Ch 11

Make no mistake, Tanya was glad for the peace. She had been enjoying her life, taking it slow for the moment. Yet, there was a part of her that missed the battlefield. Seeing Alex fighting had ignited a flame inside her heart. A longing for some bloodshed. It was annoying that the children were kidnapped. She thought about the political ramifications. This all would present a image of the council not caring about humanity. An image that humanity were not welcome among the other races. An image that could be used to form a rift in the stars. One that could ballon into a fissure within the Council races.

Old hatreds would be brought up. The treatment of other associate races, this would lead into a civil war of epic perportions. People find it easy to empathize with the perceived victim afterall. They imagine themselves within those situations, even worse look in their own past and see if they were treated as badly or if there were any of the same slights against them.

It would not matter if any special ops were sent to retrieve the children as this would all be remembered. The only way to avoid this would be for the Citadel to go to actual war with the Bartarian Hegemony. Something Tanya would like to avoid as well. 

Make no mistake, Tanya had no love for slavers. It was such an inefficient way to realize labor. A waste of human resources. Sure, in the short term, you could make a profit. However, it was better to make people a slave of their desires. Have them work towards a perceived goal. Maybe to buy a luxurious car or a house, then spend the rest of their life working hard to pay it all off. Place luxurious commodities that can be brought through credit and then have them spend their entire life working. This was the truly efficient way to generate a profit. 

'These Bartarians are truly fools.' Tanya muttered to herself. She was getting ready, her heart no the magic core that had fused with her heart thrumming with excitement. Her hands went towards the cube, a foldable weapon that she had made with Alex. A Mondragon Rifle or its modern equivalent. Ready to be used with she unfolded it. Made with synthetic plastic and steel. It was truly an old class weapon. It still used bullets but she could use her own magic to shoot magic bullets as well. 

The reason for the old design of this weapon was that she was familiar with it. She had used it for most of her short but eventful life.

Tanya exhaled as she prepared herself mentally. She would reach the district within a few minutes.

She also liked spending time with the little ones. A part of her wants to save them because she genuinely liked them. SHe enjoyed the fact that they would listen to her stories and called her big sister Tanya.

The car stopped as the VI said out out. "We have reached the Warehouse District, please have a nice day."

"Oh, I am planning to." Tanya got out and began to move. She looked around and saw a bunch of hallways and the like spreading out like a maze in front if them

She had no interest in navigating them for the moment. She knew where the signal was coming from and so she jumped. Her heart thrummed as the let the magic flow negating the effect of Gravity on her body. And as she reached the top of the district, she stopped the magic flow as her feet touched the top of the building.

Tanya felt it was a pity that she still could not fly. The problem with flying was that it was a combination of three or more spells working in tandem. For now, she could only concentrate on one spell. This was the reason that mages used the flying device.

She began to move forward, as she surveyed the entire district.

She looked at the building where she was getting the signal from. There was no need to have all the Bartarians crashing down on her or for her to catch too much attention.

Her rifle unfolded as she aimed at the building that she assumed would be the energy distribution plant. A grin on her face as multiple magic circles appeared in front of her. Spell circles to create the blast and others to enhance the effect. It felt so good, her power felt instinctive now. The view zoomed as she looked at the plant. A smile on her face, Tanya fired.

A ball of red energy, leaving a trail behind a rifle exited. It took a few moments for it to impact its intended target. There was a small flash of light as the complex exploded. An act followed by darkness as the entire district fell into darkness.

Some building lit up, Tanya assumed due to the effect of some back up power generators. But, it did not matter. The Bartarians would be scattered, trying to figure out what was happening, and as a consequence would be slow to respond.

And so Tanya jumped down, reducing the effect of Gravity on her as she made her way to her main target. Obscured by the darkness surrounding her.

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"What do you think happened?" One of the guards asked.

"Probably the generator blew up." The other guard shrugged. "You know it is something common back home."

"I know, just _."

His head blew up.

The other guard who was just looking at his companion just froze. That was until he heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Remembering that he was armed, he turned towards the source of those approaching footsteps.

The last thing he saw was the grin of a blond child as everything went blank.

Tanya proceeded inside. She did not waste any of her precious bullets, opting instead to use magic. An attempt to make sure that she was silent. It took some time to compress a spell, otherwise both of the guards would have fallen at once. 

She intended to go loud when she went inside. If her thoughts were correct, the building should be soundproofed. This should prevent her detection.

Tanya proceeded inside through a metal door. Her eyes switching to thermal dectection with a single spell.

She saw the different heat signatures in the next room. Good, they were still unaware.

Tanya entered and saw three guards, two of them who were talking on the table.

Hearing the sound of the door closing, they turned their attention to the sound. They were expecting one of their companions to enter, instead they saw a little girl. Tanya aimed her rifle and fired, two shots each with practiced ease. Both of them had no kinetic barriers and so fell to her assault. The third one leapt to his gun, but he soon found Tanya in front of him.

The Bayonet on the gun shining, as it pierced him. He looked at the child and saw glowing golden eyes and a sinister grin. And so his vision faded.

"Oh, I forgot to question him." Tanya laughed.

Her eyes shone again as she switched to thermal vision. "No matter, they have noticed and so they will come to me."

It was fortunate that she had increase the ammo capacity of her trusty rifle. She wondered how the weapons in her old world had evolved.

Tanya proceeded through the door as she began to go deeper and deeper into the building. Her path leaving carnage and broken bodies in its wake.

Each of her step heralded death in its path. Soon, she reached a big room. On the other side, she could see about twenty men. It still annoyed her that she had to go even deeper. The signal coming from below us. If she did not get some confirmation, she would loose her mind. A fear gnawing into her heart that all the brats, her future loyal customers may have been killed. That would be unforgivable.

There was a large room infront of her. Twenty men inside, by their body postures, they were ready to fire at the door.

The orb that was fused with her heart thrummed. Equations and Equations came in front of her. The question was which formula should she use. Which formula to use for which spell.

Her heart thrummed as the barrier around her solidified. It became visible and arc and arcs of character were visible. Tanya funneled even more mana into it.

Each mage used formula's to create the effect of spells or miracles as they are called. If you know how a flame was created, you can make a flame with the help of a combination of formulas. That was how the magic in Tanya's old world worked. The more mana you poured in, the more stronger the spell.

The thing with Tanya, whose operational orb had fused with her heart, resulting in her ability to remember formula's and then activate them with narry a thought. SHe could easily fling spells, as long as her mana did not run out.

Tanya entered the room as she was peppered with firepower. There were even a few rockets and grenades mixed in. Tanya watched it all with a smile as her visage was blocked with smoke. It did not matter, Tanya had already memorized all of their positions.

"Did we get her?" One of the Bartarians asked.

His question was answered with a shot to the head. One after another, more Batartian fell. Some returned fire but it was pointless. Only one was left alive. 

Tanya emerged from the smoke. Her visage to the last remaining Bartarian feeling like that of the Grim reaper's. He did not see a little girl, no. All he saw was death approaching him.

In a panic, he picked up his assault rifle and opened fire. A shield blocked all of his shots, soon as his weapon overheated. He picked up his gun and began to fire at Death.

Death had finally reached him as his weapon was swatted from his hand. He was held up against the wall, an arm against his neck. 

Death spoke in a childish voice. "You see. I was just enjoying my day, all I had to do was look after the kids. But some idiots just had to barge in and ruin my day. So we can make this quick or slow. That is your choice."

Death's voice became deeper. "Please choose slow. I will savor it, I promise."

"Down below through that fright elevator. We cannot risk the council finding out that they are being held here."

"Good boy, now die" Tanya enhanced her own strength to the maximum the formula's appearing in her vision as she smashed the Bartarian head against the wall, leaving a bloody smear.

She proceeded down to the fright elevator. That was until the wall behind her exploded as a Truck rammed in. Tanya aimed her weapon but brought it down. A turian wearing some armor stepped out. She recognized her, it was the Turian that was her customer. The one who met her when the children were kidnapped.

 Tanya lowered her rifle. There was no need to kill one of her loyal fans. Tanya could extract even more value from her over the next few years.

Tanya noticed with interest that the place where the Emblem of C-Sec should be was painted over.

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 (Solana Perspective)

Solana was the calmest she had been over the years as she lied to her brother. 

In this moment, she had decided to sacrifice her career. The death of a few children was not worth her career or this false sense of peace. 

Her Duty to C-Sec would be done, if she was not from the C-Sec. This was her decision and so she had asked her brother to go back to C-Sec and search for any information on the warehouse. It was a way to keep him out of the way. She did not intend to be gentle in her approach.

She had found one of the guards of the Bartarian ambassador and interrogated him heavily. His answers had chilled her. Apparently, the Bartarian were looking into the potential of Humans as slaves. They were slated to compete with them due to the fact that Humans were expanding in their direction. The human's stellar performance within the Tournament was also a potential reason for the Bartarian to go for humans of that age group and from the same place as that human. Raising them as children would also enable easy indoctrination as well.

Needless to say, she had captured the guy and this interview was transmitted to the news networks.

She had gotten information regarding where the children were held. On the way, she had hijacked a large truck. Imagine her surprise when the light went out giving her a clear path to her destination. 

She had rammed the truck into the Building at high speed, using the truck as a Battering ram.

She was expecting a fight, instead she found that same girl. Her face and right fist bloodied put down her gun. Corpses surrounded that girl with one recently looked as if its head was blated off on the wall.

"I did not believe that we had company madam. I believe our prize is just down this elevator."