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Book I

The Colony at Brenn's Rock

1. The Waltz of Treachery

Annike stood at the door to Rowels' cabin for a few moments, gathering herself. She cracked her knuckles and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Part of her was fully confident, that she could take him out easily, a kick in the jaw ought to do it, but another part simply chastised the first for being cocky.

Remember what happened the last time you overestimated your enemy, Annike.

I know, I know.

Rowels was a weakling, but even a weakling could plant a dagger in your back if you offered them the chance, and the chastising part of Annike kept reminding her about that. She shook her head and let herself inside. Rowels was sitting at his dinner table fussing over his data pad.

"What the hell is wrong with our communications?" He nearly shrieked, throwing his data pad down on the table.

"Must be the storm coming up on us."

"Oh save it, woman, you know very well there's no storm. Until I've secured the payment, I'd rather avoid their unnecessary contact with the colonists. Honorable or not, they have the guns, we have naught but the turian."

Annike crossed her arms behind her back and walked slowly toward him. "True, but like you said, the mercs are honorable. Don't tell me you're having second thoughts."

"Of course I'm not! I promised them that I would give them the turian, and they promised they'd pay me. Mercenaries or not, we have a contract!"

Rowels pounded his fist upon the table and it was then that Annike realized that, probably for the first time in his life, things were not going according to plan for the great Nicholas Rowels. A lifetime of either getting what he wanted or making things the way he wanted (and to hell with those who got in the way) had made the man overconfident and clumsy. These two feelings Annike knew all too well (although her own experience came from her own hotheaded choices) and shuddered at the thought of having something in common with him. To think, all it took was simply a salarian boy to kick Rowels off of his proverbial tower of stability confidence! She had to stifle an evil laugh.

"You're nervous, scared of the Gray Equinox, aren't you! What about your huge speech about gaining power and protection under these fuckers!"

Rowels jumped to his feet and snarled at her, "You bitch! I am scared of no mercenary; come Gray Equinox, Blue Suns, Eclipse, or even the fucking Blood Pack! When the Gray's arrive and take away that bastard turian, Kanithan, I'll make sure you ship off with him!" He brandished a pistol and advanced at her, swinging it wildly.

Annike's lip curled upwards in pleasure as she blocked his blow from the right with her forearm, then curled it around his own arm and yanked upwards. Rowels shrieked as his shoulder dislocated with a wet snap and a mixture of sweat and tears rolled down his face. He dropped his pistol and gaped at her. She released him and he went down with a thump, clutching his shoulder.

The soldier pressed a few buttons on her omni-tool and Rowels' voice replayed: When the Gray's arrive and take away that bastard turian, Kanithan, I'll make sure you ship off with him!

_ _ Realization flared on Rowels' face in a mixture of fury and fear. He staggered to his feet, but the gesture caused his heart to beat heavily and that in turn caused his shoulder to pulse with a sickening pain. He fell to his ass, staring up at her.

"You sniveling little fucker, you hide behind your long speeches and half-cocked smile and go off on these stupid ass flights of fancy, thinking you can barter with mercenaries," She made a face and spoke with an affected voice, whiny and nasally but it clearly resembled Rowels: "Once I sell Kanithan to the mercs I can buy all kinds of sparkly shit for me and my buddies!"

Rowels looked up at her and spit. It landed on her shin with a wet splat.

"You're one who won't limp away," she turned to leave.

"Oh, yes, my dear," Rowels said through haggard breaths, "your failed bust mission, keep thinking that anything you can do will make up for failing to bring him in and finally grant justice and peace to Tyress. Keep thinking that you aren't just a childish soldier who went in half-cocked and inexperienced. Keep thinking that this won't just fail like every other aspect of your life." Rowels grinned smugly at her.

Annike turned and looked at him darkly, advancing toward him. "You're right; this won't make up for that failure. That failure is for me, and only me. What happens here is for more than myself, I won't fail," she grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pushed him against the wall. "The difference here is that now I don't have any witnesses." She drew back her fist.

Rowels squealed and shut his eyes tight and Annike laughed.

"You aren't even close to worth it." She relished his terror. "No, I'll get more pleasure knowing you'll be crying to yourself each night in prison."

She ignored his constant stream of babblings intermixed with curses and pleadings and stomped on his pistol a few times until it was in pieces, then left and locked the door behind her.

"Annike? Annike!"

She pressed to fingers behind her ear, "Talk to me, Sam."

"Good news, turns out I have a few friends who owe me. They're on their way; they should be there in two hours tops."

Annike sighed but nodded to herself, "I suppose that's the best we can do. Thanks Sam, I'll tell the guys."

"The guys?" "Right, yeah, in addition to evacuating me and Rowels, I have a turian and salarian that need passage to the Citadel. I trust your friends don't have problems with that?"

"Oh, not at all."

"Good, good. In the meantime, see what you can do about contacting some other colonies here on Borlaran and see if they will take in those at Brenn's Rock. I think that will be easier than trying to find someone to lead them, especially right now."

"Why?"

"Well, their trusted and amazing leader has been dealing with mercs and pretty much cares nothing for them; and once they find out, I really doubt they'll want to deal with the hassle of politics for a while."

"Ah, true, true. Let's see... data here says that the Colony of Deryn is closest, I'll get in touch with them and see what they can do."

"Get in touch with a couple, this has been far too easy so far, I'm expecting something bad to happen."

"Right. Be careful. Oh, and Annike?"

"Yes?"

"You owe me a beer."

They laughed and for a moment Annike thought they might actually pull it off.

"Honey, if we make it out of this I will buy you two," Annike replied and shut off her comm. device. She hurried back to the hangar.

When she entered, Rithe sighed, "Finally, I thought something had happened." He crept from the shadows and holstered the pistol Ilwen had managed to find for him on one of the gun racks in a storage room of the hangar. Thankfully, Ilwen had said, the humans here keep their weapons in better shape than their vehicles.

"You should know something about us human women: we take our time getting things just right whether it is our hair, our nails, or putting pissants in their place. Rowels is currently stewing in his own self-pity and anger."

"You think he'll try to kill himself?"

"Nah, he's stupid but he isn't that stupid. Hell, maybe even deep down he knows he deserves to go to prison..." Annike popped herself on the forehead with the palm of her hand. "Yeah, my ass. Anyway, what's the plan now boy-o? I see you found a weapon. Good. Oh, yeah, my contact says that our pickup will be here in a few hours. She's also gonna talk with some other colonies to take in those who will be left here."

Rithe thought for a moment and looked at Ilwen, then back at Annike. He went out of the hangar and took a deep breath. "Easier to think out here." He looked at the far horizon and narrowed his eyes. "I don't see the mercs."

"Here, have a look through this." Annike tossed her rifle to him; he looked through the scope and scanned the road.

"Much better... There they are. Damn it, they're making good time, but at least they are on foot like I thought. Wonder why they'd land so far away, too, like we did."

"Probably seizing our ship," Ilwen said resentfully. "Rowels probably promised that to them."

Rithe nodded. "Probably. All right, we've got maybe an hour, tops. Is there anything we can use around here to get an advantage? The Mako's?" Annike glanced back at the hangar, "Some still work as we use them to hunt varren and to carry supplies from one colony to another."

"I'll get on it," Ilwen said and went back into the hangar.

Rithe glanced through the rifle's scope again. "The mercs are armed. How likely do you think it is that they have weapons simply for protection?"

The soldier laughed, "I'd sooner believe Rowels himself would sprout wings out of his ass and fly around vomiting up diamonds than believe that the mercs are worried about protecting themselves from a small colony like this."

"I agree." The turian rolled his shoulders and looked at Annike, tossing the rifle back to her, "Looks like you won't need those stun shots anymore."

Annike grinned and switched her ammunition back, "Whatever you say El Capitan."

"Any other entrances to this camp? The walls aren't that high but they should help."

"Nah, the only entrance is the one we came through."

Rithe nodded toward the large gate and he and Annike went over to inspect it.

"There's a console to control the door here somewhere. Ah, here it is." Annike fiddled with the terminal and a large slab of steel serving as the door slid upwards out of the ground and locked with a satisfying click.

"This will help a lot." Rithe tapped on the slab with a knuckle. It was solid, at least eight inches thick. "Hell, they might just figure it too much trouble and turn around and leave."

The soldier smirked at Rithe, "What, you aren't worth breaking down a large chunk of steel for?"

Rithe chuckled, "I hope not."

Ilwen came running down the path toward them, kicking up puffs of dry, sterile dust.

"What? What is it?" Rithe said, fearing the worst.

The salarian panted softly as he spoke, "Got a Mako working, I have control with my omni-tool..." he maneuvered his fingers and twisted his wrist and the Mako came rumbling down the path toward the three. It stopped with a rusty squeal and sat there, engine purring softly.

Ilwen grinned up at them, quite proud of his handiwork and when Rithe nodded at him he smiled more. "I have control over the gun too, but I won't demonstrate that. Element of surprise, you know?"

"Nice thinking," Rithe said.

"I'm starting to think we'll actually make it," Annike said and patted the salarian's shoulder.

Rithe nodded, "Okay, so position it somewhere innocuous, but well within the line of sight from this door. Best case scenario is we can funnel them through and take them out easily. Well, best, best case, would be if they just turned around and left."

"Won't the colonists wonder what's going on?"

Annike shrugged, "I heard talk that the cabins are soundproof, should be okay. Assuming they aren't in on Rowels' plan, they might just figure it's the pounding of hail or something."

Rithe waved the question away, "We'll deal with that when we have to, if we have to. Chances are we will be feared or hated or loved depending on how they react to all this," he turned to Annike and grinned, "There's still time to scurry away and feign ignorance to all of this if you're scared."

She flipped him off good-naturedly.

"All right, so now we wait-"

A loud tang emanated from the steel door. The three froze for a moment before Rithe nodded to Annike and Ilwen. They walked over to the console and Annike activated the camera on the opposite side of the wall, the image of twelve mercenaries appearing instantly. They each carried a rifle as Rithe had observed, and one near the back, the tallest of the group, carried a sniper rifle. The long tube of its barrel gleamed in the sun.

He's the leader, no doubt about that, Rithe thought. He's dangerous, too.

"Such a small group," Annike said out of the corner of her mouth.

The sniper immediately looked up at the camera and narrowed his eyes and Rithe wondered how his face managed to stay in one piece with so many scars. His eyes were a startling blue and almost looked kind, ironic compared to the way the rest of him looked.

Annike cleared her voice, "Hello?"

The men, except for the blue-eyed sniper, drew their weapons and swung nervously about and Rithe chuckled. "Freelancers. I guess I'm really not worth that much."

"Pout later, Rithe," Annike said and spoke again into the console, "Yo, morons!"

Blue pushed his way to the front and looked up into the camera; his lip turned upwards just a bit, "I hear there's something special here in this camp. Something my boss is very interested in."

"Oh, right, and who would that be?"

"Need to know, baby, need to know."

Annike laughed. "Of course, and if you told me, you'd have to kill me, right? Either way there's nothing here for any of you."

Blue chuckled and shook his head, "If I weren't so sure - if I weren't so sure you were lying, I'd turn around and march my ass off this oven of a planet; but instead, how about opening this door for us, pretty lady, and we'll have a look ourselves?"

"You and the eleven other bumbling heroes?"

At that, the group of younger freelancing mercs started whooping and shouting curses at the camera.

"Quiet! Yes my dear. Twelve gentlemen in your camp of a hundred is hardly in our favor, don't you agree? You know, as secretive as you're being, I'm even more convinced that you have our prize here. So how about you let us in?"

"No."

"Now now, we didn't bring these guns for show and while I'd like to avoid any bloodshed, you're making it quite hard for me to resist the temptation."

Rithe nudged Annike's shoulder and shook his head, preempting her caustic reply. "Let them in," he said, back stepping away from her. He retreated behind the shade of a nearby cabin, drawing his pistol.

Ilwen ran over to hide behind the Mako, prepping his omni-tool.

After taking a deep breath, Annike pressed a few buttons on the console and the door came down with a harsh grind.

"My, my, you are a pretty lady. A smart one, too."

1. A Game of Chess

Annike had drawn her rifle and was resting it casually on one shoulder. Blue and his lackeys stepped over the threshold and stood clustered together, looking around - the blue-eyed sniper eyeing everything with open suspicion.

"Everyone sick?"

Annike shook her head, "No, they just think a storm's on its way. Let's hope it passes by peacefully, eh? For everyone's sake."

"Ah, I see, smart that they should stay in their cabins while the storm passes," he chuckled, "All right, enough of the metaphors, let us just collect the turian and we will be on our way."

"I really have no idea who this turian is you speak of."

"Girl you are trying my patience, bring me the damned alien or I'll take you in his stead."

Annike shrugged.

Blue walked around her, eyeing her derisively, "Yes, I think you'll work nicely. After all, a soldier is a soldier." He pushed her toward the other mercs.

One of them grinned at her, his mouth more gum than teeth and his breath rank. He grabbed her by the hair and yanked upwards. She let out a pained snarl and swung the butt of her rifle toward him, but Blue grabbed it and tossed it aside.

The next thing she was aware of was the toothless merc's loosening grip, then the loud pock, and finally the hole that had suddenly appeared above his right eyebrow. His head fell limply to the side limply and he tumbled over. Annike glanced over her shoulder and saw that Blue was stunned, so she rammed her elbow against his jaw and bounded over behind the cabin where Rithe was hidden.

The barrel of his pistol was still smoking and he handed it to her, and then touched the amp at the base of his neck absently, as if to make sure it was still there. Across the road, the Mako roared to life and Blue and his cohorts scattered behind a stack of crates meant for the cabin Annike had been setting up. The toothless merc lay sprawled out on the ground, his arms twitching as the final synapses of his brain fired and then went silent forever.

Rithe peeked around the corner quickly then drew his head back. "All right, six on the left and five on the right, Blue's with the six. Those crates bulletproof?"

Annike nodded.

The turian raised his wrist to his mouth and spoke, "Run them down, Ilwen," and then watched as the Mako roared to life and bounded across the road, crashing into the crates and the two unfortunate mercs who weren't fast enough. Their cries of pain devolved into howling shrieks as the Mako's wheels spun on top of them, tearing them apart.

"Rithe, that destroyed one of the Mako's wheels, I can't control it anymore. The gun is still operational, however."

"Save it, Ilwen, we don't know if these were the only guys they'll send."

"Right."

Rithe took another peek around the corner and saw no sign of the mercs. "Huh, perhaps they've-"

"Rithe..."

It was then that Rithe became aware of the gun muzzle pressed against the back of his neck.

"Up, slowly."

He obeyed, turning around to face the merc. It wasn't Blue, which made Rithe both relieved and disappointed.

The merc looked at Annike, "One move and I do to your friend what he did to mine."

Bluish-purple light flowed from Rithe's eyes and fists. The merc staggered backwards in fright and turned to run but Rithe slammed his fist against the man's chest and in an instant the merc was propelled through the air and into the nearby wall headfirst. He died instantly.

"Jesus, Rithe... Remind me to never piss you off."

Rithe chuckled and turned toward the road, still glowing softly. Everything seemed to slow down just a bit, barely noticeable, but noticeable nonetheless, like the sound of hummingbirds' wings. Rithe walked slowly, deliberately, the rest of the world, universe, Ilwen, Annike - all falling away and becoming insignificant. His purest instincts came forward and their message was simple. Ironically, they spoke with the voice of Xeriln.

Fight... And protect.

Barrages of bullets pelted his barrier but his indignation and resolve gave him the physical and mental strength to withstand it. He felt the pain of the shots as fiery sparks in his skull, but the bullets merely disintegrated into harmless dust against his barrier. He marched toward the group of mercenaries, all of them the witless freelancers. Blue was nowhere to be found, but that was unimportant. Rithe threw his arm forward and yanked it back, and one of the mercs was whipped toward him by an invisible force. The turian's fist closed around the man's neck and squeezed hard. Something snapped, and he dropped the limp body.

Rithe grinned wickedly as another two mercs dropped dead from Annike's cover fire. He could feel her eyes watching him warily, no doubt a memory of her own experience with his biotics surfacing somewhere in the far corners of her mind.

He spoke and his voice was completely calm, "Talk to me Ilwen."

"Blue ran off, god it's amazing watching you fight, Rithe..."

"Stay covered, you won't be able to watch if you die."

"Right."

Rithe twisted his neck and sighed when it popped gently; he watched as Annike put a bullet in another mercenary's head. The turian looked down by his right foot and saw her rifle, and absently kicked it backwards to her. She shouted a thank-you and he could hear her escalating laughter.

For a moment, he realized she must get the same sadistic pleasure from the thrill of fighting as he did, but that thought was blocked out as his instincts enveloped his mind again.

Fight and protect, Rithe. Fight and protect.

"Commander, the alien's a biotic!" One of the mercs screamed, "Watch-" his sentence was cut short as Rithe flung him into the air and let him drop.

Another mercenary appeared from the right side of the large gate and before he could shoot, Annike filled his stomach with lead. He fell to his knees and screamed, then lurched back behind the wall.

From the corner of his eye, Rithe sensed movement and he turned his head so fast that the last merc dropped his gun and simply stared into those demonic, glowing eyes. He threw his hands into the air and then threw himself onto the ground. Rithe nodded once at him and the gratitude in the man's eyes was more than obvious as he began sobbing loudly, grateful for his life even if it meant going to prison.

"Looks like the ass with the sniper is the only one left," Annike said from somewhere far behind Rithe.

"He probably ran off," Rithe began in a calm, almost droning voice, "He seems like the kind of person who-" His words were cut off as an immense spike of pain ruptured through his skull and he felt the skin over his left shoulder split open and warm, sticky blood begin to run down his arm. He gasped and cursed loudly but forced himself to stay concentrated. He darted behind the Mako and panted softly. "Nope, he's still here it seems."

Annike peered around the corner and surveyed the surrounding area. "I don't see him; he couldn't have gotten far... Are you okay?"

Rithe waved his hand dismissively. "It's nothing, my barrier kept the bullet from doing more than giving me a nasty scratch."

The soldier looked at Rithe worriedly, then shrieked in surprise as a thundering clap of gunfire preceded the alarmingly large dent that appeared right next to her head. She cursed and ran around the cabin, motioning Rithe over quickly. The turian threw himself beside of her.

"The asshole's behind us!" she cried and spit onto the ground. "He used the freelancers as a distraction! Shit, he could be anywhere back there!"

"Eh-excuse me..." the merc Rithe had pardoned before began in a small voice. He began to continue, but looking into the turian's violet eyes stayed his words, and he simply turned his omni-tool's communication device to its speaker setting.

"Ah, much better," Blue's voice said. "You've managed to cause quite a bit of trouble, turian. You killed some good, ah, well they were men, regardless; but I'm willing to forget all of that, if you come quietly. I'll allow you all to step out in the open and relinquish all of your weapons, oh and that dreadful amp as well, and toss them away, and then we five shall leave these poor people in peace. Oh, and Hildebrandt..."

The mercenary winced, "Ye-yes, sir?"

"You're fired.

"I'll give you thirty seconds, turian, to gather your squad mates - and that includes the salarian - and surrender. Or, we can continue this game of chess; but with just a knight, queen, and two pawns I doubt you'll get far. I will start timing now." Blue's voice cut off.

"Ilwen, get over here, now."

The salarian didn't question and instead ran over as fast as he could and dropped to his knees beside Rithe.

"Twenty seconds at most, quick..."