The cavernous expanse of Dock 94 echoed with the grinding protests of automated cranes and the frantic tapping of a data-pad. Niket, a man whose tailored suit looked entirely out of place amidst the industrial grime, dragged a hand through his sweat-dampened hair. He glared at the dock official, a trembling woman in a grease-stained jumpsuit.
"The transfer codes were authenticated twenty minutes ago," Niket snapped, his voice tight with anxiety. "Why is the shuttle still grounded?"
The official swallowed hard, her eyes darting toward the primary elevator shafts. "System lock, sir. The central terminal registered a Class-A security breach. We have massive structural damage on the upper levels. Nothing flies until the automated lockdown protocols are manually overridden."
"What a phenomenal waste of time," Enyala drawled, stepping out from the shadows of a massive shipping container. The Eclipse Captain was a striking figure, her short blue hair framing a face fixed in a permanent, arrogant scowl. Her sleek, custom-fitted Eclipse armor hugged a genuinely statuesque figure, the dark plating accented by the heavy, ominous shotgun resting effortlessly against her shoulder.
"This isn't a joke, Enyala," Niket retorted, turning to face her. "We have a civilian family in holding. Minimal impact on Oriana and her adoptive parents was the cornerstone of this arrangement. Lawson wants his daughter, not a traumatized hostage."
Enyala scoffed, racking the slide of her shotgun with a sharp, metallic clack. "Lawson wants his property. I frankly don't care how much it cries on the flight back. If this official can't bypass the lock, I'll find someone who can, preferably after I blow her kneecaps off to set an example."
Before Niket could protest, the massive reinforced doors of the primary elevator groaned, the hydraulic seals hissing violently as they were forced apart.
Arthur Cousland stepped out of the dissipating steam, his Blood Dragon armor scarred and venting heat. The heavy, rhythmic thud of his goddesium prosthetic legs against the metal grating sounded like a death knell. Behind him, the Monarks fanned out with practiced, lethal precision.
The dock official let out a terrified shriek. Dropping her data-pad, she turned and bolted toward the maintenance corridors.
Enyala didn't even blink. She raised her shotgun and fired a single, deafening blast. The official's upper body was violently thrown forward as the slug took her between the shoulder blades, her lifeless form skidding across the permacrete.
"Fools," Enyala muttered, lowering the smoking barrel.
Miranda pushed past Arthur, her pristine uniform in stark contrast to the slaughter she had just waded through. Her engineered eyes locked onto Niket, burning with a profound, agonizing disbelief.
"Niket," she breathed, the name catching in her throat like jagged glass. "Tell me this is a lie. Tell me you didn't sell her back to him."
Niket flinched, refusing to meet her gaze. He adjusted his collar, a nervous, defensive gesture. "Miranda... you have to understand. It's not what you think."
"Then explain it to me!" she screamed, her biotic aura flaring violet, warping the air around her clenched fists. "I trusted you! You were the only one who understood what he did to us!"
Niket finally looked up, his expression hardening into a bitter mask. "Understood? Miranda, you grew up in a gilded cage. You had everything. When you decided to run, you were an adult. You made a choice for your own life. But Oriana? She was a toddler. You didn't rescue her; you kidnapped her. You took a child who had no say in the matter."
"I saved her from a life of torture!" Miranda shot back, her voice shaking. "From being a lab rat in Henry Lawson's pursuit of perfection!"
"You saved her from luxury!" Niket yelled, his own frustration boiling over. "From security! Do you know what it's like out there? I grew up in the Outer Rim, Miranda. I know what it means to fight for scraps, to freeze in the dark, to watch people die over a stolen credit chip. Lawson offered me a fortune, yes, but he also offered Oriana a guarantee. She'll never go hungry. She'll never be hunted by gangs. I did this to give her stability."
"You did this for money," Miranda snarled, her hand dropping to the heavy pistol holstered at her thigh. She drew the weapon in a blur of augmented speed, aiming it squarely at Niket's chest. "You sold my sister back to a monster."
The click of the hammer being pulled back echoed sharply in the cavernous dock.
A heavy, charcoal-alloy hand wrapped around the barrel of the pistol, gently but immovably forcing it downward.
Miranda gasped, looking up into Arthur's calm, resolute eyes.
"Don't do it, Miranda," Arthur said softly, his voice a steady anchor in the storm of her rage. "If you pull that trigger, you will never forgive yourself. You are better than the violence your father bred into you. Let the law handle him. Do not carry his ghost."
Miranda stared at Arthur, her chest heaving, the violet fire in her eyes slowly dimming as tears threatened to spill over her lashes. She loosened her grip on the weapon, stepping back, the fight draining out of her.
Niket watched the exchange, the bitter resolve in his chest suddenly crumbling. The reality of his betrayal, seeing the utterly broken look in Miranda's eyes, finally shattered his justifications. "Miranda... God, Miranda, I'm so sorry. I... I made a mistake. I'll get the override codes. I'll help you get her out."
He took a step toward the terminal.
A shotgun roared.
Niket stiffened, a wet, breathless gasp escaping his lips. A gaping hole had been blown entirely through his chest. He collapsed to his knees, his eyes wide with shock, before pitching forward onto the cold metal grating, dead.
Enyala stood ten paces away, the barrel of her shotgun smoking. "Pathetic," she spat. "I despise a bleeding heart."
A scream of pure, unadulterated fury tore from Miranda's throat. She thrust both hands forward, her biotic power exploding in a blinding flash of dark energy. The concussive wave hit Enyala with the force of a speeding mag-lev train, lifting the heavily armored Captain off her feet and hurling her fifty yards across the dock, smashing her violently into a stack of shipping containers.
"Light them up!" Arthur roared, igniting his Omni-blade.
The dock erupted into absolute chaos. Enyala's personal guard, elite Eclipse mercenaries wielding high-end plasma weaponry, poured out from the surrounding catwalks.
The Monarks met them with terrifying synchronization. Voltia bounded forward, her bunny-ear helmet sparking as she unleashed a cascading torrent of chain lightning that leaped from mercenary to mercenary, frying their kinetic barriers and cooking them inside their armor. V found a vantage point atop a suspended cargo crate, her sniper rifle cracking with rhythmic, lethal precision, each shot instantly neutralizing an Eclipse heavy gunner.
Neon let out a joyous battle cry, sliding beneath a volley of plasma fire and discharging her massive shotgun into the knee joints of two advancing guards, while Ocean provided overwhelming suppression, her rocket launcher blowing entire sections of the catwalk into jagged shrapnel. Flower danced through the crossfire, her submachine gun a continuous buzzsaw of armor-piercing rounds that cut down anyone attempting to flank Arthur.
Arthur himself was a juggernaut of destruction. He waded into the thickest concentration of mercenaries, his N7-Typhoon shredding their ranks. When a massive Eclipse vanguard charged him with a thermal axe, Arthur simply stepped inside the swing, his goddesium legs anchoring him perfectly, and drove his Omni-blade straight through the man's reinforced chest plate.
But across the dock, a different kind of war was raging.
Enyala pushed herself out of the dented shipping container, her blue hair wild, a manic grin splitting her face. Her own biotic aura flared—a harsh, sickly blue that crackled with aggressive instability.
"Cerberus manufactured me too, sweetheart!" Enyala mocked, racking her shotgun. "Let's see whose upgrades are better!"
Miranda didn't speak. She moved with terrifying, engineered grace, closing the distance in a heartbeat. Enyala fired two rapid blasts. Miranda didn't dodge; she threw up a biotic barrier, the heavy slugs flattening against the invisible kinetic wall with a loud screech of metal.
Dropping the barrier, Miranda hurled a singularity. Enyala countered, throwing a biotic warp field that collided with the singularity mid-air, detonating in a shockwave that shattered the reinforced glass of the nearby observation booths.
Enyala tossed her empty shotgun aside and glowed with intense blue light. "Biotic Charge!" she screamed.
She crossed the fifty yards between them in a fraction of a second, slamming into Miranda with the force of a missile. The impact sent them both crashing through a stack of empty crates, tumbling across the permacrete in a tangle of limbs and biotic fire.
They scrambled to their feet, abandoning weaponry for brutal, biotic-empowered hand-to-hand combat. Enyala threw a devastating right hook, her fist encased in a blue mass-effect field. Miranda parried the strike, the collision of their biotics producing a sharp crack like thunder, and countered with a violet-infused knee to Enyala's ribs. The Eclipse Captain grunted, ribs fracturing beneath her armor, but spun into a sweeping kick that caught Miranda in the jaw, sending her staggering back.
Enyala pressed the advantage, launching a flurry of savage, energized strikes. Miranda slipped beneath a heavy haymaker, grabbed Enyala's extended arm, and pivoted, using her augmented strength to throw the heavier woman over her shoulder. Enyala crashed into the deck but immediately rolled, lashing out with a biotic shockwave that knocked Miranda off her feet.
Panting, Enyala lunged forward, drawing a serrated combat knife from her boot, aiming a lethal downward strike at Miranda's chest.
Miranda's eyes flared. She caught Enyala's wrist with both hands, her engineered muscles straining against the descending blade. For a breathless second, they were deadlocked, the blue and violet energies violently clashing around them.
"You were a prototype," Enyala hissed, spittle flying from her lips. "I am the finished product!"
"You're just a mercenary," Miranda whispered coldly.
With a surge of raw, terrifying power, Miranda twisted Enyala's arm until it snapped with a sickening crunch. Enyala screamed, dropping the knife. Miranda didn't hesitate. She drove her palm upward, a concentrated sphere of dark energy forming in her hand, and slammed it directly into Enyala's chest plate.
The biotic Nova detonated at point-blank range.
The force of the blast collapsed Enyala's chest cavity instantly, launching her broken body upward before it crashed heavily onto the steel grating, entirely devoid of life.
Silence fell over that corner of the dock, save for the hum of Miranda's fading biotics and her ragged breathing. She stood over Enyala's corpse, the vengeance doing nothing to warm the sudden, freezing emptiness in her chest. She looked back toward where Niket lay, a tragic casualty of greed and consequence.
The gunfire had ceased. Arthur and the Monarks stood amidst the ruins of the Eclipse platoon, victorious. Arthur deactivated his Omni-blade, the searing orange plasma vanishing back into his arm, and walked slowly toward Miranda.
She turned to him, her immaculate exterior finally showing the dirt and blood of the battle. "It's over," she said, her voice hollow. "The guards are dead. The perimeter is secure. Arthur... we need to hurry. We have to intercept Oriana quietly to ensure her safety before any automated security responds."
Arthur nodded, gesturing for the squad to follow. "Lead the way."
They moved swiftly through the labyrinth of Dock 94, bypassing the main thoroughfares and utilizing the maintenance tunnels Niket had highlighted on the terminal. Eventually, they emerged onto a secluded observation deck overlooking a secure holding suite.
Through the thick, soundproof glass, Miranda finally saw her.
Oriana was a teenager now, her features a softer, unburdened mirror of Miranda's own. She was sitting on a plush couch, laughing brightly at something her adoptive father was saying, while her mother brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. They looked terrified by the alarms, yet profoundly, deeply connected. They were a family.
Miranda placed a trembling hand against the cold glass. A tear finally escaped, cutting a clean track down her soot-stained cheek. She watched the sister she had sacrificed everything for, the sister who had absolutely no idea she even existed.
"She looks happy," Miranda whispered, a bittersweet smile touching her lips. "She looks normal. Niket was wrong. I didn't ruin her life. She has a family."
She took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders as she turned away from the glass. "That's all I needed to see. Let's go, Commander. My presence here will only bring Henry Lawson's shadow down upon them. They are better off without me."
She took a step toward the exit, but Arthur moved, planting his large frame solidly in her path.
"No," Arthur said firmly.
Miranda blinked, confused. "Arthur, we've secured her safety. My job is done."
"Your job as a Monark might be done," Arthur replied, his voice rich with empathy, "but your role as a sister isn't. You didn't fight your way through an army of mercenaries, you didn't defy your father's empire, just to watch her through a pane of glass and walk away."
"I am a weapon, Arthur," Miranda argued, her voice trembling. "I am a genetically engineered operative currently fighting a war against one of the Ark's leading scientists. If I walk in there, I make her a target."
Arthur reached out, his heavy prosthetic hands gently gripping her shoulders. "You are not a weapon, Miranda. You are a Monark. You are under my protection, and so is she. The Outpost will tear down anyone before we let anyone touch this family. I know what it's like to build a family from broken pieces. I look at Anne every day and know the risk, but the love is worth it."
He leaned down slightly, forcing her to meet his gaze. "Oriana deserves to know the truth. She deserves to know that she wasn't abandoned. She deserves to know that she has an older sister who loved her so fiercely she burned her entire world down just to keep her safe."
Miranda stared at him, the walls she had spent a lifetime building finally crumbling into dust. The profound, unwavering support in Arthur's eyes gave her a strength she never knew she possessed.
Slowly, she nodded. "Okay."
Arthur offered a small, reassuring smile and stepped aside, gesturing toward the heavy door of the holding suite.
With a deep, shuddering breath, Miranda reached out and pressed the release panel, stepping through the threshold to finally meet her sister.