kerpin
Serviceman 3rd Class
Posts: 9
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Post by kerpin on Oct 13, 2012 23:42:42 GMT 1
****This story was abandoned in mid-2013 due to the fact that the writer Kerpin passed away in July.***** Hello Internet, I'm Kerpin. A few months ago I was involved in a very heated argument about Mass Effect 3. The discussion was regarding the intro of the game. I found it to be really poor for multiple reasons. Eventually the person I was arguing with got fed up and demanded that I "write the damn intro myself or shut up!". While I normally never respond to classy Internet comments like that, this one was an interesting one. One thing lead to another and I eventually sat there with the intro to Mass Effect 3 re-written in 'my own style'. And it was so much fun that I decided to just continue writing. So essentially this is a novelization of the game, with new twists and events. Major points remain as they were in the game (except, hopefully, not as terrible) and I've put some of my own flair to it. It can also be found here: www.fanfiction.net/s/8282140/1/To-Break-a-Cycle This is my first little journey into the world of fanfiction and I don't think that I'm quite familiar with it all yet. The most experience I have with fanfiction could be found on the forums for a particular game I don't feel like mentioning. (Though if the title "Mark of the Larupia" mean anything to you.... then I'm sorry.) I don't do this because I hate Mass Effect. Quite the opposite. I love the series and I write this with joy and warmth. This is just my... alternative take on a game that should've been excellent. If you've read through it, why not create a review for it in the correct sub-forum? It would make me a very happy Krogan. *This would be rated M because of language and the occasional naughty scene* I will continue adding posts as I write them. Enjoy!
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kerpin
Serviceman 3rd Class
Posts: 9
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Post by kerpin on Oct 14, 2012 0:00:31 GMT 1
2186, Vancouver
Being surrounded by enemies in all directions was not a thing new to Commander Shepard. Throughout her long military career, she had always achieved great results while working under extreme pressure in brutal situations. There was a thrill in getting out of a dangerous situation alive, a thrill that couldn't be matched by anything else. But this situation was different. This was actually unpleasant.
It was the third day in the military hearing where a group of Alliance heavy hitters would decide the fate of Sarah Jane Shepard, formerly an Alliance Commander and a Council Spectre. Six months earlier, the Commander had been directly involved in the destruction of the Bahak system when its Mass Relay exploded and released a surge of energy that burnt the five planets to a crisp and claimed the lives of over three hundred thousand Batarian colonists. It hadn't taken the Batarian Hegemony long to learn which Alliance player could be blamed for the death and the entire race had been crying for Shepard's head on a diplomatic plate for months. Even though Shepard had always firmly stated that she did what had to be done; she had nonetheless agreed to peacefully turn herself in to the Alliance in order to prevent the Hegemony from declaring war. She had spent the last time on her ship, the Normandy, traveling around the galaxy with her friends. The Normandy Crew that had become infamous during the months together disbanded and the ship drifted around for a few months before Shepard turned herself in. Rumors stated the Commander had been sighted on a remote, isolated island on the Asari home-world, Thessia, with her arm wrapped around an unidentified Asari.
The months leading up to the first hearing had been hectic. The Batarian diplomats had angrily demanded that Shepard should be brought in chains to the Hegemony to answer for her crimes on their home-world. The Alliance had refused on the ground that no one but Batarians would be allowed to pass judgment. The Batarians wanted to make an example out of Shepard and, in the words of her mentor, Admiral Anderson, 'a political shit-storm was brewing'. Both parties had eventually agreed that while the initial hearing would take place on Earth, Batarian prosecutors and diplomats would be a big part of a future trial.
After turning herself and the Normandy in, Shepard had been put in house arrest in Vancouver, a city she had never been to on a planet that she had only ever visited in order to train at N7 training facility in Rio in her youth. She had no idea what had happened to the Normandy or the few crew-members that had been on there when the Alliance boarded them. The only people she had been allowed to meet and talk to over the past months had been her full-time guard and David Anderson who would regularly check in on her.
On the third day of the trial, Shepard herself had finally been allowed to testify. After being questioned for over an hour by a dry, humorless Alliance lawyer asking her about her past and youth, Shepard had become restless. The hearing took place in the large, newly renovated Town Hall and had, for reasons unknown, been open to public. Anderson had shared his suspicion that the Batarians had lobbied for the hearing to be public so that they could move in and kidnap the Commander. He claimed that Alliance security were aware of at least one cell of suspected Batarian commandos staying illegally in the city, laying low, waiting. But Anderson had promised Shepard that she was completely protected at every hour of the day. The realist in her appreciated the protection; the thrill-seeker in her hated the boredom and solitude.
The hearing lawyer had taken a pause for a few minutes to talk to his aides and go over notes. They had just gone over Shepard's, in her opinion, dull past. Both parents Alliance; a youth spent on numerous ships and bases; never a one place to call her home. It wasn't a very interesting story, Shepard had thought dryly several times during the hearing. She gulped down some water from the battle on the small table in front of her and leaned back on her chair so that she could look out the window at the other end of the room. She saw the Vancouver skyline. It wasn't impressive.
Turning her attention back to the rest of the large room, she glanced across the crowd of people attending her hearing. The majority of the onlookers were Alliance men and women, dressed up in their formal uniforms and stern expression. Then there were the government suits: the Mayor of Vancouver and officials from the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada. Men and women who had never left the planet they were born on and would never understand why Shepard did what she did in the Bahak system. If the Reapers had been allowed to use the Relay then all of these people would be dead or worse.
Shepard's eyes found Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams, standings with her arms crossed beneath her breasts. Williams shifted uncomfortably as she noticed the Commanders stare and pointedly looked into the floor. Shepard kept her face free of emotion as she too looked away. She had only met Williams a handful of times during over the last year and every meeting had been frosty.
The final group of people in the court room was a handful of reporters, crowded together in the back, trying to stay awake. Since any kind of advanced electronic equipment and recording decides had been forbidden, most of the reporters were frantically dotting on their handheld boards. The more old fashioned ones were working with pen and paper. Most of them met Shepard's gaze as she looked at them and she even recognized a few of them. There was the stout, older reporter who had been the first to ever interview Shepard several years earlier in a news piece about young women joining the Alliance and what prejudices they faced. She wondered if he remembered the day. Then there was the pudgy-looking reporter from Battlespace, a woman whose name Shepard couldn't remember. Too bad Khalisah al-Jilani wasn't there, Shepard allowed herself a thin smile. She could've used a punching bag.
Just as she was about to look away, she noticed a new man sitting slightly to the side of the other journalists. A young man with Asian features, short brown hair and horn-rimmed, he looked slightly out of place. He wasn't carrying a pad as far as Shepard could see yet he was clearly focused on what was happening in the courtroom. Their eyes met and the man tilted his head sideways and looked at her. Then he smiled. Shepard frowned. There was something very familiar about him...
"Commander," the hearing lawyer suddenly stepped into her vision and Shepard was snapped back to reality. The hearing had resumed again and she hadn't even noticed. Shameful, "Please share the details regarding your N6 training course."
Shepard frowned as she thought back to her days in the Interplanetary Combative Training (ICT) and brutal years she had spent tormenting herself into the soldier she was today. The final 'exam' of the program – the N6 training – had dropped her, and the other trainees, into an active combat zone.
"Our N6 mission, Sir," she spoke slowly and carefully, never taking her eyes off the man opposite her, "had me and a group of other candidates infiltrate a secret Alliance research facility on a deserted planet in the Attican Traverse. Batarian slavers had raided the facility and our team was dispatched a few hours after the distress call had been received."
"This was the first time you encountered Batarians in combat?"
"Yes, sir."
"And you later claimed that the Batarian Hegemony had sanctioned the attack?"
"No, Sir," Shepard said slowly and forced her face and voice to be free of emotion once more, "I stated in my report that one of the wounded Batarians offered to prove the Hegemony's involvement in the raid in exchange for his life."
"And you shot him instead," the lawyer stated as matter of fact.
"No, Sir," there was a trace of irritation in Shepard's voice now, "The Batarian tried to betray us shortly after and we defended ourselves. He never had the time to prove his claim."
"But you were the one who fired the killing shot, correct?"
Shepard was silent for several moments. Finally, "I might have done been the one, Sir. I do not recall."
"And the rest of the Batarians?"
"None of them survived, Sir."
"According to reports filed by your fellow trainees, you slew most of the raiders once you discovered that they had murdered most of the researches in the lab. Even when they surrendered."
"I followed orders, Sir. I killed in self defense."
"The only trainee who was granted the title of N7 after the mission," the lawyer's voice grew louder and he looked at his peers, "was the one who gunned down the surrendered Batarians. In cold blood. During this hearing we will prove that Commander Shepard has been hostile with the Batarian race throughout her career and that her prejudice led to her action in the Bahak system that claimed the lives of thousands. And that her interracial hatred led her to Cerberus, the known pro-human terrorist group!"
The attorney kept on raving about her supposed crimes but Shepard groaned silently and rubbed her forehead. Now she knew exactly how the rest of the hearing would play out. She needed a drink.
The court called for a two hour lunch break by noon and Shepard was quickly escorted out of the hall by her bodyguard, the biggest marine she had ever said, a man named Vega. Neither of them spoke as he followed her to the bathroom where she stopped in front of the mirror and looked at herself. She looked tired and pale. Not that she used much make-up normally but she had only been allowed the most basic refreshing items while in house arrest. Dressed in a military uniform suited for her rank as Commander, given to her by Anderson a week earlier, she noted that she looked more like a woman dressing up as the famous Commander Shepard rather then the Commander herself.
"Commander," Vega quickly rapped on the door before pushing it open a few inches, "We gotta go".
"You're not supposed to call me that anymore, James," Shepard smiled thinly at her image in the mirror.
"Yeah, not supposed to salute you either..." She could imagine Vega shrugging as he spoke. The young Marine had been saluting her since they first met, "Admiral Anderson wants to see you."
"Sounds important," Shepard left the mirror and joined Vega outside, "What's going on?"
"Lunch meeting. The Admiral reckoned you could use some fresh air."
"That's too bad. I was beginning to like my cell," Shepard replied and the two exchanged a quick look.
They moved through the busy corridors, dodging the occasional reporter that still lurked around trying to get an impromptu interview with the former Commander. None of the officials paid them much attention; most were heading out to lunch. A group of Batarians quickly came out of a doorway and Shepard frowned and moved to the other side of the corridor. She had had enough of Batarians crying for her blood and calling her a mass murderer. But these Batarians, Hegemony officials by the look of their outfits, paid her no mind. Instead they spoke quickly and made wild gestures as if they were panicking. Shepard's translator didn't pick up on what they were saying but she recognized the speech patterns and body language. What exactly had scared the Batarians so much that they didn't even notice a sworn enemy?
Vancouver was not a very impressive city. Not to someone who was used to grandeur of the Citadel, the elegance of Illium or the crowded shithole that was Omega. A main difference was the traffic. While there were still plenty of a flying vehicles and a big focus on quick, environmental saving public transport, tons of old-fashioned four-wheeled cars were still driving around on the streets of Vancouver and cities it. It was almost impossible to drive normal cars in the large metropolis-like cities; Shepard had read in a book years ago, due to lack of space. Vancouver, London and some Scandinavian cities were the only places on Earth were people still regularly used cars.
Shepard was sitting in the backseat of a grey, non-descript car cruising along the road with Vega was in the front seat, idly listening to the driver rave about something called the Canucks that apparently did whatever it was they did very well. Vega had been unresponsive as to where they were going and Shepard had eventually stopped asking. She looked through the bulletproof, tinted windows at a park across the water. Grissom Park had once been called something different, Shepard knew, but had been renamed after Jon Grissom, the Alliance hero, decades earlier. Shepard had no real experience with parks, preferring the reliability of spaceships but wondered briefly if Liara T'Soni would've liked to visit the park one day with her. Even the most boring activity became pleasant with Liara at her side.
The car kept on driving for a bit before pulling into the garage next to a large restaurant curiously named The Shepherd's Sceptre. Shepard raised an eyebrow at the name but didn't comment on it. There were a few other cars in the garage but no life signs as Vega stepped out and opened the door for her.
"I saw the name and knew it was too good too pass up on," the booming voice of David Anderson filled the garage and both Shepard and Vega turned to salute the large, bear-like Admiral as he approached, "At ease," he nodded and clasped Shepard's outstretched hand, "You look good, Shepard. Maybe a little soft around the edges. How you holding up?"
"It's not so bad once you get used to the boredom and the personal harassment," Shepard replied and the two started walking through the garage to the stairwell in the back, leaving Vega and the driver behind.
"I've been reading reports from the hearing. Fools. Bogus accusations thrown out to appease the Hegemony. We're throwing our best soldiers to the wolves with the Reapers almost at our doorsteps."
"Got any updates?"
"Hackett is mobilising the fleets. They're obligated to keep part of the force around the Citadel but what's left is circling in orbit. Last I heard, the stress is taking its toll on our soldiers."
"Do you think it's enough?"
"No," Anderson said grimly and they entered the main restaurant.
The Shepherd's Sceptre was a small, two-floor restaurant with designs and furniture from the beginning of the century. As Anderson led Shepard to the upper floor and into a small booth in the back of the room, he told her that The Shepherd's Sceptre was, despite its size, a diner that exclusively serves Alliance officers, hence the name. Unless you could prove that you belonged to the Alliance, the restaurant kept its doors closed to you. The only other people seated by the tables and by the bar were most likely part of Anderson's security detail, Shepard quickly noted as she studied them when they passed. Settling down in the empty second floor, a young, red-haired waitress dressed in a uniform that resembled the standard Alliance outfit, approached them. She gave Anderson a flash of a smile but then turned her full attention to Shepard, showing all of her pearly white teeth in a broad smile.
"Welcome to The Shepherd's Sceptre, Commander Shepard," she spoke cheerily without visibly reacting to the nonsense she had just spoken, "I'm Alice. Your food is being prepared for you and will be here shortly. Would you like a drink while you wait?"
She's just too pretty; Shepard noted and smiled back, "Just water, thank you Alice." It wouldn't look good if she came back to the hearing drunk, even though she craved a drink.
"Same for me," Anderson grunted but Alice only glanced at him quickly before giving Shepard a quick curtsy before leaving.
Anderson's eyes lingered on the young woman's body a few seconds too many as she left. Shepard caught him looking and raised an eyebrow. The Admiral chuckled and looked out through the window.
"Perhaps it's a good thing that you resisted a drink, Shepard," his tone was jovial; "I saw the videos from Omega. It wasn't pretty."
"I'm famous for many things, you know that, Anderson," Shepard laughed.
The last time she had been to Omega during a shore leave, the Normandy crew had visited The Afterlife Club, the nightclub owned by the infamous 'Pirate Queen', Shepard had stayed true to character and had too much to drink. Overconfident in her own skills, she had then taken to the dance floor with Kelly Chambers, her personal assistant on the Normandy, and promptly made a fool of herself. For several weeks the most popular video on the extranet had been a several minutes long music video titled Do the Shepard which featured the Commander showing off her spectacularly poor dance move. The video had gained millions of hits in its first hour. A few months later when the crew threw a birthday party for Joker, their pilot, Garrus had figured that the best present, and party entertainment, would be to turn on Shepard's dance video and, with the help of EDI, make sure that it was on every screen display in the entire ship for the rest of the day.
"You didn't really bring me here to talk about my dancing, did you?"
"We've lost contact with our informants in the Harsa system," Anderson spoke quietly and leaned forwards, "Every single line of communication stopped working at the same time. And not just ours either. I spoke to a friend of mine on the Citadel, the turian ambassador, and she told me that their network has gone dark too. My gut says we're not the only one."
"I noticed some batarians earlier. They were close to panicking. You think they've lost contact with Khar'shan too?"
Khar'shan, the batarian home-world and seat of the Hegemony, was a planet that Shepard did not want to visit. The odds were slim that the batarians had discovered the Alliance AND turian spies located in the system.
"You think it's the Reapers?" her voice was as low as his as Alice approached with a tray and drink. Anderson leaned back as the young waitress placed the glasses and a bottle of natural water in front of them.
"I just wanted to say, Commander," Alice's smile didn't leave her face, "it's a dream to meet one of humanity's big heroes! We named this place after you, you know, after you defeated the geth on the Citadel! I've never been more proud to be a human since that day!"
"I'm glad to hear it, Alice," Shepard smiled. She expected Alice to leave but the young woman remained standing, her blue eyes seemingly drilling into the Commander, "Was there something else?"
"They've been saying a lot of cruel things about you in the news, Commander," her eyes glittered, "I talked to my boyfriend just a moment ago and we totally support you in everything you do. We know it's for the best for humanity!"
Something about the girls reasoning sent a chill down Shepard's spine. The best for humanity...
"Thank you, that'd be all!" Anderson grunted impatiently. Alice looked at him as if she'd just realized that he was there and hurried away from the table, "Damn kids. Did you hear who she sounded like?"
"Yeah..." Shepard thought back to the last time she had spoken to the Illusive Man, several months earlier, after she had dealt with the Collectors once and for all. It had not been a pleasant conversation.
Blowing up the Collector base had put a strain to the already tense relationship between Shepard and Cerberus, the pro-human organization that had brought her back from the dead. The Commander had cut all ties with the Illusive Man after they had clashed about the fate of the Collector base. Shepard had acted on principle and decided that the Collectors and their monstrous actions needed to be permanently removed. The Illusive Man had objected, claiming that the base should be preserved so that humanity could benefit from their technology. In that moment he had betrayed his true colors to her and she had never looked back.
The Batarians and most of the Alliance hostile media had loudly been portraying Shepard as part of the Cerberus' inner circle, a ruthless murderer who would do anything to destroy alien civilizations and put humanity at the top of the food chain. After turning herself in, Shepard had spent weeks in interrogation cells, revealing everything that she had found out about Cerberus and the Illusive Man.
"Hackett thinks that the Reapers have already reached the galaxy," Anderson said grimly, "I don't think I want to know what happens on Khar'shan right now."
Tubes, Shepard thought, and a horrific black liquid...
"I wanted to tell you in person," his voice became low and conspiratorial, "If we get any – I mean, any, actual proof that the Reapers have arrived then we're going to get you out of here. The Normandy is here, ready to take off at any time and Hackett will leave your flight path clear. The galaxy needs Commander Shepard at the front lines, not rotting in a cell!
"I'm not saying that I don't appreciate the plan," Shepard hesitated, "But what if we just make things worse?"
Anderson said nothing, he just leaned back, visibly frustrated. Shepard was silent as well, pondering what he Anderson had revealed. There was nothing she wanted more then to be back on the Normandy, free to fly wherever she wanted and strike at the Reapers. But if a high ranking Alliance officer, the human member of the galactic Council, broke her free then there was a high risk of the batarians declaring war on humanity even if the Reapers had already reached the Milky Way.
"Admiral," Vega's voiced came from Anderson's radio, "There's a small crowd of civilians gathering outside. About two dozen. They're all standing around looking at the place. Orders?"
"Just observe but be ready to leave if things turn ugly. Over."
"Ugly?" Shepard asked and looked out through the window but she couldn't see any crowds.
"There's been a small movement this past week," Anderson pulled a pistol from a holster and checked it before putting it down on the seat next to him, "'Free Shepard' they call themselves. They're vocal and militant. Been harassing batarians businesses and spreading propaganda about you. Claiming that you're the victim of a huge conspiracy or some shit like that. Nuts are what they are. They've been trying to get close to you many times but they've always been repelled… but if someone's tipped them off that you're here now then we might have a problem."
Problem, Shepard thought and looked around the empty floor of the restaurant. And then sherealizedd something that had been bothering her.
"Our food," she said slowly, "Where's the girl?"
Anderson frowned in confusion but quickly puzzled the pieces together. Alice the waitress had never returned brought the food that had apparently been ordered earlier. And her choice of words...
Suddenly an explosion rocked the building and theshock wavee threw Anderson and Shepard out of their seats and to the floor. The Shepherd's Sceptre was a strong building suited for the military. The bulletproof windows shook but didn't break and the walls didn't crumble but it burnt like every other building. It didn't take long before Shepard could smell the smoke.
"Fuck me, where did that come from?" Vega burst out and his voice was quickly silenced by a hail of gunfire, "Shit! These clowns are armed! One of them shot a fuckin' ROCKET at the building and now they're all pouring at us!" he stopped talking and Shepard heard more shots being fired, this time much closer, "Hah, got one!"
There was now a lot of smoke on the upper floor and Shepard yelled to Anderson that there must be someone inside setting fire to the place. Without a response, the Admiral pulled his pistol and made his way to the staircase.
"Vega!" he roared into his radio, "This place is beginning to burn! We need a path to the car cleared!"
"Gotcha, Admiral! We're pinned down but we'll clear these bastards for you!"
Before Anderson could say anything else, another rocket hit the building. This time the wall weren't able to withstand it and a large hole in the front was blown wide opened. Both Shepard and Anderson were thrown away by theshock wavee; Shepard towards a booth and Anderson tumbled down the stairs. Shepard got her momentum back in time to see several Molotov Cocktails sail through the ruined wall and dove towards the stairs seconds before they hit the wall and the room was engulfed in flames.
"Anderson, talk to me!" she yelled as she rushed down the stairs, "Are you alright?"
The Admiral was on all fours at the bottom of the floor, groggy from the fall. His pistol lay by his side and Shepard quickly snapped it up and turned towards the doorway. Just as she did, someone kicked it open and a man armed with a shotgun burst inside. Shepard fired twice and the man staggered and fell.
"Come on, you bastards!" Shepard yelled and dragged Anderson backwards by the arm towards the basement stairs. Her attackers responded by firing through the open doorway, forcing the two to dive behind the bar for cover.
Shepard landed next to Alice who was covering with her hands over her head, shaking with tears. Anderson, who had come to his senses, saw a riffle hidden under the bar and grabbed it, stood up and fired through the doorway. A scream of agony told them of his success.
"Alice!" Shepard shook the waitress's shoulders, "You told anyone that I was here?" her
voice was harsh, all previous friendliness gone.
"Only Alex," the young woman sobbed, "Ohmygod, ohmygod, I only told my boyfriend! He didn't say this would happen! I'm so sorry!"
Frustrated, Shepard pulled the woman to her feet and dragged her towards the backdoor. Anderson stood and covered her while roaring for backup into his radio. Alice reached the door and yanked it open... only to freeze in surprise as she stood face to face with the Asian reporter that Shepard hard seen at the hearing. The man had been about to open the door but Alice's appearance had stunned him. It lasted only for a second until he saw Shepard standing behind her and his eyes lit up.
"Alex? What are you doing here?" Alice's voice became filled with surprise and joy and reached for him before Shepard had a chance to pull her back.
The knife flashed quickly and Alice staggered backwards, blood gushing from her neck. Shepard caught the woman as she fell and took a step backwards. As did the Asian man. He sheathed the bloody knife and quickly pulled up a small pistol instead. At the tight quarters, Shepard's only protection was the dying waitress. She ducked behind her as the assassin fired several shots into his girlfriend's body, without a moment of hesitation. Shepard heard Anderson move behind her and knew that they'd both be dead if she didn't act. She pushed Alice's body forwards, straight at her killer andleapedt after it. The body caught the man by surprise and the involuntary step backwards that he took caused him to fall. Shepard's fist barely missed his face and the three of the rolled down the stairs to the garage floor. Anderson called her name and rushed after them before suddenly stopping.
"You!" he roared with fury and raised the riffle to his shoulder and fired. The assassin's quick reflexes saved his life and he rolled away, "Come back here, you little shit!" Shepard got back up and fired at the assassin who rolled under a car and vanished from sight.
"Vega, where the hell are you?"
As a response, the small Alliance car accelerated through the garage and sped towards them. It was covered in bullet holes and the bulletproof windshield looked ready to crack. But it was still moving and Shepard saw Vega sitting behind the wheels with the normal driver nowhere in sight. Three attackers rushed after the car, one of them carrying the rocket launcher on her shoulder. Shepard took aim and the woman fell, the launcher rolling away behind her.
"Shepard, hurry!" Anderson's riffled boomed and another of the incoming attackers was fell, "It's Cerberus!"
"Cerberus?" Shepard yelled back and looked for the Asian assassin who had seemingly vanished, "You sure?"
"Positive! Get in and let's get out!
As Shepard dove into the car, the Cerberus assassin appeared behind Anderson, his blade ready to strike at the Admiral's unprotected back. Shepard, without time to shout a warning, raised her gun and fired. It was a bad shot that missed the assassins completely but Andersonrealizedd what was about to happen. He sent his elbow back hard, smashing it against the assassins face. The man dropped his knife and grunted in pain and Anderson spun around and brought his knee up into the other man's crotch. The assassin fell to his knees and Anderson raised his riffle to finish him off. But the gun clicked and the other attackers were closing in so Anderson crushed the Asian's nose with the butt of the riffle instead and dove into the car. Vega didn't waste a second waiting and sped off before Shepard managed to reach out and shut the door. He accelerated through the garage, hitting two of the attackers when they didn't manage to dive away in time and suddenly they were on the street, speedily fleeing the scene and leaving The Shepherd's Sceptre burning behind them.
Shepard slumped in the seat next to Anderson, bleeding from her shoulder where a bullet had grazed her. The older man was breathing heavily and there was a lot of blood coming from his arm. But there seemed to be no risk of him bleeding out.
"What the hell happened, Vega?" Anderson demanded angrily after a few minutes of silence.
"I don't know, Admiral. Those people were just there one second and then the next they were firing rockets and shit. They got Ivan almost straight away. Never had a chance."
"You sure they were Cerberus?" Shepard looked at Anderson while her mind raced.
"That man," Anderson tilted his head back and closed his eyes, "I recognized him. Name's Kai Leng, he's a Cerberus assassin. I encountered him some time back. I thought I had seen that last of him then. The bastard is hard to kill."
"Cerberus..." Shepard spat out the name, "I wondered when they would show up."
"Maybe they've been waiting for a while," Vega chimed in, "Might be they always were the 'Free Shepard' people and was always waiting for an opportunity to take you out, Lola."
"Could be," Anderson was applying medi-gel to Shepard's wound and then focused on his own, "They sure reacted quickly."
"The waitress told Leng," Shepard thought back to the dying woman's final moments as Leng had shot her trying to get through to Shepard. What a terrible way to die, "He posed as her boyfriend and she believed him."
"Poor girl... We'd better get you back to the HQ, Shepard. I'll call the Defence Board and get them to postpone the rest of hearing for today; it's just not safe if Cerberus and Leng are still out there. Right now, your cell is the safest place in Vancouver."
Unless Cerberus have people there too, Shepard thought, "And then what happens?"
"We'll see," Anderson mumbled, "We'll see."
Back at the HQ, Shepard spent two hours briefing Alliance officers about the Cerberus attacks. What interested the officer questioning the most was a description of Kai Leng's appearance and his cold-blooded murder of the young woman in the restaurant. She described him as well as she could remember and told them that she had seen Leng during the hearing earlier in the day. Shepard's involvement in the Cerberus attack had been kept a secret and the media was speculating wildly about why Cerberus would burn down an Alliance restaurant on Earth. No one had any theories worth listening to according to Anderson who had been following the events closely.
Something was going on. It was in the middle of the night and Shepard was wide awake in her cell at the HQ. She had heard a few sirens from outside an hour earlier and there had been a lot of people running around outside her cell. Shepard was pacing around impatiently, occasionally banging on the door and shouting for someone to tell her what was going on. The lights had gone out in her cell earlier but no one had come to fix it.
After returning from the restaurant, Shepard had spent two hours being interrogated by multiple Alliance officers about the Cerberus attack. They had been the most interested in Kai Leng; his appearance and what he had done. She had told them that she had seen the assassin earlier during the hearing and the interrogators had told her that they would inform every guard, police man and soldier in Vancouver to keep their eyes open. Shepard hadn't voiced her doubts. Now she was restless. Despite the attack, this had been the most exciting day in a long time. The thrill of battle was one that she had sorely missed.
Suddenly, without warning, the door was yanked open and Shepard involuntarily shielded her eyes as someone shone a flashlight at her.
"Commander, you gotta come. We gotta leave!" it was Vega.
"What's happening?" Shepard demanded as Vega lowered the flashlight.
Vega wasn't alone. Two Alliance marines, man and woman, were behind him, dressed in combat uniforms and carrying assault riffles in front of them, ready for anything. Vega stepped aside and let Shepard out of the cell, handing her a pistol. The lights were out in the hallway as well.
"Is it Cerberus?" Shepard asked the group started half running through the dark corridor.
"We dunno," Vega didn't slow down, "Most of the power is out in the entire city and there's a glitch in communications. Bear is in City Hall; we'll bring you there and wait for orders."
They passed a lot of people running the hallways but none of them gave Shepard a second look. Either it didn't bother them that the Commander was out of her cell or they had other things to worry about. Shepard didn't one which option she preferred. Vega led the way to main command centre, a large room full of computers, screens and men and women hurrying around and screaming at each other. Vega started talking to an officer but Shepard didn't listen. She left the group and walked over to the giant window overlooking Vancouver. The entire city was dark but the night sky... the night sky was full of stars. Too many stars.
"Captain," a female voice called out behind Shepard, "We're not getting a response from Admiral Hackett or any of the fleets!"
"Impossible!" a male voice shouted back, "The long-range scanners says that they are still there; why the fuck can't we contact them?"
"They're still there, Sir..." the first voice replied, "But according to the scanners there is too much mass there. It's like the space above us is just... full."
Shepard kept her stare focused on the sky but listened to every word of the conversation as a chill went down her spine. She remembered a phrase that had haunted her dreams for months. Our numbers will darken the sky...
And then everything happened at once. A bright red flash erupted from the darkness and a giant laser shot down from the sky into Vancouver and gutted a skyscraper. Moments later the Reaper landed.
Shepard heard people gasp or scream in horror behind her but she remained collected despite her own fears. It was a smaller Reaper, not as big as the titans Sovereign or Harbinger but still incredibly big. It walked on four legs and turned its giant head to fire off another laser at the already crippled skyscraper, destroying it completely. The sky seemingly started to move as more and more Reapers detached themselves from the darkness and landed, letting out their terrifying metallic honks. As the Reapers descended, burning debris fell with them, the remains of the fleets protecting Earth.
The entire command central sprung into action. Alarms were sent to every Alliance base on the planet and live feeds were displayed on monitors on the walls. Shepard turned to watch screens showing Reapers descend on San Francisco, Moscow, Sydney, Hamburg and Oslo. It was well-coordinated attack; Reapers striking at the major cities on Earth, disrupting their signals and crushing their fleets. A sudden sense of panic gripped her as multiple explosions shook the building.
"Commander, come on!" Vega suddenly appeared behind her and tugged at her shoulder.
Shepard snapped back to her senses and started moving without a word.
The first thing Shepard noticed as she rushed outside was the smoke and the smell. Burning debris laid spread across the courtyard and there were panicking people running around everywhere. She heard the sound of gunfire and screams and knew exactly what that meant. The husks had arrived.
Up in the air, the Alliance had stared to fight back. Fighter jets and smaller cruisers engaged the Reapers while battleships entered the inlet and tried to distract the giant machines and get them to leave the city. The Reapers seemingly shrugged off the fighters; their powerful shields keeping them from harm. A thunderous roar was heard and hundreds of Oculi, the small Reaper fighters, swooped down from the darkness and intercepted the Alliance fighters, taking them off guard. Countless of burning jets and Oculi crashed to the ground as the two fleets clashed viciously.
Transport ships were landing wherever there was enough free space and within minutes there were thousands of husks running through Vancouver. Shepard heard their terrifying screams and her team spun around as one in time to see a large group of the monstrous creatures rush into the courtyard. The Alliance marines opened fire but whenever a husk fell, another would instantly take its place. In the chaos, the civilians were completely unprotected and the husks threw themselves at them, dragging the humans away kicking and screaming or killing them on the spot.
The marines quickly stopped panicking and began together to save the remaining civilians. They were herded together in groups and shielded by a thick line of armed men and women who used grenades and bullets to thin the approaching horde of husks. Slowly but surely they began to push back through the courtyard towards the opposite exit.
Shepard stayed close to Vega who was simultaneously yelling into his radio while also shooting precision shots at the husks. Shepard was again feeling the thrill of battle that she had been missing for months. She cried out battle orders and the marines obeyed her without hesitation, every one of them familiar with the legendary Commander and willing to follow her despite her demotion and status as a possible war criminal.
"City Hall is burning!" Vega shouted, "The admiral is on the streets. We gotta meet up with them!"
"Lead on!" Shepard yelled back without taking her eyes off the enemy. Another husk fell before her, missing its head.
"Right," Vega grunted and started to coordinate the retreat. The marines and the civilians reached the main street and the leaders directed them towards City Hall. The great white building, visible in the distance, was burning fiercely.
The running people came to a quick halt as a giant Reaper descended from the sky and landed in front of them. While it was still far away, the enormous being cast a huge shadow on the humans and it dwarfed the smaller Reapers. The street it landed on was wide but the giant legs still smashed the large buildings on the sides to pieces as it moved around. While Shepard had never physically seen it, she easily recognized the Reaper. The multiple glowing eye-like lights turned towards Shepard and her followers and Harbinger let out an extremely loud honk that left the already terrified civilians screaming and crying in terror.
Harbinger's cannon hummed and Shepardrealizedd that an attack was imminent; "Out of the way!" she screamed and rushed towards the buildings on the side of the street, hoping that the others did the same.
Harbinger fired a laser into the ground and then steered it up the street towards the group. Cars were thrown away as the laser passed them and theshock wavee smashed the windows of the buildings. Most of the people had had the sense to run to safety but a few of the civilians remained frozen in terror and were vaporized instantly.
Harbinger honked again and started to walk down the street towards the survivors, each step causing tremors that destroyed even more in its wake. Shepard stood pressed against the wall inside a ruined store with Vega next to her, desperately trying to think of a plan to get past the Reaper.
"Can you call in an airstrike?" she asked but Vega simply shook his head.
"Only getting a response randomly. They must be scrambling our radio channels!"
"Shit!" Shepard looked into the store, "We can see if there's another exit through there!"
Vega followed her gaze to a doorway leading further into the building, "Better than staying here."
Shepard gave the command and the marines and civilians started to get move through the store towards the doorway. The Commander was one of the last to follow. She stopped by the broken window and looked across the street where the rest of the group was huddling in an alleyway. If they tried to cross the street then they would be directly in the line of Harbinger's fire and the approaching husks would overwhelm them. She raised her arm and tried to signal something to them but if the marines in the alley saw her then they didn't acknowledge her. It pained her to abandon them but Shepard turned and ran after Vega through the store.
"I've got a connection!" Vega whispered as he and Shepard carefully made their way through the abandoned building, remaining silent in case there were husks inside, "The Bear is safe," he fell silent as the person at the other end of the radio spoke into his earpiece, "We're to make our way to the river, the Normandy will be there."
"Good," Shepard's voice was equally silent as the pushed a door open and scanned it for hostiles. The two had gone ahead of the other group, scouting to find a way out. They could still hear Harbinger walking around firing and honking. Sporadic gunfire and the sound of jet fighters were also heard, indicating that the Alliance had engaged the Reaper and forcing it to focus on them instead of chasing Shepard. It had given the survivors some valuable time to escape but the Reaper would eventually win the fight and continue destroying the city. And none of them could predict if, or when, Harbinger was going to make a turn and walk right over their hideout.
"I hope those guys survived," Vega mumbled as the two ascended a stairwell, "You think they got out?"
No, "Maybe,"
"Damn..." Vega's voice trailed off.
"You called me Lola earlier today, James" Shepard spoke after a few moments of bitter silence, "What's with the nicknames?"
"I just never met a person who fit their name, you know," Vega shrugged, "And I never been good with them either. You look like a Lola," another shrug.
"Lola, hrm?" Shepard was amused, "Carry on, Vega."
Vega chuckled but didn't return the banter. He stopped by a broken window and looked outside, "Shit. City's a mess."
Shepard joined him by the window and saw what he saw. The building across the street, a small school by the looks of it, was ablaze and there were husks and lumbering around looking for prey. Burning wreckage littered the road and there were bodies everywhere. The surrounding buildings had also taken a beating. But at least there weren't any Reapers around. Harbinger's noises were fading as the Reaper kept walking and destroying what it could. The sun was rising in the distance and Shepard saw a city that had transformed into a full-blown war zone in less then an hour. She briefly wondered if Kai Leng and Cerberus were still in the city or if they had fled when the Reapers arrived. Running into them now wasn't something she longed for.
"Try getting hold of Anderson again," she said and backed away from the husks' line of sight. Vega did as ordered and spoke into his radio for a few moments.
"There are evac-shuttles on Victory Square, the Normandy will come and pick us up there. It's still under our control."
"Alright, how far?"
"Twenty mins or so," Vega shrugged, "Probably gonna take us longer with all these people, Lola,"
Leave or bring along, Shepard debated, "If there's a chance that we can save them then we're not leaving them," end of discussion.
"Roger that, Commander,"
Shepard glanced back out the window. More husks were moving around on the streets now and more could be seen lumbering around further down the street. If they had to charge down the street then they would loose a lot of people. Suddenly her eyes found a way out, conveniently located almost right below her. Shepard smirked. Excellent.
Victory Square was under siege. Husks and the Reaper-ized remains of batarians, dubbed Cannibals by the troopers due to their tendencies to devour parts of their own dead which sent them into frenzies, were trying to break the lines of a combined marine and military force that protected the evacuation ships that that were landing and taking off. The air was filled with the smoke as the remains of tanks, helicopters, jets and Oculi burned around the fighters. Anderson was commanding the defence as the highest ranking soldiers on the ground but he knew that they wouldn't hold out for much longer. Soon the Reapers would walk over to the square and wipe out the meagre defence force.
The Normandy was set to arrive in a few minutes but he hadn't heard from either Shepard or Vega in a while and he was getting worried. Eye witnesses talked about large hordes of husks hammering through the city; an unstoppable wave of slaughter. Shepard's last known location was now reported to be completely under Reaper control; with several Reaper Destroyers and the one known as Harbinger walking around and settling in. The Alliance jets were slowly but surely becoming outnumbered by the Oculi fleet and the cruisers were under heavy fire by the Reaper Destroyers. There had been no word from Admiral Hackett and the strategic in Anderson knew that Earth was about to be lost. Reports had come in from around the world, bearing news that terrifyingly many cities had surrendered to the Reapers and that even more were ablaze. The Reapers had struck hard and Vancouver was one of the few cities that had managed to put up something that even remotely resembled a defence. And the only thing they could do was try to evacuate as many civilians as possible before fleeing with their tails between their legs.
An explosion caused Anderson to loose his footing and fall to his knees. Moments after he went down a pair of strong hands pulled him back up and the admiral turned to look at the young marine fighting by his side. Despite the carnage and death, Anderson felt a tingle of pride as he watched men and women fight together against a common enemy. There hadn't been talk about surrendering Vancouver; nor about fleeing as long as there were innocents left in danger.
Anderson had fled City Hall along with the city officials and a group of batarian Hegemony diplomats when husks breached the defences. The survivors, a few Batarians and the Mayor, were now covering somewhere behind Anderson, waiting for their escorts. None of them had accepted the guns that were offered them by the military. As Anderson watched their snivelling cowardice, he once again acknowledged that he had made the right choice in stepping away from politics. His job as a Council member on the Citadel had been tiring, monotone and, most damning of all, boring. As he had told Commander Shepard many times, he had longed for the much simpler military life that he had grown to love. He knew in his heart that he was in the right place for this Reaper invasion: on the battlefield, armed and ready. Udina could handle the politics with much more interest then Anderson ever had had for the job. Even Shepard would be better suited for the tasks that needed to be done in the coming days. A soldier like him, Shepard had charisma and a personality that demanded attention. Anderson knew turians, krogans and asari, that was true, but he didn't command their respect like the Commander did. And that was why he knew that it was Shepard herself who had to be the one who would go to the Citadel and Palawan and Thessia, not him.
He found himself sneaking a hand into his uniform pocket and, not for the first time this night, checked to see if Shepard's gift was still there. Wrapped inside a handkerchief, there was an item that he planned on handing over to the Commander the next time he saw her.
A giant creature flew over the defence lines, a winged beast that Anderson had never seen before. Without hesitation he raised his assault riffle and fired after it, calming noting that the monster growled as it got hit and veered away from the transport shuttle it had been targeting. The Reaper themselves might be impervious to normal weapons but their armies, however, were not.
"Admiral!" a communications officer rushed up to Anderson, carrying a radio in one hand and a pistol in the other, "The Normandy can't wait much longer; they're requesting a landing permit!"
"Goddamnit!" Anderson cursed and looked at the sky as the sleek ship came into view. The sight of the ship always filled him with an emotion that he could never place, "Give them the permit but make sure they know who we're waiting for!"
The officer acknowledged the command and Anderson focused on the oncoming Husks and Cannibals. In front of him, a marine woman was charging a Husk, using her omni-blade to crush its head. The husk fell but dragged the woman with it. Anderson could hear her pained screams as a group of Cannibals rushed in and the woman vanished underneath a pile of the monsters. Anderson threw a grenade into the group to put her out of her misery.
The defending soldiers had heard many Reaper honks during the battle and none reacted at the sound of another one. But then heads began to turn as they recognized the sound. Anderson's spirits were raised when he saw a large truck smash its way through the Husks, steering right towards the defence line. Leaning out of the doorway, pistol in hand and the red hair blowing in the wind was Commander Shepard.
The military quickly spread out and made way for the big vehicle. Anderson saw Vega behind the wheels and grinned as the young marine slid to a halt with husk missing its legs desperately clinging to the hood. Anderson shot the creature in the head before stepping forwards to greet the Commander. Shepard clasped his hand and patted his shoulder, genuine relief visible in her eyes.
"Good to see you, kid," he smiled, "your ride is almost here!"
Shepard saw the Normandy and her smile became even wider for a second before settling back into the grim determination of a soldier. Anderson saw a group of civilians and military personal exit the truck andrealizedd what Shepard had gone through during the battle. All of the civilians tearfully thanked her, with handshakes or quick hugs, and the soldiers saluted the former Commander without noticing the admiral next to her.
The relief and joy was interrupted by a loud, metallic honk that brought everyone back to the reality of their situation. A giant Reaper, Harbinger according to the intel Anderson had read, was slowly making its way towards Victory Square, swatting down fighter jets as if they were flies.
"We need aerial backup at V-Square!" Anderson yelled into his headset as the panicking civilians rushed past him towards the few shuttles that were still on the ground, "Buy us some evac time!"
"Roger that, admiral," someone replied and a pair of cruisers broke of from the main formation and headed to intercept Harbinger
"Shepard, follow!" Anderson called out and didn't wait for a reply.
The admiral and the Commander rushed after the fleeing civilians as the defence line pulled back while the husks, driven on by Harbinger's presence, pushed forwards. Oculi flew in and rained fire down onto the square while Harbinger's laser caused the ground to tremble; people fell and were trampled by the rest of the panicking crowds; tanks exploded and the fire burnt the soldiers in and around them. It was chaos.
The Normandy walkway was lowered as Shepard approached and Anderson slowed down into a jog as the Commander sprinted ahead. She ran up the walkway and was met by lieutenant commander Williams who patted her on the back and gave her some reassuring words. Vega joined them as did some fleeing men and women who ran up the walkway without the crew stopping them. The Normandy ascended a bit into the air and hovered just out of reach of the people below. Only then did Shepard notice that Anderson hadn't joined them. She stepped onto the edge of the walkway and frowned down at him.
"Come on!" she yelled and looked up behind him, most likely at Harbinger who was still approaching despite the cruisers shooting at him.
"I'm not going!" Anderson called back and he could see Shepard's eyes widen. She was stunned, "You see these people back there!" he gestured at the soldiers behind him, "There's a million more of them and they need a leader! This is my place; I'm staying here!"
"The hell you are! We're in this fight together; if you're staying then I'm staying!"
Anderson again felt a sense of pride. But there was also sadness over what he had to do. Shepard's sense of loyalty was admirable and he would've the same thing if he were in her shoes. Though the task ahead of her was not one that he wished to share.
"This is a fight we can't win, not without help. We need every species and all their ships to even have a chance at defeating the Reapers!" Anderson could see that the reasoning was sinking in with Shepard. If anyone can do it, you can, "Talk to the Council. Convince them to help."
Resignation, "What if they won't listen?"
"Then make/b] them listen! Now go. That's an order!"
"I don't take orders from you anymore, remember?" there was a sad smile playing in the corner of the Commander's lips now.
Anderson pulled up the handkerchief, unwrapped Shepard's officer badge and threw it through the air. Shepard caught it with one hand and looked up at him without a word.
"Consider yourself reinstated, Commander!"
They stood there and watched each other in silence, a mental goodbye before Shepard finally spoke, "I'll be back for you. And I'll bring every fleet I can!"
"I'll have a red carpet made of Reapers waiting for you!" the two of them shared a genuine smile.
"Good luck,"
"You too, Shepard"
The Commander turned and walked further up the walkway, nodded to Williams and disappeared from Anderson's sight. The Normandy closed up started to fly away and Anderson watched it fly. For a brief moment he wondered if he had made the right decision. Then there was another explosion behind him and Harbinger honked and he nodded to himself. This was his place.
Shepard watched the destruction as the Normandy ascended. The Reapers had won; Vancouver was burning. Several transport shuttles were ascending beneath them but Reaper fire brought them down in flames. She had met the people in those shuttles; escorted them through a war zone towards safety only for them to meet death in Victory Square. A small group of them were huddled together in the transport bay along with her but the majority of them were still down there; inside the burning wreckages or being torn apart by husks. Or impaled on dragon's teeth, the terrifying devices that created new husks.
She leaned her forehead against the looking glass and just stared at the scene below. Ashley spoke behind her but she shut her voice out. She saw the massive husk horde break the lines of the soldiers below and rush into the square. Smaller shuttles and ships fled the scene in the different direction, dodging Harbinger's furious attacks as the Reaper stomped onto the fields and laid waste to it. Then the Normandy changed directions and entered the atmosphere. But Shepard could still see the explosions down on Earth; could imagine the screams of the dying and the fear the people felt in their last moments. She closed her eyes and hoped that Anderson would make it out alive.
The Normandy shot out into space, leaving the planet as more and more Reapers descended through the atmosphere. It passed the remains of the Alliance fleet that soared through the emptiness; destroyed by the Reapers who didn't even give them a proper chance to fight back. Eventually they passed the wreckages and the Normandy shot through the darkness deeper into space. The final hours of the galaxy had begun.
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kerpin
Serviceman 3rd Class
Posts: 9
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Post by kerpin on Oct 14, 2012 23:18:10 GMT 1
Chapter 2
Shepard made her way through the hold, pushing past the survivors and ignoring their loud questions as she made her way towards the elevator and the ship's intercom. Ashley followed close behind her, having not spoken since they departed. Vega was by the elevator, loudly explaining to a group of men that they weren't allowed on the rest of the Normandy. The men were not amused. As soon as he saw the Commander, Vega pushed the smaller men aside and joined her. A frown quickly appeared on his face as he scanned the crowds behind Shepard.
"Where's Anderson?" he asked but Shepard ignored him as well, brusquely brushing past him, "Hey!"
"We're leaving," Shepard cut him off and logged in on the computer by the elevator, activating the intercom, "Joker, are-..."
"What the hell is going on?" Vega demanded and stepped dangerously close into Shepard's personal space. Ashley stood silent to the side, watching them both.
Shepard grimaced and released the intercom button to face Vega. He was twice her size and at least one head taller but the size difference didn't concern the woman who, according to popular myths, had headbutted her fair share of krogans in her days "Anderson wants us to go to the Citadel. To get help for the fight."
"And leave him behind? Bullshit. He wouldn't give us that order!"
"He can see what's going on. Without help, this war is already over. And he gave us an order; we're following it."
"Then you drop me off at the next depot," Vega snorted and started to turn around, "Because I'm not-"
Shepard took a quick step forwards and jabbed a finger at Vega's chest, "Stop, Lieutenant!" she hissed, "You don't want to go, I get it. But this isn't a democracy! The Normandy goes where I say it goes and we're going to the Citadel. You want out then you can get a ride back from there!"
Shepard didn't give him time to respond before dismissively turning her back to him. Having lost the stand-off, Vega marched off muttering and disappeared into the crowd of refugees. Shepard glanced sideways and caught Ashley giving her a strange look, one that she couldn't interpret. Was something up?
"Joker," she spoke into the intercom again, "Is that you up there?"
"Alive and kicking, Commander," Jeff Moreau's voice replied, "Good to hear you made it onboard in one piece,"
"There's no place I'd rather be, Joker. You know what happened to the fleets?"
"Yeah... Admiral Hackett contacted me before we picked you up. The Reapers caught everyone completely off-guard. Didn't stand a chance. 3rd and 5th Fleet had to escape but 2nd was sacrificed so they could get away. It was a slaughter. I don't think there were any survivors, Commander."
"Damnit..." Shepard cursed. How could they have been caught so completely unprepared? "Anything else?"
"Said I'm to take you to Mars, the Alliance facility there. Liara will meet you there. Something in the Prothean Archives."
After everything that had happened this day, Shepard felt a warm sensation of joy spreading through her as Joker spoke. Liara... "Alright, hopefully the Reapers haven't attacked Mars as well."
"We're a little short on actual crew members up here," Joker admitted, "Most of the regulars are at the Citadel or spread elsewhere. We don't have a shuttle pilot for you."
"Alright, it'll be okay. You see all the guests we've picked up?"
"Yeah, EDI is putting them on display right now. We should have enough rations to keep them fed all the way to the Citadel."
"Good," Shepard looked around at the refugees, "Joker, stick to minimal radio contact while we're down on Mars. We don't know how many Reapers are in the system and I don't want any of them picking up our chatter and try to find us."
"Why Mars?" Ashley asked as Shepard terminated the call, "What does he think we'll find there?"
"I don't know. Yet. But if it helps us win this war…" Shepard didn't finish question but Ashley already knew the answer. If there was a chance to defeat the Reapers then the Commander would take it. No matter the cost.
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After a long day of politics, assassination attempts and a full-scale Reaper invasion, Shepard began to feel the tiredness creep up on her. After briefing Vega and Ashley about their next mission and arming herself with an M-8 Avenger assault rifle and the M-6 Carnifex pistol that Mordin Solus had given her the first time they met on Omega - while she had never been sentimental about the weapons she used on the field, Shepard had held on to the powerful gun because it had proved to be extreme useful, having saved her life and the lives of her comrades on many occasions - she settled into the back of the transport and quickly fell asleep. Stretching out on the seats with an arm under her head, Shepard didn't hear Vega start up the shuttle and flying away from the Normandy. Only when they reached Mars' atmosphere did the Commander rise, stretch and head into the cockpit were Vega was hunched over the control, flying very slowly and overly careful. She leant over the controls and asked Joker for an update.
"I've trying to reach Mars on secure channels but no one's answerin',"
"Any sign of Reaper activity?"
"Negative,"
Damnit Liara, Shepard thought, where are you? "EDI?"
"The base appear to be online," EDI replied instantly, "It is possible the inhabitants were evacuated."
"We'll know soon enough," Shepard said grimly and turned away, "Be ready for anything, Joker." The feed was cut and Vega announced the landing. Like with the rest of his flying, Vega landed the shuttle as carefully as he could on a hill overlooking the main base and the nearby Archives. The team put on their helmets and stepped out onto Mars, taking in the scenery.
"There's a big storm coming our way," Vega nodded the horizon where a massive storm cloud darkened the sky, "Half hour tops. After that we're gonna have problems keeping up coms with the Normandy."
"Then let's move quickly," Shepard took the lead and started jogging down the path leading to the main entrance, Ashley and Vega following behind, guns ready.
"Man, that's a huge storm," Vega mumbled in awe, his low tone picked up by his helmet and clearly transmitted into Shepard earpiece, "A lot bigger in person,"
"Come on, Lieutenant, it's not that bad," Ashley replied.
"Doesn't mean it can't kill us."
"I'm more worried about the Reapers on Earth, or the fact that no one here is reporting in!"
The banter continued but Shepard wasn't listening. For a brief moment, through the heavy wind, she thought that she had heard the sound of car engine powering down somewhere ahead of them. If there were people here then why hadn't they responded when the Normandy contacted them?
Her suspicions were confirmed when they found the corpse of a marine lying again a railing, his torso and face turned into a bloody mess by gunfire. There was no need to check for life signs. As on cue, gunshot was heard not far from their location. The group tensed but there was no alarm, no armed hostiles charging towards them. Shepard took point, gesticulating for Ashley and Vega to spread out as they slowly made their way towards the edge of the walkway, overlooking the central courtyard. The Commander got on her belly and peeked over the edge. She instantly saw the problem.
Two trucks and a dozen armed men were spread below them, casually leaning against their vehicles or patrolling the nearby roads. A small group of Alliance soldiers and scientists were on their knees with their hands locked behind their backs. Some of them were sobbing loudly while a few of them were desperately pleading for their lives as their captors shot them point blank in the heads, one after the other. Shepard didn't need to see the insignias on the trooper uniforms to know who the enemy was. She gesticulated to the others and without a word they got into attack formation.
With the last of the Alliance staff dead, the Cerberus troopers gathered around for a briefing from their commander. They stopped paying attention to their surroundings and therefore didn't notice the grenade that Vega lobbied at their feet until it was too late. The explosion took out the majority of them and the survivors desperately dove for cover. They spotted Vega on the walkway above them and opened fire as one, leaving their sides open to Shepard and Ashley who had flanked them and cut them down without mercy or hesitation. The fight was over before it had a chance to begin.
"What's Cerberus doing on Mars?" Ashley pondered as the dust had settled. Vega walked around the corpses and made sure that they were down with the standard double tap to the heads. Shepard had opened the car and was examining a laptop that had been left in one of the seats. Impossible to crack, naturally, but something that might EDI might be able to help them with.
"Good question," she said without looking back at Ashley who was standing behind her, arms crossed beneath her breasts and eye drilling into Shepard's back.
"You mean you don't know?" the other woman's voice was feisty, confrontational.
"I'm not with them anymore if that's what you're asking, Ash," Shepard replied coldly and abandoned the truck to head for the main doors. This wasn't a conversation she wanted but one that she knew had to happen sooner or later.
"It wasn't. But we've got a shadowy terrorist organisation infiltrating our top research facilities, I think that warrants a bit of suspicion."
"It doesn't look like they came here in force," Vega joined the woman and looked around.
"Yeah, looks like just a few vehicles. Kinda suggests that they had help from the inside," Ashley gave Shepard another look, "They'd need a lot more men and firepower to take this place otherwise."
"Seems likely," Shepard acknowledged as they entered the base. The door closed behind them and the ventilation process began.
"I need a straight answer, Shepard," Ashley finally said what had been on her mind for a long time now. Shepard turned her full attention to her and the woman locked eyes, "Cerberus may be pro-human but they're no friends of the Alliance. Do you know anything about what they're doing here?"
"What makes you think I would know anything?"
"You worked for them! How am I supposed to believe that you've cut all ties?"
Sensing the chill, Vega wisely stood to the side, carefully studying a patch on the door in front of him. He had no interest in question Shepard again.
"Let me be clear," Shepard said sternly, "I didn't work for them. I worked with them and I don't anymore. And I have no idea why they're here right now or what they want!" Ashley didn't meet her gaze or said a word in response.
"Commander Shepard's been under constant surveillance since picked up the Alliance," Vega finally joined the conversation and stepped up next to Ashley, "No way they've communicated since."
"Sorry, Shepard," Ash finally gave in, "I'm just..." she shook her head in a loss for words. The ventilation process stopped and green lights illuminated the Lieutenant Commander's face as she pulled her helmet off.
"I shouldn't have to explain myself to you, Ash," Shepard said coldly and inhaled the fresh air inside the hangar. Ashley dropped the challenge and silently fell back in line but Shepard knew that this wasn't the last time they would discuss her allegiance to Cerberus. But she didn't blame Ash. They had been through a lot together and she had no idea what Ashley had gone through after she died and the Cerberus resurrection. A long, serious talk was probably needed, "Please trust me;" her tone grew softer.
"I do. It's just that-..."
Ashley was interrupted by a loud crash coming from somewhere within the hangar. They all broke off and dove for cover, guns ready and anticipating an attack. Instead they saw a ventilation shaft by the ceiling being kicked open and a familiar figure jumping down onto the walkway below. Liara T'Soni regained her footing and leapt from the walkway to the hangar floor where she spun around to face the two Cerberus commandos that clambered out the ventilation shaft after her, a lot less agile then she had been. Liara raised her hand in the air and her biotic powers caused her two attacks to levitate off the ground, cursing as their weapons were yanked from their hands. Liara pulled her gun and carefully shot them both before dropping them hard onto the concrete floor. The two troopers were still alive, groaning and twisting on the floor as Liara walked over and shot them both in the head, putting them out of their misery.
Trying to ignore tingling sensation she always got when she saw the beautiful asari, Shepard left the cover and sheathed her weapon. She wanted to rush over to Liara and lock her in the embrace she had longed to give her. Liara's white scientist outfit did little to hide her curves, all of which Shepard had memorized long ago, and another familiar emotion took over her mind. Liara heard them approach and turned around, her face instantly brightening up at the sight.
"Shepard!" she exclaimed, "Thank the goddess you're alive!"
"You too, Liara," their hands clutched together and they pulled each other close, faces inches away.
"I was so worried when the reports came in," Liara's big eyes met Shepard's and there was genuine warmth and affection in them. Shepard melted away on the inside, "I'm... sorry about Earth."
"Yeah, it was... difficult to leave," Ash was standing to the side and Shepard remembered that they weren't alone interrupted, the two pulled away from each other and Liara turned towards the Lieutenant Commander.
"Ashley, I'm sorry," Liara's eyes darted away and a slight blush told Shepard that she hadn't been alone in forgetting their company, "But why'd you come here?"
Because you were here, "Hackett ordered us to come here, said you'd know what was going on."
"I do," Liara said with a light twist of her neck, turned her back to them and walked over to a nearby window overlooking another part of the base. Shepard couldn't take her eyes off her as she walked.
"Hallelujah," Vega remarked dryly, "Some answers, finally."
"Maybe. I've discovered plans for a Prothean device. One that could wipe out the Reapers."
"Here? On Mars?" Every single impure thought vanished from Shepard's mind in an instant and she joined Liara by the window.
"In the Prothean Archives, yes," Liara nodded at a large structure separated from the main complex by a tramway.
"We've known about the Archives for decades. Why now?"
"When I got the data on the Alpha Relay incident, I knew I had to do something. Hackett knew it too. He contacted me, asking if I would use my recourses as the Shadow Broker to find a way to stop the Reapers. My search led me here. Hackett got me access to the Archives and kept me updated on your status. I meant to come see you, but..."
"I would've liked that, but under the circumstances... I think I can forgive you. You can repay me later," Shepard gave her a shameless smile and Liara answered in kind.
Behind them, Vega leaned close to Ashley and whispered; "Couple, right?
"Couple,"
"In any case, my work paid off," Liara quickly switched topics, "The Archives are full of data, an overwhelming amount. I think I found what we need."
"A weapon that'll blow the Reapers to hell?"
"It's not a weapon, not yet. It's plans for a device, a blueprint."
"It's more then we had a minute ago..." Shepard shrugged, "How do we get it?"
"The Archives are just across that tramway. Assuming Cerberus hasn't locked it down."
"How many of them are out there?" Ashley interrupted.
"I saw two teams," Liara thought back, "One outside and the other heading towards the Archives."
Why are they here, Shepard pondered, are they looking for this thing in the Artefacts too? "What exactly are we dealing with here?"
"The Protheans came close to defeating the Reaper; they had plans to destroy them but... ran out of time," Liara's voice trailed off, imagining the horrific last days of the Protheans.
"And anything powerful enough to destroy the Reapers..." Ashley interjected, leaving Shepard nodding as she spoke, agreeing with her words.
"...Just might be something Cerberus would be interested in."
"So it's a race to the Archives," Vega said, sounding eager at the prospect of a fun challenge, "Bring it on!"
"I need you stay behind, James."
"What!"
"You're the flier; get back to the shuttle. If Cerberus beats us to the Archives I need you covering the exit. I think we'll need a quick getaway."
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Signs of the Cerberus attack were everywhere. The path to the tram control-room was littered with bodies of scientists and security guards. Some had been lined up against the walls and gunned down where they stood without mercy. Shepard quickly noted that checking for life signs would be pointless; every corpse had the standard 'double tap' to the head treatment as a pre-caution. The Cerberus squad was ruthless and efficient; Shepard thought to herself as she inspected the bodies, it would be tough to take them out in a straight fight.
The security central outside the tram central had taken the biggest hit so far. A barrage of grenades had nearly torn the room apart. There furniture had been smashed to pieces by shockwaves; not a single window was intact; and human remains lay scattered everywhere. Shepard estimated that this was where the security team had made their final stand, bunkering up for a desperate assault. Cerberus had responded with grenades. Lots of grenades.
The security booth itself had survived the blasts. Shielded by strong walls, a few civilians had cowered inside. They lay where they had fallen now, swiftly executed when Cerberus looked for survivors. Liara went straight to the computer and tried to access the tram to no avail.
"Hey," Ashley called out and nodded at a nearby monitor, "Who's that?"
Liara and Shepard turned in unison to look up at a security feed showing a dark-haired woman in a white scientist uniform huddled over a laptop in the tram central. Looks like Miranda, Shepard noticed. The woman remained where she was for a few moments before she suddenly glanced at the camera as if she knew that she was being watched before you she ran off-screen.
"That's Dr Eva Coré, one of the scientists stationed here." Liara swung back in her chair to look at the computer screen again, "This is strange. The doors are shut tight because..." she fell silent.
"What?" Shepard placed a hand on Liara's shoulder and leant down to look at the screen.
"The airlocks are wide open," Liara frowned.
"An accident?" Ashley asked suspiciously.
"No, you'd have to purposely override the security protocols."
"So Cerberus did it," Shepard stood back up and clenched her teeth, "Can you open it?"
As a response, Liara entered a command and bright waning lamps started to blink in the security booth. Ashley and Shepard put on their helmets while Liara pulled a breather onto her face. Then the doors opened.
What awaited them was a terrifying sight. The room was huge, a waiting area of some sort, and there were bodies lying everywhere. There had been no evacuation before the room airlocks opened; someone had vented the air while the people were still in there. Dozens of bodies were lying by the exits, signs of their desperate attempts to open the doors everywhere.
"By the Goddess," Liara mumbled to herself, "This is brutal, even by Cerberus standards!"
"Looks like they died trying to claw their way out," Ashley knelt by one of the corpse piles and shook her head in disgust.
Shepard said nothing, instead focused on making sure that there were no Cerberus troopers waiting for them. There was no power, forcing the group to rely on their helmet flashlights. There could be attackers hiding in every dark corner.
"And these are all humans," Liara spoke quietly into a private channel between her and Shepard, "I don't want to know what Cerberus would have done to me if they had caught me."
"They didn't," Shepard replied, sterner then she had intended.
They walked through the dark tomb, leaving the dead in peace, and reached a network hub station. Liara swiftly hacked into it to access the airlock controls and the security cameras. As the asari watched the data, Shepard watched her. That old, familiar urge was beginning to crawl back up again.
"Shepard, look here. The last logged entry,"
Shepard stepped up behind her and put a hand on her Liara's side and leaned in to look at the monitor in front of Liara. An innocent gesture but their bodies were closer then they had been for months and Shepard felt Liara's body stiffen in response to the touch. She smiled a predatory smile before turning her full attention to the screen.
"Security Station, come in," it showed a young guard sitting by a desk, his helmet to the side a few other men briskly walking around behind him and checking data pads, "We're picking up some strange signals from outside, do you have any visuals? Security Station, do you hear me?" suddenly the scientist, Eva Coré, walked on-screen and stopped behind the guard who swung in his chair to look at her, "Doctor, we need you to-,"
Before he had finished speaking, Dr Coré pulled out a pistol from behind her back and shot the guard in head. The young man was hurled back at the camera, knocking it aside. After executing the staff, Coré went to work on the nearest console, ignoring the screams of people around her. Warning signals started and then the video abruptly stopped.
"She vented the room when she was still inside it?" Ashley asked in disbelief, "Why would she do that?"
"No..." Shepard thought back, "That other video we saw was live. If she drained all the air in the room, how did she get out?"
"I should've realised it when I met her," Liara said bitterly, "I was just so focused on finding a way to stop the Reapers. It made me blind to the obvious Cerberus mole."
"Stopping the Reapers is the only thing we should be focused on," Shepard said softly, "It wasn't your fault." She knew that as the Shadow Broker, in control of the most powerful intelligence broker network in the galaxy, Liara felt shame for the fact that she hadn't been able to identify Eva Coré as part of Cerberus.
"But what if there's no way to stop them? What if these are our last days and we spend them scurrying around trying to solve a problem we can't fix?" there was a sense of hopelessness in her voice. The scholar in her was thinking about the last days of the Protheans, comparing situations.
"Liara..."
"I know, I shouldn't think that way. I don't know how you do it. You've always stayed focused, even in the worst of situations."
I'm sure I'll crack before this war is over, "When there's so much at stake, I think of my friends, loved ones..." Shepard's tone was warm, reassuring to both of them, "What I'd loose if I fail." She took Liara's hand in her own and squeezed.
"Me too."
"We'll stop them Liara," Shepard mumbled, as if it was a secret only the two of them shared, "Together."
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The men at the tram central had put up a fight. Having hidden when the Cerberus squad entered the central, they had caught them from behind and surprised them. Three of the intruders had fallen before their companions got to activate their kinetic shields and turned the tide of the fight. It was over in a few seconds. After dealing with that problem, the Cerberus squad had taken the tram over to the Archives, leaving no transport for Shepard and her team when they arrived. Hacking into another security network, Liara was able to spy on what was happening in the opposite central. The second Cerberus squad was there, a group of roughly twenty heavily armed soldiers as well as Dr Eva Coré who was locked in an argument with the commander.
"We haven't heard anything from Delta Team," the commander was casually leaning against a large crate, "There must be another Alliance team in there somewhere. But you said that they were all accounted for..."
"I want a perimeter set up. No one else comes across. Take out anyone who tries," Coré's voice was cold, emotionless. The commander was visibly irritated.
"We could still have guys over there!"
"No one! And take down those cameras!" Coré stormed off without waiting for confirmation. The commander cursed loudly.
"We're gonna let that bitch boss us around, Alpha?" one of the troopers called out.
"Fuck that," the commander spat back, "We'll wait and see if we hear from our guys then we blow the trams or something. Just take it easy for a bit. And shoot down those things!" A few quick blasts were heard and the camera went dark.
"I guess they won't be sending any trams over soon," Shepard noted dryly.
"If I override it then they'll know that we're coming," Liara pondered, "We'd be all open for an attack,"
"He said they'll wait for their comrades," Ashley spoke slowly, piecing an idea together, "What if we could find a short range transmitter? Helmet to helmet."
"And?" Shepard shrugged.
"And then we convince them that we're with them. And that the Alliance forces have been taken care off."
"Good idea. Let's find a transmitter."
The search didn't take long. Ashley quickly found a transmitter on one of the dead commandos, sitting on the floor against the wall with several gunshot wounds in his chest. She opened the helmet to pull the transmitter out and instantly pull back in horror as she saw the face of the man. His skin was incredibly pale; the only natural colour was dried patched of his own blood. The unnatural colours however were his eyes, bright blue flashlights, and the blue veins leading from them around his head. The look was frightening and both Shepard and Ashley had seen very similar ones that same day.
"Oh god...He looks like a husk," Ashley's knuckles whitened as she clutched her gun.
"Yeah but not quite," Shepard knelt next to Ashley and inspected the corpse, "They've definitely done something to him."
"They? You mean Cerberus? They did this to their own people?" she sighed, "Can you see why I'm worried about you?"
You think I'm a freak? "Do you really think they've changed who I am, Ash?" Shepard was beginning to tire of this.
"I don't really know who you are. Not since you sided with Cerberus. You were a great leader once, I practically worshipped you. But then the rumour about you working with Cerberus started..."
I'm still a great leader, Shepard thought bitterly, a damn great one. She said nothing out loud. Watched Ashley swallow her emotions back down and force the professionalism onto her face again. She really didn't want to have this discussion; not now, not with Ashley.
"I'm just… working it through. Just need some time to figure you out again, I guess."
"I'm the same person I always was. Time won't change that, but if that is what you need then I understand that," there were a lot of other things that needed to be said but Shepard left it implied.
"Thanks... for understanding." Ashley slight bowed her head, submitting.
"You bet. Let's see if we can get that tram over here."
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Zoll, the Cerberus commander, was getting more and more frustrated by the second. His first official command of a Cerberus mission was not a pleasant one. Not only had he been forced to execute civilians and captured opponents, something he strongly disliked, but he was also being bossed around by the coldest, most ruthless bitch of a scientist that he had ever met. Dr Eva was a good-looking woman, sure, but she was a really nasty piece of work. When one of the other troopers had hesitated to execute a captured medic, Dr Eva did it herself without a trace of emotion on face. And now the bitch had ordered him to essentially leave some of his team behind.
With this being his first official assignment, Zoll didn't know most of his companions beyond their call names. All he knew that they were tough men, some of the toughest that Cerberus had to offer, and that they were fiercely dedicated to Cerberus and humanity. There had been three of them leading the charge. Echo, their intelligence officer, was standing by his side, waiting for others and who had been the only one who shared Zoll's hesitation for gunning down surrendered civilians. And there was Delta, whose team had been sent to track down possible survivors and secure the outlying areas of the base. Echo and Delta were the only ones who had actually talked. The others commandos were just simply there. Always listening, always obeying but never talking. Zoll didn't know what to think of those troopers but they were excellent soldiers and followed their instructions perfectly. Delta hadn't checked in and random gunfire had been heard sporadically from deeper inside the base. The few cameras that Echo could access had shown signs of combat.
"Hello, this is Delta team," Zoll's helmet transmitter suddenly erupted into his ears just as he was considering giving the order to blow the tram bridge. How convenient, he thought and waved Echo over and opened a patch to his helmet, "Anybody there?" the cracked voice added yet another layer of anonymity to the troopers. Everyone spoke with the same static voice and they were only separated from each by serial numbers and code keys.
"Where the hell have you been?" Zoll barked. It was good to hear from Delta but the trooper been silent for too long, "What's your status?"
"We're at the tram station, waiting for extraction. All hostiles are terminated. We took a number of casualties, send over a medic,"
Zoll frowned inside his helmet. Asking for a medic was not standard protocol for these kinds of missions. They hadn't even brought a medic. Standard medical procedures was a bullet in the head to put the wounded out of their misery, "We'll send the tram."
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"Think they bought it?" Ashley asked Shepard as the trio the trio stood behind cover, positioned to ambush the arriving tram
"If they didn't then they'll figure it out soon enough," Shepard said grimly.
The tram screeched to a halt in front of their cover and six armed men stepped out. They walked briskly, looking around for their comrades, content with believing that the opposition in the base had been fully eradicated. That was their biggest mistake. Shepard and Ashley swung out of cover, side by side, and opened fire. The first two fell instantly but the remaining four managed to raise their biotic shields and dove for cover. Shepard made a rush for it and crossed the floor towards their hiding spot, covered by her comrades. A Cerberus man stepped out of cover just as she reached it but she didn't slow down. She jumped in the air, activated her omni-blade and brought it down on his head before he had time to properly raise his gun. The powerful blow crushed his helmet and the blade burnt a neat hole in his skull. He toppled instantly, dead before he hit the ground.
The second guy was faster. He swung his big arm wide while Shepard was recovering from her attack. She threw herself sideways but didn't manage to completely avoid the blow. His elbow slammed into the side of her head as she fell and she crashed onto the floor hard, disoriented and nauseous after the strike. Covered by his two comrades, her attacker kicked her once and raised his foot to stomp on her head. Shepard rolled away just before his foot slammed into the concrete floor. He cursed and reached for his gun instead. At that point he wouldn't miss.
"Shepard!" Ashley called out from somewhere in front of them. Both Shepard and the Cerberus trooper instinctively looked up and the Lieutenant Commander was rushing towards them, firing as she did. The trooper jerked as he was hit by a dozen shots before Ashley violently crashed into him and sent him flying backwards.
"Thanks, Ash," Shepard once again felt the joy and thrill of combat as Ashley pulled her up. Two down, two to go.
Liara spotted the third commando heading towards the tram, carrying a pack of grenades in one hand and a pistol in the other, vaguely firing in her general direction. She fired her submachine gun at him but the range was too far for her weapon to be properly accurate and the man got into cover. Liara realised that he was close enough to lob the grenades into the tram.
She ran past Shepard and Ashley who shooting at the final commando. Neither of them had noticed the third man. Liara felt a powerful surge in her body as she prepared her biotic powers, reaching out to grab a large metal crate as she ran past it. The crate flew after her in the air, launching it against the commando as soon as came into view. He didn't even have time to scream, let alone throw his explosives, before the crate smashed right into him and crushed him against the wall.
The last man was fighting for his life but quickly realised that he was outnumbered. Realising that he had only seconds left to live, he reached for his radio and shouted into it, "It's Shepard! It's Shepard!" he didn't get to hear a response. Suddenly Shepard appeared in front of him, aiming her powerful pistol at his chest. The commando acted instantly, jerking the gun up to fire from the hip when the Commander fired twice. The powerful Carnifex rounds slammed into his chest with the power of a small cannon and he slid towards the floor with a large hole in his torso.
As Ashley gave the dead troopers the double tap, Shepard breathed out and couldn't resist a smile. What a fight it had been. It had been over in less then two minutes but it had been brutal and thrilling. It had almost made her forget the Reaper threat.
"Only one option now," Ashley joined her side and nodded at the tram, "And there'll be another squad of pissed off Cerberus troops waiting for us," she too was smiling and Shepard knew exactly why.
Shepard activated the controls and the tram left the building, heading towards the Archives across a giant ravine. They could see other station but saw no sign of life there. Shepard was too focused on the hangar that she didn't see the blinking box on the rail in front of her until it was too late. In the other station, Zoll pushed the detonator and the rails on one side of the tram-way exploded. Shepard jumped towards the control panel, desperately trying to stop the tram from rolling over the edge and into the ravine below.
As their tram stopped, the other one begun approaching them from the opposite direction. A machinegun had been mounted in the front and it opened fire as soon as the trams came into range. Shepard stood shoulder to shoulder with Liara behind one of the columns, intently listening to the machinegun. She focused on the sounds; how quickly it fired and the accuracy of the shots; and remembering how it had looked when she had gotten a glimpse of it; Earth made. Older model; manually controlled defensive support turret; not suited for offensive combat; Two hundred round magazines; high quality but a slow recharge rate unless you prepared for it in advance.
She waited patiently. Soon the tram would be just in front of them and the machinegun operator had never stopped firing. Amateurish. And right then, the gun inevitably jammed, "Now!"
As the tram pulled up next to them, Shepard left cover and took aim for the machinegun operator. He was desperately trying to recharge his weapon, forgetting to cover his head and gave Shepard a perfect target. She pulled the trigger and splattered his brains on the column behind him. When the trams were side by the side the Cerberus one screeched to a halt and a powerful shotgun blast obliterated the door and a pair of smoke grenades detonated by Shepard's feet.
The Commander activated her omni-blade and made a running jump through the smoke towards the other tram. She heard one of the commandos curse in surprise and stabbed in his direction. The sickening sound of a man being impaled awarded her.
The closest commando was the one carrying the powerful shotgun and he quickly raised it. At such a close range, Shepard's shields would do her no good. The shot would blow her to pieces and she wouldn't be able to dodge in time. Just as he was about to fire, Ash and Liara jumped through the smoke with Liara crashing right into his weapon, causing the shot to go wide aside Shepard. The asari wasn't heavy enough to throw him off balance but Liara kicked his legs out from beneath him and emptied a round into his chest as he lay on his back. As the smoke settled, Shepard and her team were the only ones still standing. Ashley's suit was applying medi-gel to a wound in her side but other then that they were unharmed.
Shepard went over to the machinegun and gave it a quick pat. It was easily moveable. She smirked at her friends, "Let's go over there and see if we can find Dr Eva."
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Zoll watched the tram move back towards the entrance hall and ordered his last men to take up defensive positions. A pessimist by nature, Zoll knew that it would be a futile last stand. But it had to be done. Eva Coré needed time to finish whatever it was she was doing in the Archives and Zoll's team was the only thing keeping separating her from Shepard. And since they hadn't had time to properly lock down the doors, guns were their only option. He cursed himself for not bringing along sniper rifles; Shepard would've been dealt with already if that had been the case.
The team hadn't fully taken positions in the small hall, still waiting for his orders when the machinegun opened fire. Shepard had simply swung the weapon around and it was now firing straight at them. Zoll's shields went down in an instant and he was found himself hurled backwards when he was struck. His troopers opened fire against the tram but they were cut down where they stood. He saw Echo making a rush towards safety when the machinegun tore him to pieces and hurled him aside like a broken ragdoll. Zoll was bleeding from multiple wounds but none were fatal and medi-gel would take care of most of it. But he had no desire to die like this. Not here; not for Cerberus; not for the Illusive Man; and certainly not for Eva fucking Coré. He spotted a vent on the wall close to him and desperately started to crawl towards it, praying that none of the rounds that slaughtered his men would hit him.
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With the Cerberus team dead, the way to the Archives lay free. There were no other rooms in the hall that commandos could be hiding in and none had survived. During the last seconds of fight, it seemed as if the troopers panicked. None of their shots had been even close to hitting anyone and many of them had simply stood in the open, aimlessly firing in the vague direction of the tram. Shepard didn't have the time to consider what that meant, she focused on the objective.
They entered a large circular room with several terminals and work stations spread across the walls. But what really stood out was the Archive in the middle of the room. A giant Prothean artefact, similar in designs to the old ruins left on Eden Prime, was pulsing with energy, separated from the rest of the room by a energy field and uplinked to the terminals of the room. Eva Coré was nowhere to be seen. Shepard gave Ashley a silent order to search the area before walking over to the Archive artefact. Liara stood by her side and Shepard saw how the asari's eyes were glittering. For a Prothean researcher who had dedicated decades of her life trying to discover and translate the artefacts and ruins that the ancient civilization had left behind, something like this was a wet dream.
"I did-" Liara shook her head in amazement, "I didn't expect something like this. I can't believe that it's been here all these years and we've never heard of it!"
"Try to see if you can find what we're after. And if there are anything that looks like Cerberus wants it; take it as well. We need to get back to the shuttle soon."
Liara nodded and went to work, holstering her weapon and diving into the networks. Shepard remained where she was, glancing to the side of the room to see Ashley carefully inspect every workstation after any sign of life. Just where was Dr Coré? It was then that a small buzzing started and the holographic image of a man appeared in the corner of her eyes. She was not surprised as she turned to face it.
"Shepard," the hologram spoke calmly, articulate and with the same treacherously pleasant voice that she would never forget. Liara spun around as soon as she heard it, ready to fire. It seemed, Shepard noted, that she had recognized the voice too.
The Illusive Man looked the same as he had the few times they had spoken in the past. In his 50s or 60s, impeccably dressed in an expensive looking suit and with neatly combed silvery hair; his appearance radiated style and charm. But what always caught her attention were the eyes. They irises were unnaturally steel like and they seemed to be able to pierce straight into you when he stared at you, as if he could dig into your mind and read you like an open book. At first Shepard had been unsettled by his strange appearance before she realised that that was probably the whole point. Now she guessed that he had gotten prosthetics for just that purpose.
"Fascinating race, the Protheans. They left this for us to discover but we've squandered it. The Alliance has known about the Archives for more then thirty years, and what have they done with it?"
"What do you want?" Shepard demanded, more audibly irritated then she had planned,
The Illusive Man didn't respond at first. He took his cigarette to his mouth and simply looked up at the Archive as he smoked, as if he was lost in thought, "What I've always wanted," he finally said and looked back at Shepard, "The data in these artefacts holds the key to solving the Reaper threat."
"Is turning your people into monsters part of the solution?"
"Hardly. They're being improved. That's what separates us, Shepard," his tone change and he now reminded Shepard of a lecturer, teaching his ignorant students about the ways of the world, "Where you see a means to destroy, I see a way to control – to dominate and harness the Reapers' powers. Just imagine how strong humanity would be if we controlled them."
He was as charismatic as ever but Shepard knew him well enough to separate the truth from the bullshit, "Earth is under siege and you're hatching a scheme to control the Reapers?" she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"You've always been short-sighted. Hasty. You destroy whatever lies in your path instead of working around it; without trying to use it to your advantage. Your destruction of the Collector base proved that. You'll treat the Reapers no differently."
"That base was an abomination! Hundreds of thousands of human were murdered there!" No one should ever see what we saw in that base, let alone re-create it.
She would never have given it to Cerberus anyway. He had practically begged her to not destroy the base; pleaded that humanity would benefit from the Collector technology. Technology that had melted down entire colonies into a black goo and transformed it into a Reaper. At that point the Illusive Man had shown his true colours and she had been sickened by him. Now the feelings were less furious; less repulsed.
"You tried to have me killed on Earth," she crossed her arms across her breasts and glared at him, a challenge.
"A matter of principle," the Illusive Man waved his cigarette dismissively, "Cerberus is a life time commitment; not something you simply walk away from. But now," he took another pause to smoke, "Now that is of the past. With the Reapers here, you are no longer a primary concern. This isn't your fight anymore, Shepard. You can't defeat the Reapers, even with the Prothean data."
Shepard knew that this wouldn't go anywhere and that she didn't have time for a long debate. They had to get out of the base before the storm arrived. It was a matter of minutes now, "Then work with me. With our combined resources, we can destroy them," an extended olive branch, an offer of peace and collaboration. And she already knew what his response would be.
"You'd do better then most," his tone was treacherously regretful, "but the odds aren't in your favour. More importantly, I don't want the Reapers destroyed. We can dominate them, use their power, harness their very essence to bring humanity to the apex of evolution!"
The peace offer had been rejected, as she knew it would. The Illusive Man and Cerberus would prefer to fight the coming war alone. So be it.
"You've gone too far," she wasn't angry or even disappointed. He had chosen his path a long time ago, as had she. Now those paths would finally, officially clash, "The Reapers will kill us all if we don't stop fighting each other!"
"I don't expect you to understand, Shepard. And I'm certainly not looking for your approval." Both his tone and his eyes were cold. He too knew that this would likely be the last time they spoke in a civilized manner, if they even encountered each other again, "You were a tool, an agent with a singular purpose. And despite our differences, you were relatively successful."
What the hell is he talking about?
"But like the rest of the relics in this place," he continued and now there was a humourless smile on his face, "your time is over."
"Enough talk." She had had enough. It was time to move; he had wasted enough time.
"Don't interfere with my plans, Shepard. I won't warn you again." A cold, implied and effective threat. One that didn't work on her. She wasn't going to dignify it with a response.
"Shepard!" Liara exclaimed from the network panel, "The data! It's being erased!"
Shepard had time to see the Illusive Man smirk before he turned away and the call was disconnect. It didn't take her long to realise what had just happened. The Illusive Man had played another of his games by stalling them and now the Archive was being deleted. He had gotten what he wanted and now he was destroying their only lead.
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As soon as Liara called out that the data was being erased, Ashley noticed that one of the work-booths ahead of her lit up with activity and she rushed over there. Dr Eva Coré was standing with her back turned, busy activating the last sequence of the erasing programme that would wipe the entire Archives.
"Step away from the console!" Ashley hissed at her, "Now!"
If Coré was surprised that she'd been caught then she didn't show it. She simple stopped what she was doing and straightened up but didn't move. Impatiently, Ashley took a few steps closer to restrain her. She didn't see the blow coming. Coré's elbow shot out behind her and knocked the weapon aside. She followed up with a spinning kick that sent Ashley tumbling backwards, cursing in surprise. Coré spun back around, swiftly destroying the console with a blow of her omni-tool. The Archive hummed loudly and then all power went out, everything contained within it erased. Coré made a run for it before Ashley had time to get to her senses and darted past Shepard and Liara by their console within seconds. Shepard went after her without hesitation.
Coré was incredibly fast. Shepard prided herself in being a good runner but her speed was nothing compared to her opponent. Coré rushed through the tram hall without a single glance at the corpses, reached the tram and made a graceful side-jump to a maintenance ladder that led onto the roof of the complex. Liara came after Shepard and stopped to fire as Coré climbed but her powerful shields kept her safe.
"How can she be so fast?" Liara gasped. Shepard didn't bother to respond, she followed Coré and made the same running jump to get to the ladder. She crashed into it and for a moment all air was knocked out of her. After a second of catching her breath, she continued up onto the roof.
Coré was waiting for her there and before Shepard had time to act, the scientist shot an incinerating plasma round from her omni-tool, hitting Shepard straight in the chest. It wasn't powerful enough to set the Commander on fire but she lost her footing as almost fell back down the shaft again, giving Coré enough time to get a good head start again. Shepard was up again, furiously firing of a round from her Avenger but once again her shields deflected the shots. She's not wearing a mask, she noted, how the hell is that possible?
The storm was almost over the station now and the powerful winds were making it more and more difficult for Shepard to run across the roof but nothing seemed to slow Coré down. She ran like a leopard, skipping over objects like they were nothing and it didn't seem to exhaust her one bit. Shepard realised that she was going to loose her soon.
"James, you read me?" she screamed. She only got statics as a response, "Cerberus has the data! Radio the Normandy, get them down here! We can't let her get away!"
Coré flung another incinerating round over her shoulder. It wasn't perfectly aimed but Shepard still had to evade it, loosing yet another precious few seconds. A roar was heard from above and a Cerberus shuttle flew over her head towards a flat part of the room that Coré was heading towards. Cursing loudly, Shepard picked up the pace even though she was beginning to loose her energy.
The shuttle hovered in the air with its door open and Coré didn't even slow down. She kept on running and simply leapt off the building into the arms of a pair of commandos that pulled her to safety. Coré turned and for a brief second stared right at Shepard who was approaching quickly. Then the door closed and the shuttle took of in a hurry.
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Vega saw the Cerberus shuttle take off and it instantly made a decision. Pushing aside the carefulness that he had used when piloting the shuttle to the planet, he now sped straight towards the ascending shuttle.
"Ah, screw it," he shrugged and spoke into the transmitter, hoping that Shepard was hearing him, "I got this one!" and then he rammed his shuttle into the Cerberus one.
The Normandy shuttle was built to survive a lot of things, collisions being one of them. So Vega was simply jerked around in his seat and loose objects were thrown around inside the shuttle but at least it would keep on flying, only needing the most basic repairs. The Cerberus shuttle on the other hand, was not built to withstand such force. The pilot seat was crushed in an instant and the engine was smashed beyond repairs. One second they had been ascending towards safety and a mission accomplished and the other they were crashing towards the base again as a burning wreckage. They smashed into a concrete wall and the engine exploded, engulfing the people inside it in flames. It was a violent crash and Shepard doubted that anyone had survived it.
Vega landed his shuttle quite unceremoniously and walked out, massaging his neck that had taken a blow.
"Good flying, Lieutenant," Shepard remarked with a stone face.
"I don't know why people keep on insisting that I drive," he chuckled, "The Normandy's on route. They'll be here so-"
He was interrupted by a loud bang coming from the Cerberus shuttle. Ashley and Liara were closest to the downed ship and they both saw the old door simple kicked aside and Eva Coré stepped out of the burning wreckage. And suddenly the mystery about her abilities and speed became clear. Her skin and clothes had been burned off, revealing a synthetic body in the shape of a woman, impervious to the fire still clinging to her. Zeroing in on Ashley, the android darted towards her. Liara tired to tackle her but the robot backhanded her across the face, sending the asari to the floor. Ashley fired her gun and hit Coré twice but it was of no use; Coré reached Ashley and broke her wrist, forcing her to drop the gun with a scream before grabbing her by the throat and lifting her into the air, holding her as a shield in front of the approaching Shepard.
"Orders?" Coré asked seemingly no one. Her real voice was even colder, more robotic then the human voice. Ashley stared right into the empty eyes, gasping for breath as the machine slowly broke through her suit.
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Across the galaxy, in his dark room at the centre of the Cronos Station, the Illusive Man sat in his chair and calmly watched the live feed shown on the data screens in front of him. He was holding his cigarette in one hand and the fingers of the other one drumming against the armchair. It wasn't a hard decision to make. Commander Shepard was incredibly valuable because of who she was and what she represented. Doctor T'Soni was valuable as well with her knowledge of the Protheans and her position as the Shadow Broker. Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams, however, was not valuable. She was irrelevant to the current situation as well as the bigger picture.
"Finish her," he ordered coldly.
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Shepard watched in horror as Coré turned around and slammed Ashley's head hard across the wall repeatedly. One blow was enough to crack the helmet, two enough to crack a human skull. Satisfied with her target incapacitated, Coré turned towards Shepard, the biggest threat. She darted towards her with her, preparing to repeat the process when Shepard fired. With her shields gone, Coré was a threat like any other. A threat that could die. The shots hit her in the head and torso and the synthetic slid on the floor and crashed down. The lights went out and the unit was deactivated.
"Grab that thing!" she barked, "We'll bring it with us," If Ash is dead I'll throw it out a fucking airlock.
Shepard knelt by Ashley and checked for life signs. Ash was alive but gravely wounded. Luckily, Coré hadn't managed to crack the helmet. Shepard picked her up and carried her towards the Normandy the spot where the Normandy would pick them up. She didn't need to turn around to see that there were Reapers landing somewhere behind them; she could hear them perfect. Twice in one day now she would flee a planet as they arrived.
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Zoll watched the Normandy take off and fly away as a pair of Reaper Destroyers landed from his hiding spot in a ventilation drum overlooking the base complex. He'd seen the shuttles crash and Shepard take down Coré but he had been unable to do anything due to his injuries and the distance. Not that he would've gone out of his way to save Eva Coré.
He knew that he didn't have much time before the base would be overrun by husks. He'd seen what they did to human bodies, living and dead ones, and he had no intention of getting impaled on a Dragon Tooth.
The shuttle that Shepard had left behind was the key to getting off the planet. Zoll climbed out of the shaft and slowly made his way towards the crash site. The wounds in his chest weren't too painful thanks to the medi-gel but one round had gone straight through his thigh and forced him to limp. He heard the Destroyers move around in the background but thankfully there were no Oculi in the skies and the giant machines hadn't spotted him. If he managed to get to the shuttle before the storm hit then he might be able to flee. Otherwise he'd be as good as dead.
The Citadel, he thought, he had to go to the Citadel. There he would be able to track down Cerberus sympathisers or sleeper cells that could get him in touch with his superiors again. And Shepard would be on the Citadel as well. He would be able to get back at her there. The bitch would die a slow death.
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kerpin
Serviceman 3rd Class
Posts: 9
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Post by kerpin on Oct 14, 2012 23:21:46 GMT 1
Chapter 2.2
The Illusive Man remained seated when the feed died, finishing his cigarette and thinking about the events that had just happened. Coré had been defeated but the mission had been a success. Or rather, part of the mission had been a success. His agent had recovered enough data and erased the rest, leaving Shepard without clues. But the destruction and likely capture of the agent was a setback. In normal situations, the thing that had pretended to be an Alliance scientist would issue self-destruct order and burn its own harddrive if it fell into enemy hands. But now it had been capture.
The viewing windows in his chamber were close since the Cronos station was moving through the system. An outsider had just visited the station to deliver an important report in person to the Illusive Man. Such events were rare and standard protocol was to move the station as soon as the visitor had departed. Now that the galaxy was at war, the station would have to be upgraded to withstand an attack; Reapers, Alliance or the aliens would attack the station on sight, believing that they were part of the enemy force.
A sign on his desk bleeped, indication that the call he was expecting had come through. He picked up the bottle of Bourbon that one of his attendants had left in the room and refilled his empty glass before settling into his chair and giving the computer the commands to set the mood in the chamber. An image of a giant, blue-ish star appeared on the windows behind him and the lights cast a calming blue glow in the room, signalling cooperation and civility. The person on the other end would only see him and star. A powerful image.
"Accept," he said loudly and a man appeared on the holo-pad, "Dr Lawson. It seems as if your difficult task has finally proved successful. I admit, I am impressed."
Henry Lawson was not technically a doctor, or even a real scientist, the Illusive Man was very much aware of that. But he also knew that men like Lawson were very easy to please. If you stroke their ego long enough, you eventually had them completely on your side.
"You honour me," Lawson bowed his head in respect, "Though it was not a complete success, I'm afraid. Control of the subjects didn't last very long. In the end they snapped out of their senses. There were no survivors."
"We didn't expect there to be," the Illusive Man drank and fixated his steely eyes on Lawson's, "But it put us on the right track."
"If only Grayson had been alive," Lawson grimaced, "He would've been a lot more valuable to my research alive rather then dead."
The Illusive Man said nothing. Henry Lawson had been a supporter and benefactor of Cerberus for many years until the feud with his daughter started. When Miranda Lawson started working directly for the Illusive Man, Henry had withdrawn all support in protest. And when Miranda had defected a few months earlier, Lawson had proudly returned to Cerberus. Normally, unreliable behaviour like that was not something that the Illusive Man approved off but Lawson had a few things speaking in his favour. The first one was that he was a ridiculously easy man to manipulate. Obsessed with creating a legacy of his own, Lawson had become delusional with the idea that he would go down in history as one of the men who stopped the Reaper threat. By fuelling that belief, the Illusive Man had quickly turned him into a very rabid supporter of the Cerberus cause.
The second thing was that when Lawson re-joined the organization, he had brought them Paul Grayson's body. The body of the former Cerberus operative had been stolen from Alliance care and had proved to be an invaluable tool in their struggle. Paul Grayson himself was long dead but his body, or rather the Reaper implants in it, had proven to be one of the keys to achieving the Illusive Man's goal. And now he had finally acquired the second key from the Archive on Mars.
"Have you... any news of them?" Lawson asked cautiously, trying and failing to pass off the question as unimportant.
"No," the Illusive Man leaned back in his chair and took another zip of Bourbon, "We are still looking for your daughters, Dr Lawson. Don't worry, you'll be the first to learn of it when we do."
Lawson looked relieved but the Illusive Man didn't say what he truly thought. There had been many deserters these last few months, either because of the Alliance striking harder at their operations or because of the direct intervention of Commander Shepard and Cerberus was always looking for these people. As he had told the Commander, no one was allowed to leave Cerberus. Miranda Lawson had been one of the deserters and every time he spoke to Henry, the father was always asking if the daughter had been found.
Above all, the Illusive Man saw himself as a realist. While there were always people looking through Alliance reports to see if the name of the deserters popped up, he wasn't about to send death squads to hunt down the individuals. Not with the Reapers in the galaxy. But as always with Lawson, he told him what he wanted to hear.
"You will go to Illium," he said, "I'm sending one of my agents to you. He's coming directly from Earth and will need some of your... improvements. You will be briefed about what is required. Then we will start the next step of Project Grayson."
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The Illusive Man remained seated in the pale blue light long after terminating the call. He finished his drink before slowly spinning his chair around to face the data-feeds in front of him. A few commands later and another holographic image became visible in front of him. It was an image of a construction that hadn't been built for at least 50 000 years. A device of ancient design that, despite being of alien origin, would prove to be just what he had been looking for all these years:
Mankind's ascension.
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kerpin
Serviceman 3rd Class
Posts: 9
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Post by kerpin on Oct 23, 2012 18:27:52 GMT 1
Chapter 3.1
Shepard stood in the Normandy's new Com-Room, waiting for the call to Admiral Hackett to connect. Ashley was now safely lying in the infirmary, attended to by Liara while EDI was digitally examining the remains of the thing that had had pretended to be Dr Eva Coré. James was down in the cargo hold, informing the refugees on what was going on and trying to keep them calm.
The Normandy was unusually quiet, Shepard noted. She had seen a few uniformed men as she rushed to the Com-Room but none had approached her. Her old, Cerberus-related crew had been disbanded and imprisoned, replaced by Alliance staff that had given the ship yet another overhaul. Everything was now sleeker and carried a distinctive Alliance feel to it. What had before been a simple conference room with only the most basic and necessary equipment had now been completely rebuilt into a full-blown War Room, equipped with state of the art communication and information tools. She took a few seconds to suck it all in, appreciating the effort that the Alliance had gone through.
The actual Com-Room lay to the side of the War Room. A cluster of holo-pads occupied most of the room; one large surrounded by a number of smaller ones, built for large conferences.
"Commander?" Hackett's voice was heard a few seconds before his image appeared above the largest holo-pad. He looked as tired Shepard felt, "Did you get to the Archives?" there was never any small talk with the Admiral.
"I was there. And so was the Illusive Man," she cocked her head to the side as footsteps approached her from behind and Liara walked into her periphery, heading straight for the hologram console to upload their findings to Hackett.
"I was worried Cerberus might try something," the Admiral said but there weren't any anger or frustration in his voice, he kept it calm and professional as always, "Did you get the data?"
"Parts of it. He downloaded and erased some of it before we could stop him. We're analysing what we recovered now," she didn't feel like revealing that what they had recovered came from the synthetic spy and the problems they had gone through to attain it.
"What've you learned? Was it worth it?" Hackett looked at Liara.
"Preliminary evidence suggests the data is a blueprint for a Prothean device."
"Device?" Hackett frowned and Shepard looked curiously at Liara. She too was wondering what this device was supposed to be.
Liara responded by activating a holographic image of the device on one of the other pads in front of them. Far away, above Hackett's console, the same image appeared and the Admiral crossed his arms across his chest and studied it in silence. Shepard frowned at the strange design, trying to figure it out. Is it a ship? A station?
"A weapon," Liara explained, "Massive in size and scope that's capable of unquantifiable levels of destruction."
Shepard wasn't sure what she felt about the news but it was obvious going by Hackett's body language that he was excited about it, "Send me the data," he ordered, "We'll do our own analysis. If Liara's instincts are right then this might be the key to stopping the Reapers."
"We found something else," Liara interjected, "According to some Cerberus Intel that we acquired; their next assignment was to recover an item on Eden Prime. That's all I managed to uncover. It could be related to this device."
"Alright," Hackett nodded, "I can have a team on Eden Prime in a few hours. Send us the Intel and we'll find whatever it is Cerberus is looking for. Shepard, head to the Citadel and talk to the Council, show them what you found. With luck, they'll give you all the support we need. Do whatever it takes to get them onboard! I'll be in touch soon. Hackett out."
They ended the call with a formal salute and as soon as Hackett vanished, Shepard felt the tiredness wash over her once again. The powernap in the shuttle had helped her momentarily but now she planned on retreating to her cabin and sleep until the Normandy reached the Citadel. Ashley was in the med-bay and there was nothing Shepard could do for her. There was just nothing that demanded her immediate attention. She stifled a yawn.
"Go to bed, Shepard," Liara said without looking away from her data-pad, "You're exhausted."
I don't want to, Shepard looked at her, not alone, "Will you make sure that we're ready to present our findings to the Council?"
"Don't worry about it," Liara turned around and leant back against the counter, "It'll be ready when you wake up."
Shepard smiled but said nothing. She walked up and took Liara's hands in her own and leant in towards her and gave her a long, loving kiss. Liara responded in kind and they stood there for what seemed like an eternity before Shepard pulled away.
"Good night, Liara," she mumbled.
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She dreamt about tubes. And fire. She was running through an empty street, running for her life. There were Reapers after her, she could hear them clearly but couldn't see them. The street she was running on stretched out without an end in sight. She ran as fast as she could but she still couldn't shake the Reapers that were always behind her, always breathing down her neck. Voices called out from behind her, urging her to turn around and come back but she kept on going. She heard Anderson; she heard Ashley. She heard them scream in pain and terror. Suddenly she wasn't running on a street but in a dark, damp corridor. And now there was someone running towards her. It was Liara. The Reaper sounds intensified as she ran even faster, desperate to reach Liara and end the nightmare. But as soon as she did reach her, Liara wasn't running in the open; she was locked inside a large tank. She banged on the glass, trying to free her lover but it didn't even crack. Black smudges appeared on Liara's face and the asari clawed at them. Then her skin started to peel off, turning into a black liquid that dripped down into the bottom of the tank. And Liara screamed. It was the same soul-chilling scream that she had heard in the Collector base, the scream that she would never forget. Liara started crumpling as she melted away in front of her eyes. She couldn't look away until all that remained was a pool of black goo. Then she too was in the tank. And then she felt herself melting away...
Shepard's eyes snapped open and she jolted up into a sitting position in her bed, trying to shake off the terrifying dream. It wasn't the first time that she had dreamt about the tanks from the Collector base but Liara being trapped inside, that was a new one. She had blown up the base to prevent others from suffering the same horrific death that had claimed thousands of colonist lives but what good was that now? At this moment, she shuddered at the thought; millions of humans on Earth could be locked up inside the same tanks, without any hope of freedom. And who knew what was going on in other parts of the galaxy?
"EDI," she said out loud, "How long until we reach the Citadel?"
"We will be there in thirty minutes, Shepard," came the immediate reply, "I was just about to wake you up. Do you require breakfast?"
"Please," Shepard grunted as she slowly dragged herself out of bed and made her way to the shower, "Coffee. Strong."
She took her time in the shower, washing away all the stress and tension of a long, hectic day. Reapers; Cerberus; Ashley; and the Illusive Man. It was all replaced by a collected sense of calmness. She stepped out of the shower and watched herself in the mirror. It was amazing what a battle could do to your self-esteem. Twenty-four hours ago she had stood in the bathroom of a Vancouver courthouse and had seen a tired and haggard Commander Shepard lookalike. Now she saw the battle hardened and scarred Commander, at her physical peak and ready to arm-wrestle krogans and punch Reapers.
The Council needed to see the Commander today so she put on just the right amount of make-up – more then she normally used – and brushed her teeth for several minutes before stepping into her cabin. There she picked out her Commander uniform from her closet, a suit that she hadn't worn for several months, and put it on. She looked at herself in the mirror and grimaced. She looked foolish. But it was a necessary foolishness.
She finished the last of her preparations and stepped out into the small elevator hall outside of her cabin. The signs and camera by the elevator told her that it was ascending towards her floor, carrying a black-haired woman whom she hadn't met before. Her cabin was locked to the other crew members; they needed Shepard's or EDI's permission to reach the Normandy's top floor. Shepard wasn't nearly as strict as some Alliance officers were but she too had grown very used to having her own private life. It took her only a second to give her visitor the go-ahead. A pot of fresh coffee had been sent up from the mess hell in a smaller supply elevator and Shepard poured herself a cup and leant against the wall, awaiting the elevator. It came to a halt without a sound and the doors slid open to reveal her visitor.
"Commander Shepard," the dark-haired woman stopped in front of Shepard, with her hands clasped behind her back, and smiled a half nervous, half excited smile, "I'm Comm Specialist Samantha Traynor. I was part of the team retrofitting the Normandy after you turned it over to the Alliance. There weren't many of us onboard when the Reapers hit."
"Slow down, Specialist Traynor," Shepard smiled, reassuringly trying to dispel some of Traynor's nervousness, "You're doing fine."
"Thank you. I worked in a lab," Traynor admitted, "I never thought I'd serve on a ship."
"Coffee?" Shepard gestured at the pot and Traynor visibly relaxed even more. She poured herself a cup and couldn't restrain herself from grimacing slightly as she took a sip. Shepard preferred the stronger brands since the Alliance brews had always been too weak for her tastes. It was the same with her alcohol; it was always easy to tell which humans weren't used to the stronger things that some aliens drank.
Traynor's skin had colour of dark caramel and Shepard couldn't avoid noticing that she was an incredibly fit woman. She spoke with a distinctive and pleasant British accent, one that Shepard hadn't heard in years. First Kelly and now Traynor, Shepard thought to herself, if this is my new personal assistant then this ship is officially a lucky charm.
Shepard let Traynor into her cabin and the Comm Specialist looked around at the large room with the big bed, the desk and the private toilet with barely hidden jealousy. The rest of the crew slept in bunk beds in shared rooms where privacy was rare. Each crew member only had a small trunk of personal belongings and here Shepard had both a large aquarium built into one wall a whole section of the other filled with finely crafted collectable models of space vessels and famous ships.
"My first apartment was smaller then this cabin," Traynor joked and Shepard smiled politely.
"Tell me about the retrofits."
"The ship's in line with Alliance rigs and it has new, top of the line, quantum entanglement communicators..."
And in plain English? Shepard thought but took another sip of coffee. EDI would explain it simplistically later if she needed to know.
"...in fact," Traynor finished and looked into Shepard's empty aquarium, "Admiral Anderson had intended to use the Normandy as his mobile command centre."
"That's no longer an option,"
"Yes, I heard he choose to stay and fight," Traynor said slowly, not sure if she was buying what she had heard, "Uh, in any event, I'm honoured to serve under you, Commander. For as long as you need me, that is!" she added quickly and looked away, stepping back towards the aquarium, seemingly strongly interested in the empty water, "They only sent me here to oversee the retrofits."
"Shepard," EDI said and Traynor's head snapped up in surprise, "Some of our systems require further testing and Specialist Traynor has been extremely effective during installation. I would prefer that she remain."
"Got it, EDI," Shepard replied and felt amused by Traynor's surprised look.
"Wait... Since when does a Virtual Intelligence make requests?"
"EDI's an AI. Fully self aware."
"Oh, I knew it! I knew Joker was lying!" there was a slight blush on Traynor's cheeks and she shook her head.
"Jeff requested that I pretend to be a simple VI to protect myself. I apologise for the deception."
"Thanks EDI... And I apologise for all those times I talked about how..." her blush deepened and she avoided Shepard's amused stare, "Attractive your voice was."
Shepard chuckled. She was beginning to figure out Traynor's preferences and she more than understood her feelings about EDI's voice. She gestured towards the doors and the two left the cabin for the elevator.
"Anything else I need to know?"
"Not really. It's the same ship; it just flies under Alliance colours now. Technicians have been here studying the Reaper IFF since you turned the ship it. The plan was to upgrade the rest of the fleet but I don't know how far they had gotten when the Reapers arrived. None of them... made it into the ship before we left."
Shepard nodded without a word. The Reaper IFF was a device that she and her team had recovered a few months ago from inside the remains of a long dead Reaper. It had allowed the Normandy to pass freely through the Omega 4 Relay and into Collector space. And with the device, Reaper sensors wouldn't immediately identify the ship as hostile, always giving them the opportunity to strike first or avoid detection altogether. EDI had informed her that it was very likely that Cerberus possessed the technology and Shepard was glad that the Alliance was trying to level the playing field but from what Anderson had told her, they hadn't been very successful. One scientist had openly suggested that the Alliance should simply pick the Normandy apart and go through the pieces. Anderson, Hackett and Councillor Udina had all instantly vetoed the suggestion but Shepard didn't want to think about what would have happened if she hadn't gotten the ship back after the Reapers attacked.
The elevator doors slid open and Shepard stepped out onto the bridge. Traynor walked past her and headed for the data-hub that Kelly Chambers had used what seemed like an age ago. Shepard raised the cup to her lips again and drank while slowly making her way around the large holographic 3D-image of the Normandy. It was eerily silent, with only the light humming of the engines and her footsteps being heard. It was a strange sensation.
Joker was sitting in his own private little world, the Normandy cockpit, fully focused on the dozens of screens in front of him. Shepard wasn't a pilot, she had no idea what it took to fly the Normandy and she was glad that she didn't need to.
"Hey, Shepard," Joker swirled around in his chair and tilted his cap at her, the closest thing to a salute that she'd ever gotten from him, "How are you liking the new ship? Looks neat, doesn't it? You have no idea how long I've been waiting to take her for a spin, see what she can do. Kinda bummer that, you know, the timing isn't the best."
"I miss my fish. The cabin's awfully empty,"
"Huh. Well maybe if you had invited me up for dinners too then I might've looked after 'em for you," Joker spun around dismissively, "Someone saw your hamster in the basement the other day. No idea how it's been surviving these months. Good luck trying to catch it on your own."
Shepard chuckled quietly. Joker and the Normandy had been a cornerstone in her life and the months she had spent in lockup, far away from the ship, had been a slow torture.
"How are things going here?"
"Not as good as we'd want," Joker sighed and nodded at the windows to his side, "Take a look and see."
The Normandy swung slightly, allowing Shepard a full view of the distant Citadel, the heart of the Council controlled area and in many ways the official capital of the galaxy. The massive space station looked impressive as always with it's five long 'arms' stretching out as a welcoming embrace, each over 40km long and connected to an inner circle. Shepard remembered the first time she had ever seen the gigantic station, two decades earlier. She had been eleven at the time and Hannah, her mother, had brought her along for a weekend trip to the Citadel. They had spent three days exploring the Wards; tried to find restaurants that served food suitable for humans; and trying to track down some of her mother's old comrades. One of Hannah Shepard's old acquaintances had turned out to be a dun dealer who had let young Sarah into his firing range and handed her the first real weapon she'd ever fired. Whenever Shepard thought of her mother, those three days always brought a smile to her face. It had been one of only a handful sweet and personal moments the two had shared.
Now though, what got her attention wasn't the Citadel itself, but rather the hundreds of ships surrounding it. Ships was never a rare sight in the area because of the Citadel Fleet, a collection of human, turian, asari and salarian ships led by what had been the most powerful known dreadnought in the galaxy before Sovereign and the Reapers had made themselves known: the Destiny Ascension, an enormous asari construction. Most of the old Citadel Fleet had been destroyed in the battle against Sovereign and its geth armada a few years earlier and had since been replaced. Now the vast majority of the Fleet consisted of Alliance ships, further proof that humanity was becoming a major player in the galactic centre. But as she saw them, Shepard wondered what would happen when word reached these ships that Earth had been conquered and the protective fleet destroyed. Would they abandon their duties at the Citadel and join Hackett or would they remain?
But the Citadel Fleet that could be seen from the Normandy's cockpit was greatly outnumbered by countless smaller cruisers and frigates, unofficial ships of varied designs, clogging up the space around the Citadel while waiting to be allowed entrance. The Citadel Fleet ships were trying to maintain order but it was futile; there were simply too many.
Refugee ships, Shepard realised, fleeing from the Reapers, "How many of them are there?"
"No idea. Hundreds?" Joker shrugged, "But all of them want to be let in. It's gonna take C-Sec days to go over all the paperwork. Don't want to be in their shoes right about now."
"Normandy, do you copy?" a stressed voice called out from the radio.
"This is the Normandy, we read you," Joker replied and his hands were instantly moving across his monitors, already putting the ship in motion.
"Your clearance checks out, you have a landing permit for Bay D24. Do you require an escort?"
"Uh... no," Joker replied, perplexed by the question, "We've been here before. A few times, actually."
"We have an Alliance officer critically injured," Shepard interjected, "We need the best medical attention possible. And we also have around forty human refugees in or cargo hold."
"Of course you do," the haggard operator sighed wearily, "We will have the appropriate teams waiting for you. Do you need further transportation, Normandy?"
"I'll handle it," Shepard stepped back and Joker killed the feed, "Lively fellow."
"Hey, I don't think you'd be very keen on doing customer service on a day like this," Joker was silent for a couple of moments as the Normandy begun approaching the Citadel, passing both refugee ships and dreadnoughts, "I can't believe we're finally here," he said finally, "Was kinda hoping that the Reapers would fly into a black hole or something, you know? Maybe delay their arrival by a century out of kindness. But now we have to go around trying to save everyone again instead."
"There's no one I'd rather have on my side, Joker," Shepard gave his shoulder a light squeeze.
"Pfft, as if you'd get anyone else."
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A professional medic team was waiting for them as soon as they docked by one of the cargo bays. The refugees stood back in silence as the team rushed into the hold and retrieved Ashley whom Shepard and Liara had brought down just before arrival. They told Shepard where they were taking her and then they were gone, rushing off towards a waiting ambulance shuttle. Then it was the refugees turn. They got into two lines and were slowly directed out of the ship by Vega and out onto the dock where they were apprehended by a group of stern C-Sec officers. The Normandy didn't wait and instantly took off towards their designated dock. It was a VIP section, with a resting lounge with TV monitors and a mini-bar before the security checkpoint. Shepard went over to the mini-bar and opened up but the only thing there were Colas and bottled water. She picked one up and threw it to Liara.
"Are you prepared to go see the Council?" Liara asked and drank.
"After all the times they've made me wait over the years, I'm tempted to let them sweat. If there weren't Reapers everywhere, I just might."
"I'll have to make sure you don't get lost then," Liara smiled and Shepard turned to look at the TV screens. Unsurprisingly, news about the Reapers were everywhere. Shocked eyewitnesses were on some screens, describing how the Reapers had attacked their homes and what they had seen them do to their friends and families. According to one grim-looking reporter, Khar'shan had fallen and the batarian Hegemony had been completely destroyed. For a brief moment, Shepard thought of that as a stroke of luck. With the Hegemony gone, no batarian strike teams would come after her. Then she pushed those thoughts away.
"On second thought," she sighed, "I think it's time to go."
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The Council was already locked in a fierce debate as Shepard and Liara walked into the large meeting chamber. Liara glanced around but Shepard kept her eyes focused on the podium in the other end of the chamber, carrying the four Councillors. Donnel Udina was talking to Sparatus, the turian Councillor, and only gave Shepard a quick glance as she approached.
"...and if we send the Council Fleet to Earth then we'll leave the Citadel open to attack. The Fleet..." Sparatus was saying.
"A Fleet mostly consisting off Alliance ship, I remind you," Udina interrupted.
"…The fleet must remain where it is to protect the Citadel. Without it, all of the galaxy will fall."
"So you'll leave us to fend for ourselves?" Udina asked as the turian broke eye contact and turned to face Shepard
"Earth is not in this war alone," Sparatus replied without looking at him.
"But Earth is the first Council world to be hit. By our reports it faces the brunt of the attack."
"By your reports," Valern, the salarian Councillor interjected, rather smugly in Shepard's opinion. She stopped in front of the podium and clasped her hands behind her back. Liara took place next to her. They exchanged looks and Shepard gave her a slight, reassuring nod.
"Commander Shepard," Tevos, the asari Councillor spoke, "It is good to see that you escaped Earth unharmed..."
Bullshit, Shepard thought but said nothing.
"...What was the situation like when you left?"
"The reports were accurate. The Intel I've read suggests that the Reaper presence in the Sol System is higher in comparison to other attacked systems. From what we've gathered, there are two notable combat types of Reapers: the Destroyer class and the Capital Ship Class. You all saw a Capital class one when Sovereign attacked three years ago," she stopped and glanced at the three Councillors, silently daring either of them to speak up and again try to claim that Sovereign had been a geth ship, "As we left, we picked up at least a dozen Capital signals and many more Destroyer signals. Most systems only have two or three Capital ships present." And then there's Harbinger, "We need your help. Everything you can spare."
"The Reapers are pressing on our borders as well," Tevos kept her face neutral and tone emotionless as she spoke, "If we lend you our strengths to help Earth, our own worlds will fall."
"We must fight this enemy together!" Udina pleaded.
"And so we should just follow you to Earth?" Valern spat back and Shepard found herself disliking the salarian more for every word he said.
Sparatus raised a hand to silence the arguing and looked Shepard directly in the eyes, "Even if were to unite our fleets, do you really believe we could defeat the Reapers?"
"I don't expect you to follow me without a plan," she nodded to Liara who took over.
"We have a blueprint, created by the Protheans during their war with the Reapers," she gave a command with her data-pad and a large holographic 3D imagine of the device appeared in front of the Councillors and the screens in front of them.
"A blueprint for what?" Sparatus sounded interested and leaned forwards slightly. Shepard made a mental note of his tone and movement. Any potential ally in this group was something to cling to.
"We're still piecing it together," Liara admitted, "But it looks to be a weapon of some sort."
Or we're just hoping that it's a weapon and not some prototype Prothean ship or a power generator or whatever, Shepard thought pessimistically.
"Capable of destroying the Reapers?" Valern asked, "The scales... It would be a colossal undertaking.
"I forwarded the plans to Admiral Hackett. The remnants of the human fleet are already gathering resources to begin construction," Shepard looked each of the Councillors in the eyes as she spoke, trying to figure out which of them would support her.
"Our initial calculations suggests that it's very feasible to build," Liara forwarded more data to the Councillors to support their claims.
"...If we work together."
"The Reapers destroyed the Protheans," Tevos' sceptical tone was the only thing that gave away her emotions. Shepard had always hated trying to read an asari that was good at hiding her emotions, "What good did this weapon do?"
"It was incomplete. There was a missing ingredient; something only referred to as 'the Catalyst'. They ran out of time before they could finish building it."
"Do you really believe that this could stop the Reapers?" Sparatus didn't take his eyes off Shepard.
No I don't, "Liara believes it can work and so do I. And while I haven't always agreed with Udina, he's right about this: we need to stand together, now more than ever. The Reapers won't stop at Earth; they'll destroy every organic being in the galaxy if we don't find a way to stop them. If we don't try to fight them on our own then we've already lost!"
The Councillors fell silent and looked at each other for a few minutes of inner debating. Shepard knew that Udina would support her because of how she had heard him plead for aid for Earth but she wasn't certain about the others. Sparatus seemed to be accepting of the plan but Valern had been outright dismissive and Tevos was impossible to read. It could go either way. She studied Tevos and Valern closely as the two exchanged a long look. She knew that the two were close and that they had the biggest influence in the Council. They were the ones making the biggest decisions. Then Valern shook his head and Shepard's heart sunk in her chest. The decision had been made.
"The cold and unfortunate truth," Tevos said apologetically as she turned back, "is that while the Reapers focus on Earth, we can prepare and regroup."
"If we can manage to secure our own borders, we can once again consider aiding others," the salarian spoke and Shepard noted that she would've punched him if he hadn't been a powerful politician.
"I'm sorry, Commander. That is the best we can do."
With that, Tevos and Valern turned and walked off the podium, leaving the chamber without another word. Sparatus remained another moment, taking the time to give Shepard another long look that she couldn't interpret before he too left the room. Udina sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead.
"Shepard," his raspy echoed in the empty chamber, "Meet me in my office."
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Shepard sat on Udina's desk ten minutes later, drinking some coffee that the Councillor's assistant had given her. Liara had left to head back to the Normandy and do some more research about the device and the Catalyst. Shepard sat on the desk, positioned to look out at the Citadel arms through the large windows. It had been foolish to think that the Council would see reason but the meeting had been next to disastrous. But she had done what she could and now it was up to Udina to convince the others that their only option was to unite and strike back at the Reapers before they had settled into the galaxy and fortified their positions. Prothean device or not, they had to launch their counterattack soon.
The doors open and Udina stormed in, his face red with anger and he tossed a folder recklessly onto his desk. Shepard remained where she was, carefully watching him subdue his anger. It had been a long time since she had seen him this angry.
"They're a bunch of self-concerned jackasses, Shepard!" Udina spat out in a fit that she had expected more from someone like Anderson rather than from the life-long politician, "We may have a seat on the Council but humanity will always be considered second rate."
"How can they be so blind?"
"They're scared and they're looking after themselves." Udina had calmed down but his face was still slightly red as he turned and looked at the doors behind Shepard that had just slid open to reveal Sparatus who strolled in the office with the grace and confidence of every turian that Shepard had ever met.
"Our people are scared," his voice carried the same metallic undertone that was common to turians, "and we're looking out for them the best way we know how."
"Councillor Sparatus is not as dismissive of your plans as the others are, it would seem" Udina explained and turned to Shepard, "He sought me out after the meeting and want to discuss cooperation."
"So you believe me now?" Shepard stepped up to Sparatus. He was a head taller then her but she still looked the most impressive, "I thought you were going to dismiss the 'Reapers'," she air-quoted in front of his face and her voice was thick with sarcasm, "out of existence."
Udina groaned and hid his face in the palm of his hand, rubbing his forehead at the sight of yet another soldier with the political grace of a drunken krogan in a porcelain shop.
"Yes..." Sparatus grimaced and looked away as Shepard stepped back and crossed her arms over her chest defiantly, "Certain viewpoints changes as time passes. What you should know though, is that certain elements of the Hierarchy heard your words and decided to pre-emptively prepare themselves. Many saw what the geth fleet did three years ago and didn't want to end up in the same position."
"What are you saying exactly?
"Are you familiar with the Treaty of Farixen, Commander?"
"No, I'm afraid not.
"The Treaty decides the number of dreadnoughts that Council races and associate races are allowed to employ," Udina explained as Sparatus sat down in the chair opposite Udina's desk and put one of his long legs over the other, "Because of their militaristic accomplishments and war machines, the turian fleet is allowed to utilize the most dreadnoughts. For every five ships that they build and utilize, the other Council races – humanity, asari and salarians – are allowed to build and operate three. Lesser races without a seat in the Council are in turn only allowed to build one out of every fifth turian dreadnought."
Shepard nodded as he spoke. She had learned that during her N7 training but it hadn't stuck. Or it had been one of the many smaller bits of information that she had forgotten after Cerberus had brought her back to life.
"The Councillor is correct," Sparatus nodded, "Counting the losses endured three years ago, there were forty dreadnoughts officially deployed by the Hierarchy in the beginning of this year."
Forty dreadnoughts, Shepard pondered the information. If we united the dreadnoughts from all fleets into one, how many Reapers could we destroy? "Officially?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Yes," Sparatus replied instantly without trying to avoid the question, "Since the battle against Sovereign, we've been building more dreadnoughts to replace the ones we lost and to be prepared in case of another geth attack. We've been building them in secret facilities in unpopulated systems or building them in our regular shipyards under the guise of constructing new classes of carrier ships."
"And what were you planning with this secret fleet?" Udina glared down at the turian who didn't even flinch.
"Is that relevant now? They were saved for matter of emergencies. In case certain... unreliable elements in the galaxy acted out of place again."
Udina and Shepard said nothing; the implication was crystal clear.
"How many functional dreadnoughts does the Hierarchy command?" Shepard asked after a few moments of awkward silence. She didn't care about why the turians had built more powerful ship, she just liked where the conversation was going.
"One week ago, I would've told you that we currently have seventeen fully operable dreadnoughts waiting to be deployed as well as another six under construction."
Shepard did the math in her head. The total amount of dreadnoughts was impressive.
"Though now it's hard to say," Sparatus shrugged, "My clearance doesn't grant me the location or the contact information for those shipyards; they might've already been taken by the Reapers at this point."
Or worse, Shepard thought, Cerberus could've found them. The Illusive Man would definitely be interested in acquiring so much heavy firepower if there was a possibility of success. No one would miss something that doesn't officially exist.
"I can't give you what you need, Commander. But I can tell you how to get it."
"I'm listening."
"Two days ago, Palaven was attacked by Reaper forced and Primarch Fedorian called for a war summit with the krogans, asari and salarians. But we lost contact shortly after. Those meetings won't proceed without him. The Normandy is one of few ships that can extract Primarch Fedorian without detection."
"How does this help us exactly?"
"The leaders of this summit will be the ones who decide our future. The fate of our fleets, where they fight and with whom. A grateful Primarch would be a tremendous ally in your bid to unite us."
Shepard considered it. Sparatus wasn't saying straight out that the turians would support her if she saved their Primarch but it was implied. She'd never liked the political language and the subtlety that came with it.
"Our latest intelligence says that the Primarch was moved to base on Menae, Palaven's largest moon. But the Reapers are jamming all of our communications; we can't get a hold of anyone."
"Why would the Primarch remain on a moon?"
"Menae is more of a stronghold rather then a simple base," Sparatus explained, "It's been hollowed out and strengthened for centuries. There are kilometres of tunnels throughout the whole moon, bunkers and even mass effect field generators deeper down by the core. It maintains a breathable atmosphere and keeps the temperature bearable... Under normal circumstances, it would be a great place for the Primarch to wait out the war."
"But this won't be a normal war."
"No. No it won't." the turian said nothing for several moments, "We have decided to uphold your Spectre status. If the batarian Hegemony still existed, we would have been your political protection. But now it seems that we won't have to worry about that. Apart from the usual Spectre funds, you'll have access to everything you want in this war. Money; weapons; equipment; personnel; all of it will be available. The others might not agree with your suggestions but we know how the public look at the Normandy and yourself, Commander. You will no fight this war without some support."
"Thank you, Councillor." She said sincerely. After years of feeling that the struggling with an uncooperative Council, they had finally decided to join her instead of resisting her. It was a great feeling.
Sparatus simply nodded at her, then did the same for Udina, and walked out of the office. Udina sighed and slumped down in his large chair, rubbing his forehead again.
"That went well."
"You saved their lives, and for what?" Udina didn't attempt to hide the bitterness in his voice, "Apologies that boil down to 'maybe later'. If we don't figure something out soon, 'maybe later' will be an epitaph on a mass grave of eleven billion."
"What are you going to do?" Shepard glanced at the forgotten cup of coffee on the desk. It would've gotten cold by now. Such a waste.
"Humanity has created some good-will in the galaxy. Now we cash in our chips. I will get the funding I can, the material I can, and spread the message: 'Help the humans, help yourselves'. I'll institute a draft in our colonies and order all civilian ships armed. Work on the Prothean device will be around the clock."
For a long time, Shepard had disliked Udina. They had never seen eye to eye much and the relationship had taken yet another sour turn when the Commander had recommended Anderson as the candidate for humanity's Council member, a job that Udina had sought for himself. But now it seemed that he had decided to bury the hatchet and work with her for a change. She liked this change.
"Are there any news from Earth?"
"There is constant news, all of it bad. The Reapers are destroying satellites and the old nuclear missile silos along with everything else that could help."
"Heard anything from Anderson?"
Udina leaned back in his chair again and the pain on his face was impossible to miss, "No. Nothing. Last we heard from Vancouver was that everyone was trying to flee the city as best as they can. The metropolises have become death traps, the citizens unable to escape and the Reapers having begun large constructions meant to wall in the cities permanently."
"Did you know a lot of people on Earth?"
"Many. It's monstrous to think of them being snuffed out. I must know... I must've known most the Alliance Parliament on a first-name basis. To have it all gone..." he shook his head said nothing else. Shepard could see the sorrow in his eyes and decided to not push further. She excused herself and Udina didn't acknowledge her as she left his office, preferring to instead sit and stare out into nothing, alone with his memories.
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The Embassy Quarters were as busy as Shepard had expected. She shuddered at the sight of dozens of people crowding together in the small areas in front of reception disks, or cueing by doorways leading to the offices of one of the different races. Even though she was in the human section, she spotted multiple asari, turians and even a few volus wobbling around in the crowds. None of them paid her any attention. To most of them she was just another Alliance officer.
She stepped through the security scanners and passed a few busy C-Sec officers scurrying around. The office that she was looking for wasn't hard to find and it slid open as she approached, revealing the small office belonging to Armando Bailey, commanding C-Sec officer in the Embassy Quarters. The large, brutish-looking officer sat behind his desk, leaning against it on his elbows and looking up with a bored expression at the very familiar news reporter standing in front of him. He noticed her as soon as she walked inside but said nothing.
"There is no anti-humanity conspiracy here, Mrs. al-Jilani, the Council's simply not granting interviews at this time."
Khalisah al-Jilani looked just like Shepard remembered. Dressed in an expensive looking blue dress, neat black hair, aggressively unnaturally tanned skin and a camera hovering behind her; everything about al-Jilani gave the impression that she was a classy news reporter. That illusion was always shattered as soon as she opened her mouth.
"My viewers are going to know that C-Sec and the Council are denying them access," her arms were hostilely crossed beneath her breasts and she spoke with the natural smugness that came natural to every over-paid media celebrity. Shepard smirked as she thought back to the last time she had met the reporter.
"Look lady, you think I like playing gatekeeper between the paparazzi and the politicians?" Bailey had seemingly had enough and rose from his chair. He was a lot taller and bigger than the short, thin reporter and al-Jilani was forced to look up at him, "I'm not their babysitter and I'm not here to hold your hand."
"Well, I'm camping out until I'm granted an audience!" she said. To Shepard, it sounded like a childish victory claim. Though what al-Jilani might think that she had won during the exchange was not something she wanted to waste time thinking about.
"Fine. I hope you brought a sleeping bag."
Al-Jilani swirled around and her heels clicked loudly against the floor as she marched out with the camera following close behind her. She passed Shepard and only glanced at her quickly, refusing to let anything break her stride. It wasn't until she had exited the office that something clicked and she recognized the uniformed Alliance officer she had just passed. She spun around gracefully and the camera automatically positioned itself slightly behind her so that it got a good view of Shepard over her shoulder.
"Commander Shepard! Commander, humanity has questions!" she demanded loudly, causing a few minor C-Sec officers in the hallway to frown at her as they passed.
Shepard gave her the sweetest smile she could muster and then reached out to click the door button. It slid closed right in al-Jilani's face and Shepard's smile turned into a grin.
"Damn press," Bailey grunted from his desk and sat down again.
"I see you're keeping the peace. Good to see you again, Captain Bailey," she walked over and sat in the chair opposite him.
"Yeah, you too. Though it's Commander now," he spoke with the same growly voice that she remembered from her last visit. She wondered if he ever let much more emotion into it.
"Congratulations?"
"Yeah, half my job is dealing with political bullshit and escorting dignitaries around. I feel like a glorified doorman," he said dryly.
"Most people would see it as a move-up."
"Wedged in here with all the stuffed shirts? I'd rather be back down in the Wards. I appreciate the higher pay grade but I'm not a political creature."
"If you didn't want to be upped, why'd you accept?"
"You don't say no to Councillor Udina. Well, maybe you would but I gotta live here. I know, squeaky wheel gets the oil but I didn't lobby for a promotion like some... other... officers. I'm not even sure why he picked me. You never know with politicians. I hate political bullshit."
Shepard smiled and noticed a twitch in the corner of Bailey's mouth. She'd always liked the grumpy C-Sec officer; he was the best possible candidate she could think of for a commanding role in C-Sec.
"What's happening around here?"
"Oh it's a circus. We've got God knows how many refugees out there waiting for us to allow them inside. Then we gotta process them. And make sure that they've all got places to stay so they sleep on the streets in the Wards. Then we gotta feed them. I don't know how many damn ships we've let in so far but there doesn't seem to be an end to them. Millions across the galaxy have been displaces and most of them come here. Other then that, we got more ambassadors and dignitaries here then ever before, pleading the cases. But that's just the tip of the iceberg, really."
"Is the Citadel gearing up for war?"
"Eh, there's a false sense of security here. Even people coming from worlds that have gone down act like they're safe. I guess it's just not human nature. We all lie to ourselves to deal with horror," he looked at the screen in front of him and Shepard noticed how tired and worn out he looked, "It's killing me about Earth," he mumbled.
"You and me both," she remembered the stench of burning oil, buildings and human flesh from Vancouver and saw the image of Harbinger smashing the buildings he passed to pieces. She had left so many people behind.
"I haven't been back in years, now I may never. If this isn't the End of Days, it's pretty damn close," she saw his jaw clench and he scratched his cheek.
"You got loved ones out there?"
"Somewhere. Ex-wife I lost track of and..." he chocked up slightly, "a son and daughter. They're still on Earth."
"I'm sorry, Bailey,"
"Eh, I'm just like everyone else. Loosing myself and things I can control. And at the moment that means creating the illusion of security here. What about you?"
"My mother's in the Alliance. Might have some very distant relatives out there somewhere..." she shrugged, "We've never associated, really. I haven't heard from my mother since before the comms went down," that was the second time in one day that she had thought about Hannah Shepard, she realised. And then another realisation came to her. She didn't even know the name of the ship her mother served on. Finding out if she was alive or not would be a difficult task, one that she didn't want to think about right now.
"You know anything about Ashley William's status?" she asked, trying to take them out of the sour mood that had filled the office.
Bailey typed a few commands and looked at his screen, "She's still in surgery. I can notice you when they're done with her if you want to."
"I'd appreciate it,"
"Speaking of that," Bailey opened a desk drawer and threw a folder in front of her, "We took your crew into custody when you turned in your ship all those months ago. Never really did anything with them, we just had to arrest them for protocol's sake. They were Cerberus after all."
Shepard bent down and looked through the documents. Her entire engineering team had turned themselves in, as had a handful of other technicians and weapon specialists. She knew every name on the list and would be happy to have them back on the Normandy. The only name she missed was Kelly Chambers. Where the hell are you, Kell?
"I made sure they were stuck in nice places for their house arrests and that no one messed with 'em," Bailey shrugged, "Allowed them to exercise and eat well. They've learned that you're back and they're yours if you want them again. I'll make a call and send them back to the Normandy."
"Thanks, Bailey," she smiled warmly at him and Bailey replied with a pencil thin one.
"Yeah, don't mention it. The way we all saw it, they worked for you, not Cerberus. And I'm not going to hassle someone who's out there making an actual damn difference."
"I should go. But thanks again, Bailey. We owe you one."
"Yeah, yeah," Bailey waved his hand dismissively, "Keep yourself intact, that's good enough for me. Was good talking to you, Shepard. Drop by again."
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Back out in the crowded Embassy Quarters, Shepard took a moment to lean against an empty wall and check her data-pad for messages. EDI reported that released prisoners were about to be sent to the Normandy and that the new personnel supplied by the Alliance had arrived and were now nettling in. Specialist Traynor had already briefed them about what to expect. The Normandy would be ready to take off once the old crew arrived.
Shepard pocketed the data-pad and moved over to the large window next to the elevator. The Citadel looked so peaceful and clean from up there. I assume that the view wouldn't have been considered nearly as attractive if it had overlooked the Wards. People brushed past her in a hurry to get to wherever they were going but Shepard remained where she was. Vancouver had looked peaceful too. Then it was set on fire.
"Commander Shepard!" Khalisah al-Jilani's voice cut through her memories and Shepard grimaced. Fucking reporter, "Commander, the people of the Alliance have questions!"
She slowly turned around to see al-Jilani elbow her way towards her through the crowd. Some had recognized both the reporter and the Commander and were giving her a hard time to get through. They were blocking her path and feigning ignorance when she tried to push them aside and one large turian 'accidently' walked into her flying camera, knocking it off stride for a few seconds before glancing at Shepard and giving her a knowing wink.
Shepard couldn't resist smiling at the fact that she had people on her side that were willing to give al-Jilani a hard time. They had met twice in the past and their last meeting had apparently caused a public outcry. The first time they had met, Shepard had answered all questions as politely and respectfully as she could. When the interview aired on the extranet, it had been heavily edited to portray the Commander as negatively as possible. Al-Jilani had loudly questioned her role as a Spectre, accusing her of bowing to the Council and putting their needs ahead of those of humanity. When Shepard had worked with Cerberus, she had been surprised to learn that al-Jilani was not working for the pro-humanity organization, directly or indirectly.
The second time they had met had been a few months earlier. Shepard had given the Normandy one of their normal 24-hour shore leaves and had spent the night drinking herself halfway into a coma. Massively hung over, she had encountered the reporter the following day and al-Jilani had demanded that she answer a bunch of aggressive questions regarding her actions during the battle against the Sovereign and the geth as well as the current rumours about the Commander working for Cerberus. Shepard had wanted nothing more then to return to the Normandy and crawl into her bed and had had no patience for the slandering reporter. Al-Jilani had refused to leave her along and Shepard had eventually grown sick of her and punched her in the face.
Enraged by the public embarrassment, al-Jilani had spent the next few weeks doing many hateful reports about the Commanders action, digging up as much dirt as she could. The public outcry had been unexpected by everyone. Al-Jilani's audience grew tired of the constant slandering and her private crusade against the Commander and they began calling for boycotts and protests. Petitions were filled and sent in to Westerlund News, asking for al-Jilani's removal. Caving in to the pressure, Westerlund News eventually fired Al-Jilani.
Shepard had been off the grid during all of that, busy battling the Collectors. It wasn't until a few weeks later when Kelly Chambers had read about it online that Shepard finally learned what one hung-over fist to the face had led to. She had laughed out loud.
Al-Jilani had evidentially found a new job and was now standing face to face with her in the Embassy Quarters. Other people gave them their privacy, not wanting to be caught up in either another fistfight or a slanderous report.
"Commander Shepard!" she said once again, this time for the camera's sake, "Isn't it true that you were on Earth when the Reapers attacked? How do you justify running away while millions of people on Earth die? Is that the best we can expect from the Alliance?" she aggressively demanded.
"I came to get help for Earth. For everyone," she turned to head towards the elevator. She wasn't going to let al-Jilani goad her, "Get some help, Khalisah. I have work to do."
"What about all the people suffering while you play politics with the Council? What about them? How can you stand here while our families die? What are you going to do?" she called out to Shepard's back.
Shepard stopped. Either al-Jilani had become a very good actor since they last met or the upset in her voice was genuine. She suspected that it was the later because subtlety had never been one of the reporter's strong suits.
"You're angry, I get that," she turned again and looked back at the other woman, "But we're doing everything we can. I'm going to stop the Reapers or die trying. You can help us. Keep asking the hard questions. Don't let the Council forget about Earth."
Al-Jilani said nothing but Shepard could see that she was struggling to come up with a reply. Shepard didn't like the woman but she didn't want their personal conflict to escalate either. The last thing she needed was a vengeful al-Jilani poisoning the public's view of her with her propaganda.
"Thank you, Commander," al-Jilani finally replied, albeit somewhat reluctantly, "I will. You may be a violent thug... but I'm glad that you're on our side."
She said nothing else and hurriedly walked away. Somehow I doubt that that last comment won't make it into her reports, Shepard thought with a smirk.
As she stood by the elevator a few moments later, she noticed Vega standing by one of the windows. She hadn't noticed him but he must've seen her confrontation with al-Jilani. She joined him by the window and studied his expression. There was an emotion there that she couldn't interpret.
"Hey, Commander," he said quietly, "Liara told me that the Council's not interested in helping us." He snorted, "Why would they? Look at this place. There's no war here. People are whispering about it. Talking about it. But they don't really believe it."
I'll never get used to going from a warzone to the calm Citadel either, "I take it's your first time here with the... elite of the galaxy."
"I've been to the Citadel but never up here on the Presidium. It's... not right. It looks pretty. Calm and peaceful. But it's not right. It's all just an illusion. They'd rather believe in this then face the truth," he shook his head in disbelief.
"I can hardly believe it myself. Like everything back on Earth was some kind of nightmare."
"Yeah, that's what I hate most. It's like this place wants you to forget that. How did Anderson ever manage to work here for as long as he did?"
He didn't, "So. You still want to go back to Earth?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Hell yeah, but... You were right. So was Anderson. We can't stop them alone. Besides, looks you're gonna have your hands full convincing these pendejo politicians to help us. And I'm up for it. Whatever it takes."
"Glad to hear it," she smiled, "We're off to Palaven as soon as possible. Get back to the ship and get ready."
"You got it, Lola. I've wondered what the turian homeworld is like. Bureaucratic, stiff... and then violent as hell if you break a rule. Maybe."
Shepard's smile turned into a grin, "I've got a close turian friend you'd like. I'm sure he'd tell you everything you'd want to know."
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kerpin
Serviceman 3rd Class
Posts: 9
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Post by kerpin on Oct 23, 2012 18:48:09 GMT 1
Chapter 3.2
Just as the Normandy started its journey towards Palawan, an old, large cargo freighter docked at one of the low-class bays, normally used for unloading supplies in one of the Wards. There were no professional medic teams there waiting for injured refugees, only a line of bureaucratic C-Sec officers there to register the people and direct them to where they belonged. If anyone was badly injured, one lone doctor would rush over and apply some medi-gel to the wound and then move on, busily trying to meet an unreasonable work quota.
Unlike the refugees that had left the Normandy, these men and women had not come from one of the major metropolises on Earth but from one of the many slum-like cities that hadn't experienced the boom of the space age quite as much as cities like Vancouver had. They were mostly mine workers, employed by a small-time mining corporation that had been wiped out in one quick attack and some of their families that had lived in the corporation-built village close to the mine somewhere in Africa. A single Reaper Destroyer had landed within spitting distance of the village after destroying a small group of Alliance cruisers in the skies above. As the Reaper destroyed the corporation buildings and the village, husks tried to catch the fleeing workers who were trying to make their way to the only cargo freighter that the company had been able to afford. The freighter took off quickly, leaving many behind to fend for themselves. The Destroyer hadn't bothered to chase the freighter.
The workers would inevitably be caught up by new corporations who had recruiters in the Wards, eagerly looking for potential staff. The ones who had come to the Citadel with absolutely nothing except the clothes on their back – women who had lost their husbands or children having lost their parents – would eventually be swallowed by the Citadel's seedy underworld, whether they wanted to or not.
All but one of the people were unremarkable. The sole exception was a large man in his late 30's, dark blonde but with grey spots slowly taking over. He was the same size as most of the mine workers but where many of those men had some extra fat on their bellies, he was purely muscle. He walked slowly with the help of a crude cane to support his useless leg that had been gravely damaged earlier. A man who claimed that he had some medical knowledge on the cargo freighter had declared that he was in urgent need of surgery if he wanted to keep the use of his leg. Having been forced to wait outside the Citadel before being allowed to land had only worsened his condition and he was now barely able to move the leg without a help. But he forced himself out of the damp hold and onto the freedom of the Citadel. Because he was stronger then the average man, both mentally and physically, and was determined stoically accept the pain. Several hours earlier, the man had led a professional commando team during a raid on the Mars Archives.
Standing in line now along with the other rabble, the man with the call-sign Zoll scanned the C-Sec officers for a familiar face. Right before his damaged shuttle had been picked up by the cargo freighter, he had spaced his Cerberus armour and everything else that might identify him and then sent a coded message to the person above him in the Cerberus hierarchy. That man or woman would then in return pass the code along and it would eventually reach one of their agents on the Citadel that would deal with Zoll.
A young boy stood in his path, crying and calling for his mother. Zoll rapped the boy's shoulder with his cane and pushed him out of his way, ignoring the child's increased wailing. A brat doomed to live a harsh life, abused and exploited, wasn't Zoll's problem.
"Everyone, form lines!" one bored-looking C-Sec officer called out and the crowd reluctantly obeyed the order. As soon as they had lined up, a handful of officers spread out and randomly took people aside for questioning. Zoll knew that one of the men would be his contact and remained calm, waiting for his turn.
It took over forty minutes. By that point, Zoll's good leg had started cramping and he was in extreme pain but he forced himself to stand strong and keep his face neutral. Only years of physical and mental training allowed him to remain standing. All the officers that walked past him to bring others into the interview rooms looked at his cane, looked at his face, and then looked away; until a young woman stopped in front of him.
"Come with me," the woman didn't even wait for him to register the command and simply started walking again. She seemed to be in her early 30's and looked to be more of a bureaucrat then a fighter, with no visible weapon on her person and wearing the kind of clean uniform that was impossible to maintain if you did fieldwork. The officer quickly crossed the hall and stopped by a small door, patiently waiting for the slower Zoll to join her. For every aching and humiliating step, feeling the eyes of everyone in the room stabbing like daggers in his back, Zoll wanted stick his cane down the woman's throat and twist it around. The officer calmly met his frustrated gaze but made no move whatsoever. She wasn't unattractive with her piercingly blue eyes, pale and smooth skin and hazel hair; but Zoll wasn't going to flirt with someone he'd already decided that he despised.
As Zoll reached the door, the officer yanked the door open and waved him into a small, windowless interrogation room that only contained a small table and two chairs. Zoll sat down without an invitation and started to massage his aching leg.
"The camera's off," the officer said, "we can talk freely, operator Zoll," she gazed down at the sitting Zoll, hoping for a reaction to the fact that she knew his codename. Fool, Zoll thought but said nothing, "My name is Martina Phyle," the officer continued when she realised that Zoll wouldn't react, "I'll be your main contact during your 'stay' here. You'll report everything to me and I will let you know when you're assigned new tasks."
Zoll said nothing and Phyle slid a document file across the table. Zoll flipped it open and read through it carefully. He now had a new name and a social number, a means for the authorities – and Cerberus, most likely – to track his movements on the Citadel as well as clearance levels for access to other areas of the station.
"What happened on Mars?" Phyle leaned forwards and her tone became quiet and conspiratorial.
"Won't anyone be suspicious if you're talking to me offline like this?" Zoll spoke for the first time and nodded to a spot on the wall below the roof and right above Phyle's head, a likely placement for any camera meant to look directly at him.
"So far today, we've interviewed around two thousand refugees," Phyle sighed as if she had been doing all of the interviews herself, "As long as everyone have an acceptable background – which you do now, by the way," she tapped the folder in front of Zoll, "it's already been uploaded – then no one will give a shit. There isn't anyone actually reviewing every single interview anyway; we don't have the personnel for that. A few thousand refugees are flying around outside right now. There'll be millions in a couple of days; C-Sec can't bother with them all," she was a slow talker, obnoxiously revelling in listening to her own voice.
"What am I supposed to be doing?"
Phyle shrugged, "Build a network. There might be a time where we will have to take care of this place. Command wants me to build a network of allies for that takeover. And I want you to do that."
Zoll snorted. Cerberus didn't have the manpower to usurp control over a station the size of the Citadel, "What do we gain from doing that?"
"I assume that you gain a pay check," Phyle twirled a pen between her fingers without taking her eyes of Zoll, "And others gain something more valuable," the point was clear: it was none of his business, "Now tell me what happened on Mars. Was the mission a success?"
"I've already been debriefed," he thought back to the rushed conversation he had with his superior in the shuttle, "My entire team was killed, including a VIP. Shepard showed up. I'm not sure if the VIP managed to transmit whatever it was she was after in the base before Shepard blew her brains out."
Phyle pocketed the pen and said nothing for a few moments, "Did you acquire any additional data?"
He shook his head. And even if I did, I'm not allowed to hand it over directly to you. You know that too. Trying to weasel your way up in the world, Martina?
"Is the Normandy still here?" he asked without waiting for her to figure out another opening, "Because I imagine that Shepard will eventually become a target."
"The Normandy departed almost an hour ago. Classified destination. I know what Bailey knows and even he doesn't have a clue."
"How do you know what Bailey knows?" Zoll cocked his head sideways, "Are you fucking him?"
"Maybe I am," Zoll had expected at least a blush but Phyle remained cold. Zoll found himself wondering what she looked like under the neat uniform that hid any semblance of curves from his view, "Anyway, all agents have a plan to deal with Shepard if it becomes necessary. Command tells me that we're to leave the Normandy alone as long as they don't interfere directly with our interests. So don't go and shoot her directly if you see her out there somewhere. The media has already begun reporting that the Commander is fighting in the front lines and people are eager to spread all kinds of rumours. On my way here I overheard someone claiming that the Normandy had engaged two Reapers at once and blown them up with one shot."
Zoll frowned. Shepard was a traitor to the cause and deserved to die for it but he also realised that the Commander was more important as a symbol right now.
"So let her do her things to keep the aliens distracted from us?"
"Exactly. If you, through your network, come across a way to eliminate her in such a way that no one can suspect the organization then by all means take the shot. But if the Alliance loose their precious propaganda tool then they might decide that it's time to hunt down us for real. They'd find me and they sure as hell would find you."
Zoll hadn't listened to most of what Phyle had said. He had instead focused on the documents again. Specifically on the list of possible recruits currently located on the Citadel.
"Where do I find this one?" he pointed at a name and Phyle leant across the table to take a closer look.
"For that you'll need some fresher clothes," she sized him up, "Haven't you ever been to Purgatory?"
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Above Palaven,
The turians had always been a very militaristic race. They had the largest battle fleet in the galaxy; the most powerful dreadnoughts; the highest number of cruisers; millions of one-man piloted fighters; and a discipline unlike any other race. Throughout history when the turians had gone to war, it had never been a question of small-scale war with fancy tactics and smaller skirmishes. They brought their biggest guns and annihilated the armies of their opponents.
A large portion of the turian fleet was hovering around Palaven as the Normandy dropped out of FTL drive and Shepard stood above the galaxy map and looked down at the 3D hologram showing what was happening around the planet. It was a grim sight.
The Reapers had brought an overwhelming force to deal with the turians formidable fleet. There were too many Destroyer signals to count and Oculi were everywhere. The turian dreadnoughts had been pushed away from the planet and were holding positions around Menae, their moon. Destroyers and Reaper carriers had landed on Palaven and cities were being bombarded without pause. Explosions and burning cities were visible from space. The destruction was immense. Turians were not a race that surrendered and they were putting up a good fight.
Thanks to their IFF, the Normandy made its way through the Destroyer blockade and made its way towards Menae. The shuttle carrying Shepard, Vega and Liara dropped out of the ship and headed straight for the moon. Shepard sat in her seat, clutching her Mattock and staring straight into the wall opposite her. Liara and James were talking but she wasn't listening. What would be waiting for them down there? A strong turian resistance or husks?
The hatch opened as they were close enough to the ground and Shepard strapped herself to a safety harness and leaned outside, scoping out the landing zone with her assault rifle. There was a squad of turians fending of a large group of husks that were climbing up the cliffs. She squeezed the trigger in rapid succession and three of the climbers fell back to the bottom. The turians saw them coming and cleared away the husks with grenades, giving the shuttle time to land. Shepard leapt out, followed by Vega who wasted no time in finding the nearest husk and obliterating it with a mighty blast of his shotgun.
"Commander!" one of the turians rushed towards her, "We're to escort you to the commanding officer. Follow us!"
The shuttle took off again behind them as the trio followed the turian patrol. A small husk leapt from an above cliff and caught the leading turian off-guard and the two tumbled to the ground. Shepard activated her omni-blade without loosing her stride and decapitated the small husk as it was trying to claw at the turian's eyes. No time was wasted and they were up running again within seconds.
As they passed a corner and came in full view of the planet below them, Shepard had to stop and involuntarily gasp. The sight was both amazing and horrifying. She could clearly see the fires on Palaven and the explosions that must be gigantic on the planet but simply looked like blinking lights from Menae. A gigantic Reaper capital ship was standing somewhere in front of her. The distance was large but the Reaper was still towering far above her. It didn't seem to be actively doing much; it was just firing the sporadic laser at cruisers that came too close to it. It doesn't even bother with the ground forces, Shepard thought to herself, we're nothing to it.
"Holy hell..." Vega gasped beside her as in took in the sight.
A dreadnought was in space far above them and a large Destroyer flew in front of it and charged its laser for an attack. As soon as the Reaper fired, the dreadnought responded with a powerful Thanix projectile fired from close range that tore through the smaller Reaper's powerful shields and blew it apart. Shepard heard unseen turians around her cheer and she joined in herself as the remains of the Reaper were destroyed further by a swam of fighters. The cheers quickly died as the Capital Ship hummed and fired off its own deadly laser against the dreadnought. The massive ship imploded without warning or survivors.
The group ran without interruptions to a large barricade. It was a sturdy piece of metal that would keep out the husks and cannibals as long as there were soldiers to man the heavy cannons spread out across the battlement, but wouldn't last long if a Reaper landed nearby and walked over it.
The turian sentinels on the barricade shouted orders and small section was lowered, letting Shepard and her friends pass through it. The turians inside the barricade lived up to their reputation as professionals and everyone there was doing his or her duty. A tall turian dressed in red armour approached her and Shepard quickly identified him as the commander because of his posture and demeanour.
"Commander Shepard," the two clasped hands, "Heard you were coming but didn't believe it. General Corinthus," he didn't wait for a reply, he simply guided them to a small make-shift command room a few metres away.
"I've come to get Primarch Fedorian."
The turian general said nothing and his eyes became distant. As soon as he turned to look away from her, Shepard knew that the news would be bad.
"Primarch Fedorian is dead," he said grimly, "His shuttle was shot down an hour ago as it tried to leave the moon.
Shit! "That's going to complicate things," she hesitated for a moment, "How are things going here?"
"We've lost four hundred men in the last half hour," Corinthus said bitterly, "We're holding out so far but the enemy is slowly bleeding us dry. The sheer numbers of the Reapers seem to make them immune to any sort of tactic. The Primarch and his men found that out the hard way."
"I'm sorry. I heard he was a good man."
"And a friend," the general looked back at her again, his look sad but determined.
"The turian Hierarchy provides very clear lines of succession," Liara put in, "There's always someone immediately next in line for the throne."
"With such high causalities, it's hard for me to know who the next Primarch is," Corinthus sighed wearily, "The Hierarchy is in chaos, so many dead or MIA."
"I can find you a Primarch, Shepard," a very recognizable voice spoke and everyone turned to see Garrus Vakarian walk up the ramp to the command room, casually carrying his sniper rifle in his hands and walking with the same old confidence that Shepard had come to expect.
"Garrus!" she exclaimed, genuinely happy to see him. Shepard had plenty of comrades and allies but few real friends. And amongst those friends, Garrus Vakarian sat unthreatened at the top spot. They clasped their hands firmly and bumped fists. The scars on his face were still there but they weren't as noticeable as they had once been, "Good to see you again! I thought you'd be on Palaven."
"I was. But the planet is no longer suitable for ground fighting. If we loose this moon, we loose Palaven. I'm the closest damn thing we have to an expert on Reaper forces so I'm... advising."
There was something about Garrus's voice that could calm Shepard down no matter the situation. Every since she was young, the flanging effects of turian voices had always had that effect on her. Now there won't be anything stopping us on this damn rock, she thought, poor Reapers.
"James, this is Garrus Vakarian," she turned to side so she could introduce the two. Vega nodded and stoically shook Garrus's hand, "He helped me stop the Collectors. He's a hell of a soldier."
"Shepard's not being modest enough. In reality, she helped me stop the Collectors. I just let her write the history books," Vega and Shepard both smirked, "Good to see you too, Liara." Garrus turned to the asari and nodded to her, "We're after general Adrien Victus."
"You know him?"
"I was fighting alongside him this morning. Life long military, gets results, popular with his troops. Not so popular with military command. Has a reputation of playing loose with accepted strategy."
"Bold strategist," Corinthus grunted without looking up from his digital map, "But wild behaviour doesn't get you advanced in the meritocracy."
The merit-what? "You think he can get the job done?" Shepard asked.
"We both know that conventional strategies won't beat the Reapers. Right now he could be our best shot. And I trust him," he added and Shepard took that as a serious compliment. Someone Garrus Vakarian could trust, she could trust.
"Okay. Let's get him on the shuttle and get him out of here. Do you know where he is?"
"We got separated. He went to bolster a flank that was breaking; he could be anywhere by now. Communications have only been working sporadically, the Reapers are messing the signals all over the systems."
"I think I know," Corinthus waved them over and pointed at a marked spot on the map below him, "This is our weakest flank. Due to it's proximity to that Capital Ship, there are always husks charging the barricades. Or there are worse things. If Victus is trying to maintain a flank; he'll be there. I'd bet my career on it. Normally I'd send you through the tunnels, but because that thing is walking around over there, the tunnels closest to the surface has caved in. Crossing this field," he pointed out a large 'no man's land' area between the two bases, "is the quickest route."
"Alright," Shepard pulled her Mattock from her holster, "We'll head over and get him. Coming, Garrus?"
"Are you kidding?" Garrus patted his rifle, "I'm right behind you!"
An alarm sounded and a large, winged creature flew across their heads. Corinthus cried out an order and the turian troops took defensive positions. The creature, a Reaperized synthetic version of a Harvester, a large predator from Tuchanka and other similar planets, opened fire from a pair of mounted cannons. Shepard dove away as the ground she had just been standing on erupted. She rolled onto her back and fired up against the Harvester. It roared in pain but she didn't know if she had hit it or if any of the turians had been lucky.
"Move!" she called out and her team moved as one. Vega pulled her to her feet and they ran towards the barricade gate that quickly lowered.
As soon as they were outside, they heard the howls of husks and soon the creatures were everywhere, climbing up from cliff edges or coming from the vast field in front of them. Shepard switched to her Carnifex and blew the head off a husk that was about to leap at her and the thing was slammed aside.
"Marauders!" a turian from the barricade cried out and Shepard's looked up to see a group of turians amongst the husks. But just as husks had once been humans, marauders had once been turians. She heard Garrus curse to himself and she understood his feelings. She had felt the same way when she had first seen husks. Garrus' sniper rifle barked loudly and one of the marauders fell as his head exploded in a blue mist.
"We think they're acting as commanders," Garrus said grimly and lowered his scope slightly, "If we don't take them out as soon as we can, the others become deadlier."
"Roger that," Shepard fired a round against a marauder but the former turian ducked into cover, "Don't stop moving!"
Vega flung grenades in front of them and cleared a path through the husks. Liara stuck close to Shepard as they ran across the field, hurling rocks and other loose objects against anything that got too close to them. The Harvester followed them from above, patiently waiting for an opening. Garrus took the lead and led the group down into a small ravine that prevented the flying beast from reaching them. It roared again and flew off towards Corinthus' base.
Vega took a pause to breathe while Garrus looked up through the opening in the ravine. He had a perfect view of Palaven. Shepard followed his gaze but said nothing. It wasn't her home she was looking at.
"Damnit, look at Palaven!" he shook his head in what could've been disbelief or frustration, "That blaze of orange – the big one? That's where I was born."
"That's rough," Vega joined them, "Still have family there?"
"My dad. A sister," they started moving again, jogging at a moderate pace. The atmosphere was thinner then the humans were used to.
"How bad is it?" Liara asked and jogged up alongside Garrus.
"Three million lost the first day. Five the second. Who knows how many today."
"How's your military holding up?" Shepard remembered the Destroyer that had been blown apart by the dreadnought, "They seem to be putting up a good fight."
"For now, but how long until the fight's kicked out of us? If they'd only listened to your warnings, we might've been prepared," his voice grew bitter and Shepard understood him. If Primarch Fedorian had been alive, she would've demanded to know why he hadn't taken the Reaper threat seriously. But he was dead. The only thing she could hope for was that Victus had been one of the generals that had taken her seriously. She would need his dreadnoughts.
"I can't imagine how anyone could prepare against something like this," Vega said.
No one said anything after that and they eventually left the trench and stepped onto another part of the no-man's land field. A battle had taken place there, that much was obvious. Corpses of husks, cannibals and marauders lay everywhere. But where there should've been turian bodies, there were only 'dragon's teeth'. The tall, deadly devices cast ghostly shadows across the field and Shepard and her team walked slowly, careful to not step on any dormant spikes and become trapped on them. The teeth all bore signs of use; each spike was covered in blue stains of dried blood, the only thing that remained of the turians that had been impaled on them.
"Fucking Reapers," Vega whispered, as if a spike would activate if he spoke too loudly. None of the others said anything but they all agreed: dragon's teeth were horrifying devices.
They came closer and closer to the gigantic Reaper but luckily it never paid any attention to ground forces. As they approached, they could see explosions by its feet, signs that the turian resistance was active. But they were ants throwing pebbles at a mountain. Cruisers were circling around the Reaper but nothing could penetrate its shields and it only shot them down if they came too close.
"Why is it just standing there?" Liara pondered.
"I don't know," Shepard replied and scoped out the area in front of them, "But I'm not complaining. We have enough trouble as it is."
As they approached the turian base, the battle around them became more brutal. Shepard saw another Harvester flying around and countless of Reaper transport hubs were crashing to the ground with more reinforces crawling out of the wreckages.
The base itself was burning. A smaller fighter had crashed and tore up a large amount of command rooms and portable stations. The surviving turians had been pushed back and were desperately trying to fend off seemingly never-ending waves of husks. As she saw the carnage, Shepard felt a surge of anger grab hold of her and she gritted her teeth in fury.
"Come on!" her fingers were itching against the trigger and she couldn't wait to throw herself out into the fight, "These bastards aren't taking another Primarch from me!"
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Adrien Victus was not aware of the fact that he had become Primarch a few hours earlier and if he'd been aware, he would still put everything he had into the fight. After arriving at the weakened front earlier in the morning, his leadership and charisma had managed to boost the morale of his men enough and they had soon managed to throw the Reaper forces out of the base and gotten the defence back online. But then, twenty minutes earlier, a fighter had been shot down and crashed into their base. It had taken out the barricades and the turrets, leaving the turians open for attack. Husks were everywhere and Victus and his men had been pushed back against the edge of a cliff. They were now preparing their final stand.
They had tried calling for reinforcements or evacuation but with the Reaper Capital Ship so close, all of their communicators were jammed and no one knew if help was coming or not. Always preparing for the worst, Victus had given the order to form up one last time. As the highest ranking soldier there, he could've chosen to say at the back, waiting as long as he could for an extraction while his men died to protect him. But the thought had never crossed his mind. If this was their last stand then Adrien Victus would die like he had lived: as a turian.
He carried an old rifle that he had snatched from one of his dead men, having long since lost his own weapon. Now he aimed it at incoming mass of husks and called out what he believed would be his last command. A volley of gunfire answered him and the first line of husks dropped. The Reapers seemed to know that this was the end and this wave was larger then the others had been and there were plenty of marauders amongst the horde as well. Victus had lost the sense of unease when fighting the creatures that had once been turians when that unease had made him drop his guard and one of beasts had jumped at him and almost stabbed him in the neck. He had been on back on the ground, struggling with the marauder and looked right into its eyes as he wrestled his gun barrel from the marauders grip and shoved it into its chest. There had been no sign of life there as he pulled the trigger and blew several big chunks of synthetics out of its torso.
Victus left the front line and checked on the shield pylons. They were still holding but they would give out soon enough. And when their kinetic shields finally died, then so would they. The cannibals and marauders were mercilessly firing at the turians without mercy and the pylons always needed to be refreshed. Victus knelt down by pylon operator and gave his shoulder pad a reassuring pat. The operator was pale and could only nod weakly. He had been shot and was slowly bleeding out because they were out of medi-gel. They shared a brief moment of silent eye contact before Victus stood up again and looked around. His men were grim and determined. The time for final goodbyes had passed.
The Reapers were still pushing forwards when Victus came back to the front lines. But then the husks broke away from each other and cleared a path through the horde. The turians looked at each other in surprise but then their hearts sank as something they couldn't see roared loudly. They heard the Brute before they saw it. Brutes were a horrific mixture of Reaperized remains of different races. The beast was not fast but due to the limited space, it was impossible for the turians to avoid it. The Brute smashed through the line and swung its gigantic arm-claw in a wide sweep. The soldier closest to Victus threw himself against the general and pushed him out of the way. The claw barely missed Victus but tore the soldier in half. Victus rolled away and fired up at the Brute who stood on its rear legs and slammed its rear legs as a primate. Then it furiously slammed one of its fists down into the ground and crushed a soldier.
As soon as the Brute had smashed through the line, the Husks rushed in and leapt at the disoriented soldiers. They smashed the pylons apart and began the slaughter. They turians grouped together and fired at the Brute as they were pushed back closer towards the edge of the cliff. The Brute shielded its head with its giant claw that served as a shield. Then they were out of space and the Brute readied itself for one last sweep that would end everything. Victus never stopped firing. He knew that the Brute would destroy him but he had given them hell.
And then a large series of explosions shook the ground and the Brute lost its footing and staggered sideways, its claw sweeping wide above the heads of the turians. The soldiers cheered. Reinforcements had arrived!
The fighter in the old camp exploded violently and the shockwave threw the Reaper forces aside as ragdolls and then the old, broken turrets opened fire and cut down the remaining Husks. Victus couldn't believe his eyes. The turrets had been buried beneath the barricade remains but someone had dug them up and activated them again. He couldn't see the shooters but since three of the turrets were wiping out his enemies, he didn't care about their identities. One of his soldiers fired a grenade launcher at the Brute and the monster staggered backwards again but the blast didn't kill it. It was still a threat but now the odds were better.
There were a number of things that Victus hadn't thought that he would ever see on Menae and on the top of that list was an Asari biotic calmly stepping out of the burning fighter wreckage. He saw the power pulse around her clearly and so did the Brute. It must've been able to sense the biotic power because it turned towards the new threat and roared defiantly.
Responding to the provocation, the Asari made a sweeping arm gesture and a large piece of flaming hot metal shot out from the wrecked fighter and soared through the air towards the creature. If the Brute had moved one step to the side, the shard would've grazed against its shoulder but wouldn't have stopped the beast. If it had raised its protective arm again, the shard might've pierced it but it still wouldn't have stopped the Brute.
But the Brute didn't do either of those things. So the shard flew in a perfect angle and pierced the creature's small, turian skull and penetrated the brain. Dead instantly, the Brute staggered backwards and tumbled off the cliff with the surviving turians cheering uncontrollably.
The three shooters left the turrets and joined the Asari as Victus' troops began to form up again and patch up their wounds as best as they could. It took him a moment to recognize Vakarian who he had fought alongside with earlier in the day but the two humans were an even bigger surprise then the Asari. The Turian Hierarchy and the human Alliance had rarely seen eye to eye after the First Contact War and no human had ever been invited to the moon. But now two were here and the woman even carried the N7 insignia on her uniform.
"General Victus?" the N7 woman stopped in front of him and saluted. It was only then that he recognized her.
"Yes?" he asked, quite perplexed by her presence. He had fought in the First Contact War, as had most Turians his age, but he hadn't carried any grudges against mankind during all the past years like so many of his comrades had. Shepard shook his hand and looked at the troops behind him.
"I'm Commander Shepard of the Normandy."
"Commander..." despite the tough battle he had just fought, Victus spoke calmly and coolly. He had learned a long time ago that a good general never lost his temperature in front of his men, no matter the odds. And Victus' men loved him for it, "I know who you are. And I can't wait to find out what brings you out here." Their eyes locked and Shepard gave him a slight nod. Despite how grateful he was for the rescue, he and the Commander were two high ranking members of rival military forces. And Menae was a secret Turian stronghold.
"General, you're needed off planet. I've come to get you."
"It will take something beyond important for me to leave my men or my Turian brothers and sisters in their fight," Victus looked at his troops and they all looked back. Those who could gave him respectful nods.
"Fedorian was killed," Vakarian said and Victus closed his eyes. He knew what would come next, "You're the new Primarch."
"You're needed immediately to chair a summit and represent your people in the fight against the Reapers," Shepard spoke quickly and urgently but Victus was only half listening.
Instead of answering, he looked past Shepard and focused on Palaven far beyond them. The planet where he had been born and that he had spent most of life fighting to protect. Now he could see the explosions on the planet, the proof that his entire life and the history of his people was being blown apart. Reapers were flying around everywhere and Turian ships were getting less and less common. The Reapers had pushed their forces away from the planet and the path down to Palaven's centre was unguarded. He had been certain that he would die here on Menae but it seemed that fate had given him another chance. But that chance lay in politics. Did he want to take it?
"Primarch of Palaven?" he said aloud. It was hard to believe the words coming out of his mouth, "Negotiating for the Turians?" he looked back at Shepard, "I've spent my whole life in the military. I'm no diplomat. I hate diplomats."
"What makes you think that you're not qualified?" Shepard asked and there was something in her tone that Victus was uncertain about. Is she finding this amusing?
"I'm not really a... 'By the book' kind of guy. And I piss people off." Vakarian made a sound that sounded like a chuckle but when Victus looked up he was coughing into his fist. "My family's been military since the unification war; war is my life. It's in my bones. But that kind of passion is... deceptive. It can make you seem reckless when you're anything but."
"War is your resume," Shepard matched the grimness of his tone and there was a passion in her voice that he hadn't expected from a human, "At a time like this we need leaders who have gone through that hell. And honestly," her eyes narrowed, "Uniting these races might take as much strength as facing the Reapers!"
"I like that," Victus almost smirked, "You're right."
"You've seen the devastation around here," she swung her arm in a sweep towards the cliff where signs the war were everywhere, "Double that for Earth. I need an alliance; I need the Turian fleet. Your official ships and your unofficial ones."
How does she know about those ships? Victus frowned but said nothing. They looked each other in the eyes for several moments, each trying to spot a weakness in the others gaze. To his surprise, Victus found none. Shepard had the kind of passion that he had always admired in soldiers.
"Give me a moment," he grunted and turned back to his men.
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Shepard stood with her arms crossed over her breasts and watched Victus discuss the situation with two of his soldiers. It was too far to hear them but she hoped that he would reach a decision soon. She desperately needed him.
"Without him here, there's a good chance we loose this moon," Garrus said quietly, leaning against the rock-wall next to her.
"Without him up there, there's a good chance we loose everything," Shepard didn't take her eyes off Victus' back.
"Look at that!" Garrus nodded at something and Shepard turned her head to see the large Capital Ship in the distance. It was firing against a cruiser that had gotten too brave and was bombing it from a distance. The smaller ship had avoided damage so far but sooner or later the Reaper would destroy it. They always did, "They want my opinion on how to stop it? A failed C-Sec officer, a vigilante... and I'm their expert advisor?" he sighed heavily and looked her in the eyes, "Think you can win this thing, Shepard?"
"I'm sure as hell going to give it my best shot."
"I'm damn sure nobody else could do it. For whatever its worth, I'm with you."
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Shepard smiled and Garrus returned it. The Normandy would be a very empty place without Garrus Vakarian. She looked at Victus' back again, "Are you ready, Primarch Victus?"
Victus turned around and walked over to her. Whereas others might look tired and ill at ease with such a new change in life, Victus looked solemn and determined. Shepard decided that she liked him already.
"My men," he nodded towards his surviving group, "I'm not leaving them here to die."
"General Corinthus has set up a secure came just south-west of here," Garrus stepped up to the two, "We've cleared out most of the Reapers, it should be safe to fall back."
"And our shuttle can pick us up outside the camp," Shepard nodded.
"Commander, I appreciate your need for our fleets," Victus said and didn't break eye contact, "But I can't spare them. Not while my world is burning. But if the pressure could be taken off Palaven..."
"That's a pretty tall order," Shepard frowned.
"We need the Krogans," Victus grimaced lightly, "I can't see us winning this thing without them. Get them to help us and then we can help you!"
The Krogans... Shepard scratched her cheek. Turians had resented mankind for a long time, and vice versa. But the Krogans and Turians had resented each other even longer. This could be trouble.
Garrus caught her glance and must've read her thought because he chuckled.
"Your summit just got a lot more interesting."
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Half an hour later, the Normandy was leaving Menae. The forces on the moon were still holding the line under General Corinthus' command and the fleets were still trying to claw their way back inside their territory. Nothing bothered the Normandy as it passed the Reapers and went into FTL speed and started its way towards the Mass Relay. Victus, Garrus and a few other Turians were setting up camp in the Command Room, synching some of their tech and communication with EDI. Victus had said very little Shepard after they got on the ship and that was fine with her.
She was in the Comm Room, talking to Councillor Tevos about what had happened on Menae. Tevos calmly listened to everything until Shepard mentioned the Krogans. Then the Asari started protesting.
"We cannot waste time with this, Commander," Tevos spoke with the same politeness that she had used the last time they talked. And it was still driving her crazy, "Trying to ally the Krogans, Turians and Salarians is not going to end well. The Asari have been down this path before. It has never ended well."
"But Madam Councillor!" Shepard's knuckles whitened as she gripped the railing in front of the holograph pad, "We mu-"
"We have tried to smooth things over between these races in the past, Commander," Tevos sternly interrupted, "We have never succeeded. And you of all people must understand that we can't waste time with the Reapers knocking on our doors."
You self righteous bitch! Shepard wanted to scream at her but it took all of her strength to keep things civil, "These issues are hundreds of years old. Time to let go!"
"I'm sorry, this must be my final word on the subject. The Asari will not be at your summit."
"Our alliance would be stronger with the Krogans. You need them; we all do!"
"I wish you luck, Commander. Goodbye." Tevos cut the feed before Shepard had a chance to reply.
Frustrated, Shepard picked up an old cup of coffee from the counter and hurled it against the wall. "Fuck!" she screamed in anger. She grabbed the railing against and bent down to rest her forehead against the cold metal to calm herself down. One stuck-up Asari wasn't going to ruin her whole war.
"Commander," Samantha Traynor's voice rang from the radio in the wall, "Admiral Hackett is available via Vid-Com."
Great, Shepard thought and rubbed her forehead, "Put him on."
Hackett appeared before her, looking exactly like he had done the last time they had talked.
"Commander, have you retrieved the Primarch for the summit?" and just like last time, there was no time for small-talk.
"Yes we have..." she sighed, "But the Asari are staying on the sidelines."
"They'll regret that," Hackett's raspy voice filled the room, "The time for unity is now."
"The Salarians will be there though. And... we expect the Krogans will be joining us too." God, I really hope that they'll send Wrex.
"I see. Well then, you've got your hands full, Commander."
You're damn right I do.
"The Reapers used the same trick at Palaven that they used at Earth. They knocked out most of their communications within minutes. Have you figured out how they were able to do that?"
Hackett shook his head, "No relevant data survived the attack against Earth. The Reapers nailed us up against the wall. I sacrificed the entire 2nd Fleet to provide cover for the 3rd and the 5th to retreat. Hell, I've resided over the most devastating military defeat in human history."
"How do you see us winning this war, Admiral?" she asked. Every minute that passed put more and more doubt on her shoulders.
"By making you the tip of the spear!" Hackett said and the previous bitterness vanished from his voice.
"I'm flattered," she said cynically, "But the Normandy's only one ship."
"And a fast one. You can move quickly, hit a target and leave before the enemy has time to react."
"That's an advantage but can it win a war?"
"Every advantage is a good one. Find their soft spots, avoid them when they're strong and hit them where they're not! And when we find gaps in their armour, we'll hammer them with every ship, soldier and bullet we got!"
"How long can we keep that up?"
"As long as it takes. The reality is, Shepard, everything I'm doing is a delaying action for you. I'm buying us time, keeping us in the game while you gather what we need for this Prothean Device."
"Has your analysis of that thing turned up anything?"
"Liara appears to be right; it's a weapon of some sort. A big one. Beyond that I can't really say anything other then that it's gonna be one hell of a thing to build."
"Is that really a good thing?" Shepard needed to voice the scepticism that had been nagging at her since the first time she heard about the device, "Building something when we don't even know what it does?"
"To be honest, the thing scares the hell out of me," Hackett admitted, "But the Reapers have forced our hand. We don't have many options. Is there anything else?"
"Nothing more, Sir."
"Keep me posted. Hackett out."
Shepard kicked the broken pieces of the cup aside as she left the Comm Room. Everyone in the War Room was too busy to look at her. Victus was bent over a table with tons of documents in front of him, reading with a deep frown on his face. She decided to leave him alone for now; she would be able to talk to the Primarch sooner or the later anyway.
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kerpin
Serviceman 3rd Class
Posts: 9
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Post by kerpin on Oct 23, 2012 19:02:13 GMT 1
Garrus was exactly where she expected him to be: hunched over one of the consoles in the Main Battery room, engaged in a serious conversation.
"...And I saw Shepard's new assistant earlier," he blinked at Shepard who leant against the wall and crossed her arms across her chest, "Have you met her?"
"You mean, have I seen the greatest ass to grace the Normandy since Miranda left?" Joker's voice boomed out from the speakers, "No, Garrus, I completely missed that."
"I like her. Though where did Kelly go?"
"That's a mystery, actually. One day she was here, the other she was missing. Rumour has it that she found a trail of candy on the floor... and that that trail led straight out the airlock! I suspect Liara, personally. You know how asari can get," Shepard raised an eyebrow at Garrus who simply chuckled.
"Oh I'm sure the great Joker can teach me a lot of things about that,"
"Well I don't like to brag..." the two of them laughed, "I think Shepard has dibs on all of her assistants though. Perks of being a Commander, you know."
"Speaking of Shepard... she's had this weird look in her eyes for a while now; it looks like she wants to talk to me."
"She's right the-... of course she is," Joker quickly terminated the call.
"Already settled in, I see," Shepard left her spot by the wall and smiled, ignoring what she had just overheard
"It's good to be back here, it really is. But then again..." Garrus sighed heavily, "A few hours ago I was on Palaven, seeing some of the worst sights I've ever seen. After all that, calibrating a giant gun is a vacation. Gives me something to focus on."
"I've got a lot of technicians already; I need you to be more then that."
"Oh, I'm ready for it, but I'm pretty sure we'll still need giant guns-and lots of them. Sovereign didn't go down without a fight. I doubt a hundred more of his friends will be any different. What you saw back on Palaven is proof of that."
"We also saw some of them destroyed. They seemed to struggle."
"Only the smaller Destroyers. Didn't even dent the big ones. We have the most powerful fleet in the galaxy and how many did we destroy? Two of them?"
"Everything counts in this war. We'll destroy a lot more of them before it's over."
"I hope so. I expect you to find some giant gun floating around somewhere in the universe, capable of blowing away a Reaper with a single shot. Don't let me down on that."
"I won't. So you're their 'expert advisor' now, are you?" she smiled.
"It's not as impressive as it sounds. Just followed your example, Shepard. Yelled loud enough, and someone eventually came over to see what all the fuss was about. Not that they actually did anything about it. Convincing my people the end was coming got pretty rough. They didn't want to hear it. Finally gave me a token task force to shut me up. Not like the old days, is it? Rogue Spectre and C-Sec agents running and gunning outside the lines, making it up as we went along. We're actually respectable now."
"Yeah, I have a feeling that respect comes with a lot of sleepless nights. I can't even count how many lives are depending on us, Garrus."
"Well, when things are looking grim - and I'm pretty sure they will - just remember... A certain turian friend of yours isn't sleeping any better - and he'd be more than happy to meet you at the bar and drink you under the table."
"You mentioned that you still had family on Palaven?"
"My father is there. Sister too."
"How long has it been since you heard from them?"
Garrus said nothing for a long moment, "Long enough to be worried.
"I'm sure they're okay."
"That's the thing about getting old, Shepard. The platitudes get just as old. Pretty soon blind hope is all we'll have left. And I hate being blind. Now, I'm sure somebody screwed up something down here. I want to get the old girl back in fighting," he lovingly patted the control board with his fist, "Call me when you want to shoot something, Shepard. I'll be waiting."
Shepard left him in Battery room, alone with his thoughts. The mess hall was quiet and empty so she strolled over to the room that had once belonged to Miranda Lawson. The door slid open for her and revealed a very different room. Whereas Miranda had been neat and professional, Liara had turned the room into a mess. There were documents and folders everywhere, as well as multiple data screens lined up by the wall, all showing different information that an intelligence broker would need. Liara herself was tinkering with a smaller box and looked up as Shepard came in. She looked tired.
"This room was a lot cleaner the last time I was in here," she looked around and saw the drone that she had seen before, back on the Shadow Broker's ship, "Did all of this come from your base?"
"Cerberus found it a few weeks ago," Liara stood up and dusted her clothes clean from dust, "I took as much as I could and ran. I would be a very poor Shadow Broker without my data feeds."
"What about your attackers? Did they get anything?"
"I left a little... present for them," Liara smiled cheekily, "I wish I could've seen the looks on their faces when the fireworks started though. I don't think the Illusive Man expected me to give up my resources in such a... spectacular fashion."
"I love this bad side of you. You're going to have to show me if you've learned any new tricks later."
Something blinked on one of the monitors and Liara turned to look at the screen. She twisted her body slightly to the side to get a better look and Shepard felt the old desires again as she asari turned, every one of her moves being a subtle provocation.
"Take a look," she said and pointed at the screens. I am, Shepard thought before she turned to look at an image of the Prothean device that took up all of the screens, "I've forwarded this to the turian Councillor and he thinks it looks plausible… but they won't give us their full support until something is done about Palaven."
"I still can't believe that that thing can wipe out the Reapers. It sounds too good to be true."
"Perhaps... But what choice do we got?"
"Find an empty planet, hide and repopulate the galaxy?" Shepard slipped her arms around Liara's waist.
Liara closed her eyes and smiled, "If you want to abandon your duties and flee, Shepard, then I'll go with you. But since you'll never do that..." she turned around in Shepard's embrace and stroked her cheek, "... I guess we'll have to settle for the Normandy."
Shepard smiled and kissed her. For a long time.
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This time, there was no crowd waiting for the Normandy as Shepard stepped onto Bay D24, the Normandy's new private docking bag. Several crew members were just standing around talking to each other in there, enjoying their time off. Shepard had given twenty-four hours before they departed again and they all wanted to make the best of that time. Some would meet loved ones; others would hit the clubs and bars. Most of the crew had chosen to simply remain behind though. Their work was needed on the ship and they would enjoy longer shore leaves later.
Garrus and Liara walked out of the doorway and joined her by the railing. They were talking about something but Shepard didn't listen, preferring the harmonic feeling she got from just listening to the sounds of the Citadel. At first she didn't see Bailey standing by the security scanner, accompanied by a younger female officer, but eventually their eyes found each other and the C-Sec Commander beckoned her over.
"Got two things for you, Shepard," he grunted as the trio approached, "Both bad, probably. The first's a special delivery from Eden Prime. No one in this place has the security clearance to know what it is apparently; we'll be loading it onto your ship as soon as you give us the okay."
Shepard simply nodded. Special delivery from Eden Prime, she thought, Hackett must've found whatever it was Cerberus was after, "And the other?"
"Come," was all Bailey said and nodded towards a small C-Sec vehicle that was parked close to them. One glance at it told Shepard that it wouldn't hold all five of them. Liara came to the same conclusion and she reached out and gently grabbed Shepard's arm.
"I need to meet someone," she said, "Meet me in the Presidium in two hours?"
Shepard looked over her shoulder and nodded again. Liara squeezed her arm one last time and left.
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No one spoke during the short ride to a maintenance area close to the Wards. Bailey had quickly introduced the woman as Phyle, his second in command, and that had been the last thing anyone had said. Garrus sat by the window, absently staring out at the Citadel. Shepard sat next to him and studied him carefully. She had seen Vancouver burn and could only imagine the chaos on Palaven that Garrus had experienced. There would be a time to talk about it eventually.
At the end of the ride, Bailey finally spoke, his voice grim and tired, "Yesterday, a refugee ship docked in the Wards. A pair of officers was there to meet them but the refugees came out guns blazing. Gunned them down and then headed deeper into the Wards, shooting anyone they saw without mercy until we put 'em down. This one guy surrendered but... you'll see for yourself. We keep him down in one of the generator cells."
"Generator cells?"
"There are a few secret cells next to every power generator," Garrus explained before Bailey had a chance, "Want to make a suspect sweat both literally and figuratively? Lower some of the protective fields and the heat will slowly start to cook him. Not exactly legal but then again, they're not exactly used for your everyday thug either."
"Charming," Shepard said sarcastically. She didn't disapprove of the method.
"The only thing the guy has said so far is 'Let me speak to Shepard'," Phyle spoke for the first time.
"Me?" Shepard frowned. This doesn't sound pleasant.
Bailey spoke quickly to a pair of security guards and the group was allowed into a small, dark corridor. Shepard could clearly hear the humming of the massive power generator that they were close to and already she was beginning to sweat. They're already cooking the guy?
"This is it," Bailey stopped in front of a small, non-descript door, "Now, if I deactivate the protective shields fully then the guy will be incinerated almost instantly. Just... keep that in mind. Might want to use it."
He pushed the door open and Shepard stepped into a dark room without any lights or furniture. There was only a large window. On the other side of the window was the holding cell. The cell looked like the inside of an oven, built to heat up the inside as much as possible. But despite the obvious high temperature, the man inside didn't seem affected at all. He was only wearing a pair of dirty underwear; everything else had been stripped off and discarded, fully revealing his terrifying body.
"Oh my god," Shepard mumbled as she stepped up to the window. Garrus said something along the same lines, something that her translator didn't pick up.
The man's whole body was covered in visible cybernetic implants. Tubes ran from his torso up into his neck, pulsing with energy. His eyes were hollow and dead; he seemed to be more machine then man. It wasn't the first time Shepard saw that kind of tech.
"This... this is Reaper tech!" she exclaimed.
"Figured as much," Bailey nodded, "We've kept him from getting too close to anyone and we can burn him to a crisp whenever we want to. But he hasn't done anything noteworthy whatsoever. He just stands there, saying that he wants to talk to you."
"Can he hear us?"
Bailey gave a command on his data-pad and then nodded to Shepard, "All yours. Tell me when you want him fried."
Shepard hesitated. The man in the other room was clearly a Reaper thrall. Would he be a threat even though thick glass separated them? Would he be able to indoctrinate anyone? And why was he here, asking for her?
"This is Shepard," she finally said aloud, "Who are you?"
The thrall didn't move for several seconds and everyone held their breath. Bailey was prepared to give the command to incinerate the thing if he made the wrong move and Phyle was close by his side, their arms gently brushing against each other. Garrus glanced at Shepard and they shared a knowing look. They knew what was about to happen before it did.
The thrall rose a few centimetres into the air, arms and legs spread and all of the tubes in his body brightly glowing. The eyes lit up like light bulbs and he screamed a loud shilling, inhumane and agonizing scream before he finally sunk back to the ground, visibly different. It was a sight that Shepard had seen plenty of times a few months earlier, though never on a human.
"SHEPARD," the booming voice that had haunted her spoke to her once more. Harbinger's thrall remained still but the glowing eyes seemed to look through the darkened glass directly at her, "AT THIS VERY MOMENT, YOUR PLANET BURNS. THE LIGHT OF MILLIONS IS EXTINGUISHED EVERY DAY WHILE YOU COWER IN YOUR BASES AND YOUR STATIONS. THE SPIRIT OF YOUR PEOPLE HAS BEEN BROKEN AND ALREADY THEY BEG FOR A MERCY THAT THEY WILL NOT RECEIVE."
"Harbinger... What do you want from me?" Shepard demanded. She told herself that if the Reaper was simply out to get under her skin then it wouldn't succeed.
"This is the mighty Harbinger?" Garrus taunted, "I was expecting something... bigger."
"YOU DO NOT MATTER, SHEPARD. EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE TO PREVENT OUR ARRIVAL HAS FAILED; THE HARVEST HAS BEGUN."
"Is that all you came to say?" she forced mockery into her tone, refusing to show her enemy the dread she felt inside, "That's twice now you've bothered to personally talk to me. Do you want me to beg for you to spare us? Should I... get on my knees and kindly ask you to leave our galaxy? No, never" genuine fury crept into her voice and she stepped up to the window, "As long as I still breathe, I'll never surrender. We're going to keep striking at you until every single one of you is destroyed. A century from now, my descendants will live in a home built from the shells and plates that I personally stripped from your damn carcass!"
"WE EXISTED LONG BEFORE YOUR GALAXY WAS BORN AND WE WILL EXIST LONG AFTER IT CRUMPLES INTO ITSELF. YOU WILL NOT FIND A TACTIC THAT WE HAVE NOT FACED ENDLESS TIMES BEFORE. THE HARVEST IS ETERNAL, SHEPARD; YOU CANNOT PREVENT IT."
"You fear us," she positioned herself right in front of the thrall and laughed in its face, "We destroyed Sovereign; we destroyed your Collectors. We're aware that you're here and we can strike at you any time we want," she paused and smirked, "You might have us shocked and scared right now... but we'll grow strong and regroup and we will hit you hard. We destroyed some of you at Palaven; we know that you're not immortal. We can destroy you!" she raised her arm and pointed straight at the thrall, "And we will. This cycle will be the last."
"YOUR CONFIDENCE IS FALSE AND YOUR STRENGTH HOLLOW. I HAVE HEARD THE SAME DECLARATIONS COUNTLESS OF TIMES AND IT ALWAYS ENDS THE SAME WAY. YOU SPEAK OF BRAVERY AND RESISTANCE BUT IN THE END, YOU TOO SHALL BECOME PART OF WHAT YOU CALL REAPER. YOU ARE NOT UNIQUE, SHEPARD, YOU ARE NOTHING. ONLY THROUGH US WILL YOU ASCEND."
"We won't ascend through you," she was fully aware that all eyes in the room was on her and it drove her on, pushing aside all fears, "We'll evolve like we always have; through natural evolution. We will not let some homicidal machines dictate our existence. The next time we meet, I'm going to see you destroyed! Even if it kills me. Bailey?"
"Yeah?"
"Burn this thing," Shepard didn't take her eyes off the thrall.
"With pleasure, Ma'am," Bailey grimly gave the command and the generators started pulsing.
"YOUR STRUGGLE IS IN VAIN,"Harbinger moved for the first time, taking a step back and spreading his arms as smoke started to rise from the skin and tubes in the thrall's body, "WE WILL BREAK YOUR SPIRIT SOON ENOUGH, SHEPARD. THEN YOU WILL SERVE US."
The lights went out as Harbinger abandoned the thrall, just before it caught on fire. Shepard stared at the thing as the human it had once been screamed in agony as the pulsing heat of the generators cooked him. She didn't turn away until the thrall fell to the floor. Garrus looked at her and gave her a deep nod.
"That was truly something, Shepard. If anyone can break that bastard and strip him clean, it would be you. Just let me know when you'll do it. I want a souvenir."
She nodded back at him, unable to turn her feelings into words. She badly needed a drink. And her asari.
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kerpin
Serviceman 3rd Class
Posts: 9
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Post by kerpin on Nov 11, 2012 20:16:52 GMT 1
Chapter 4
Illium, six days after the fall of Earth
Henry Lawson stood with his arms crossed over his chest and looked through the window overlooking one of the many business square's on Illium. Only days earlier, the planet had been buzzing with activity as the traders and corporations from across the galaxy tried to rip each other off and earn as much money as possible. Despite Illium being an Asari colony and the human merchants and habitants were vastly outnumbered by aliens, Lawson had always enjoyed the planet. The business-atmosphere was perfect for a man like him and you could always get what you wanted, sometimes for a hefty price, on Illium. And Illium was also the last place someone had seen Miranda, his runaway daughter.
Lawson looked up at the dark sky and frowned for no reason in particular as he once again counted the lights emitted by the large mercenary fleet orbiting the planet. Most of the normal workers and inhabitants of the planet had fled already but the wealthier corporation owners and merchants had bunkered up and pooled all of their resources together to hire a large mercenary army to protect them. Along with a small portion of the main Asari fleet that had been assigned to guard the planet, Illium had become an impregnable fortress. But Lawson was not about to gamble with the Reapers. Most of the ships and cruisers belonging to the highest ranking members of Cerberus had been installed with their own Reaper IFF that The Illusive Man had acquired from the Normandy. Lawson's private vessel was no exception and with it, he could leave the planet during a full-scale invasion if he wished to. But he wouldn't wait that long. He would leave as soon as his current task was finished.
"Alright, try standing up," one of the two other men in the room said, "Try to put pressure on them."
Lawson turned to look at his companions. The talker, a young human doctor, was seated on a stool in front of a hospital bed where his patient was resting. Lawson had not bothered to learn the name of the man because he was unimportant to the bigger picture. He had simply been hired to do a job and wasn't affiliated with Cerberus in any way. This meant that he, unfortunately, wouldn't survive the night.
The man on the bed swung his legs over the edge and slowly placed them on the floor, cautiously putting more and more pressure on them before finally standing up straight. Lawson eyed him up and down and didn't bother to hide it. The man looked back at him and he had the same emotionless gaze that he shared with every killer that Lawson had ever seen. The tattoos on his body made him look like a gang member that had accidentally been picked up and given the job as a Cerberus operator. And he was Asian. The corner of Lawson's mouth twisted into a look of disgust. He didn't have anything against Asians, not really. He considered them to be on the same level as the Drell of the galaxy.
"You're Leng?" he asked and glanced at the man's legs. The doctor had spent the last two days crafting several cybernetic implants into the assassin's legs and there were even some on his torso leading to his arms. It wasn't the same kind of implants that he had seen so many times during the first stages of Project Grayson but it was close.
"You know that I am," Kai Leng replied and stood on one leg. He grabbed the other leg and pulled it up behind him then bent the first leg slightly. He grimaced and the doctor made a note on his data pad, "Are we getting out of here finally?"
"How is he, Doctor?" Lawson ignored Leng and turned to the other man.
"There are no infections or negative side affects because of the surgery," the doctor knelt by Leng's leg and studied the implants closely, "You should be fine as long as you rest for a few days while slowly building up strength. If you put too much pressure on them too soon, then the implants won't handle it. They'll heat up to cope with the use and your body will try to naturally reject them. Worst case scenario is that your body squeezes liquid out of the implants and into blood veins. If that happens then you will need an instant blood transfusion and surgery, otherwise it will quickly spread and kill you. And it will not be pain-free. Do you understand?"
"I got it," Leng switched the positions of his legs and looked back at Lawson, "Are we leaving?"
"Soon enough," Lawson grunted in response, "We're to report in as soon as you're finished here."
"I'm fine now," Leng eyed the doctor's neck as the man was putting a needle into his leg, "What about the extra weight?"
"We're not bringing anything," Lawson turned and walked over to the large holographic plate in the other end of the room that had been set up earlier in the day. Leng had been in the infirmary for almost three days now but Lawson had not been interested in talking to him. From what he knew about the assassin, he wouldn't get any answers if he questioned him. And frankly, Lawson didn't care about Leng. Leng was a Cerberus tool to be used by The Illusive Man; not by Henry Lawson. The legacy that Lawson wanted to create would not be carried on by Asian assassins that defiled their bodies with alien technology; it would be carried on by women like his daughters or men like The Illusive Man. The perfect people.
"Try kicking," Lawson heard the doctor say but didn't bother to look. He heard Leng move around a little and then the unmistakable sound of a swinging kick, "Looks good," the doctor commented.
"I'm slower," Leng said jumped back up onto the bed, "When will I be as fast as I've been?"
"In a few weeks. The implants add more weight to yourself then you're used to. Not much but enough for you to notice it."
"We've got a connection!" Lawson barked back to the two and they fell silent. Leng got back onto his feet and walked over to Lawson, stopping a few steps behind him with his hands clasped behind his back.
Lawson looked back and frowned. Leng was still only wearing nothing except a pair of boxers and his scarred body would not impress The Illusive Man. "Put on a shirt!" Lawson growled and turned, "What even makes you think that you're supposed to be seen?"
"Who else would we be calling together?" Leng asked and there was a dry edge to his voice that Lawson didn't like. Typical Asian arrogance.
Lawson chose not to goad Leng on and the assassin simply shrugged. The doctor stepped in and handed him a pair of pants and a shirt that Leng quickly pulled on. Lawson met the doctor's gaze and the younger man smiled at him, the perfect imagine of a polite professional. It was a shame what had to be done.
"Connecting call," a computer voice said and the holographic plate under Lawson's feet hummed. A three dimensional image opened up all around him and the large room in Cerberus' headquarter slowly materialized around him. At first, all you saw was the darkness as the room took form. Then the sun always appeared. Today it was menacingly red and Lawson felt an involuntary twinge of fear. He had figured out what the symbolism of the sun meant a long time ago but he still felt like a young child being called into his father's office for a stern lecture when the sun was red and threatening.
Finally the chair and the man visualized. The tech that Lawson used was not as updated as he was used to and it had taken almost a minute a minute for the room to appear fully. The Illusive Man sat in his chair and the smoke from his cigarette was clearly visible against the background sun. Lawson swallowed.
"Dr Lawson," The Illusive Man spoke, "I was beginning to wonder when I'd hear from you again," the tone was low and threatening.
"Operative Leng's surgery took longer than expected... Sir," Lawson hesitated, "We'll be leaving the planet in a few hours."
The Illusive Man stood up from his chair and casually walked towards the window in his dark room and looked at the sun. Lawson looked at him in awe. The leader of Cerberus was everything that he had ever dreamt of becoming; a figure of true power. The Illusive Man could easily have built a legacy that would live forever.
"Leng," The Illusive Man said without looking back, "Your Earth assignment failed."
Lawson stepped aside and made place for Kai Leng who simply bowed his head in what the businessman hoped was shame.
"Some of the men became too eager to attack," the assassin replied, "And Shepard got lucky."
"Luck is not acceptable excuse, Leng," The Illusive Man's voice was cold and dismissive and Lawson had to smirk. Cut him loose, he thought, we don't need people like him. Henry Lawson had never been part of Cerberus' inner circle, and never would be, but still he knew that his influence and wealth made him superior to brutes like Leng. Men like him would be remembered by history where the people like Leng would be forgotten within a decade, "If Shepard beat you in a fight then she is better then you are. As I knew she would be. If you failed then that's because you were a fool who chose to deal with her in person."
Leng said nothing. Lawson tried to read his eyes but it was impossible.
"Shepard wasn't alone."
"Of course she wasn't!" The Illusive Man turned and walked back to his chair, "You missed the opportunity and now the eyes of the galaxy are on Shepard and her ship! You will not make another move at her unless she personally gets in your way. Are we clear?" the last command was spoken with the coldest voice that Lawson that had ever heard. The Illusive Man had always remained cool and collected but now he seemed genuinely angry. Or perhaps it was disappointment. Leng tensed beside him but held his head high.
"Shepard has become a symbol," The Illusive Man continued after a moment and his voice was calm again, "There are a lot of desperate men and women who have lost everything in this war and they will flock to the brightest symbol," he brought his cigarette up to his lips for a long, thoughtful moment, "Shepard cannot die directly by our hands at this point."
"...What are your orders, Sir?" Leng ask. His jaw was clenched and his knuckles whitened.
"Dr Lawson," The Illusive Man slightly changed position in his chair to look straight at Lawson. Leng was ignored and he backed off the holopad, disgraced, "Did you receive your next briefing?"
Lawson thought back to the information he had been forwarded earlier in the day. It had been the biggest, most frightening project he had ever seen or been part of.
"The next step of Project Grayson, yes..." he hesitated and glanced over his shoulder. What was the doctor doing during this talk? "Are we really going through with this?"
"Project Grayson is crucial to our plans. It might seem like a large undertaking right now, but it's not impossible. Most of the facilities are already on site and the equipment is being shipped as we speak."
"It will take up a lot of time though," Lawson frowned, "Years perhaps. Can we afford this during a Reaper invasion?"
"The Reapers will be of no concern," The Illusive Man waved dismissively. He butted the cigarette and leaned back in his chair, the steely-blue eyes focused on Lawson. Lawson knew the looks; it meant 'we are finished'.
Lawson briefly considered asking about his daughters but The Illusive Man's stare made him shove that thought away. The man in front of him was truly terrifying right now and with the burning sun behind him, it felt as if provoking him by asking the wrong questions would have disastrous consequences.
"Understood, Sir," he bowed his head and the call was terminated. He stepped out and sighed heavily. This had not been a good night.
"You mentioned Grayson?" Kai Leng stood by the window with his back turned, looking out at the city.
"Why do you ask?" Lawson's eyes narrowed and he looked at the doctor who was very busy packing up his own stuff. Too busy.
"I met Paul Grayson a few times," Leng didn't turn around, "I can't imagine that you're talking about someone else."
"How could someone like you possibly get to know someone like Paul Grayson?" Lawson sneered.
"I killed him," Leng finally turned around and Lawson saw that he was holding a small pistol in his hand. He had no idea where the assassin had gotten it from; there had been no weapons in the room earlier, "Are we ready to leave?"
Lawson gave a quick nod and Leng responded with a nod of his own, so small that it was barely noticeable. Then he turned and pointed the gun straight at the doctor's head. The man started to scream and plead for his life and Lawson turned away from the scene. He didn't need to see this.
He didn't hear Leng pull the trigger, nor did he hear the man's cry being cut short and the body slump to the ground. No, Lawson was thinking about the Project Grayson and his next assignment. It had an ominous ring to it: Sanctuary. But a sanctuary from what?
--------------------
The Purgatory club was a multi-floored behemoth of a club. It was housed in a large, hollowed out building with a large dance section in middle. If you stood at the top floor and looked over the railing at a specific spot, you could see all the way down to the very bottom of the complex. The top floors were for VIP's and other rich individuals and rumour had it that the notorious Pirate Queen of Omega resided at the very top of the club.
Dressed in the sharpest outfit that he could afford, Zoll was let into the club without a hassle. He suspected that Phyle had pulled some strings as he walked passed some humans and Turians in the line. Everyone cursed but the powerful Krogan bouncer bared his teeth and there were no other arguments in the queue. Zoll had upgraded his earlier, crude cane to a proper one. It looked like a standard cane but beneath the dull metal layer, the cane was made out of pure titanium. In close-quarters combat, the cane could be a deadly weapon against an unsuspected opponent.
A wall of aliens met him as he entered the club's lounge and he had to forcibly elbow his way past a group of angry Batarians. A couple of humans moved away to clear a path for the cripple but the aliens simply didn't care. Typical animals, Zoll thought bitterly, when I had my N7 insignias they knew their places. Cretins.
He stopped as he entered the main room of the club and looked around. The place was bigger than he had imagined. He was far below the top of the complex and when he looked up, he couldn't see anything other than the floor above. Two bars were positioned on the left and right edge of the floor and the large dance floor in the middle was crowded with scantily dressed Asari whores and the horny humans that followed their every step. Zoll snorted in disgust. Aliens. He'd tried an Asari a few years earlier. He had just passed the N7 training programme and his mates had convinced him to go out and party with them. At the dance floor at some small time club he'd seen the Asari, wriggling around a pole and trying to seduce every single man in the place. Their eyes had met and she had slipped off the edge pole and the next thing he knew, she was on his lap with his friends cheering him on. Feeling an urge to prove that he was indeed a real man, an N7, Zoll had brought the Asari back to his place to prove to her what kind of man he was.
But it hadn't worked as he had hoped. As soon as he got the Asari onto his bed, he had been unable to perform. At the time, Zoll had believed that the bitch had put a spell on him and it had made him furious. In the club, the whore had been all over him, trying to bewitch him with her alien tricks but now when they were alone and he couldn't get started, she was laughing at him. Furiously, he had grabbed a hold of her neck and thrown her around. Unfortunately for the Asari, that got Zoll working perfectly. He'd pushed her back onto the bed, grabbed her neck and then didn't let go until he had finished.
The Alliance authorities had quickly figured out what had happened and Zoll was arrested within two days. He had been caught on enough cameras to put him at the crime scene and the testimonies of the men he had once called comrades led to a quick conviction. As he was rotting away in his cell, awaiting trial, Cerberus had approached him with an offer that was impossible to refuse. The day after, a bomb had detonated in the Alliance headquarters and most of the prisoners had died the fires. And the man now named Zoll had begun a new life and risen through the ranks of Cerberus.
Zoll leaned against the wall and rubbed his aching leg with a grimace. Fuck Shepard for this, he thought bitterly, and fuck Phyle for not letting me fix it. Fuck them both!
A short human woman stopped by his side and looked at his cane and leg with a concerned look on her face. She was decently attractive but the signs about her professions were everywhere: she was an Alliance marine off-duty. Zoll doubted that anyone in the Alliance still remembered him but he didn't want to take any chances. If the woman had not been Alliance then he might've gone back to her place for the night. But he didn't want to risk anything now. The woman made a move towards him, sympathetically trying to comfort the cripple, but Zoll waved her away and smiled back at her. She took the hint and vanished into the crowds. The music in the club was so loud that he would be unable to hear a word she had said anyway.
He got back on his feet and pushed himself towards the nearest bar. The barman, a tall, disgusting looking turian, met his gaze and slid a cup of human vodka across the disc. Zoll caught it and downed it in one gulp, then ignored the barman and turned to look for his contacts. It was harder than he had expected.
There were plenty of humans and aliens on the floor, and even more were up dancing. He quickly deduced that his contact would not be on the dance floor. No, he would find them by one of the tables, preferably somewhat secluded. And there were many large groups in the bar, mostly Alliance officers but also surprisingly many Batarians. Zoll quickly reached a decision.
He turned back to the barman and ordered a big plate of shot glasses and then staggered away from the bar towards the largest group of Alliance marines. They were all off-duty and relaxing so they would be drinking plentifully. Zoll almost smirked to himself. This will be too easy.
He waved around a little, feigning being drunk, before he slammed the shot plate down in front of the marines, who all looked up at the clearly drunk cripple with frowns on their faces.
"T-To... To Sephurd!" Zoll slurred and raised a shot into the air, "And the Nor... The Normandy!"
The marines all sobered up and grabbed the shot glasses they had been offered. Then they all stood up and raised their glasses into the air as well, shouting out the same salute as Zoll had.
"To Shepard!" the large group cried in unison, "To the Normandy!"
Zoll howled with feigned drunken joy and emptied his glass. The marines did the same and a bunch of other humans in the club did the same. For a moment, their cries rang louder than the music and then everyone in the club fell silent.
"For Earth!" Zoll called out again, sincere this time.
"Fuck Shepard and fuck Earth!" a loud voice barked out from somewhere in the crowd, just as Zoll had hoped, "Fuck the Alliance whore!"
A drunk Batarian elbowed his way towards Zoll and the marines, drunken fury glowing in his eyes. One of the human stood up to block his path but the Batarian pushed him back.
"Did you drink when Khar'shan fell?" the Batarian roared at the group, "Did you cheer for our heroes when they died?!" he kicked a chair at the table and the marines leapt from their seats. One woman stepped in front of Zoll and pushed him back towards the safety of the group, just as he had hoped. More Batarians joined up behind the leader who now standing face to face with the tallest, bulkiest marine.
"Shepard destroyed an entire colony!" the Batarian roared, "And you brand her a hero and cheer for her! Fuck you and fuck Shepard!"
The marines had had enough. The leader swung his arm and his fist smashed into the Batarians face. The alien stumbled aside and crashed into another group's table. More Batarians roared in fury and the brawl was inevitable. Zoll slipped away from the crowd as the Batarians and humans were slugging it out and quickly scanned the ones who remained seated. He saw three Batarians sitting silently in a booth, not looking at the brawl. Zoll strolled over to their table and sat down on the single empty chair.
"What the fuck do you want, human?" the Batarian in the middle of the trio grunted.
"Oh, I'm just here for business," Zoll shrugged and didn't take his eyes of the Batarian who was clearly the leader of the pack, "Aren't we all... Captain Balak?"
Ka'hairal Balak, the Batarian terrorist leader, leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his large chest. Zoll remained calm and didn't even look at the other two thugs who were clearly simple bodyguards.
Behind them, the Krogan bouncers had joined the brawl and the sounds of the fight were now louder than that of the actual music.
"I've never liked your Cerberus, human," Balak finally spat out, "Why shouldn't I just fucking kill you right where you sit?" he pulled up a large knife from under the table and held it right in front of Zoll's face. Zoll remained calm and said absolutely nothing, "I could gut you right here. No one gives a shit about Cerberus scum."
"I've got something you might be interested in," Zoll said casually without breaking eye contact.
"You want a trade?" Balak sneered, "Fuck you."
"I can give you Shepard."
Balak stopped moving and his eyes narrowed slightly. Just as Zoll had anticipated.
"Shepard is Cerberus," Balak's voice was low and even more threatening then it had been before, "Why would I believe that you're willing to give up one of your own murderers?"
"Shepard is not with us," Zoll said frankly, "We want her dead as much as you do but we don't have the manpower right now. We're offering you her as an olive branch. We need the Hegemony to be strong if we're to defeat the Reape-"
"The Hegemony is gone!" Balak growled, "My people are all but extinct! I am what's left of the fucking Hegemony!"
"Then take this opportunity to avenge your dead," Zoll leaned forward and lowered his voice, "Shepard started the downfall, you can start hers. We don't want anything in return, we simply want her dead."
"I met her once. Above Terra Nova. I tried to kill her there but she spared my life. Probably the only Batarian that bitch she ever spared!" Balak bared his teeth and then visibly forced himself to calm down, "She's here, you know that?" he nodded up towards the roof, "Talking with the Pirate Queen herself. My men saw her up there. If I could, I would walk up to her and gut her. But can a Batarian walk up to Shepard these days? As if."
"Were you at Omega?" one of the thugs suddenly asked and interrupted Balak, "I hear Aria offered to fuck everyone who came to take the place over so she could keep it. They say that they all had her at least twice and then kicked her off the station anyway!" the Batarian laughed, "Asari whores."
"Shut up!" Balak slapped the thug across the face to silence him, and then turned back to Zoll, "We're not what we used to be. We don't have enough men to directly assault her. Or her ship."
"We can give you the Normandy's landing codes. And some spare weapons. But it's important that this can never be traced back to my organization."
"Don't worry," Balak grinned sadistically, "If we were to kill Shepard then the entire galaxy would know who did it and why. She'd have to read a final statement confessing to her crimes and declare that she's ready to face the consequences."
Zoll smiled thinly. He had brokered his first alliance. How far had Shepard gotten?
-----------------
Martina Phyle knelt by the trail of blood and scanned it with her omni-tool. Her two companions, armed Cerberus thugs that had been working undercover for one of the local mercenary groups on the Citadel, stood behind and impatiently looked around in the cramped ventilation shaft. They were too big to comfortably move freely in the cramped tunnel but Phyle was the perfect size. Short and petite, Phyle had moved through tunnels like this for as long as she could remember.
Her omni-tool beeped and gave her a negative answer and she cursed beneath her breath before standing up. Unlike her companions, she didn't have to hunch over.
"It's not his," she said and cocked her head over shoulder, "We keep going."
"How much further?" one of the men complained, "It's been two hours and we still have-"
"We keep looking until we find him!" Phyle's voice was cold and stern, "If you want to leave then you're free to. But good luck trying to find your way out of here. Hopefully you won't get lost or walk into fan somewhere. Your body might be found eventually or it'll be carried away by the locals if they haven't found food for the week. They're not the picky kind."
The thug's face went pale and Phyle turned her back to him and kept on walking down the ventilation shaft. No one had truly explored every corner of the Citadel and the large, inhospitable ventilation and maintenance areas that were inaccessible to most almost everyone except the keepers, had been home to orphan children and child gangs for decades. The small children, popularly referred to as 'Duct Rats', could move around freely in the tight quarters of the gigantic station and often snuck into the habitable areas the steal food or spy. Many of them died terrible deaths in the shafts, either by starvation; the treacherous layout of the ducts, where giant fans and sudden drops were everywhere; asphyxiation due to space exposure; or by the hands of rivals.
Because the Duct Rats rarely did anything more criminal then murdering each other or stealing food from the markets, C-Sec never prioritised the gangs. They were left to die off on their own. Only on a few occasions in recent years had a major criminal escaped custody and fled into the ducts, forcing C-Sec to send patrols into the ducts due to the media coverage. Most times, the criminal was found dead within a week.
Phyle had spent the last few hours searching for one man but not as a C-Sec officer. She was clad in all-covering black combat gear and armed only with a small pistol and a leather sheathe strapped to her back. And she navigated the ducts with ease and familiarity.
Phyle had spent almost twelve years of her life as a Duct Rat. Abandoned by her parents as a young child, her only option had been to head into the Ducts to avoid the brutalities of the Ward. In the Ducts she had finally found people like herself, other children who had been cast aside by society. She had joined a small group of Rats and eventually forgot her name and her earlier life. The tunnels became her home and her identity. She watched the group she was with slowly die out before she had moved on to a new, stronger group. She didn't know how old she had been when she killed for the first time but she remembered the event clearly. The group had begun to grow weaker at that point and the Rats no longer shared what they stole with each other. The supposed leader, an older girl who had just entered her teens, found Phyle's secret stash of stolen items that she had hid from the group. It included food, medicine and even a few knifes.
The girl confronted Phyle aside from the group, in an empty duct, and demanded that they split the stash. Phyle refused and the girl beat her up before declaring that everything Phyle owned now belonged to her. Phyle responded by stabbing the girl in the stomach with a short knife that she had hidden in her shoe and then stabbed her to death as she pleaded for her life. The rest of the group had asked no questions when Phyle came back to their camp, covered in blood. A few days later she left them for another, stronger group.
Phyle noticed another trail of blood and knelt by it. Blood was not uncommon but this was fresh, and this was the fifth path that they had seen in the last hour. Her omni-tool told her that it was a perfect match to the other patches. It might not belong to the man they were hunting but it was a track at least.
"Why didn't you tell me about the Normandy crew?" she looked at Bailey and leaned her head against her hand. They were lying side by side in his small bed a few days earlier. The room fit Bailey perfectly; it was tiny and very impersonal. The only personal objects were the bed, a chair and his clothes that had been thrown around the night before.
"Eh, you know how it goes," Bailey's eyes were closed and he had his hands under his head, enjoying a brief moment of relaxation and pleasure, a welcome break in his busy life, "I couldn't tell anyone. All classified and shit."
Phyle put her hand on his torso and traced her fingers along his hard abs, "I followed the Normandy closely last year. Watched all the news reports. I had no idea that we had so many of them in custody."
"The higher ups said I had to lock them up," Bailey shrugged and opened an eye to look at her, "But I made sure no one messed with them. They might've been Cerberus once but Shepard has always been alright in my book and so is everyone who works for her."
Phyle sat up in bed and looked at the wall. Bailey reached up and massaged her bare back, "I knew one of them from before he joined Cerberus," she said without looking at him, "Rupert Gardner. He was a friend of the family but we haven't had contact in years..."
Bailey moved around behind and his hand crept lower and lower down her back, "Gardner was in custody but he never made it onto the Normandy. The escort said that he ran away from them on the way to the docks."
Phyle smiled and climbed onto Bailey. He looked up at her with genuine warmth and happiness. The toughest men are often the easiest to manipulate, Phyle thought and smiled.
"Where did he go?"
"They don't know. They think he might've run into the Wards and we don't have the personnel to look for him. No idea why he would run though."
Phyle's hands found a grip and Bailey closed his eyes and started breathing heavily, "Do you know what his last known location is?"
"No," Bailey groaned, "But I can found out. But that's all."
"That's okay," Phyle leaned down and gave him a kiss, "It's all I need."
The trio stepped out into a larger clearing and the two, bulkier thugs complained about the tight ducts. Phyle stopped and scanned the place quickly. There were signs of Duct Rats everywhere. Paper wraps; blankets; a pot; they had stumbled upon a Rat camp. But none were there. Either they were out scouting or hiding somewhere. She checked the pot and saw that whatever was in it was boiling so decided that the Rats had hidden. The sides of the room were covered in multiple exit points and hiding spots, it would be impossible to predict where the Rats were.
Phyle walked into the room, carefully looking for signs of an ambush, and knelt by another collection of blood patches. She scanned each of them and grinned in satisfaction as the omni-tool displayed the familiar name: Rupert Gardner. He had been kept here.
She stood up and visibly sheathed her pistol, then gestured for her escort to do the same, "We're only looking to talk. And make a deal."
Nothing happened for several moments, and then the first Duct Rat showed up. It was a tall boy of maybe fourteen, with wild hair and trashy clothes. But he seemed to be a strong one so Phyle guessed that he was the leader of the group. She had met many boys like him growing up. Most of them had died painfully.
"This is our turf," the boy said and flexed his muscles, "What do you want?"
"What's your name?"
"Wolf," the boy grunted and Phyle smirked.
"I'm looking for a man who I think you've seen. I'd pay you well if you knew where he is."
She handed over her data-pad that showed a picture of Rupert Gardner. The boy grabbed the pad and glanced at it. His expression told Phyle that he did indeed recognize Gardner but then he tried to put on his best poker face and just shrugged.
"Maybe I've seen him. What's it to yah?" he said. He didn't hand the data-pad back.
"Five hundred credits say that you do," Phyle crossed her arms across her chest, "I don't really have time to haggle. If you don't cooperate then I'll get all of C-Sec down here to root your pack out. Or I'll simply sell go tell another gang where you hide out. These blankets look fine, I'm sure someone would be happy to take them."
The boy clenched his fists in fury but Phyle simply smiled at him. Realising that a confrontation would not end well, the boy turned around and whistled. Slowly but surely, the rest of the Rats came into view. There were about twenty of them, most of them boys but also three girls. Everyone was dressed in rags but none looked sick. Overall, it seemed like a strong group. Wolf was the oldest boy but two of the girls seemed to be in their late teens. Phyle studied their tormented faces closely and then suddenly looked away. During her last years as a Rat, she had been the only girl in a gang of guys. She didn't want to know what the two teenagers were going through.
What really caught her attention was the single grown man who was being pushed forwards by two boys. Gardner hadn't shaved for a few days and his clothes were dirty but it was definitely him. He was bruised and limping because of a twisted ankle that looked really messy and clutched his wrist.
"We found him wandering around inside our turf two days ago," Wolf stood by Phyle's side and she caught him looking at her back, "Normally we'd just beat him up and leave him somewhere but he said he had money. Paid for protection for a week. He's been our... precious guest since." Wolf grinned.
"Was he this injured when you so graciously took him in?" Phyle's voice was thick with sarcasm.
"His wrist was broken when we found him. His leg wasn't." He blinked at her and Phyle grimaced in disgust. Wolf's eyes were bright red and twitched around uncontrollably, a sign that he was on some drug. The last thing Phyle wanted was a high and potentially violent brute on her hands. But she had no doubt that she could dispose of him without problems.
"Mr Gardner!" she called out and left Wolf's side.
Gardner looked up and frowned at her. His body trembled slightly and it looked as if the gang had given him some drugs to deal with the pain of a broken wrist and ankle. It didn't bother Phyle.
"Do you remember me, Mr Gardner?" she stopped in front of him and smiled amicably.
"You... You're Cerberus?" he spoke slowly, clearly under the influence.
"That I am," Phyle didn't stop smiling, "My name is Martina. I was your contact during your Normandy assignment."
Gardner remained confused for a few seconds and then his eyes widened in shock.
"Please," he pleaded, "I only-"
"Why didn't you get back on the Normandy, Rupert?" Phyle stepped closer, "You were always so quick to tell us what Shepard was doing before she turned the ship in, why did you change your mind?"
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Wolf demanded but Phyle ignored the punk.
"Shepard..." Gardner shook his head, "Shepard saved us from the Collectors. I couldn't keep on selling her out. And I couldn't do as you asked."
After Shepard had cut all ties with The Illusive Man, Cerberus had reached out to their mole on the Normandy, the Mess Sergeant, and ordered him to assassinate Shepard. They had gotten no answer and then he had officially deserted along with the other crewmembers that turned themselves in.
"You broke your orders, Rupert," Phyle's voice became treacherously pleasant, "And then you ran from C-Sec. Why didn't you go back to the Normandy? We wouldn't have gotten to you there."
"I couldn't face Shepard," he shook his head, "I... I poisoned her meal once but I just couldn't give it to her. She saved us all and..." he gulped as his panicking reacted against whatever drug his was on. He looked sick.
"You can't leave Cerberus, Rupert. You should've known that we'd come for you."
"I got protection!" Gardner staggered to the side and looked at Wolf, "I'll pay you double your fee if you kill this woman!"
"Oh please," Phyle smirked, "I can handle children."
Wolf looked between the two with his dim, greedy eyes, thinking about which deal would give him the most.
"I'll extend my offer, Wolf," Phyle didn't take her eyes off Gardner, "I'll give you the five hundred credits and your pack can leave alive."
"We outnumber you, lady," Wolf smirked and positioned himself behind Phyle. The rest of the Rats spread out across the room and Phyle's escort readied themselves. No one of the boys had firearms but if they came close then they could do heavy damage with their knives.
"Are you familiar with the Phantom Project, Rupert?" Phyle asked.
"What?" Gardner quickly looked to the sides for a way to escape.
"It's a new way of combat that Cerberus recently developed," Phyle explained slowly and saw the dread spread across Gardner's face, "I'll show you if you want."
"Just kill her and I'll give you everything I own!" Gardner shouted and backed away towards one of the tunnel entrances.
"You're a fine lady," Wolf stepped up behind and whispered into her ear, "I'll enjoy a real woman..."
Phyle sighed and slowly turned around. Wolf was a head taller she was, and heavier, but was only carrying a knife. She reached her hand down to her belt found her pistol. The teenager didn't even notice. She pulled the trigger and shot from the hip, hitting him three times in the crotch and gut. Wolf dropped his knife and fell to his knees, staring up at her with confused, pained eyes. The two mercs acted instantly and effortlessly gunned down the rest of the Rats before they had a chance to attack.
Phyle looked Wolf in the eyes, then raised her gun and pointed it squarely between his eyes and fired once. She saw the lights go out and the floor beneath him was splattered with blood and he fell backwards.
"What about the girls?" one of the mercs asked. His comrade walked amongst the fallen Rats and executed the wounded. The fact that they were all under-aged had bothered none of them.
Phyle looked at the girls. The two older ones looked blankly up at her, already accustomed to being abused and exploited. But the youngest one still had hope. She could be spared a harsh life.
"Let's bring them back," Phyle said, "They deserve better than this."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gardner limped through the tunnel as fast as he could with his messed up leg. He had heard the brief gunfire and didn't want to get back to see what had happened. Three Cerberus troops versus children? The answer was obvious.
He ran without thinking, turning corner after corner to make his pursuers lose track of him. He wasn't aware that the tunnels were a death trap to anyone who didn't know the layout, nor would we have cared. All he wanted was to get away from Cerberus.
Gardner almost fell when a sudden drop came out of nowhere. He stumbled to the side and carefully shimmied across the narrow edge and forced himself to not look down into the deep shaft.
"Rupert," Phyle's voice called out from somewhere in the tunnel. The echo and his drugged mind made it impossible for him to tell if she was in front of him or behind him, "Do you know where you're going? I know this place like the back of my hand..."
"Shut up!" Gardner screamed and almost slipped of the edge. To save himself from falling, he jumped off towards the other side. He slammed his wounded ankle into the edge and rolled into a ball on the ground, sobbing because of the pain.
"No one's going to find you down here, Rupert," now Phyle's voice came from somewhere in front of him.
"Please," Gardner pleaded, "Just let me go. I'll go back to the Normandy. I'll kill her for you!"
He quickly scanned the floor and saw a broken pipe. He reached out and forced himself onto his feet. With his back turned to the large drop, he would be able to knock out the smaller woman with his pipe.
He forced himself to stop breathing heavily and in the silence he heard the footsteps approaching. They were soft and almost impossible to hear, but Phyle was sneaking up towards him through one of the side tunnels. Gardner readied the pipe and positioned himself by the corner.
"Are you wondering what a Phantom is?" Phyle whispered but he couldn't tell where her voice was coming from. Instead he held the pipe above the head.
And then a keeper walked past him. The small creature didn't even acknowledge him and Gardner blinked in surprise. As he was about to step back, the air in front of him shimmered and something pinched him in the chest. He dropped the pipe and staggered backwards, clutching his chest. There was something long and very sharp lodged in it and there was blood on his fingers.
The air shimmered again and the Phyle's tactical cloak deactivated. She had pulled an all-covering hood over her head and Gardner found himself staring into her bright eyes as he desperately grasped for breath with her sword thrust into his chest.
"What...?" Gardner asked weakly and blood dripped from his mouth.
"I'm a Phantom!" Phyle hissed and twisted the sword around viciously. She pushed Gardner back towards the drop and didn't take her eyes of his.
She pulled the short sword out of Gardner's chest and let him fall back into the shaft without another word. He vanished into the darkness instantly and Phyle strapped the sword back into the leather sheathe on her back. The shaft would eventually lead to one of the giant furnaces in the station. Gardner's remains would be cremated and then spaced.
That's one deserter, Phyle thought and turned away, soon I'll get to the rest of the Normandy traitors. And the Commander herself. She activated her tactical cloak and disappeared into the tunnels again, invisible to the naked eye. No one leaves Cerberus.
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kerpin
Serviceman 3rd Class
Posts: 9
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Post by kerpin on Jan 3, 2013 11:07:49 GMT 1
Chapter 5
Stepping of the elevator and onto the Presidium, Shepard took a long breath of air. It felt as if it was the first time she saw the sun in years.
She couldn't stop thinking about her meeting with Harbinger down in the bowels of the Citadel. His words still echoed in her mind and she doubted that she would soon forget the thralls terrifying appearance. She had known that she would eventually meet the Reaper again, but she had wanted to meet him on her own terms. Despite the fact that the thrall had been burnt to a crisp on her command, the feeling that Harbinger had been completely in control of the situation was a hard one to shake.
The Presidium was as amazing as she had remembered. She had always loved the Wards for the buzzing activity, the inhabitants and for the fact that you never knew what you could find when you ventured inside. But when the stress and anxiety got to her, she always returned to the serenity of the Presidium. While others would hate the campiness of a space ship and preferred the open freedom of planets and colonies, Shepard was the opposite. Unless she was in combat on a planet, endless fields and open terrain made her frustrated and uncomfortable. That made the Presidium the best place in the galaxy, other then the Normandy, for relaxation. It was open and windy, but everything about it was artificial and cramped inside an enormous space station. It was perfect.
She could see Liara clearly, leaning over the railing on a platform connected to a small, expensive restaurant. Her stomach was rumbling so she started to make her way towards the restaurant, hoping to catch a bite to eat. As she approached the restaurant, the asari bartender caught her eyes and raised her eyes slightly in greeting. The asari was vaguely familiar so Shepard broke her stride and approached her. Without a word, the asari picked up a glass, filled it with ice and liquid and placed it just front of the Commander.
"On the house," she said and as soon as she spoke, Shepard recognized the voice.
"Matriarch Aethyta," she drank from the cup of asari rum. It was sweet, almost too sweet, "You're a long way from Illium. How'd you end up here?"
Shepard had met the Matriarch Aethyta before on Illium, right after she had reunited with Liara for the first time after her resurrection. During the first shore leave on the planet, Shepard had hoped for a more physical reunion with Liara but there had been no luck in that quest. She had instead found the company of the asari Matriarch who served drinks at the nearest bar. Aethyta had been unlike most asari Shepard had ever met and had been one hell of a story teller. Shepard had gone from sober, to drunk, to sober again just listening to Aethyta talk about her life, her bizarre family and the unusual situation in which an asari Matriarch, one of the most respected members of the asari community, found herself serving cheap drinks at a sleazy bar. It had been a memorable night.
"Eh," Aethyta shrugged casually, "with the Reapers making noise, I figured it was time to get somewhere safer, so I moved here. I hadn't been to the Citadel in almost two hundred years but not much has changed. You'd think that if you live a thousand years, everything would eventually change but not this place. If the Reapers hadn't been bothering everyone, this place would probably look the exact same way in another thousand years. Eh well..." she looked to the side, seemingly out at the station arms but Shepard followed her gaze. It was focused on Liara's back.
She downed her drink and looked into the glass, listened to the ice cubes clatter against each other and waited for the follow-up. Right after she had helped Liara defeat and dethroned the Shadow Broker a few months earlier, Shepard had taken a look through the files that the Broker had kept on her friends and crewmates. She had wanted to see what dangerous secrets the Broker would've used against them. Aethyta's name had surprisingly been mentioned in one of the files and she suspected that the Matriarch knew that she knew.
"Benezia's daughter," Aethyta sighed and refilled Shepard's drink, "And the most powerful information broker in the galaxy. What a combination. I knew Benezia, did you know that?"
Shepard drank again and shook her head. Lady Benezia had been the asari Matriarch who had allied with Saren Arterius, the rogue turian Spectre, to try and turn him from his path of destruction. Instead she, like Saren himself, had fallen victim to the Reaper Sovereigns powerful indoctrination. Shepard and her team had faced Benezia on the planet Noveria where the Matriarch had sought information from a captive Rachni Queen. Benezia had fought Shepard with all of her biotic powers and was only ultimately defeated when she managed to momentarily break free of the indoctrination, giving Shepard's team enough time to finish her. Liara had watched her mother die, unable to save her due to the indoctrination issue.
"Yeah, uh... Benezia was... was her mother and, uh, she doesn't know it, but I was her father."
"You've been following her?"
"Yeah... maybe. Might be the other Matriarchs took a look and only saw Benezia's daughter and her occupation and figured it would be safe to just order a hit. Good thing I was there to persuade them otherwise. Been keeping an eye on her, making sure she's safe, that sort of stuff. She's got some shady connection after all..." her gaze suddenly got cold, "Like a girlfriend who used to work for Cerberus. Sound familiar?"
"I only worked with Cerberus to fight the Reapers," Shepard countered with an equally cold tone and placed the glass in front of the Matriarch.
"And you're not with 'em now. I know. If you were, you wouldn't get within a light-year of Liara." Aethyta hadn't raised her voice but the threat was undeniable, "I've had a thousand years to fight dirty. Nobody messes with my girl."
"That's not going to happen," Shepard focused her stare at Aethyta and her voice was like venom, "If the Matriarchs try anything then they're going to regret it. Nobody messed with my girl."
Aethyta's remained passive for a few seconds and then an approving smirk broke out, "Ha! Maybe you're good enough for her after all."
The tension eased and Shepard picked up her drink again, "You knew Benezia for a long time?"
"More than a century. She was so smart, always thinking. Nice too! Hell of a lot nicer than I am. And damn, that rack! I could motorboat those things for hours if she let me. I mean, even before she hit the Matriarch stage...!" she whistled approvingly and Shepard smirked, "Nezzie was the only one who listened to me when I said that the asari were stuck in the past. Only difference was, I wanted us to stand on our own and she wanted Alliances with the other species," her voice became distant again and Shepard thought about what it could mean for her to serve drinks to the woman who shot a hole the size of a fist in her lover's stomach, "She wanted to solve things the smart way, I just wanted to fight," her voice became much lower, weighed down by memories, "It's better to remember her like this then as whatever she turned into with that Saren bastard."
"It wasn't her fault," Shepard said and Aethyta glanced up at her, "She was trying to stop Saren, guide him as a force of good, but she was indoctrinated."
"Look, I heard stories about Reapers messing with your head, but..." Aethyta sounded almost irritated.
"They're more then just stories," Shepard looked back down into her glass. It didn't seem deep enough right now, "I've seen it. She fought it with every fibre of her being. She even broke free and helped us on Noveria before she died. Liara was there. Benezia told her that 'she had made her proud'."
"All of this time, I blamed Nezzie for it," Aethyta's voice cracked slightly, "a thousand years old and I still don't know crap. Thanks for telling me."
"I bet she'd like to meet you."
"Yeah," Aethyta said dryly and looked back at Liara's back again, "We'll see about that."
They remained in silence for a moment before Shepard thanked for the drink and headed over to Liara. On the way, she looked around the Presidium and immediately indentified several out of uniform C-Sec officers casually minding their own business while also keeping an eye on her. She acknowledged their presence with a quick wink.
"Did you and the Matriarch hired by the asari government to track my every move have a nice chat?" Liara asked Shepard she approached without turning to face her. The Commander leant placed her arms on the railing as well and looked out at the Presidium and the Citadel arms. Liara was enjoying the cool breeze with her eyes closed.
"Do you know who she is?" Shepard drank for her still half-full glass.
"I do."
"I never get to surprise you with anything!" Shepard feigned a complaint.
"I'm a very good information broker. What did Bailey have for you?"
Shepard sighed and told Liara everything about the encounter with Harbinger. As she spoke, she glanced around the Presidium area and noticed that a batarian was standing close to the bar, studying her intently. In turn, the C-Sec guards were watching him, as was Aethyta. The batarian didn't seem to be armed but Shepard didn't feel like taking any chances with batarians these days.
The batarian caught her looking and casually began making his way towards her. He kept his hands clearly visible at all times and there was nothing provocative about his approach, but the C-Sec men moved in anyways, ready to move in an instant. Aethyta too seemed ready to attack him. Shepard elbowed Liara's side and the asari turned.
"You're Shepard?" the batarian grunted.
"Seriously?" Shepard raised an eyebrow. While she wasn't dressed in her normal uniform, having instead chosen a more casual black hoody, there was still an N7 badge attached to her chest. And her bright red hair was a dead giveaway about her identity. And after the media circus regarding her trial, she imagined that every batarian in the universe that didn't know her face.
"Too busy to keep up with the news," the batarian shrugged. There was an air of indifference about him, "I'm Bray. I got a message for Shepard."
"Yeah, that's me."
"In the presence of celebrity without my autograph book," Bray said sardonically and Shepard smirked. She could feel Liara's biotic work through her body and she gave her arm a reassuring squeeze.
"What's the message?"
"I work for Aria T'Loak. She requests that you meet her at the Purgatory club in a few hours."
"Aria?" Shepard thought back to the enigmatic Pirate Queen of Omega whom she had encountered a few times over the last year. Though they had always met on neutral terms, Shepard had always imagined how things would turn out if the powerful asari one day became hostile towards her, "I doubt that she's 'asking' us anything."
"Might be I fancied the words up a bit," Bray said and Shepard's smirk widened and she gestured for the C-Sec officers who were sneaking up behind Bray to stand down. Liara relaxed as well and the tension eased.
"What does she want?"
"Didn't say. But she's holding court at Purgatory and she's expecting you before you head off."
"We'll see," Shepard said curtly, "Aria doesn't dictate what I do and don't do. If I have the time then maybe."
"Alright," Bray shrugged again, "I'm sure she'll be... pleased with that response."
Shepard smirked once more. What were the odds of running into a likeable batarian?
-----------------------------
A few hours later, she stood in the hold of the Normandy, arms crossed beneath her breasts and back against the wall, watching Liara examine the Prothean artefact that Admiral Hackett's team had delivered to the Citadel. The Admiral's notes had been too cryptic for Shepard's tastes so a pair of crewmembers had armed themselves and were now standing guard in case something went wrong.
Liara was scurrying around the artefact, eagerly inspecting it with an almost child-like enthusiasm. Garrus was leaning against the wall next to Shepard. The turian hadn't said much since the two of them had left Bailey after the Harbinger encounter and Shepard had been in no mood to force a conversation. The artefact itself was a black cylinder made out of a strange material that the Normandy's database hadn't been able to identify. The cylinder eerily reminded Shepard of something but she couldn't quite put her finger on what.
"Goddess," Liara turned to look at Shepard, "It's not a Prothean artefact. It's a..." she hesitated and took a step away from the object, looking at it sceptically, "a Prothean."
"Like the Collectors?" Garrus left the wall and joined Liara, his voice heavy with disbelief.
"No... This one is alive. This is a stasis pod."
"That doesn't sound possible," Shepard protested. How can a Prothean still be alive after all this time?
"You saw Prothean stasis chamber in the archives on Ilos," Liara knelt by the stasis pod and inspected what seemed to be a control panel. The chamber on Ilos, Shepard thought back to the large, empty halls on Ilos where they had encountered Vigil, a Prothean VI that had survived in hiding since the Protheans had been wiped out; there were pods everywhere. And ghosts, "The only reason those failed was a lack of power. Cerberus found this in an underground bunker, it still has power." She read the signs and her eyes glistened with excitement, "He's been in stasis for the past fifty thousand years, waiting for us. Think of what we could learn!"
"What can we expect from... him?" Shepard looked down at the cylinder. A tomb, she realised, it's a tomb.
"The Prothean Empire spanned most of the known galaxy," Liara started speaking quickly and fell into the role of a lecturer without noticing. Shepard and Garrus exchanged a knowing glance behind her back, "They uplifted countless other species to join the galactic community. Their cultural and artistic expressions are actually quite close to that of ancient asari and given their similar interest in helping other species, it's clear that they believed in inter-species cooperation!"
"The way you describe them they sound a lot like the asari."
"I'm certain I'm colouring their culture with my own perceptions. Whatever the Protheans were, finding one alive represents an incredible opportunity."
The crewmembers in the back of the room twitched around and Shepard turned to give them a reassuring glance. They were nervous and she understood why. Liara would insist that they open the pod and set the Prothean free. Everyone in the room were skilled fighters, but a Prothean was something that they never had encountered. The Collectors had been mindless drones who cared nothing for their own safety but would a Prothean be the same?
"If this single Prothean was sent into stasis," Liara went on, oblivious to the emotions in the room, "he could be the foremost scientist of his time or, perhaps, the wisest councillor!"
"Can we get him out of there?"
"If you want to."
"Be prepared," Shepard ordered the guards, "We don't know how he'll act once we wake him up but don't use lethal force."
"He might be confused after all this time," Liara added, "Remember, it's been fifty thousand years for us but him it might only have been a matter of minutes.
Shepard nodded, "Open it."
No one said anything as Liara knelt again and entered the commands. There was a small humming sound as the stasis inside the pod deactivated and slowly slid open to reveal the creature inside it. Only Shepard managed to stay calm; the guards were nervous and Liara could barely hide her excitement. The Commander had been expecting something resembling an insect, like the Collectors, but the Prothean before them only shared the most basic similarities with the Reaper-controller monsters. He was a tall one; wearing blood-red armour of unfamiliar design with markings all over it; his skin was light-blue and the top of his head was covered by a thick layer of carapace, giving it an almost flat triangular shape. The effect of the stasis was visible, making it look as if he was frozen by a thin layer of ice, but it was quickly fading away. He looked healthy enough.
"It might take a while for him to fully regain his consciousness" Liara looked back over her shoulder. As soon as she did, the Prothean's four eyes snapped open. They were the coloured of gold with a double set of black pupils in the centre, all of them flicked around the room, taking in the presence of Shepard and her crew within seconds. Liara only had time to turn back to look at him before a biotic blast caught her off-guard and threw her on her back. Garrus, Shepard and the guards staggered backwards as well as the Prothean clumsily tried to climb out of the pod and fell to his knees next to the asari who getting back on her feet.
The Prothean glanced around the room again and Shepard could clearly read the confusion and shock on his face. Fifty thousand years in stasis had softened his muscles and joints, otherwise he would've already run past them, Shepard realised. A confused Prothean running loose on the Normandy could potentially be disastrous if they didn't act. Without another thought, she threw herself at the alien and tackled him onto the floor.
The Prothean weakly tried to wrestle her off him but Shepard pinned his arms to the floor and stared straight into his eyes. Garrus and the other were moving behind her, unsure what to do. The struggle was over quickly, with the Prothean resigning and sinking back into the floor, his gaze meeting Shepard's. And then something happened. An all too familiar energy flew through her body, energy that she had first felt when she touched the beacon on Eden Pri-
Even in the middle of the night, I do not see the stars. The sky is lit up by their fires and the smoke pains our eyes. The city before me is dying. We knew that this day would come, but we hoped that it would take them longer to reach us. But the Traitors are here, as are the Reapers. Our warriors are fighting on the streets and on the roof tops, giving their lives to give us time. More Reapers arrive and with them, more Traitors. They have not yet found our bunker. But they will soon. Soon they will be here.
I can see the destruction clearly from a hill far away. I cannot hear the screams of the people but if I close my eyes, I can imagine them. Their sacrifice is necessary for the survival of the Empire.
"Commander Javik! It's time."
I turn to look at the warrior approaching me. He is young. One of the warriors that will stay behind to fend of the Traitors and their Reaper masters.
"I wish we had had more time," I say and once again look at the Reapers laying waste to our city in the distance. Pillars of smoke rises from the squares and the large towers have crumbled beneath the towering machines. The next time I see the devils, it will be on better terms.
We head into the bunker one last time, descending deep into the mountain where the stasis chambers await us. I pass our last defence, the legion of warriors that will be tasked to stay behind while the project starts. There were no protests, no objections to the plan. If the Prothean Empire is to survive, these warriors must give their lives.
"I never thought our Empire would fall," my escort mumbles.
"It won't," I say and stop to face him, "We will sleep here until the Reapers return to Dark Space. Then we will rise, a million strong!"
Many of the young ones feel fear and despair in their final hours. This one will not survive the night but I know that he will meet his end with honour.
"For the Empire!" he exclaims and salutes.
"For the Empire," I respond, "Get to your station. Die honourably."
The youth rushes away. An alarm rings in the distance and I hear gunfire. Are the Traitors here already? Impossible!
"Victory," I call out and the bunker VI appears before me, "Broadcast the stasis readiness signal to all life-pods."
"And the refugees who have yet to reach the bunker?" the VI asks me, walking with me as I look at the troops under my command. For a moment, my thought goes to the thousands of civilians who were making their way towards us. They were to be the foundation of our next civilization. They are lost now.
"Their sacrifice will be honoured in the coming Empire."
The VI is interrupted by a large explosion that rocks the walls of our bunkers. Smoke fills the hallway and soon the sound of gunfire echoes through the corridor. The Traitors are here, sooner then expected.
The legion quickly forms up and opens fire into the smoke. I do not see the Traitors but I hear their screams and the sound of thousands of feet descending into our bunker. I want nothing more then to stand with my men and fight, but as the commander, I must lead my people into the next Empire. I make my way through the ranks towards the main bulkhead. It is still open and if the Traitors breach our lines and enter the life-pod chamber, all is lost.
As I approach the bulkhead, something explodes behind me. The next thing I know, I'm on my back, being dragged backwards into the main chamber by the young warrior who escorted me into the bunker earlier. Behind us, the legion is falling. The last thing I see before I loose consciousness is the bulkhead closing behind me.
I awake later, still groggy from the explosion, to a horrific sight. There are fires in the stasis chamber and bodies of Traitors and true Protheans are scattered on the floors and screams are heard from deeper within the chamber. I force myself onto my feet.
I see medics treating our wounded as I approach the nearest stasis chamber. It's only half sealed and smoke is coming from inside it. I open it and see the charred remains of one of my brothers. He did not stand a chance.
"How many have we lost?" I ask Victory who has appeared next to me.
"Reapers forces have destroyed approximately three-hundred thousand life-pods," the VI replies.
"A third of our people..." I look back at the destroyed pod and the dead warrior inside it. In a short period of time, the Traitors have destroyed a large chunk of the next Empire.
"Alert!" Victory suddenly calls out, "The north side bulkhead cannot be sealed. Hostiles detected!"
The warriors around me rise to the challenge, looking at me for orders.
"Then all forces to the north!" I command and we set off.
As we run, we see more and more life pods ripped from their holdings. The inhabitants have all been slaughtered. As the Avatar of Vengeance of my people, I feel the rage grip a hold of me. The Traitors will die for their crimes.
The northern bulkhead is almost lost. A small amount of true Protheans are trying to hold the line against hundreds of Traitors. The line split as we approach, giving us a clean shot. The Traitor fire intensifies as they see us and the warriors next to me fall. I reach out and grab the first Traitor I see, raising him into the air with my biotic powers and slam him against the bulkhead. His head is crushed and I hurl his body at his comrades.
Over the noise of the battle I hear the voice of the Traitor's Reaper master. He speaks through his minions and mocks us. When we shoot down one of his messengers, another takes his place. The devil never stops taunting. We respond with more gunfire. True Protheans do not serve the Reaper lord.
"The bunker is falling," Victory states calmly behind me, "We must prepare the neutron bombardment."
As soon as the VI starts to speak, I back away through the lines, back towards the bulkhead, "There are pods not online!" I yell. A neutron bombardment will kill everyone who isn't safely locked up in a stasis life-pod.
"Their sacrifice will be honoured in the coming Empire," Victory responds, mirroring my own words from before. I hear the sense in his words, "Get to your pod. Now!"
I run. I'm accompanied by two youths who will secure my stasis pod. None of us likes the idea of abandoning a battle. Behind us we hear the line breaking and the Traitors overrunning my warriors.
We stop by an empty pod and waste no time. I climb into it while my escorts activate the pod. As the lid closes above me and the pod is slid into the safety of the reinforced mountain wall, I hear gunfire hit the walls above me. The last the thing I see before the darkness comes is one of my escorts getting hit and fall. I wish that they die like true Protheans.
"Neutron bombardment underway," Victory says and soon I feel mountain mumble around me as the bombs go off throughout the bunker, wiping out all sentient life, true Protheans and Traitors alike. A minute passes. Two minutes. I hear nothing.
"The bunker is secure, commander Javik," Victory finally says, "The northern entrance has caved in and all main bulkheads have been sealed."
"How many survivors?" I ask, dreading the answer.
"At this moment it's hard to say. Too many pods are still trying to come online. Estimated amount in the hundreds."
Out of a million pods, only a few hundreds are active. Perhaps even less, "How am I to rebuild an Empire from that?" I sigh.
"Further adjustments may be necessary. The neutron purge compromised the facility."
"Clarify!" I demand. I do not like the sound of Victory's words.
"Sensors are damaged. Automated reactivation is not an option. You'll remain in stasis until a new culture discover this bunker. This may lead to a power shortage."
"Do NOT shut off more pods!" I scream into the empty pod and bang my fist against the shell, "I need the few that are left!"
The pod around me starts to hum and I feel a light tingling sensation in my body. The stasis is kicking in and I know that I will soon be asleep. A sleep that I cannot wake up from on my own. Victory speaks again but I do not hear him. My head has fallen back into the cushion and I there is a sudden cold in the pod that numbs my body.
"...you will be the voice of our people," Victory finishes.
"I will be more then that," I promise before I drift off into the cold, dreamless slee-
The energy left her body as soon it had hit her and Shepard let go of the Prothean and stood back up, waiting for him to make the next move. Garrus and Liara watched her closely but it would be impossible for her to explain what she had just seen. Not just seen, she thought, experienced. The sounds, the noises, the smells of battle... I was there.
The Prothean cautiously got up on his feet, never taking his eyes off hers. He moved slower then he had before, as if suddenly aware that he hadn't used his muscles for fifty thousand years.
"How many others?" he asked quietly. His voice was dark and deep and, to Shepard's surprise, her translator didn't struggle with his words. It was crisp clear.
"Only you," she replied and the Prothean closed his eyes in mourning. "You can understand me?"
"Yes," he opened his eyes again and studied her, "Now that I have read your physiology, your nervure system. Enough to understand your language."
"How does that work?" Shepard frowned.
"All life provides clues for those who can read them," the Prothean turned to look at the pod that he had spent so many years in. He drew his three fingers across the black surface and there was something in his eyes that Shepard couldn't interpret, "It is in your cells, your DNA. Experience is a biological marker. The battle left its own mark on me, I communicated this to you. It can work both ways."
"Like your beacons!" Liara said right before Shepard could. The beacon that she had touched on Eden Prime three years ago had been damaged and only fragments of the message had been receivable. But this latest vision... the only interruption there had been when the Prothean had been knocked out.
"Stand down," Shepard gestured to the guards, "I don't think our guest will be a problem," she looked at him, "Will you?"
"That depends on you."
"I'm Commander Shepard," she introduced herself as the guardsmen left the room, "This is my ship, the Normandy."
"I am Javik," the Prothean clasped his hands behind his back, "An avatar of vengeance for the Prothean Empire."
"Avatar?" Shepard raised an eyebrow.
"Among my people there were avatars of many traits. Bravery, strength, cunning. A single exemplar for each. I am the embodiment of vengeance of my people. The anger of a dead people, demanding that blood be spilled for the blood we lost! Only when the last Reaper has been destroyed will my purpose be fulfilled. I have no other reason to exist."
Javik fell silent and Shepard, Garrus and Liara exchanged looks. Garrus looked uncomfortable but Liara's eyes were glimmering. If she had had her data-pad with her then she would've without a doubt been taking notes.
"You found our beacons?" Javik asked a long moment of silence and stepped up to Shepard and clasped his hands around her arms before she could react. The energy went through her body again and more visions appeared before her eyes.
Sovereign. Saren. The beacon. Vigil. The keepers. The Citadel. A warning.
It was over in seconds. Javik stepped back and his eyes were wide open now. Garrus had moved during the visions and was now standing by Shepard's side, his fingers twitching around the hold of his gun. Shepard frowned and he stepped back, still silent and uncomfortable.
"You really found one..." Javik shook his head and backed away, "You. You saw it all. Our destruction! Our warnings!" his voice grew louder, angrier, into a shout, "Why weren't they heeded? Why weren't you prepared for the Reapers, human?!"
"It's Commander," Shepard said coldly and walked up inches away from Javik's face, "And nobody could understand your warnings! The beacon nearly killed me."
Javik snorted and turned away in disgust, "Then communication is still primitive in this cycle!"
"We pieced together what we could and used it stop a Reaper invasion three years ago."
"Then the extinction was only delayed!"
"But now we have the plans for your device," Liara interrupted before a fight broke out, "And we're going to build it."
"Device?" Javik asked, perplexed.
"The weapon your people were working on when they... I'd hoped that you could help us finish it," to illustrate her point, Liara went over to a computer by the door and entered a few commands. An image of the mysterious weapon blueprints and an estimation of what it would look like appeared on screed and Javik watched it in silence for several moments, his face solemn.
This can't be easy, Shepard thought, He's hearing about what his comrades did fifty thousand years ago while it's still fresh in his memory.
"We never finished it," Javik hung his head and closed his eyes, "It was too late.
"Then I take it you don't know anything about the Catalyst?"
"No," Javik shook his head, "I was a soldier, not a scientist. Skilled in one art: killing."
Shepard looked at Liara and saw the glimmer in her eyes slightly fade. She could tell that the scientist in her was beginning to feel doubt about their guest. Liara would have hoped for Javik to be a fellow scientist or a great thinker, someone whom she could question about Prothean culture and learn their secrets. Instead they had gotten a soldier, someone who probably would know very little about his own history and culture. It was no wonder that Liara might be disappointed.
"We're leading the fight against the Reapers," Shepard turned to face Javik's back again, "Will you join us?"
"I will help you fight," Javik turned to meet her gaze, his eyes sparkling with anger, "And the last thing the Reapers hear before they die will be the last voice of the Protheans sending them to their grave!"
Shepard's mouth twitched into a small smirk. Javik spoke with a fiery passion that she couldn't help but to admire. She recognized his type easily: he would fight with all of his strength to bring down the Reapers. If he was as good as she hoped he was, the Reapers and Cerberus were up against another strong opponent.
"If you don't mind," Liara said quickly and walked up to Javik again, having quickly shaken off the disappointment, "I have some questions I would like to ask." Here it comes, Shepard thought and smiled, "I've written over a dozen studies on your species, I've published in several journals that-"
"Amusing," Javik interrupted, "Asari have finally mastered writing."
Liara blinked twice, "I'm... sorry?"
"We've never seen a species with a sensory ability like you have," Shepard asked before Javik could respond, "Can you give us a demonstration?"
"It was common among my people," Javik said and got down on one knee, putting his fingers against the floor, "Imparting experience through touch. Complicated ideas could be transferred in seconds. We evolved as hunters, reading a thousand details in our environment ensured our survival," he closed his eyes and Shepard imagined the energy going through his body as he read the room, "There was... liquid here. A form of incubation. The DNA of a... krogan who lived here. He was powerful, violent. There was great strength in his genes."
"I'm impressed," Shepard nodded, "His name was Grunt." I wonder where Grunt is now. Probably fighting something a lot bigger then himself.
"What was Prothean civilization like?" Liara took the opportunity to ask at the brief window of silence, "I've always wondered! What sort of government did you have? Can you tell me about your religious believes? How about-"
"We are dead now," Javik said sombrely, with only a trace of emotion on his face, "What does it matter now?"
"I'm... sorry. Studying your history has been a life-long passion of mine."
Javik studied her for a moment before he accepted the request, "When I was born, our Empire was already at war with the Reapers. We had no culture left to speak of, no time to cultivate our young ones. All we could do was survive. The first thing I remember was seeing my planet on fire."
"How grim," Garrus spoke for the first time.
"When the Reapers arrived, they shut down the Mass Relays and separated our systems from each other. Those who faced the Reapers in the beginning were long dead when I was born; the conflict had lasted for centuries. There were memory shards however," he raised his hand to his chest-plate and opened a hidden compartment. Inside was a small, glimmering shard that resembled a disc. Javik looked at it for several seconds before he shut the compartment once again, "Passed down from soldier to soldier, they gave us fragments of what happened."
"Could it help us with the device?" Liara asked hopefully.
"No... It contains only pain." Javik's voice grew heavy and distant again.
"Is there anything you can tell us about that device your people were trying to build?"
"We heard only stories... They said our scientists were trying to construct a great machine that had the power to defeat the Reapers. But at that point, the Empire was smashed into pieces. None of us knew what the others were doing."
"Three years ago we found a Prothean VI called Vigil on the planet Ilos. He was the caretaker of a research project."
"During my life, Ilos was only a rumour. It was said we had cities there, built on the ruins from a civilization before us. If our scientists did have a research facility, whatever they were doing was secret."
"Yes," Liara thought back, "Vigil mentioned that they wiped all traces of themselves from the records so that the Reapers couldn't find them. The scientist eventually went into cryogenic stasis."
"More of my people survived?" Javik asked, suddenly eager and hopeful.
"No. They woke up later and made their way to the Citadel after the Reapers left the galaxy through a one-way Relay hidden on Ilos and they managed to delay the invasion of this cycle by reprogramming the keepers. But they couldn't leave."
"I never saw the Citadel," Javik said sadly, "It was captured long before I was born. No one had been there for generations. I cannot imagine what horrors went on there after the Reapers conquered it."
I can, Shepard thought, there would be millions of tubes lined around the station, with black goo everywhere. And in the centre of it all... a Reaper being born. Will I be able to walk the halls again knowing that this was the fate of an entire race? "How did your people wage war against the Reapers?" Garrus asked while Shepard was lost in her own thoughts.
"Attrition. We fought them system by system, planet by planet, city by city. Entire worlds were sacrificed to slow the Reapers down. Time they spent harvesting was time we could regroup."
"That must've cost you in the long run." The thought of sacrificing an entire planet to delay a battle was a thought that she found utterly disgusting, even if she understood it.
"Yes..." Javik hung his head, "Our own people would be indoctrinated, converted, and then turned against us. But there was no choice."
Do I tell him about the Collectors? Is he ready to hear about that this soon?
"What had been our strength, our Empire, became a liability," Javik continued, "All races conformed to one doctrine, one strategy. The Reapers exploited this. Once they found our weaknesses, we could not adapt. The subservient races became divided and confused, then it was only a matter of time.
"I'm happy to say that our cycle is different," Liara said, "Most races cooperate but they're still unique."
"Then it may be your only hope..." he suddenly at Shepard and his face was tired and haunted, "I am feeling exhausted. Might we continue this after I recover fully, Commander?"
"Of course. Thank you for talking to us. I never imagined actually meeting a Prothean."
Javik bowed his head, "This has been... amusing. To discover that the most primitive races of my time now rules the galaxy. The asari, the humans, the turians."
"There are also the salarians," Liara didn't look very happy about being called primitive, Shepard noted with a smile.
Javik blinked in surprise, "The lizard people evolved?"
"I believe they are amphibian," Liara said, almost victoriously.
"They used to eat flies..." out of all the things that had happened to him, this seemed to be the weirdest thing.
-------------------------
"Goddess," Liara exclaimed as she and Shepard stepped off the Normandy, "I don't know what to think!" her voice was thick with frustration.
"Relax," Shepard placed her on Liara's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze, "He only just woke up. You'll get to question him soon."
"But that's the thing, Shepard! I thought we'd get a brilliant scientist or a great thinker! Instead we get another-"
"Yet another dumb soldier on the Normandy?" Shepard raised an amused eyebrow.
Liara, of course, didn't catch the joke, "What? No, no, no! I didn't mean that!"
Shepard laughed out load, something she rarely did. In a galaxy under siege by narcissistic machines bent on wiping out all life, humour was not something you found easily. To Shepard, a hardened soldier, the most you got was a sarcastic smirk or a quick chuckle. Garrus was her main source of those smirks and chuckle but Liara, bless her, was the only one who could make Shepard laugh, intentionally or not.
Shepard's laugh stopped abruptly as the two turned the corner in the VIP section of the Normandy's designated dock and saw an all too familiar figure waiting for them.
"Shit," Shepard mumbled through clenched teeth but it was too late to avoid the problem.
Khalisah Al-Jilani stood by the doorway leading to the security station, speaking with someone on her floating camera device. Shepard couldn't see or hear whoever she was talking to but al-Jilani was obviously trying, and failing, to keep her voice low and her body language screamed frustration.
"...really don't want to do it, can't you get someone else?" she pleaded, "It's going to be a fucking catastrophe!" a low mumbling came from the camera, a response that was impossible to hear, "I don't give a fuck about ratings right now, I really don't wan-"
Shepard closed her eyes and began took a breath before she dove in. While her last meeting with al-Jilani had been civil, she could never know if the reporter would be in full bitch-mode or act like a normal human being.
"No, I'm not going to su... Fuck you, Coleman! You said you wouldn't demand that again!" al-Jilani hissed furiously, loud enough for most of the room to hear her, "This is not why I took this jo ... asshole!" she barked as the call apparently disconnected.
Al-Jilani drew her fingers through her hair in frustration and exhaled loudly before she finally saw Shepard and Liara silently watching her. It took her only a moment to recompose. Firing off a striking smile, she approached the duo.
"Commander Shepard," she called out in the most fake jovial tone that Shepard had ever heard, "How wonderful to meet you again!"
"Right," Shepard's response was thick with sarcasm that was apparently lost on al-Jilani.
"And you must be Doctor T'Soni!" al-Jilani offered a hand that Liara reluctantly shook, "Don't worry, it's not recording. This is complete off the record," al-Jilani said as she caught Shepard glancing at the camera floating behind her.
"What do you want, Khalisah?" Shepard demanded.
"This... this is difficult to ask," she hesitated, "But I think we can help each other."
"And why should I be interested in doing that?" Shepard asked bluntly.
"My producer wants me imbedded on a human ship to cover the war, and... they want that ship to be the Normandy," to her credit, al-Jilani kept a straight face as she spoke.
"Why would I want that?" Shepard cocked an eyebrow at the reporter.
"'Wars can be won or lost in the editing room'," Al-Jilani cited, "'And this war needs to be won'. Our network, Battlespace, has begun imbedding reports on Alliance ships. We're carried on just about all Council planets. They want to give the public a personal report directly from the front lines. And my... my boss has insisted that I try to get on the Normandy. I wasn't exactly given much choice."
Shepard frowned. On one hand, al-Jilani was a total bitch who had hounded her for years. But on the other, having the media on her side for a change might be a valuable thing.
"You mean propaganda," Liara pointed out.
"In a way. We'd be raising the morale of both the audience galaxy wide but also of the troops back on Earth and on other places. They'd get to see the Normandy behind the scenes, and the crew that operates it. In a war like this, propaganda can be a great asset."
"Wow, Khalisah, you almost sounded like a real reporter there," Shepard said dryly.
Al-Jilani grimaced, "Well, I do have a journalism degree..."
"I don't see why I should let you on my ship," Shepard crossed her arms defiantly; "You've done nothing but slander me since we first met. If you were to even get near my ship, I would have to green-light everything that you intend to report. You wouldn't have free access on the Normandy, you would need an escort or my approval to even use the bathrooms." She glared at her, "And if I caught you in even the slightest lie, or saw even piece indicating that you're going to slander me or my crew, I'd kick you out the airlock myself."
"Of course," al-Jilani didn't meet her gaze.
Shepard softened, "I can give you one chance. If it works, we'll see how it goes. If not, you're out at first port."
"You'll... let me aboard?" al-Jilani looked at her in confusion.
"Again: you get one chance. Report to the Normandy as soon as possible; Samantha Traynor will work on the finer details for our deal."
"Okay! How much gear do I get to bring?"
"That thing," Shepard nodded to camera, "And one footlocker."
"Aye aye, Commander!" al-Jilani saluted enthusiastically and quickly departed, rushing through the security checkpoint.
"I'm going to regret that, aren't I?" Shepard sighed loudly.
"Probably," Liara smiled.
-----------
The top of the Purgatory club, the VIP section, had been reserved for members of the Normandy; Shepard was informed of this by the burly krogan bouncer by the entrance. On orders of the Pirate Queen. Shepard saw several members of her crew, James Vega included, spread around the floor plates as she and Liara walked inside. Liara had been reluctant to join her at the club but Shepard had insisted.
Aria T'Loak was easy to find. Fancying herself a queen, the asari sat upon a large couch overlooking the Purgatory dance floor. The batarian, Bray, stood by her side behind the couch, arms crossed across his large chest and scanning the area while a pair of heavy krogans and a turian stood at the bottom of the steps leading up to Aria's throne.
Liara left Shepard's side as they approached and the Commander walked through the line of guardsmen alone. Aria's cool eyes followed her every step but the Pirate Queen made no move to get and up greet her personally. Shepard met Bray's gaze and the batarian gave her a slight nod. Is this a batarian that doesn't want to slit my throat on sight?
"Enjoy the show, Shepard?" she nodded down at the dance floor. Dozens of people were dancing or drinking and several asari strippers were wiggling around poles. Shepard had to admit that the sight wasn't unpleasant. For someone who had always preferred the company of women, a half-dressed asari on a pole was something you could never tire of seeing.
"Thinking of expanding your territory?" Shepard asked as an asari waitress walked up the stairs wearing the most revealing outfit that Shepard had ever seen, carrying a plate with tall, fancy crystal glasses. She placed it in front of the Commander who grabbed one and tasted it. Asari red wine. At least three centuries old. Brilliant fermentation. This would've cost me half a fortune on any civilized planet. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the wine.
Aria sat and watched her drink, took in every aspect of Shepard's face and her reactions to then wine. Satisfied with the result, she nodded to the asari waitress who curtsied and left.
"I hate this place," as always when Aria spoke, there was an undercurrent of anger and a threat of violence in her voice, "So sickeningly uptight."
"Then why are you here?" Shepard leaned back in the sofa to get a better view of the dance floor.
"Cerberus stole Omega from me," Aria rose form her seat and walked over to the edge of the plate. Shepard couldn't see her face but the cold fury was unmistakeable, "The Illusive Man is now squarely at the top of my shit list. He will pay for every second in this bureaucratic hellhole."
"You know the Illusive Man?" Shepard wasn't as surprised as she should be. Aria had been one of the most powerful and influential criminals in the galaxy but The Illusive Man hadn't gotten to where he was today by making public appearances and interacting with people. Least of all aliens.
"We've done business in the past," Aria said bluntly, "But he's a scheming bastard. Turned on me the moment he saw an opening."
"How'd he defeat you?"
"Deceit, distraction and a big fucking army," Aria growled, "Omega came under attack from creatures beyond the Omega-4 Relay. Conveniently, Cerberus just happened to have a fleet nearby. And that fleet just happened to be led by one of one the smartest men Cerberus has. It didn't take long before I was forced to flee."
"At least you survived to fight another day."
"And that day is coming," Aria turned and dug her icy stare into Shepard's, "I'll take Omega back. But we'll get to that. You're here because I got a proposition."
Shepard drank again, "I'm listening."
"The way I see it," Aria sat back down on the couch and leant back as far as she could, cocking her head sideways to look at Shepard, "If you don't defeat the Reapers, we're all dead. No matter where I'm sitting, it's an interest to help you."
"What are you offering, Aria?" Shepard asked slowly. If Aria was going to offer something, she would no doubt ask for something in return.
"On Omega, I kept the Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Packs in check," a smug smile crept onto Aria's face, "I still have them. Meaning that I have a powerful and ruthless force for your war."
Shepard drank and considered the offer. The Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack had been the biggest mercenary groups on Omega; violent, psychotic and unpredictable murderers, all brought together under one equally violent and unpredictable leader. Normally that kind of rabble was not what Shepard wanted to be associated with but with the Reapers in the galaxy, you had no time to be picky.
"What do you want in return?"
"I want what's mine," Aria said bluntly, "I'm going to slap Omega right out The Illusive Man's greedy little hands. And I want you to help me with that."
"How would that benefit the war?"
"Rumour has it that you have two enemies in this war. It would be better to cripple Cerberus early by taking Omega from them rather then letting them grow strong on whatever it is they're looking for beyond the Omega-4 Relay, wouldn't it?"
Shepard conceded the point. Is there anything left beyond that Relay? As far as the Normandy's data could tell, we left nothing intact after we blew up the Collector base. What could Cerberus have found?
"Speaking of Cerberus," Aria gestured to Bray who placed a data pad in Shepard's hands, "I have another request. Have you seen that man?"
Shepard looked at the face that appeared on the screen. Though he had changed his appearance slightly after the picture was taking, Kai Leng was easily recognizable.
"I've run in to him," Shepard's voice didn't betray her emotions as she thought back to her encounter with Kai Leng in the narrow stairwell in a burning restaurant. She remembered how the body of a dying woman jerked in her arms as the Cerberus assassin shot her at point blank range to get to Shepard. She would never forget the feeling.
"Well if you run into him again, make sure that he doesn't survive the encounter."
"What did he do?" Shepard asked curiously.
Aria's eyes narrowed and her voice became thick with even more venom and hate then before, "He broke the one rule,"
Don't fuck with Aria. Shepard looked at the picture of Kai Leng again in silence. What did you do, you bastard?
"You don't need to bring me his head," Aria continued with a sneer, "Just making sure that dies. Throw him out an airlock, beat him to death with your fists, feed him to a krogan, I don't care. I just want him fucking dead."
Shepard glanced at her. For a moment there, Aria had lost her cool. It was a momentary loss but Shepard had noticed it and Aria knew that she had.
"The mercs are all in my pocket," Aria said after a minute of awkwardness, "When Omega is mine again I'll send them to war for you."
Shepard looked at her glass and considered. On one hand, Aria should not be allowed to dictate what Shepard should do; but on the other hand, an army was an army.
"Alright," she nodded finally, "I'll help you retake Omega if I can. But the Reapers are my priority. I won't come running if you call for me. Do we understand each other?"
Aria's face was impossible to read, "Perfectly, Spectre," her voice was dry. As Shepard got up to leave, the asari looked at the glass that was still in her hand, "To celebrate our partnership, I'll send over a few bottles for you. You can't even buy more then one of those in your whole life on a Spectre salary."
Shepard smiled as she walked past Bray and down the steps. An army and the best wine in the galaxy. What else can a soldier wish for?
She found Liara at the bar, alone by the wall and with a glass of water in front of her. How she had managed to fend of the attention a lone asari by a bar always got was something Shepard could only speculate but right now, she didn't want to bother herself with theories. Coming up behind her, she slipped an arm around Liara's waist and leaned in towards her, placing her glass down on the disk with a loud clink. It was now empty. She was beginning to feel the loveable bliss of the alcohol kicking in.
"It seems like the meeting went well," Liara kept her voice neutral but Shepard could feel her body react to her touch.
"It did. Very well," Shepard slid next to her with her arm still wrapped around Liara's waist. She tapped the disc and got the salarian bartender's attention and gestured an order to him. While she waited, her gaze wandered to a nearby pole where a skimpily dressed asari was doing her best to amuse a group of off-duty marines.
"Hey Liara," she spoke slowly, making sure that her words were as clear as possible. She never took her eyes off the asari's outfit, "I have an interest ide-"
"No,"
Shepard laughed and the bartender appeared with a tray of small glasses. Liara eyed them curiously and then glanced at Shepard who gave her a cheeky smile.
"Well, then I want to show you an old human tradition. Something I've wanted to do for a long time," she skilfully picked the tray up in one hand, "It's called body shots."
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