Samael61
patreon
ME3 Chapter 5 - Shepard and Traps
🕑 Added 2026-01-22 21:34:18 +0000 UTCOmega
“Ahz, how are we looking?” Aria asked her chief engineer.
“All systems operational. Full Omega schematics coming online now,” the salarian reported. The locations of the force fields were shown. There were also several dark spots.
“I see. Shepard, those force fields we saw? The general has them set up everywhere,” she explained.
“He is controlling access across the station.” Petrovsky was dividing and conquering Omega. With the force fields active, anyone who tried to go through would be burned to ashes. It made organized resistance extremely difficult.
Too bad Petrovsky had chosen the losing side.
He still wondered how Cerberus acquired so much Collector tech.
“What are these dark areas?” he asked.
“Many sections of Omega are powered down. I’m betting power is being siphoned to run those force fields,” the salarian explained.
“Find the source. Priority one,” Aria ordered. Once the force fields were down, she would enjoy watching the light fade from Petrovsky’s eyes.
“Garrus, tactical assessment of all Cerberus positions,” he said to the turian. He and Aria could reroute the power, and Garrus would have Aria’s little army storm the gates.
“On it.”
“Thanks to you and your team, our losses were negligible,” Aria admitted, glancing at the retreating turian, “We can face Cerberus as soon as those force fields are down.”
“Sorry to interrupt,” Bray, Aria’s right-hand Batarian, said.
“What is it?” she drawled.
“I turned away for a second to offload supplies. When I looked back…” the barbarian explained.
Aria had ordered Bray to keep an eye on Nyreen. He knew the female turian was definitely planning something, but he had more important matters to consider. Whatever it was, she was unlikely to be working with or for Cerberus.
“You lost her,” Aria accused. Having the only person aside from her and Shepard’s team now who knew the secret passages be out there was a gaping security risk.
“Well, I…” Bray was lost for words, and Shepard intervened to save the only batarian he somewhat tolerated, “Nyreen was a cabal. A second was all she needed.”
“This bunker has secret access points to other parts of the station. Unfortunately, Nyreen knows them.”
“Damn it, Bray, if you weren’t so useful,” she left the sentence unfinished.
“Shepard, we found something in the station’s security logs,” Ashley called him over.
“The Talons? They are still resisting, huh?” Aria chuckled. She did not expect Derius to be so apt at fighting Cerberus.
“Who are they?” He didn’t know these Talons, which made them not that important.
“A gang that filled the power vacuum after your turian friend painted the walls with mercs,” she tilted her head towards Garrus, “Their leader, Derius, took advantage of the situation and carved the Talons a bigger piece of the local drug trade.”
“Let’s leave them be as long as they are keeping Cerberus occupied,” he rolled his shoulders. More troops would have been useful, but gangs like Talons were too unamenable.
“I agree,” Aria said. The
“Actually, I think assisting the Talons could be worthwhile. Cerberus has sent a large force to neutralize them. An assault from the rear could significantly reduce the enemy numbers.”
“We also need to shut off these force fields,” Kaidan added.
“Garrus, take half the forces and prepare to assist the Talons,” he said. The base was in a well-defended position. Half of Aria’s army could do more than just defend it.
The turian unholstered his rifle. “What about you?”
“EDI, have you found a way to deactivate the fields?” He turned to the sole synthetic member of his crew.
“Cerberus is siphoning power from a reactor deep within Omega’s mines,” she said, highlighting the location.
The advantages of having an AI.
“Unfortunately, access is cut off by the force fields themselves,” Ahz said.
“This powered-down area,” he pointed, “We could go through it and take that elevator to the reactor.”
“Good eye, Shepard,” the deposed queen of Omega nodded.
“Then I’ll go save those Talons while you two shut down the force fields,” Garrus said, leaving to gather the necessary forces.
—
“We’re arriving at one of the eezo processing plants. It’s been powered down, so we’ll have to pry open the door,” Aria gestured. The entire area was dark, with not even emergency lighting.
At least there was enough air.
“I’ll get it,” he said. Pushing the door open, he allowed Aria to pass first.
“Access to the mines should be on the far side,” she said. The asari stopped mid-step, eyes locking on the Cerberus corpses strewn around the catwalk.
Blasted with an explosive weapon or shredded to parts, the Cerberus troopers seemed to have suffered heavy losses. The interesting part was the lack of what could have done this.
“Garrus, Cerberus lost control of the adjutants,” he informed the turian.
Aria had given him every piece of intel she had on Cerberus, including their latest weapons, the adjutants. They were created with Reaper tech and were extremely lethal.
Blue, hulking creatures with a cannon in one arm, tubes coming out of their faces, and a sack on top of their heads, Cerberus had outdone themselves in how fucking stupid and inhumane they could be.
If they barged into the middle of the strike force, casualties would be high.
“Again? Don’t they ever learn?” Garrus complained amid weapons fire.
“Apparently not. Watch out for them,” he said.
“We’ll be on the lookout. The Talons are getting hammered hard, but we are about to worsen it for Cerberus.”
“Give them hell.”
“The one that killed the Cerberus troopers must still be alive,” he noted. The attack was most likely unexpected since the Cerberus forces lacked heavy weapons.
That and he could hear something groan ominously.
“Petrovsky must have locked this place down to keep it inside,” Aria scowled.
She had out-of-control biosynthetic monstrosities running across her station now.
“The elevator to the reactor is through that door,” she said, but just like the entire section, it was powered down as well.
“It’s deactivated.”
“There should be a master circuit breaker somewhere to power this place up.”
“Let’s follow those cables,” he said, climbing up the ladder first while Aria watched his back.
“The whispering’s receding. You must have scared it off,” she said once at the top.
Shepard chuckled, “Now we know they are smarter than Cerberus.”
Not that the bar was high when it came to the common Cerberus grunts.
“Down the ladder,” she said, and they were on the ground once again.
“There is the power control,” Aria pointed out. Shepard pressed the big red button, and the consoles flared to life. It would take a couple of minutes for everything to come online.
“When this is over, there'll be a lot of repairs to make,” she mused. Petrovsky had turned her den of comfort into a military base. She would have to spend a small fortune to fix everything.
“Try not to let the civilians get screwed over,” Shepard requested.
“Sure, sure.”
An adjutant broke through the glass panel at the corner of the room, raising its cannon arm to fire. Shepard reacted the moment the glass broke. A laser bolt found its mark, and the charging cannon exploded. Blue liquid and flesh splattered over the walls.
The adjutant reeled, allowing Aria and Shepard to rain fire on it.
“Nice shot,” Aria said, lowering her gun. She was still watching the corpse, just in case it decided to have any last-second surprises.
“Shepard, we found the leader of the Talons,” Garrus reported over the comms.
“Derius?” Aria asked. If Vakarian caught that bastard, then there was a chance the Talons could be compelled to join her army.
“No, your ex,” Garrus replied, unknowingly wiping Aria’s smirk off.
“Nyreen? Well, well, isn’t she full of surprises?” she said. Her fist was clenched hard, and she looked ready to erupt.
Not only had Nyreen been keeping things from her, but she most likely also showed the secret passages to the Talons. It would explain how they managed to survive so far.
“What’s the situation with the Cerberus?” Aria’s love problems were amusing to watch, and he would savor these moments once Petrovsky was taken down.
“They are stuck between us and the Talons, but they also have air support.”
“Keep me updated.”
Shepard and Aria raced to the elevator, but a single adjutant got in their way. He shot the cannon as it was about to fire, repeating his earlier feat.
“You know, I saw those things tear entire squads apart. Yet you make it look so easy.”
“You just have to be a good shot.”
“Uh oh, more adjutants.”
“The elevator is on its way,” he informed. Unholstering his minigun, Shepard pressed the trigger.
The darkness of the processing plant was lit up with the crimson light of his gun. The adjutants were slow, except for when they jumped. Which made them easy targets.
Aria stopped firing and leaned on her back. She might as well be trying to kill the adjutants with her words.
Bringing Shepard had already proven to be an excellent idea.
Several times, in fact.
Once reasonably sure that the adjutants were all dead, he entered the elevator.
“The reports claimed the adjutants could transform organics into more adjutants. I wonder why it didn’t touch the Cerberus troopers.”
“Guess you didn’t see it, but they are all mutated with Reaper tech. It is possible something interfered.”
“How ironic. Humans produced monsters like Cerberus, yet also the greatest hero in galactic history.”
“You can hear the drills. Damn it, they shouldn’t be straining like that.”
“Cerberus needs all the resources it can get after the Alliance took most of it down.”
“Access to the reactor is somewhere on the upper level.”
“The area could be guarded.”
His warning was on point. Several Cerberus forces were stationed in the drilling area and opened fire as soon as he was sighted.
He shot a Centurion that peeked out of cover on the left and a trooper on the right. Aria was using her biotics to throw the enemy off the ledge to their doom.
Another Centurion threw him a grenade, and he returned it to the sender. Sprinting across the platform, he lashed the Centurion hiding behind smoke. Pulling him over the railings, Shepard dissipated the biotic attack.
“We can use that maintenance elevator across the way,” Aria said. As if something had heard her, the elevator came crashing down.
“An alternate route, then,” he grumbled. Jumping down, he rolled into cover as more Cerberus goons opened fire.
“Aria, I am going up.”
“I’ll keep them occupied.”
Shepard activated his anti-gravity generator. He jumped, launching himself out of cover. Spinning to dodge the enemy fire, he shot the Nemesis first and the Centurion next to her.
Aria had taken the troopers on the lower platform. He circled around, flanking the enemy using smoke as cover. A single shot to the Centurion’s head put him down.
He considered flying to the reactor control, but Cerberus was likely entrenched. He landed and followed Aria down to the conveyor belt.
“Bastards are running this place too hot. It’ll burn out in a month.”
“Guess they are in a hurry.”
More troopers, assisted by mechs this time, were waiting on the conveyor belt.
Bringing his biotic tower shield out, Shepard pushed ahead. The shots from the Nemesis, Centurion, or the mechs were useless against him. A well-placed shot blew up the shield generator.
A biotic singularity from Aria pulled the mechs together, breaking their shields. He shot one, leaving the other to the asari.
Dropping the shield, he charged at the Nemesis. The force of the biotic attack slammed her to the railings with a sharp crack.
Ducking under the shot, he twisted the Centurion’s arm and put the pistol beneath his chin before pulling the trigger.
Hacking the door, he climbed up another ladder. Rushing up the stairs, he heard the shouts of the Cerberus soldiers.
One relayed that the new orders were to retreat, while another screamed to defend the reactor.
A grenade fell right in front of him. Without hesitating, he stabbed the Assault Trooper with his omni-blade through the head. Pulling the screaming man back, he dropped him right on top of the grenade. The heavy armor and the enhanced body contained the blast.
Some mechs and Cerberus troopers were clustered. He switched the pistols to microwave mode. The beam caused the mechs to explode while incinerating the Reaper-enhanced humans.
Aria killed the last trooper, and they finally found an elevator that worked.
“Petrovsky must have been prepared. Get ready for a trap.”
Once the elevator reached the top, he found one Cerberus engineer setting up defenses. Aria, who seemed to take pleasure in throwing the enemy over the ledge, did the same to the engineer.
Climbing down yet another ladder, he and Aria were crossing a catwalk to reach the reactor when a section of the platform fell down.
“You haven’t been skimming on the maintenance budget, have you?” he said with a light voice.
“I am not some corrupt human bureaucrat, Shepard.”
Up the ladder that he hoped would be the last one, the elevator to the reactor was in sight.
“You noticed how silent it is now?” she asked. The elevator was going up, and the war could finally begin.
“As I said, they are preparing for a trap.”
“Let’s go spring it, then.”
This entire route, in fact, was a trap. He read Petrovsky’s psych evaluation and his entire dossier, starting from the day he was a cadet.
Oleg Petrovsky was cunning, willing to make sacrifices, and a master of traps. What awaited them at the reactor, he didn’t know, but it was bound to be interesting.
The elevator reached the reactor room, and he moved first. He stopped before passing by the consoles. Whatever trap Petrovsky prepared, this area was the perfect place for it.
“What is it?”
“Wait here,” he said, handing something to Aria.
“Fine.”
He walked in alone, holstering his pistols. As he expected, once close enough to the reactor controls, the entire area was cut off with the incinerator force fields.
A holo projector flew inside, revealing Oleg Petrovsky in all his short glory.
“Commander Shepard, I commend you. You knew it was a trap, though; perhaps you should have sent Aria rather than trapping yourself here,” Petrovsky said, giving a small nod. The holographic device
“You know, Petrovsky, you could have been useful to the Alliance and the war effort. Yet here you are, fighting an already dead cause,” Shepard said, pursing his lips.
“Fighting for humanity is not a cause that will ever die,” his enemy said. Shepard could see it in the man’s eyes.
He actually believed it.
“I meant the whole unethical and inhumane experiments and acts of terror, but sure, whatever you say.”
Petrovsky scoffed, “I can leave you to rot here while Aria is taken care of. How successful do you think your crew will be with you gone?”
“There is a small issue with this trap,” he revealed.
“Which is?” Petrovsky asked. He had placed this trap with everything conceivable.
A secondary power source, self-repair systems, hidden turrets, and a small army of mechs.
“I bet you my entire fortune it can’t stop a wormhole,” he winked. The space behind him tore open into a white hole, and Shepard stepped through it.
Petrovsky’s eyes almost popped out of his skull.
