. Jada covers her head and leans over to protect herself from the razor sharp shards. After a few seconds, the lights just shut off and she is bathed in complete darkness.

Jada straightens and tries to see around the room. She knows the general area of where the dead asari and the shotgun and the open panel are. She just has to get over there.

Jada takes a step but instantly lurches her foot back into the air.

"Ouch!" She cries, holding her bleeding foot. She carefully lowers it back into its original spot.

She lowers herself and lightly places her hand on the floor, she feels hard and sharp glass shards stick to her palm.

"Shit…" Jada mumbles. The shards are so sharp that even if she dragged her feet along the ground, they would get shredded up. Jada sighs and tries to think of a solution.

The bands of linen she's using as a top would be too thin to use to push the shards out of the way. She sighs and removes the remainder of her pants.

"Woke up topless." She mumbles wrapping the pants around her hand. "Escaping bottomless… I'm so glad it's dark in here."

Jada squats down and sweeps some shards aside. The pants tear slightly, but not much. They'll hold together. She continues sweeping the shards aside and taking careful light steps forward, limping slightly due to her injured foot.

Finally, after what feels like forever, she bumps into the dead asari. Jada straightens and smiles with self-satisfaction. She puts the pants back on, but she can feel they're pretty damaged. She squats down and starts searching the asari.

She removes the omni-tool and turns on the light. She removes the asari's armor and starts to put it on, but much of it doesn't fit. She ends up with only the boots, thigh plates, gloves and bracers, pauldrons and belt on. Jada retrieves the shotgun and walks up to the open panel nearby. The glass crunches under her hard boots as she walks.

Jada peeks out to make sure the coast is clear, before walking back to the asari. Jada picks her up and approaches the panel once more

She steps out of the cell and looks up and down the room. It's pitch black in here, she can't see a thing.

Jada feels out the edge of the walkway and tosses the asari over it. There's a long time span between where Jada released the corpse and where there's a sound when the body hits the bottom.

Some lights at the other end appear and shine down towards her. She points her light back at them to obscure who's standing there.

"Who's that?" Jada hears someone shout.

"Uh… Altea!" Jada shouts back, trying her best to sound like the dead asari.

"Altea? Thank goodness!" The voice shouts back. "Where's the prisoner?"

"I don't know!" Jada shouts back. "The pylons malfunctioned and I think she escaped!"

"She couldn't have gotten past us." The voice says, musingly. "She must be still in the room! Spread out!"

Jada turns and walks toward the other end of the room. She looks over her shoulder to make sure they're not looking. She then shuts off her omni-tool light and vaults over the walkway. As she hangs on the edge she swings forward and hangs onto the underside of the walkway like a spider.

She starts crawling forward on the underside of the walkway, keeping her fingers hooked in the grating for support. Before her modification, she would've never been able to do this. But after it, everything that was hard got softer, everything that was resistant became pliant, everything that was strong became weak. Everything just got… easier.

She smiles as she crawls along the underside of the walkway, toward the other end. Everything is just so easy now. That's why she likes her job so much. It brings new challenges, every day.

Meanwhile…

Vaga walks alone into the hanger, fully armored and carrying his weapons with him.

He sees that the ship he's going to be traveling in isn't particularly large, but he wasn't exactly expecting it to be. A cargo loading ramp is lowered and two men load crates into it while Isaac sits on a crate.

He wears a short, high collar padded leather vest over an armored cuirass. His arms are covered with fashionable long leather sleeves with gloves attached along with bracers. He's wearing Alliance blue camo style pants with black knee pads and black boots. He also wears 5 pistols on his person, one in a shoulder holster, one on each leg in a leg holster and one on each hip in holsters on his belt.

He chews on a toothpick as he watches the two men work. Isaac quickly notices Vaga approaching.

He hops off the crate and offers a hand. "Hey. We're almost ready to leave, just some final technicalities to handle."

Vaga nods. "Good… where are the others?"

"They're both waiting on the ship… By the way, I thought you said you were taking two krogan, not 1 ½ krogan." Isaac jokes quietly.

Vaga chuckles.

"Well… actually to be fair, it's more like 3 krogan. That Tyrannax is worth 2 ½ at least." Isaac turns and looks at his ship.

Vaga chuckles again.

Isaac nods and waves for him to follow.

As they pass, Isaac pauses and directs his attention to one of the men loading the cargo. "Jacob, make sure all these crates get stacked neatly."

Jacob nods. "Yes, sir."

"Ah, ah!" Isaac scolds him. "You're on a real crew now, Mr. Taylor. You say 'Aye, aye' when you want to acknowledge something."

"Aye, aye, sir." Jacob says without stopping his work.

"Jacob, this is Vaga Kotka, he'll be the last passenger we'll be taking along with us. Vaga, this is my copilot and 1st mate, Jacob Taylor." Isaac says lazily.

Jacob places a crate down and holds a hand out to Vaga. "Pleasure to meet you."

Vaga nods and shakes his hand. "Likewise."

Jacob is a tall guy, slightly taller than Isaac. He is also a much more muscularly massive man than Isaac. Jacob wears a suit of light combat armor, plated by a few separate armor pieces. He's got an assault rifle on his back, along with a shotgun on his belt.

Isaac nods and continues up the ramp. They pass another person. This one is an angry looking and disfigured turian. He wears extremely heavy and restricting looking armor, with an assault rifle on his back and a handgun on his hip. He doesn't work and instead focuses on shaping some odd hollow metal cones, glancing up and grumbling at dockhands wandering the hanger.

"Vaga, this is the engineer and gunnery chief, Farro Germat. Farro this is-"

"I heard." Farro grunts, interrupting Isaac. "Now, fuck off."

Vaga glances at Isaac in shock. Isaac just ignores him, like this is common for him.

"Sorry about that." Isaac mumbles to Vaga out of courtesy after they're out of earshot of Farro.

"What's his problem?"

Isaac shrugs. "Lots of stuff. He's a bitter guy. He also once nearly drowned on Khaje so that may have given him some brain damage."

Vaga frowns and follows Isaac into the ship. He finds himself in a small cargo hold with a ladder at one end and a door marked Engine Room at the other.

"Your friends are up above in the guest quarters." Isaac mumbles examining a wall monitor. "We'll be underway in an hour."

Vaga is about to thank him, but he seems pretty much buried in the data streaming over the screen of the monitor. Vaga just sighs and climbs the ladder into the crew deck.

A small hall is where Vaga finds himself. A door at one side of the hall is marked Guest Quarters, the one at the other is marked Crew Quarters, and the door at the end of the hall is labeled Lounge.

Vaga enters the Guest Quarters and he finds himself in what looks like what used to be a storage room but was converted into a secondary crew quarters. There are four bunks lined up on either side of the room, with a few lockers next to each. There's a door at one side of the room, which Vaga assumes is the bathroom. There are a few crates stacked in the corner of the room next to the window, on top of which Tyrannax sits and stares out the window.

Hirvio, meanwhile, unpacks a bag, laying his clothing neatly on his bunk to be refolded.

Vaga nods at Hirvio and walks over to Tyrannax. Vaga raises his eyebrows when he sees that Tyrannax is assembling a handgun with blinding speed and shocking skill, without even looking at what he's doing. He just glares at the dockhands running around outside.

"How're you doing that?" Vaga asks sitting on a crate next to Tyrannax who continues to work.

"Doing what?" Tyrannax mumbles after a second. Before Vaga can respond, Tyrannax snaps the barrel in place, cocks the gun's heat sink, and turns on the mass accelerator.

The gun is a typical handgun except much larger and with an extended barrel modification, an angled grip, and a laser sight on the underside.

"Nice piece." Vaga mumbles examining the gun. "You're going to do some damage with that."

Tyrannax guffaws an explosive sounding laugh. "This isn't my gun. This one is for Hirvio."

Hirvio looks up and Tyrannax tosses him the handgun. Hirvio catches and examines it with a stern look.

"That one's for you. On the house." Tyrannax says, his voice shaking the room like a dragon's growl.

Vaga frowns and looks around the room for Tyrannax's weapons. He's already armored in some of the heaviest armors he's ever seen, but Vaga's more eager to see what guns he'll be using.

"Where're your guns?" Vaga asks him, still searching the room for them.

Tyrannax smiles and nods at a pair of very large metal crates. "In there."

Vaga nods at them. "There?"

Tyrannax nods. "Yeah. Go ahead."

Vaga stands and flips the catches on the uppermost case. He lifts the lid which assists him with a spring loaded snapping. Vaga's jaw drops.

Vaga's not even sure what he's looking at. It's longer than most sniper rifles, bulkier than most shotguns, and has got more crap stuck to it than most assault rifles. It's a huge gun, almost as tall as Vaga if he stood it upright. Its barrel also looks like it could fit Vaga's entire arm up to the shoulder and if he didn't have a fringe, could probably fit his head too.

He reaches down slowly and draws the Excalibur from the case, struggling greatly due to its immense weight. "What is this?"

"I haven't named it yet." Tyrannax says with a proud smile. "Though I've been tossing some names around. I think I'll call it… Kalros."

"Kalros?"

"She's the mother of all Thresher Maws on Tuchanka." Tyrannax smiles as he says it, reaching for his mother of all weapons. "This is my master piece."

"What is it, exactly?" Vaga asks, noting how it seems to fit Tyrannax like a glove. Hirvio walks up to the two of them, staring dissatisfied at his pistol.

Tyrannax thinks for a second. "Kind of a hybrid of a sniper rifle and a shotgun and an assault rifle. It's got the range and accuracy of a sniper rifle, the power and capabilities of a shotgun and the fire rate of an assault rifle. I can accurately shoot slugs or buckshot from this beast from up to 1000 yards at 400 rounds per minute. The drawback is it weighs a few hundred pounds, it has more recoil than if you got kicked in the head, and it often needs to be cooled manually."

"How do you do that?"

"Coolant tanks, mostly." Tyrannax responds. "Problem is the tanks weigh almost as much as the gun. The gun has six rotating heat sinks because they overheat with each shot, but the coolant tanks flash cool the heat sinks, which is what brings the fire rate. Unfortunately, this makes them easy to break. I usually need to replace the heat sinks in it after most engagements or even during, meaning I have to carry extras with me."

"So it's heavy and it's got a lot of baggage." Vaga says looking at the gun.

Tyrannax nods and props the gun against his shoulder. And with a mighty boom, louder than anything Vaga's ever heard before, the gun fires and digs a hole the size of Vaga's head into the ceiling.

"And it has a propensity to misfire." Tyrannax mumbles staring at the ceiling.

"What's in this other one?"

Tyrannax replaces his destroyer of worlds in its case. "See for yourself."

Vaga opens the case and raises his eyebrows at the contents of this one.

They appear to be ancient dual Claymore shotguns, except the grips of the gun are more toward the center and the barrels are snubbed and tipped with chokes.

"My first guns." Tyrannax says with a proud smile. "These are what modern Claymores are based off of. But I'd choose these any day. They lack the power of Claymores, but they make up for it in lighter weight and more usability and reliability. These two are among the last of their kind. I think there are only a few left in the galaxy. But these still kick harder than most to date."

He takes the shotguns from the case and slips them into holsters built into the sides of his thigh armor pieces.

He smiles. "Like a glove."

Vaga feels the ship rattle and he watches as it backs from the docking platform. "Looks like we're underway."

Tyrannax looks back out the window. "We're on our way then. A certain group of slavers better start praying to their Gods. Their last moments are at hand."

1:11 AM May 12, 2182

Alarms were screaming, making Zero's headache worse. People were shouting, making Zero's headache worse. And Zero's headache was making his headache worse.

Zero slowly opens his eyes, blinking blood from his eyes as he does. He's buried under some crates and the room is illuminated by flashing red lights and the flickering orange light of a blazing flame.

"Get that fire out now!" Someone roars.

"Captain!" Zero recognizes the voice of the man in the comedian mask from their kidnapping easily. "Captain, we have a situation in Detention! Our guests have escaped!"

"I know-" He roars, but he stops himself. There's a slight pause and when he speaks again his voice is filled with malice. "Both of them?"

"… Yes sir." The clown man says shamefully.

There's a bloodthirsty roar followed by a flash of blue light and a scream of pain.

"Dammit!" The batarian voice roars. "You and you, get that fire out now! The rest of you will follow me! Par'Thet, Craven! That means you too!"

Zero hears a number of footsteps and the sounds of a door opening and closing. Zero tries to stay quiet as he sits up and presses a hand to his forehead. Blood drenches his hand. He may have a concussion, but Zero doesn't care very much about that. He'll just keep fighting.

Zero climbs out of the pile of crates and takes a quick scan of the room. Two slavers attempt to put out the large blaze that was the Detention Center's main generator and they don't even notice Zero in the slightest.

Zero decides to save his energy and leave the main Generator room. He looks up and down the hall and limps down the hall to the right, toward the stairs leading to the main bridge.

Suddenly there's a loud gun retort from behind him. Zero dives into a small alcove to protect himself from the gunfire. He frowns when there is no further fire.

He peeks around the corner and looks down the hall.

Three slavers charge in his direction. No, they aren't charging. They're running.

Another gun retort sends one flying forward. He lands face first and slides a few feet before stopping. The other two just start running faster.

Another gunshot blasts the leg off another, causing him to howl with pain and cry out to the last runner.

The last runner starts sprinting as fast as he can down the hall and he passes Zero entirely before his head disappears in a red mist. He drops to his knees, slides a few feet, rotating slightly, before he falls limp.

Zero peeks around the corner again and sees Jada place her foot on top of the prone merc and blast him in the chest with her shotgun.

Zero sighs with relief and walks out into the open.

Jada snaps to attention and aims her shotgun at him quickly.

He raises his hands. "Whoa! It's me!"

Jada visibly relaxes with relief. "Zero! Goddamn, it's good to see you!"

She runs up and embraces him tightly.

"Jada? Are you crying?" Zero asks shocked.

She chuckles, her voice shaken by sobs. "Yeah… Are you drunk? Your voice is slurred."

"I think I have a concussion. I'll be alright." Zero replies, also noticing his words are slurred.

Jada pulls away and wipes her eyes. "Well, what's the plan now?"

Zero shrugs. "I don't know… Oh! I'll call Alex. I'll see what they're doing on their end."

Meanwhile…

"Alex?" Alex hears Zero say over the comm. Alex leaps from the couch and tries to grab the comm and mic before Nata has a chance to react, but Nelyna actually gets to it first.

"Zero!" Nelyna shouts into it, jamming the earpiece into her… ear?

Alex frowns and tries to figure out how asari ears actually work while Nelyna talks with Zero.

"Who's this?" Zero asks sounding confused.

"Nelyna! Are you alright? Please tell me you and Jada are okay!"

Zero sighs. "Yeah. We're fine. I don't know what you're getting so worked up over, we've been in sticky situations before."

Nelyna starts getting emotional. "But still! I mean, you guys are in danger! And Splicer is in stasis and… I can't-" She interrupts herself with those uncontrollable gasping sobs.

"Nelyna." Zero actually sounds like he's cringing. "Crying women make my terribly uncomfortable. Probably because I suck at comforting them… Uh… Please stop."

Nelyna is still unable to control herself so she just hands off the earpiece and mic to Alex.

Alex sighs and rolls her eyes. "Yeah Zero, how can I help?"

"Alex, good." Zero sounds quite relieved. "Good news, Jada and I escaped our cells. We need a plan of action though. What are you guys doing on your end?"

Alex sighs in relief. "That is good news. Well I have good news too: Vaga, Tyrannax, Hirvio, and a couple of other guys are flying in to help you guys. They'll get to Omega… Should be there by this afternoon."

"Thanks Alex. I think that's all I need. I think I know what we need to do… Is Nata there?"

Alex heart leaps to her throat. She looks at Nata nervously. "Yeah…"

"I know you told her, Alex."

"How?"

"Knowing you? You suck at lying. I kind of pieced it together." Zero pauses. "Can I talk to her?"

"Okay…" Alex takes the earpiece out of her ear. "Nata?" Nata looks up at her. "Zero wants to talk to you."

She sits fairly still for a second before she nods and holds her hand out. Alex places the mic and comm earpiece in her palm and Nata takes them out of the room.

She walks into that strange aquarium room. She liked that room.

Nata sighs, wipes the earpiece on the cloth adorning her suit. She takes a deep breath and removes her mask.

She quickly places the earpiece in her ear and places her mask back on.

She holds the mic close to her helmet. "Zero?"

There's a slight pause. "Nata."

"Zero, before you say anything…" Nata takes a deep breath. "I wanted to say that… I don't want you to worry about me. You don't need to. I'm safe. You need to worry about yourself… be selfish, for once."

She hears Zero chuckle softly. "Nata, I'm not worried about you at all."

Nata is slightly taken aback. "I don't understand."

"You're a strong girl. If you set your mind to something, and you're passionate about it, not even an iridium wall would stop you." There's a slight pause and Zero takes a deep breath. "I'm not worried about you, Nata. Because I know you aren't worried about me. There's an old turian saying: War is a wall, only which stands to keep two things apart. Nothing can keep us apart, Nata."

She smiles. "I know you'll get out of there alright. I love you, Zero."

"I love you too, Nata…" Zero is breathing heavily. "With all my… Heart…"

"Zero?" Nata feels her heart get lighter. "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

There's no response.

"Zero?" Nata starts to sob. "Zero!"

Meanwhile…

"Shit." Jada curses, after turning around when she hears something fall to the ground. That something being Zero.

It appears that he passed out or something.

"Concussions will do that." Jada mumbles walking over to his prone body.

Jada drags him into the alcove nearby and opens the door behind her. She quickly makes sure it's empty, which it isn't.

There's a guard sound asleep on one of the cots occupying the room.

She walks up to the sleeping guard and smashes his head with the butt of her gun. She drags Zero over to one of the vacant cots in the crew quarters and lays him down on it.

Jada sighs and quickly locks the door.

"Okay…" She mumbles to herself. "What now?"

She knows she should help Zero, but she doesn't know how. She also knows that she should try and reach Splicer, but she doesn't know where he is. She also knows that she should try to cripple the ship, but she doesn't know how to do that either.

Jada decides to just hunker down and do her best to help Zero recover as quickly as possible.

A/N: Uh, yeah so... um... not really much to say... Other than this chapter used to be a lot shorter. And the next one used to be a lot longer. I did a little bit of editing a while back. Balanced it out a lot better in my opinion.

Not really much more to say now... so... Have a nice day I guess. Oh, sorry about the slight tardiness of this chapter. I forgot to post it yesterday... got caught up with... stuff.

Anyways, leave a review if you want, favorite or add my story to your alerts if you feel up to it, and I'll see you next week if you don't mind. I like to stay neutral. I don't want to feel like I'm bossing you guys around.

Anyways, see you guys next Tuesday... or not, whatever. *Laughs awkwardly and rubs the back of head awkwardly* So... Yeah. I guess I'll see you. Or not. Maybe. Okay... bye.