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"Coming up on an hour without someone picking a fight with us." Quint chuckled. "Think that might be a record."

"I'm actually okay with that," Lia said as she looked around, taking in various details now that she had a bit of uninterrupted time to study her surroundings. The corridors and chambers had started to look alike after a while; most of them reminded her of the Ulnay's engineering section, though this place had a certain oppressive atmosphere that the ships of the Flotilla happily lacked.

She and the others had entered another haphazardly set-up marketplace, this one not far from the Afterlife club, with shops placed wherever they could be squeezed into an alcove. On the right was a small shop with a batarian behind the counter, and farther ahead on the left was one owned by an elcor. The two geth platforms split up, Yutani walking over to the former and Weyland heading for the latter.

Lia wandered over to the nearer counter and took a quick look at the items appearing on the kiosk in front of Yutani. Conduits, innocuous computer components, engine parts, and so on. Hmm. Innocent enough, I guess. She rejoined Quint and Dakka.

"Guess installing those new parts will be one of my duties when we get back aboard."

"Among other things, yeah," Quint said. "You'll have help, though; there's one more crew member you haven't met yet, named Magnum. She's our other heavy-hitter, but she also spends quite a bit of time in Engineering when we're not on a job."

"Ah, that's good to know. I'm looking forward to meeting her." Lia glanced at the platforms again. "Oh, while I'm remembering to ask, I'm curious about something Yutani said before the fight with the batarians. It referred to itself as an individual; before, it and Weyland always used 'we' instead of 'I' in conversations."

"That's something they learned to do after interacting with organics for a while." Dakka sniffed the air and turned toward a cafe on the left. "They found themselves having to explain the gestalt consciousness thing every time they met someone new, and eventually decided it was simpler to pretend to be individual beings when dealing with people who aren't familiar with geth."

"It's also one of their social experiments," Quint added, following Dakka--perhaps to stay within groping range, Lia guessed with a quick chuckle. "They've expressed curiosity about the individualism we organics prize so highly, and decided to stop communing with other geth for a while, and just see what happens. They back themselves up to the Sulaco's server and stand-alone storage devices, but haven't sent anything other than vocal messages and specific files back to geth space. I have to admit, I'm kind of curious to see how they develop, myself."

"Huh." Lia turned to look at her owners again. "It never occurred to me that geth were so motivated by simple curiosity."

"You assumed they were all just killing machines, eh?" Dakka shrugged. "So did nearly everyone else, before a few of us had a chance to communicate with them. I guess once they started learning stuff through Legion, they wanted more."

"Wow. Ever since I was a kid, I imagined the geth as little more than horrible monsters hell-bent on our destruction. Stories adults told children just to frighten them. And now..."

"You're seeing a whole new side of them. Chula had to go through a similar adjustment after they rescued her." Dakka leaned over to peruse the menu on the kiosk at the end of the cafe's counter. "That's actually one of their goals, aside from simply exploring and learning--they're trying to get the rest of the galaxy to see the geth in a new light."

"I...see." Lia kept watching the geth, finally turning away when they finished their transactions and came back to her, Quint and Dakka. She shook her head slowly. If we were so completely wrong about this, what else could we have gotten wrong?

Before she could ponder it further, her comm activated and a male voice came through abruptly.

"...please help..." The voice sounded turian.

Both platforms cocked their heads, as if listening. Dakka and Quint assumed a similar pose, then glanced at their Omni-Tools. At the counter behind them, several people turned to look at one of the control panels beside the register, and Lia realized that the plea for help must have come through every speaker and comlink within range.

"...pinned down..." Bursts of static overwhelmed the voice every few seconds. "...wounded...can't hold...much longer..."

Gunfire erupted at the edge of the turian's mic range, followed by a much closer shot and a more distant scream.

"Oh, boy," Quint muttered. "Looks like we've got ourselves a rescue mission, unless someone else gets to him first. Which, around here, is unlikely."

"Chula will want to be involved," Dakka said.

"We have notified her." Weyland operated its Omni-Tool. "Tracing the signal."

"Attempting voice-print match," Yutani said, tapping commands into its Omni-Tool. "Identity confirmed: Lantar Sidonis."

"Can anyone hear me?" The voice grew closer to hysteria with each syllable. "...injured quarian...trying to protect...got to get him out of here before--oh, fuck! Fuck! Fuck_!"_

More gunfire, several screams, an explosion--and the signal cut off.

Lia drew in a sharp breath. The wounded quarian Sidonis mentioned was probably someone like herself, who had tried to pass through here on his or her Pilgrimage.

"Location pinpointed." Weyland turned to look at a door not far from the cafe.

"Sweet." Dakka rubbed her hands together. "Lemme go pick up the gun I bought. I'll come back with Chula and Magnum."

"We should go on ahead; sounds like this guy doesn't have much time." Quint took a step toward the door. "You three can catch up with us."

"I know a shortcut to the Sulaco. We'll be right behind you." Dakka gave his ass a quick squeeze before turning away.

Quint raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "Ah, what the hell." He reached over and slapped her ass lightly before she was out of his reach.

"Oh!" Dakka grinned. "Now I'm motivated!" She sprinted back the way they'd come.

"You may need these." Yutani held its pulse pistols out to Lia.

Oh, Keelah. Her pulse jumped a bit as she accepted the guns and the spare thermal clips from the geth. After a moment's hesitation, she secured them to her hips and followed the others through the door, once again wondering what the hell she'd gotten herself into.

#

"Goddamn." Chula flopped back on her bed and took a moment to catch her breath. "You really know how to work the ol' neuro-stim hardware."

The asari took a few deep breaths before rolling over, putting her arms around Chula, and snuggling her. "You were quite impressive, too."

Chula shrugged. "I practice on myself a lot."

Her partner snickered.

"Heh. Y'know, I didn't even think to ask--what's your name, anyway?"

"Lakirra."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Chula." She cupped her hand around Lakirra's left breast.

"Definitely a pleasure." Lakirra laughed and rested her head on Chula's chest. "So, you planning to be here long?"

"Depends on how quickly we find work." Her comlink beeped and a text message from Yutani appeared in her heads-up display. "Oops. Getting a message from the captain."

We apologize for the interruption. A potential rescue operation has come up.

"Uh-oh, duty calls." Chula sat up with a sigh. She'd been ready to groan and curse the geth's lousy timing, but knowing someone was in danger and needed rescuing changed everything. "Damn. I'm really sorry, Lakirra, but it's an emergency."

"Don't worry about it." The asari slid off the bed and grinned. "Now, if the emergency had happened when we were still doin' it, I would've been upset."

"Heh. Me, too."

Lakirra picked up her clothes and put them back on. "Oh, while you were launching your neuro-stim's deluxe features, I instructed one of the LOKIs to bring your terrifying pile of weapons back here; they're waiting in the airlock."

Chula gasped and slapped a hand to her faceplate. "I was so hot to trot, I forgot I'd even left those there."

"Well, I'll consider that a compliment." Lakirra grinned and caressed Chula's breasts before heading for the door. She tapped a command into her Omni-Tool and nodded at the terminal on the desk in the far corner. "I left my comm number and email address; call me next time you're available."

"I'll do that." Chula put her boots, coat and hat on over her suit and followed Lakirra to the airlock. In the corner was a crate holding all the weapons Chula had turned over before the arena fight, and beside it was an even larger, sealed crate.

Running footsteps coming up the corridor behind her made her turn around. "Oh, hi, Mag."

"Hey." The dark-skinned human squeezed into the airlock with them, taking up a considerable amount of space. Lakirra looked her over slowly, her eyes wide. Magnum noticed and arched an eyebrow. "What? Never seen a fat chick before?"

"Honestly, no. Well, not counting volus." Lakirra grinned and opened the outer door. "I'm kind of intrigued. Listen, you two let me know if you're ever in the mood for a three-way. Or four-way. Or, hell, an orgy. I'm flexible." Chuckling, she walked down the corridor and waved. "See you around."

Chula waved back and laughed softly as she loaded up on her weapons.

"I got a message from Weyland," Magnum said, checking the thermal clip in her Mattock assault rifle and clamping the gun onto her back. "Just said it was urgent. So, what's up?"

"He didn't give me any details except to say it's a rescue op."

Magnum nodded, paused at the larger crate, and scanned it with her 'Tool. "That's a big gun."

"Ah, it's the one Dakka bought a while ago." Chula slipped the last of her weapons into her coat pocket and stepped out of the airlock in time to see Dakka charging toward her. Chula laughed and pointed at the crate. "It's right there."

Grinning, Dakka opened the crate, gasped, and picked up the six-barreled cannon. She hugged it as if it were a plushie. "Squee!"

Chula and Magnum exchanged a glance. Chula snickered.

"Okay, what are we getting into?"

"There's a turian trying to protect an injured quarian, but they're pinned down by whoever he's protecting the dude from." Dakka hung the cannon on her back and picked up a pack of thermal clips. "And this being Omega, there's probably nobody willing to help 'em."

Chula's mood did an instant about-face. She turned and strode down the corridor. "Okay, let's go save their asses."

#

"So, who is this Sidonis guy, anyway?" Lia said as they approached the target location.

"Dunno," Quint muttered, slowing as the sound of gunfire reached his ears. "Think I heard something about him on the news not too long ago. Went from here to the Citadel and tried to turn himself in to C-Sec for something he did here, but since Omega's not under their jurisdiction, they couldn't charge him with anything. Looks like they turned him loose and he came back here."

They passed through a series of doors, the gunfire growing louder, until Weyland held up his hand.

Quint nodded, glanced at Lia, and whispered, "They're in the next room. You ready?"

"Not really." She clamped one of the geth pistols in both hands, and Quint wondered if she could stop trembling long enough to aim straight. "Fuck it. Let's do this."

Yutani turned abruptly and aimed her confiscated sniper rifle back the way they'd come. She lowered it almost instantly, before Quint could look over his shoulder. Dakka was running toward them, with Chula and Magnum following. The new arrivals stopped behind Lia and looked around.

"Okay," Chula said, "what've we got?"

Weyland swept his Omni-Tool over the door. "The next room is a docking bay with seven shuttles parked inside. Two life forms, one turian and one quarian, are behind a the shuttle on the far side, and nineteen others are on this end."

"So, we have to go through them to rescue Sidonis and the quarian." Dakka grinned. "Works for me."

"You must be the new girl." Magnum smiled at Lia.

"Lia'Vael."

"Winchester Magnum. I'll explain the name later." She chuckled and shrugged. "Anyway, what's the plan, guys?"

"I'll distract these guys, whoever they are." Chula reached out to the door control. "See if you can slip around them while they have their eyes on me, and sneak our guys out."

"We will cover you." Yutani held her rifle ready, and Weyland drew his pulse rifle from his back.

"Okay. Here we go." Chula opened the door and strode through.

Quint readied his Omni-Tool and whipped out his Locust. He took cover at the edge of the door and leaned around to take a quick look. Two turians in Blue Suns armor crouched behind a huge crate on the left, and three humans behind a shuttle on the right. Across the hangar, three more humans wearing armor without the Blue Suns logo took cover behind a stack of crates.

An engine started up off to the left, out of his line of sight.

Chula walked past the Suns on the left, pretending not to notice them. They stared at her, exchanged a glance, and looked back at her. One of them pointed his rifle at her.

"Hey!"

Chula barely glanced at him. "Hmm? Oh, hey, what's up?" She kept walking past the crate and stopped. "Oh." She turned back to him and pointed at something Quint couldn't see. "Sweet ride."

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" the other turian snapped.

"Forward." Chula resumed walking. Quint and Dakka rushed through the door. The geth followed, darting to the right and covering the other three.

Both turians lunged at Chula. One of them grabbed her, put his left arm around her neck, and jammed the barrel of his rifle against the side of her helmet.

The firing stopped as the other mercs noticed the commotion.

"Seriously?" Chula grumbled.

"Shut up!" The turian pivoted, keeping her between himself and the Sulaco's crew.

Chula sighed, shoved her right hand under her duster, whipped out one of her Phalanx pistols, and jammed it under the turian's chin.

"What the fuck?" He froze.

His partner wrenched the cannon from Chula's hand. She immediately drew the other one with her left hand and jammed it into her captor's face.

"Wha--? He stared at the gun. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Quint flicked a glance to the right and saw Weyland and Yutani crouching behind the nearest shuttle. The three humans they'd had to pass by were sprawled on the floor with their necks snapped. While everyone's attention was on Chula, both platforms darted into the open and ducked behind the next shuttle.

The other turian reached out to grab Chula's gun. With her free hand, Chula took an incendiary grenade from her pocket and shoved it into her captor's mouth. He backed away with a muffled scream and she armed it before he lunged out of her reach. He grabbed at the grenade, but Chula spun and drove her foot into his chest, sending him staggering across the hangar and finally collapsing.

She emptied her Phalanx clip into the second turian's armor, and he ran for cover. She popped the clip and continued firing while darting behind the shuttle on the left.

Her grenade blew, sending out a half-dozen secondary explosives and splattering the sides of the shuttles with what was left of the turian.

"My turn." Dakka pulled the huge cannon from her back and stepped out into the open. She froze, cocked her head, and muttered, "Well, I'll be damned."

Quint joined her and stared slack-jawed at the gunship hovering a few inches above the floor at the far end of the hangar.

Its cannon swung around to aim at him and Dakka.

He turned and threw himself over the nose of the shuttle, skidding across its surface and slipping off the other side. He hit the floor, rolled, and risked a peek around the front end a split-second before the gunship fired.

Dakka stood her ground and blazed away with her new gun. Her shields flared and sparked as they vaporized the incoming fire, and her gun sprayed twenty thousand rounds per minute of incendiary ammo into the gunship, burning through its armor and shattering the canopy.

The pilot jerked and thrashed, hitting the controls randomly, and the gunship tilted and veered to the right.

Quint let a relieved sigh rush out.

Then the pilot slumped over the control panel, hitting a button that launched one of the ship's missiles.

"Aw, shit," Chula blurted. "Get out! Now!"

The missile struck the hangar doors and blew them clean off. The shockwave knocked Quint off his feet.

"Exhale!" Chula screamed.

Air whooshed past him as he let the breath rush from his lungs and picked himself up. Only for a few seconds--then there was no more air left to vent into space, and he was surrounded by a silence more impenetrable than anything he could've imagined.

Unable to even gasp for breath, he took a step toward the hatch before seeing that it had closed, sealing the hangar off from the rest of the station. He rushed up to it, activating his Omni-Tool and trying to hack the lock even as consciousness began to slip away.

Shit...pass out in maybe five more seconds, dead less than a minute after that. He looked over his shoulder and found Dakka staring at him with her mouth hanging open. Suddenly, in the last second he had left, she was beautiful.

I should've...

Darkness closed in on him.