"You made it to me after all..."
A very massive figure of a Yahg sat on a massive backless chair, and five shots from a sniper rifle, which Jane had drawn very quickly, immediately hit him in the forehead.
"How uncultured..."
The Yahg demonstratively slowly shook his head.
"...but then, what else to expect from the inhabitants of the Citadel? You consider everyone who hasn't been in space long enough to be underdeveloped. However, I have prepared for attempts to eliminate me."
A smirk appeared on the Yahg's lips.
"So, you came here, but you are tired, and you also spent a lot of ammo eliminating my subordinates. Their deaths sadden me, of course, but I will recruit new ones, and you... you will die."
"You talk too much."
I shook my head and slowly began to step forward, throwing aside my pistol, then my rifle, and then the rest of the weapons I had with me.
"Care to prove your words?"
"One on one?"
Bewilderment could be heard in the Yahg's voice.
"Well?"
I didn't answer the question and only gestured for him to attack me.
"Ha, you chose your own death, and the client will be perfectly fine with your dead body. So..."
He lunged toward me, and he didn't give up his monstrous pistol, which immediately spat several rounds in my direction. At those dimensions, they likely weren't inferior to sniper rifle rounds. But I was no longer in the spot the Yahg was shooting at; I shifted to the side with a Charge, then used a powerful Throw, which, to my surprise, was only enough to slightly stagger this giant.
And yet, I could use a Throw like that to slam Krogan into walls from ten meters away, but here... However, the fact that not everything was working didn't mean I should give up and put my hands up. Not at all. It only meant I'd have to try a little harder.
A few more shots passed me by, and I, moving aside, closed the distance with the Yahg. Some might consider this madness, but I didn't care.
"Kill you!"
He tried to swat me away with his hand free of weapons, on which an Omni-tool shield immediately formed, but I moved a bit further to the side.
"You're not alone here! You have your bitches!"
Distract myself with that shout? No, I'm not that much of an idiot. Instead, having taken an advantageous position, I struck with a Singularity, but it was clear that couldn't stop the Yahg. Realizing I hadn't paid attention to his threats or his attempt to shoot my friends, he began hunting for me again. But it was too late. I shifted so as to stay behind his back and created Singularities time and again.
Two... three... five... seven... at some point, even I found it difficult to be near the Yahg, and I leaped aside.
"Gr-r-r-r-r..."
The Yahg was in pain, but while he had the chance to calmly escape the circle of Singularities, he hadn't considered what was happening to be dangerous. Now, breaking through the middle of one of the Singularities... that threatened not just pain, but very unpleasant consequences.
"Eat this!"
Lissi and Missi created two massive Singularities, throwing them toward the Yahg, and he began to contort.
"This cannot be! Cannot!"
That was all we could make out in the screams of pain coming from the Yahg.
"He's tough..."
When the Singularities vanished, we were slightly shocked. The Yahg stood in the middle of the hall, and though his armor was ruined, though whole chunks were missing in some places along with the flesh, though he was covered in blood... he was alive.
"You're big and strong, I'll give you that."
I looked the giant over with respect. It was clear he survived mainly due to a suit with some incredible technology that allowed him to endure such a thing. However, the fact that he survived was still extremely surprising.
"Kill... all of you..."
"Sorry, but you won't be able to do anything anymore."
I gathered biotic energy into a dense spear and hurled it at the Yahg. It hit his head, but a shield that flared up around the opponent didn't allow me to finish him.
"I... will still kill you..."
The Yahg staggered, then took a step toward me.
"Come on, come on, come closer..."
I gestured for him to approach.
"...let's see what you're capable of, because right now you're mostly disappointing."
"I... will shove those words down your throat... and no... you will live... I will break your... arms and legs... then I'll break the arms and legs of your bitches, and then... then I'll fuck them before your eyes."
"You have a lot of knowledge on how to talk trash."
I won't say his words didn't get to me, but I wasn't going to rush him or scream and stomp my feet.
"Except you're the one standing here bleeding out, and I'm alive and well."
"That... won't be for long..."
Ba-bam!
A round hole appeared in the Yahg's head, after which he staggered and collapsed to the floor.
"Well, that's that."
Jane demonstratively put away the sniper rifle she had used to make the shot.
"What?"
Noticing that everyone was looking at her, she tried to adopt as casual an appearance as possible.
"Oh, nothing, you just stole John's epic victory."
Liara shrugged.
"Oh, if you hadn't helped him with Singularities, I might have believed you actually thought that. But you were interfering yourselves, so you're just jealous that I dealt the final blow and not you."
"We're more wondering how?"
Bewilderment could be heard in Tali's voice.
"You've already shot at him and achieved nothing. And here... No, I understand that the Singularities likely damaged the equipment creating the barrier. But why did the equipment protecting the former Broker from a biotic spear work, while the technology protecting against kinetic weapons failed?"
"How should I know all that?"
"I'm not asking you, I'm just surprised by the situation itself."
"Alright, let's get to business."
I gestured for the girls to follow me, and as we passed the body, Jane fired a few more finishing shots. Once we moved away from the body, I created a powerful Singularity, which took me ten minutes to charge, but it was worth it. This time, no technology could save the giant's body from complete disappearance.
"This is..."
Liara froze in front of a vast number of monitors, on which data was constantly appearing.
faces that demanded clarification of the circumstances.
"Greetings to the new Shadow Broker?"
A slight mockery could be heard in my voice, though in the very next second, I covered us all with a biotic barrier, making it as strong as humanly possible. And that barrier was immediately hit by a great many shots.
The barrier began to literally corrode.
"So, it's not over yet..."
Jane said this in a mocking tone.
"Apparently not."
"Give me a couple of minutes."
Tali crawled to the console and began doing something; though it was clear she was hacking it, exactly what she intended to do was still unclear. What was clear, however, was that if I stopped maintaining the barrier, she would become a sieve, as she wouldn't have time to move aside.
"Jane, work from under the barrier. Girls, support the barriers in turns."
"Yes, sir!"
The synchronous response from everyone involved in this clash made the corner of my mouth twitch into a smirk.
One minute... two... three... it was a good thing that, due to my paranoia, I had kept a barrier prepared, and a reinforced one at that, which gave the girls the chance to prepare their own reinforced barriers. After the fifth minute, my barrier was completely destroyed, but it was replaced by Liara's barrier, then came Lissi's, then Missi's, and then it was my turn again.
Jane, meanwhile, was working with great precision and even forced the opponents—who turned out to be Salarians—to consider reducing their fire intensity in favor of their own protection. This allowed us to better endure the heavy fire. However, four biotics could think of nothing but defense, and that spoke volumes about the effectiveness of this weapon in the hands of trained warriors.
"Done!"
Tali turned to us joyfully and, drawing her pistol, fired several shots.
"And what did you do?"
"Hold out for a couple of minutes, and you'll see."
After the promised time, shots began to ring out in the enemy's rear, indicating they had new problems.
"I hacked the LOKI mechs; there were still quite a few of them here, and now they consider us their masters. So..."
Tali's voice dripped with anticipation.
"You're a genius."
Once the Salarians had new problems to deal with, our lives improved. We were gradually able to suppress them. We didn't even try to take them alive, as such fighters, even in captivity, can cause a lot of trouble. It was enough that the information about me being alive had likely leaked. Of course, those who needed to know already had that information—the Illusive Man, for instance, managed to dig it up... but now...
"Now, truly, greetings to the new Shadow Broker."
When it was all over, I saluted Liara, who finally approached the monitors and carefully examined the control panel in front of them.
"Attention everyone..."
Turning on a voice modulation program, she addressed all the Shadow Broker's agents—or rather, all her agents now—over the general comms.
"...there has been a minor equipment malfunction. All operatives on active assignments, report your mission status. I will require some time to verify the data, after which contacts will resume in standard mode."
Disconnecting the link, Liara looked back at me.
"I have a lot of work ahead of me..."
"There simply must be some VI here to help you navigate the situation."
"You're right, but so far I don't know exactly how to activate it."
Liara sighed, showing she didn't like the situation, but there was nothing she could do about it.
"Alright, let's get to work."
I sighed.
"Lissi, Missi, move our ship; it should be in a hangar, which there surely is one here, or at least closer to us. Because setting up the equipment and moving some devices will require a lot of running around. And I wouldn't want to have to run across half the ship."
"Will do, but we'll rest a bit first, okay?"
I shot the girls a dissatisfied look, then sighed.
"Fine, rest, but the ship must be moved by the end of the day."
"It will be done."
"Tali..."
"I know what I need to do, but first I'll find a support program for Liara so she doesn't get completely buried in reports. She has a lot of work now, after all..."
Nodding in agreement to the Quarian, I turned my gaze to Jane.
"And I'll collect the trophies from the Salarian bodies and pile the bodies up so you can destroy them with a Singularity later."
"Be so kind... though, I'll help you with that."
"John, you could take a rest."
"I could..."
I nodded in agreement with Jane's words.
"...however, I am a man and stronger than the girls as a biotic, so I have more strength left."
"Sister, I think that's a challenge..."
Lissi addressed her sister, but she only waved her off.
"...tch, you're boring. We could have offered to check who has more endurance left."
"Check?"
Liara looked up from her work.
"You're brave... suggesting such a thing in front of three girls who have already agreed on how they'll share the man."
"Well..."
Lissi shrugged.
"You'll be very busy in the near future, and the vacant Asari spot in John's harem will open up, and the main thing there is to make sure he doesn't dump you after he's had his fun. Though considering it's two for the price of one here..."
She hugged her sister.
"...we have a chance."
"I see..."
"John, did you see? She doesn't care, but my sister and I..."
"Lissi, your joke has gone too far."
Missi cut her sister off, and she pouted because she wasn't allowed to fool around.
***
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