A/N: And we're back, or more accurately, we're continuing. A fair warning to anyone new, I'm not stopping to help explain things to you. If you want to understand anything, go back and read my other story first, The Commandos of Mass Effect. So its almost time for the war of all wars, but before that there's another war that has to be fought first.

Even with all of their trusted allies waiting for them at the Citadel, Aran only allowed Tishad Taran and Hideyoshi Yatski to join. Tishad, the female drell freelancer who has worked with the Mandalorians on a number of assignments while on the Citadel, and one of the few allies he's willing to trust his people's lives with in a fight. Hideyoshi, a smuggler by trade, but what he really excelled at was piloting. Kix had befriended the human while on Omega freelancing, before his reputation was shattered by lies. Aran also wanted a pilot always at the helm, unlike Bev or Kix who are often considered potential members for land based operations.

Aran dismissed the other potential recruits; however he does plan to call on all of them, when the time was right. But in the meantime, he gave them all warnings about the war to come, discreetly, and recommended that they start stockpiling while they could.

And for almost three months that's exactly what the Mandalorians had been doing themselves. They've been working closely with the Turian Hierarchy and the Systems Alliance as they helped fit their ships with weapons from Elkoss Combine's latest line of ship weaponry, courtesy of Mandalorian technology. Palva had offered her services in assisting Garrus and his 'task force' that Primarch Fedorian was so 'kind' enough to give. The task force went to turian colonies across the territory to establish evacuation centers, fortifications, medical surpluses and hardened lines of communication, while the majority of the Mandalorians started working on assembling the Basilisk war droids.

With C3 and Bev's anti-virus programs in effect, Rasen and Forta started on getting the assembly lines working again. As they did though, the Tervho received a rather urgent message from Aria T'Loak, the Pirate Queen of Omega, and occasionally their unofficial boss. All the message had was a header: OMEGA UNDER ATTACK. Aran had the facility locked up and shut down until their return.

With most of the crew back on the Tervho, they immediately headed to Omega. While in transit Lissarkh walked over to Aran as he stood over the CIC. "What are your plans, Mandalore?"

"It depends, General." Aran pulled up a hologram of the space station to display, "Omega is usually safe, partly due to the debris field around it, but mostly because no one dares to cross Aria. She usual finds anyone trying to secretly usurp her, and makes examples of them. Effectively like the Hutt Cartels or the Black Suns. So whoever is attack has to have done it in a surprise attack, have overwhelming numbers and firepower. Those are the few conditions I can think of where Aria's people and the gangs that call Omega home couldn't hold their own."

"Well we're about to find out." As the ship decelerated they now found themselves in the middle of war as merc ships were in combat, with Cerberus ships. As the battles continued they noticed that a number of Cerberus ships were fighting alongside the merc ships against the other Cerberus vessels that were coming from the Omega-4 Relay.

"Which IFF transponder are we using?"

Kix pulled it up for Hideyoshi, "The Undoubted. A cargo escort. With the holoemitters on the hull, we should be able to slip past relatively unnoticed."

Aran still didn't like seeing the battles going on around Omega, "Just get us to the docks as fast as you can, without drawing unwanted attention."

Aran was set as the Mandalorians were divided into three teams; all hands crucial to having the Tervho ready to leave at a moment's notice were on active standby as the rest of the crew acted as a modest defense force to protect the ship from unwanted boarders, leaving Aran's team consisting, of Forta, Nyona, Prudii and Vren, to scout the situation on Omega.

With the team stealthily inserted into the station it wasn't long before holograms of a Cerberus officer appeared across the entire station as every speaker on board activated, "This is Colonel Raymond Ashe, speaking to the residents of Omega on behalf of Cerberus! Our reinforcements outside have defeated the last of the creatures threatening to infest Omega. In light of recent events, Cerberus now considers control of this station vital to protecting the galaxy against the Reaper menace! Under orders from Cerberus, I took the first steps half an hour ago, by disabling station defenses run from Omega Control. Nothing must stand in the way of an orderly transition. Your remaining defenders have been eliminated in advance of our occupying forces. Let all factions aboard be on notice, from this day forward, Cerberus claims Omega! Submit now, for your own protection! Resist and suffer the consequences!"

Nyona slapped her helmet, "That alien hating asshole's a moron! He just unleashed the biggest can of worms possible! Now everyone and their grandmother with a shotgun will be fighting for control. If he'd just said 'Cerberus has killed Aria; submit' it might have worked."

The team received a secure transmission from the ship, "We can confirm, Cerberus forces are turning on the merc ships. They're decimating them."

Aran watched as the Blue Suns and Blood Pack started to openly engage one another in the streets, "With this hell going on Cerberus won't be able to get full control as quickly as they predicted. But with their numbers now it's only a matter of time. Prudii, go find Banthar and his assistants and get them to the Tervho."

Prudii activated his tactical cloak and went off alone. Forta was attempting to backtrack the origin of the Colonel's transmission, "Cerberus has infected Omega's systems with a virus. It's almost impossible to try and find that Colonel without them noticing me scurrying around."

Vren kept his Z-6 close to his chest as he kept his eyes on a few of the Blood Pack commanders, "I wouldn't mind taking the chance to killing a few Blood Pack during the chaos, but what's our next step, Mandalore?"

"Right now, we need to confirm Aria's status. From there, hopefully we can organize a resistance to the Cerberus takeover before it's too late."

Nyona started laughing, "Too bad none of us have contacts within the Blue Suns or the Blood Pack, then we could really get this war turned on the right enemy, without needing Aria."

As Prudii searched for the elcor Banthar and his two salarian assistants, he watched as Colonel Ashe lead a Cerberus strike team though the slums, gunning down aliens, civilians and mercs alike, along the way. Even if he was with the others, Prudii knew his mission to help Banthar would be skewed. Prudii disappeared into the shadows once more to reach Banthar's shop.

Once he had arrived he found the doors were locked and many of the hull platings that were once on display now propped against the windows. Prudii continued to watch his surroundings as he knocked on the door, using a Sigma Squad pattern that they taught the shopkeepers to recognize. The door was opened by an inch before it was fully opened with the salarian assistant Maren welcoming him, "Oh thank whoever got us a Mandalorian! Hurry, get inside before something else happens!"

Once inside Maren quickly shut and locked the door. Prudii noticed that the shop was filled with several civilians, of almost every race on the station, who called this district of Omega home. Most of them were still cowering from the initial assault, some more so because of Prudii's presence. The elcor shop owner, Banthar, walked out from the storage area, "Gratefully, Thank you for coming to our aid. We were uncertain of our survival."

Banthar's other salarian assistants, Farzen, wasn't as convince of their rescue, "First those horrid creatures appeared, then Cerberus came to help, now they're attacking everyone. Looks like our luck may finally run out today."

"Maybe not." Prudii looked to Banthar, "I was ordered to get you and your assistants to the Tervho," Prudii then looked to the families within the shop, "and if anyone else wants to join us, grab anything you can that won't slow us down. We're going into the service tunnels in five." Everyone started to gather the few belongings they had as Banthar also prepared to leave his shop for good.

Aran, Forta and Vren were staying out of sight and using the ventilation system to monitor Cerberus movement while Nyona was getting news from her former people. "Well this ain't gonna work." Nyona activated her omni-tool, "That greed bastard Anto is attempting to fill Aria's shoes. He thinks he can just stroll in and be the next Aria."

Vren could only laugh at the batarian's attempts, "Aria earned that status and reputation. It not something someone can just claim without a fight. And no one will respect him."

"Yeah, well that's not stopping him from trying to parlay with the gangs and mercs," she led them toward the meeting location to watch as the gangs have at it with each other again just outside of Afterlife.

Before the fighting could really get intense Cerberus troops, led by Colonel Ashe, interrupted and started firing on everyone there. As Anto and the others retreated into Afterlife, Ashe and his men were executing the stragglers before one of the Cerberus troopers gave Ashe a comlink. "Forta, try and listen in on them."

Forta scanned the frequencies, using one of the ciphers they'd captured, he got it. "Your forces are under my command, Colonel Ashe—never forget that! I'll be there in a few minutes to storm the fortress, just like Anticlus at Troy. Elbrus out."

Forta didn't need Aran to tell him what to do next. "Alright apparently in one of the human mythological stories, these ancient Greek guys created a giant wooden horse to hide inside and attack a city called Troy. This Anticlus guy was one of those Greeks and he almost blew their cover while inside the horse."

Aran smiled, "That means Aria's alive and very angry. Let's shadow them. I'm sure they'll take us to Aria."

Prudii had to silently kill seven Cerberus troops but beyond that, they met with little resistance as they all traveled to the hangar where the Tervho was docked. He had called in advanced about their arrival along with the extra people. With the hangar to themselves, the Tervho's garage doors opened as more Mandalorians came out to ensure the security as the medics helped the wounded.

As Banthar was the last to enter, he turned to Prudii, "Thankful, If you hadn't arrived, I do not know what might have happened to us."

"We have a means for you to repay us. But first, we're here to help Aria."

Aria held General Oleg Petrovsky at gun point as the Elbrus docked with Omega. "If you really wanted security, you could have done what everyone else does with me. You could have made a deal!"

"On your terms, Aria. And we wouldn't have trusted you. Would you have trusted us?"

Aria pushed the pistol harder against Oleg's back as the two walked back onto Omega, "No. You're a curious man, Oleg Petrovsky—you almost have a mind of your own. Almost. But I can't make the same mistake you made in keeping me alive. So this is…goodbye…" Aria turned to where she started to hear footsteps, only to find more Cerberus troops heading their way.

Ashe shouted, "I knew it! Get her!"

Ashe and his men quickly opened fire on Aria, but was saved when Oleg pushed her out of the way, "Look out!"

The troopers ceased firing to try and secure Aria. But the Pirate Queen of Omega wouldn't have it. She flared her biotics, scaring them as she moved past them before unleashing her rage and sending them flying. Ashe shouted at his men as they tried to recover from being thrown onto their back, "After her!" From the rafters, three shots were fired. Each one penetrated the visors of three trooper helmets.

Aria was now in the ventilation system where two very familiar faceplates were waiting for her. "What the hell kept you?"

"Finding your army, finding you. They weren't exactly easy tasks with Cerberus fucking everything to hell."

The Mandalorians were walking with Aria as they were going to where Anto and the others were holding up, and found Anto attempting to get everyone to work together, again, "—if you people don't get your shit together and stop fighting each other! You had it good under Aria, but these Cerberus people want the whole place to themselves!"

One of the krogan quickly pointed out as he was checking his shotgun, "So who are we supposed to fight for, Anto? You?"

A krogan sitting next to him laughed in full agreement, "You don't have the quad to run a revolution. There's only one person we'd follow, and they knew that!"

"I'm glad to hear that," Aria walked in with her Mandalorian entourage as everyone turned to her, "because I've got a little job for everyone and this time I'm cutting everyone on Omega in. Remember, they're still just tourists on Omega but this turf is ours. If they want Omega, they'll have to take it over our dead bodies!"

Aran pulled up a map of Omega, "And I've got a few suggestions on how to send them to hell."

Cerberus troopers were attempting to secure various areas of Omega, however they continued to encounter more organized and coherent resistances from the mercs and gangs. What remained of a Cerberus squad came retreating before several mines were remotely detonated. While Colonel Ashe and General Petrovsky argued about strategies, the Suns were signaled by Forta to strike. Five batarians came from out of the floor with guns blazing. They were able to take out four Cerberus troops however they lost three of their men before jolting back to the vents.

"Gone again! Into those blasted ventilation tunnels. Everyone, grenades!"

Petrovsky stopped them, "Don't bother, you'd only be walking to your own deaths. Without a proper understanding of the ventilation system, or where they may lead, we'd be walking blind. Open to a number of surprises or dead ends. Listen to me, I know sieges! Stalingrad held out for months, Aria can deny us the use of Omega indefinitely, but ultimately, that isn't what she wants. She's a businesswoman. The longer this goes on, she knows, no one profits from running Omega."

Ashe still hated all of this strategic planning crap, "She's been screwed once. She won't just come out and talk!"

"No, only one thing will get her out of hiding…victory. So let's give it to her."

A Cerberus strike team was traveling through the slums of Omega, searching for Aria's position, and ordered by Colonel Ashe to shot on sight. However their equipment seemed to be having difficulty, "Perkinson, what's the status on the comm?"

"Nothing. It's like we hit a dead zone. Nothing's getting out or coming in."

"We need to keep in contact with the General and Colonel if we find Aria or…"

"Krogan!" The massive brute was in grey armor with gold highlights as it crushed three of the troops against a wall with his left shoulder.

"Perkinson!" As the krogan pasted by the others, their leader noticed the krogan was missing his right shoulder guard and a strange weapon strapped to his back, a massive repeater of unknown origin. It wasn't until he saw the helmet's T-shaped visor did he understand, "No, he's a Mandalorian. Weapons free, open fire!"

"What the…" Try as they might, their weapons weren't firing.

"Sir, our thermal clips are overheated!"

"Impossible, we all restocked before leaving." Before any of them could load a new thermal clip, a woman in fully armored from head to toe in purple and blue launched a biotic sphere at them. The biotic was a singularity field and caught the remaining three in it.

Two more individual walked out of the shadows, one was in red and black armor and the other in dark blue armor. Just like the krogan, they all had T-shaped visors on their helmets, just as the Mandalorians have been said to have. As they helplessly were being flung around by the singularity field, the Mandalorians pulled out pistols and fired a round for each Cerberus trooper flying. Each shot finding its mark, the troopers' helmets.

As the three bodies fell to the ground, Forta took off the helmet from one of the troops Vren had crushed to try and have a channel to listen in on Cerberus where detection wasn't an issue. While Forta did that, Nyona was checking their tags, "If they knew where they were going, they could've flanked Aria. We need to retake Afterlife soon."

"In time. We don't have an opening that will get us even close to the fortress without them waiting for us in force."

"Hey guys, I think you might want to listen to this."

Forta switched the helmet's comm to the speakers for the group to hear, "Repeat, all teams, this is General Petrovsky. We are recalling our operations on Omega. We have reports that the Adjutants are loose in other systems beyond the Omega-2 Relay. All hands are to head there now. Omega is now an open city once again."

"A ploy if ever I heard one."

"Ya think, humpback?" Nyona started walking back toward Aria's last known position, "So who gets to tell Aria about this?"

After the news from Aran and interrogating a fleeing Cerberus flunky, Aria and Aran were surveying the streets below. "I don't like this. Too many civilians are packing a lot of firepower, and the mercs, they're too chummy with each other. Wait…" Aran took a second look around at everyone, "There's a pattern to their movement. And I only see humans. Where are the other races?"

Aria took Aran's sniper rifle to look herself, "I don't recognize any of these people…" Aria then spotted two humans with very memorable faces, one in Eclipse armor and the other in Blue Sun uniform, "There they are. Sorry Petrovsky, you only get one chance to fool me." Aria turned back as she radioed her people, "Anto, get everyone into position, it's time to break out our own little surprise…"

Aran continued to track the two as they diverted from the rest of the 'populace'. "Strike team, the shepherds have stepped away from the flock."

A salarian wrapped in very thick robes came out from behind Petrovsky and Ashe, "Help us! Someone help us!" A turian, krogan and vorcha now appeared from the shadows around the salarian, each in similar robes, pale and sickly looking, "We tried to hide in the Gozu District, but the Plague has broken out again! Help us!"

Petrovsky thought aloud, "The Plague, Aria should have contained that—"

The Colonel quickly pushed forward and shouted, "There's no help for you here, aliens! Why don't you go to hell?"

The group tossed their robes into the air, using them as a distraction long enough to grab the weapons concealed by them. "Why don't you?!"

"Get down!" Ashe owned Petrovsky once again, but this fight was mostly a distraction so Aria and Anto could reach Afterlife. Once she was inside, she would be untouchable. The assault also forced the other hidden Cerberus forces out into the open as they tried to protect Ashe and Petrovsky, making them easy targets for Nyona and Aran's sniper rifles.

As the fighting continued around Petrovsky and Ashe, the two were pulling back. Forta intercepted another Cerberus order, this one from Ashe, "Attention standby team, she's in Afterlife. Activate option Omega-Two!"

With a guard force watching over the entrance to Afterlife, Anto reported, "We scanned for everything we could think of, just like you asked, Aria; explosives, biotoxins, gases—looks clear. Maybe the Mandalorians are just being a bit paranoid."

"No, it's good. There's something here waiting for us. And once we find this little surprise, get the Illusive Man on the holo. He's mad a big mistake. Let's see what he says about how badly his people have screwed up. Get in there and start the call."

Anto rushed over to Aria's 'throne', "You got it."

Aria was expecting Anto to have already contacted the Illusive Man by now. Aria started walking up the steps, "Anto? What's keeping," what she found wasn't what she wanted, "Anto!" an Adjutant as it was sapping the life from the batarian.

The roar of the Adjutant was recognized by Aria's guards as they all fled the scene. Having escaped the battle with the gangs, Petrovsky turned back to Ashe, "What the hell did you do? Where did you find a Reaper Adjutant?"

Ashe walked over to Afterlife's doors, "We put one in stasis when we were mopping up! While you were coming up with your silly false flag routine, my people were hiding the stasis module in the vents! I remotely deactivated it! My orders are to take control of this station, so we use an alien to kill an alien! Now help me shut the doors!"

As Ashe was trying to barricade the entrance with a bench, Petrovsky tried to make him see his true actions, "You fool! There are other ways out of that place! You've endangered every soldier on Omega!"

Ashe quickly pointed his pistol to Petrovsky's head, "Acceptable losses, Petrovsky! But you'd never understand that!"

Petrovsky drew out his knife as he grabbed Ashe's gun and threw it off aim. Before their fight could truly begin the door to Afterlife was blasted apart as the Adjutant was flung at them, knocked the two over. Aria, furious and engulfed in a fierce biotic field, roared, "GET…OFF…OF MY…STATION!"

Ashe quickly recovered as he aimed his pistol at Aria, "Die asari!"

As Petrovsky got back to his feet he looked toward the Colonel, "Ashe, look out for…the Adjutant," too late as the Adjutant had Ashe's head between its fingers.

Aria blasted the Adjutant with another biotic blast that killed it this time. Petrovsky picked up Ashe's pistol as Ashe was struggling to get back up as the transformation process had already started. "Petrovsky. What…are you…going to do…"

"What I am sworn to do. Protect my troops." Petrovsky fired the weapon once into the back of Ashe's head.

Aria had a bit of a smirk as she watched Ashe's lifeless body fall back down. "You should have done that a long time ago, Petrovsky. And I should have done this."

She slowly walked over to Petrovsky as he was separating Ashe's head from the body, ensuring the transformation ceased. "You might Aria, but you should know that the ruse wasn't the only reason I evacuated my troops. If that failed, I had another option; firepower. I've called in enough to destroy Omega, level by level, if need be. I don't want to, but if Cerberus can't have Omega, we won't allow anyone else to use it against us. I'll evacuate the civilians I can before the firing starts. But only you can buy Omega's survival; by yielding."

"Give up Omega? I am Omega!"

Aria started flaring again, however Petrovsky remained calm as he looked Aria eye to eye. "Then you will suffer the same fate, destroyed bit by bit. I'm guessing you don't want to see Omega burned to a cinder. I congratulate you on your defense, Aria. Perhaps Cerberus has underestimated nonhumans, you fought for your territory well. Very much a classic stand, like MacArthur and the Americans at Bataan. Heroic, but a losing effort."

Aria looked up to the vents to a sniper with Petrovsky in their sight, she slowly looked back to Petrovsky, "Whatever. I know something about that history too, Petrovsky, I know what happened next. You think about it while I'm gone."

The Tervho, disguised as the Undoubted, fled Omega as more Cerberus ship started to flood the area to secure the station. "I can't believe you lost Omega. There was a time when I thought I'd be the one doing that to you."

Aria didn't turn to Nyona as she continued to watch Omega get smaller and smaller, "This is far from over! I will retake Omega, and the Illusive Man will feel my wrath!"

Aran walked in on Nyona and Aria in the observation deck, "So where to now? Illium is almost like Omega, and I know you have no desire to go to Thessia."

"No. You're taking me to the Citadel. I'll need the space to try and regain my control, but it'll take time." Aria then turned to Nyona, "And in the meantime, I'll be borrowing you, as recompense for everything I taught you, and everything you put me through before you left. There's a lot of work to do and I'll need to rein in those idiot merc leaders before they think they can do whatever they want. And I expect you Mandalorians to help when I'm ready."

A/N: I just realized(two things actually) I never went over the colors scheme of the more promenant Mandalorians have for their armor, and my reasoning for believing drell females have breasts. To the first, I will do that over the progress of this "story", and as for the second, I believe drells to be a reptomammalian species(given how Thane and the other drells look so human, facially). Under this assumption, I then turned to the Falleen of the Star Warsverse and their females.

Mandalorian Translation:

Burc'ya vaal burk'yc, burc'ya veman.(BOOR-sha vahl BOOT-keesh, BOOR-shah veh-MAHN)- A friend in need... Lit. A friend during danger is a true friend