Copyright J.B. Norman
Kathryn groans as Lieutenant Crem uses her jetpack to go up and over them, then touch down in front of them to cut them off.
“You have exactly the kind of stubborn refusal to die that the Kraken Special Squad expects of its operatives,” she notes, levelling her stun rifle at Kathryn. “I don’t suppose you’ve ever considered a career as a mercenary?”
“Seriously?” Kathryn exclaims.
“I don’t see why not,” Crem answers. “We’re always recruiting skilled talent, we’re going to be down six whole fireteams for a while, and I don’t imagine that you particularly like being stunned. One way or another, the Princess is coming with me. The only question is whether you are, too.”
“Do you really think I’d let you just take my best friend?” Kathryn answers fiercely.
“Didn’t I already promise that we’re not going to hurt her?” Cream replies. “She’ll be free to go once Baron Aurel opens the vault on Corona Regis. And you’ll get your cut of the handsome fee the Baron is offering for her safe delivery to Corona Regis.”
Kathryn scoffs. “Do you really think you can bribe me? My mother is the richest person in the galaxy. If I wanted money, I’d already have enough to buy myself a few solar systems.”
“And you’d never betray your best friend, of course,” Amarantha mutters.
“Well, yeah,” Kathryn says, glancing over at the Alvaraean princess. “But that should be obvious, I didn’t think I’d have to say – Ahh!”
As Kathryn momentarily takes her eyes off Crem, the Syntaxian Kraken takes a shot. The stun bolt sizzles through the cold air of the Crystal Labyrinth and explodes into Kathryn’s shoulder. The entire left side of her body goes numb.
She manages to clumsily dive out of the way of the next volley and slump against the wall of the Crystal Labyrinth.
“Don’t die!” Dunstella cries, running over to her sister. “Don’t die! Don’t die!”
“It’s a stun bolt,” Kathryn hisses through clenched teeth. “I couldn’t kill me if it wanted to. I’m just going to need a few hours before the feeling comes back.”
She winces.
“But do me a favour,” she continues. “Reach into my belt and get the emergency med kit. There’s a needle…”
“Needle?” Dunstella gasps. “No. Absolutely not. No needles.”
“It’s not for you,” Kathryn notes. “So grab the needle, hit the big blue button to prime it, and jam it right into my—”
“Nope,” Dunstella declares resolutely, shaking her head. “You said you’d be fine in a few hours, so what’s the big deal with just waiting.”
“You dastard!” Amarantha cries, wheeling towards Lieutenant Crem. “You fiend! By all the Suns and Moons of Ljósálf and the Three Crowns of Vallda…”
Her eyes narrow at the Syntaxian Kraken even as they begin to glow with sorcerous energies.
“… you are going to pay.”
Lieutenant Crem sends a volley of stun bolts at Amarantha, but the bolts dissipate harmlessly amid the field of swirling sorcerous energy surrounding the Alvaraean princess.
Amarantha’s voice thunders with the power of forty thousand years of Alvaraean sorceries and echoes off the icy walls of the Crystal Labyrinth.
“I. will. destroy. you!”
“Oh, frang—” Lieutenant Crem mutters, just in time to be catapulted down the passage by a blast of Amarantha’s sorcery.
In the first Mass Effect, generic enemies had an “I will destroy you!” quote that you’d hear about 20 times in a given encounter. Amarantha promises to do the same isn’t a Mass Effect reference, but also isn’t not a reference…
Also, in hindsight, isn’t weird that in a trilogy called Mass Effect, we didn’t even go to church once?
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