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[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, chapter 19
Ghosts of Memory

Alchera is bleak. It?s well outside the life zone for its particular star, and just failed to retain enough mass to become a second gas giant for the system. Instead, it has an atmosphere of methane and ammonia, that falls as ?snow? on a rough rocky surface. Three small moons provide some protection, but the surface is still pitted with asteroid impacts. Yet that?s where I find myself standing.

I?m on my own, without even the Cerberus crewman who normally would have flown the shuttle down to remain on board. I don?t think any of the Cerberus crew would have any emotional attachment to the site, and somehow it feels disrespectful to my dead to bring them here. Joker wanted to come, but his physical condition meant he wouldn?t be able to do more than stay in the shuttle, and he didn?t feel like that would show proper respect. Doctor Chakwas was going to come, except she?s suddenly performing surgery on one of the crew, whose appendix suddenly erupted. Garrus of course is the other Normandy survivor on board, and he regards it as a strange human custom to commemorate the dead in this way. It?s not that he refused, but we started to put together the Thanix cannon today, and he wanted to supervise it.

The only noise as I walk around the site is the crunch of my boots on the snow, and a faint hiss as more falls on the thin layer. While I suspect small fragments of the Normandy are scattered across half this hemisphere of the planet, the massier sections remained on the same general trajectory and have fallen within an area of not much more than a square kilometre. Shattered sections of hull and structural members with some of the plating attached loom over me as I walk around. Over there, the port side of the fuselage lies, half buried in the drifts. The letters Normandy still stand out proudly, declaring the history of this ship. I remember last time I saw them, standing on the Alliance dock on the Citadel, looking down at my ship. It was almost the only place I ever saw the name like that, since on most docks it was over my head. Near the hull, I find the first dog tag. Emerson, Hector; a big man, one of the marine guards who protected the entrance to the CiC, with a wheezing laugh that his friends used to tease him about.

I start to search the area, systematically covering each section. Dog tags are intended to respond to an interrogatory pulse, and my omnitool broadcasts is systematically. I spot a second almost immediately. Chase, Addison; head of third watch in engineering, due to go on leave as soon as our mission was completed as his wife was expecting their third child with a couple of months. Those three will grow up never knowing their father.

Pakti, Abishek; another engineer. Lived uptown when I was growing up in the slums. It?s funny how the things I knew growing up, he had a totally different perspective on, and vice versa. His father was a noted philanthropist, who argued that joining the navy was a bad career choice that would get his only son killed, which made Abishek unhappy sometimes.

Crosby, Silas; married two weeks before the Normandy left for New Eden. His childhood sweetheart, a blonde woman with a large bust, who came to wave the Normandy off and got in my way when I ws trying to board. He apologised, repeatedly, despite the number of times I told him not to worry about it. A marine private, he?d only been in for a year when he died.

One of the more intact sections of hull attracts my attention, and I clamber through the opening. This bit led up to the bridge. There?s the pilot?s chair that Joker was always in, the one without the leather seat he now loves so much. One more set of tags here. Caroline Grenado; ensign, manned one of the sensor stations on the corridor leading to the bridge. Used to spend hours in the female restroom, gossiping about the latest relationships on board, and speculating on who might be in one next. Last time I walked in there, she blushed scarlet and hurried out. Can?t imagine why.

Another one, just outside, peeking out from under a storage crate. Tucks, Carlton; another engineer, slightly overweight. I?d had to warn him to get into shape for his next physical, and he was sulking about it. He wanted to get out when his enlistment came up in six months, and didn?t see any point working in fitness he wouldn?t need. His family wanted him home to help run their delivery business in Florida, and he had pictures of the beaches pasted on the inside of his locker.

Tanaka, Raymond; his tag lies next to an escape pod that got ejected without anyone inside. A colonial boy, one of the few survivors of the Batarian attack on Elysium. He absolutely hated Batarians, which is hardly a surprise. I once heard him comment tha tTorfan was justice, but only partial jsutice. I?d made a note that he needed psychological help, but hadn?t forwarded it. Now, he won?t need it and there?s no reason to tarnish his memory.

A little further round the area is another large chunk of wreckage. I walk up to it, and realise where I?m standing. Ahead of me is the section of ramp that I walked up so many times to look at the galaxy map and set a course to our next destination. The controls around the display are shattered on the deck, having been opened to space by the original attack. Oddly, part of the top plating still extends above me on the right, and there?s a response from under it. I slip past some broken structural members, and recover another tag. Grieco, Marcus; I wonder what he?d have been doing in CiC, as he was an engineer. He was looking forward to his next leave, since he was planning to propose marriage to his girlfriend. They?d rented a room on the Citadel on their last leave, and according to gossip didn?t come out for two days.

As I stand up straight from lifting the tag, I notice a loose data pad. Wondering whose it was, I pick it up and try to transfer some power to it from my equipment. It flickers faintly to life, and there?s the index. Commander Pressley, my navigator and theoretically second-in-command, though I hardly treated him as such, using the Normandy more as a transport for my regular ground team. A few diary entries are already readable.

[data unrecoverable]/*/**(/ [data recovered] spoke to the Commander about this. I [corrupt] all these damned aliens aboard the Alliance?s most advanced warship. I just don?t trust them. Esp[data unrecoverable] damned Asari. And a Quarian! What does Shepard think this is, a zoo?

[data unrecoverable] hfg/$%/tr.n?phg*/w¬[data recovered] spoke to the Quarian. It seems she?s on some sort of pilgrimage, trying to improve the lot of her home ship. I can understand that. I would [data unrecoverable] babysit my children, or something like that, but if she has to be on board I suppose it?s not so bad.

[data unrecoverable] `fme/* wte /$%/gfg?^feiq~ [data recovered] for a while now, and I?m taking a look back at past entries in this journal. I [corrupt] believe how blind I was at the time. I came on this ship firmly believing humanity was on it?s own in the galaxy [data unrecoverable] Shepard brought all these aliens on board, and there?s no way we could have accomplished what we did without them. I am proud to say [corrupt] would die for any member of this crew, regardless of where they were born.

Oh, Pressley. With your smart little beard, and your willingness to try to do whatever would keep me happy. I knew you didn?t like aliens, and there I was thinking I?d ask for you to be replaced if you couldn?t react better to them. I hadn?t even realised how much you?d changed.

Outside, there?s another dog tag. Bakari, Jamin; newly assigned after the Battle of the Citadel, and so excited to be on the Normandy. A distinct case of hero worship, leading him to offer to carry Chief Williams bag. She looked at him as if he was an insect, and suggested if he thought she couldn?t carry her own he could come down to the exercise area and spar with her. He looked so embarrassed, I let him carry mine instead.

Neguluso, Monica; her dog tags lie in a ccrack in the ground, which I have to stretch to reach into. She was a new recruit when the Normandy set out to New Eden, and came on board at the same time I did. Bursting with enthusiasm for her first posting, actually seeing combat shook her up. After a few days, and a couple of talks, she was back to her bubbly self. If the gossip I heard was right, she was showing a lot of interest in one of the other engineers.

Barrett, Germeer. His tags are lying a long way from the main site, where part of the Normandy balances over a crevasse. He was a weapons maintenance technician, and played the guitar badly in the mess hall when off duty. It didn?t seem to bother him when people threw food at him, as long as they didn?t mess up his uniform. He?d been in a band at school, and three of his band mates also served in the military, though not on Normandy.

On a ledge next to the remnants of an engine, I notice a black combat helmet. One of my marines must have lost it. Except that there?s a red marking on it. My heart beats a little faster, and I clamber up onto the ledge. An N7 logo looks back at me from my old combat helmet. It?s cracked down one side, and the visor is clearly broken, but it?s still mine, that I?d had with me since before Torfan. Now, it?s coming home with me.

LaFlamme, Orden; his tags are just off the end of the ledge. Another of my engineers, this one a specialist in power systems. He was going through a really messy divorce, his wife blaming his permanent absence as a factor. I bet she claimed the widows pension, though, when he went missing. Noiw she can have the bonus for losing her husband too confirmed.

Waaberi, Amina; her tag responds from under a crate. For a moment, the hiss of snow is broken by a burst of gunfire echoing around the wreckage as I blast it open. Her parents came to see her on the Citadel after the battle, the first time they?d ever been off Earth. They were so proud of her, and seemed equally happy to meet me. They thought I?d take care of their daughter.

Another section of wreckage lies broken open on a ridge. I clamber into it, realising that it?s the old sleeper pd section from deck two. Two more tags in here, which is a surprise since there were always people on rest periods. I suppose I should write to the manufacturors, complimenting them on their emergancy alarm equipment.

Dubyansky, Alexei; assistant pilot. Given Joker?s tendencies, he had trouble getting enough flight time to stay technically qualified. I finally moved him to second shift, when Joker was supposed to be asleep, so that he could spend time in the chair. Which rarely helped, since we rarely arrived anywhere without Joker being at the controls, and monitoring the systems in FTL space wasn?t exactly demanding piloting.

Lowe, Helen M.; my senior petty officer on the navy side, as Ashley was my senior NCO for the marines. Kept the ship running, made sure any problems came ot my attention as well as Pressley?s, and did the neatest crochet I?d ever seen. Married and divorced twice during her first ten years in the navy, she was coming up to twenty-five years in. Originally she?d been a flight engineer on assault shuttles, and was part of the landing force at Shanxi when we threw the Turians out.

Outside, another tag beeps at me from under the edge of a crate. I push it aside. Felawa, Robert; he wanted to apply for special forces training, despite serving as a supply clerk. I interviewed him twice, and he had the right sort of personality in many ways, but he needed a lot of work to be ready. I was working with him on a training program that might get him ready.

One more large section of hull, and it?s from deck two. The old mess still has some of it?s furniture bolted to the floor, despite being crushed into a crevasse on both sides. My old office/bedroom is gone on one side, and sick bay on the other. And there, wires dangling from what?s left of the ceiling, is Lieutenant Alenko?s workstation. I half expect him to be standing there now, as he almost always was when I went through here. But of course I killed him on Virmire.

Gladstone, Harvey J.; another of my engineers. Deputy to Commander Adams, and commanded second watch. Thinking about it, most of the dead engineers are second watch. If I remember correctly, they would have been on station and probably stayed on longer than ws safe to try to keep things running as long as possible. Harvey was starting to go bald, was embarrassed about it, and wore a cap to try and hide it; which only meant he ws teased more any time he took it off.

Rahman, Mandira; a marine corporal, who was self confident enough to argue with me when the subject of combat drones came up. Her family ran an electronics company on earth, and she knew a lot about the subject. She doted on her baby brother, who I met on the citadel and who stood taller than either me or Mandira and probably massed as much as the two of us together. Not such a baby any more, but she still treated him like he was massively junior to her.

Criss-crossing the area, I find two more tags close together. Draven, Rosamund, and Draven, Talitha; Alliance regulations don?t allow relatives to serve on the same ship, normally, but these two weren?t related. Rosamund was one of Doctor Chakwas? sick berth attendants, a calm woman with a slow drawl, who knitted blankets nearly as well as Chief Lowe crocheted them. Talitha had a fiancé on one the Kilimanjaro, who she married on the Citadel with an Asari priestess performing the ceremony, one day after the Battle of the Citadel, and with both commanding officers in attendance. She claimed that she couldn?t know what would happen at any point, and damned if she was going to die without getting married.

That?s all twenty missing tags. The last pair lay close to a lump of rock near the centre of the area. On top of that rock is the Mako, its belly broken open by the impact. A piece of equipment that went all the way from Earth, through scores of worlds to Ilos, and then half way across the galaxy in a Prothean-built mass relay, before being abandoned illegally parked at the base of the Citadel tower. This isn?t that one. This one didn?t even get to leave the ship, and doesn?t have any of the scratches and dents I remember from my Mako. Yet it still reminds me of what the new Normandy is missing, and I stare at it nostalgically for a few seconds.

There was one other thing the Alliance wanted me to do here, and that was to put up a monument. I look around, but there?s only one appropriate place. Walking over to the shuttle, I open the cargo hatch and lift out the monument. It?s not really what I was expecting, a stylised Normandy on a flare of metal representing it swooshing through space, with a simple inscription telling visitors the name of the ship, it?s construction and destruction date, and a piece of poetry.

Cattle die, kindred die
Every man is mortal
But I know one thing
That never dies
The glory of the
Great dead.

I pilot the shuttle away, leaving the Normandy?s ghosts behind to haunt the wreckage.

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[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 20
Vehicles and anti-histamines

When I get back to the Normandy, Kelly bounces us to me. ?Commander, you?ve got new messages on your private terminal.?

?Really.? I don?t care that I sound grumpy.

?Are you all right, Commander?? Suddenly I remember she?s not just my bubbly redheaded yeoman, but a trained psychologist.. Who is currently looking at me as a possible client.

?That last mission wasn?t the most fun I?ve ever had. Too many ghosts haunting the wreckage.?

?People you knew died there, of course. But it wasn?t your fault.?

?Perhaps not. But if you can find me a military commander who doesn?t think they could do better when their people take casualties, I?ll find you one I wouldn?t want to serve under. ? I rattle a small bag I?m carrying. ?These are the dog tags of the people who died on the Normandy, who trusted me to keep them alive. They need to go to their families. Can you take care of shipping them to the Alliance??

?Of course, Commander. You can rely on me. And if you want to talk about it?? She leaves the question hanging for me.

?Perhaps some time we can have a good long talk, but not right now.?

?I?m always happy to talk to you, Commander.? Somehow she makes that sound awfully suggestive.


I check my mail. There?s one from Doctor Daniel on Omega, claiming things are quiet again round there. He seems to have been changed by his experiences with the Batarians though; when Mordin left the security mechs behind, Daniel kept them around and active. So when the Blue Suns came round, talking about the clinic?s need for protection and how they were able to provide it, he pointed them in the direction of the security mechs.

A second message also comes from Omega.

From: Nalah Butler
Commander Shepard,
My husband was one of the men serving on Garrus' team. I don't how much Garrus talked to you about what happened. I don't know the specifics myself, only that my husband died in a trap set by those bastard gangs. I know Garrus blames himself; he took every shot fired at his squad at a failure on his part, and it was clear when he sent me the message about my husband that he thinks it was his fault.
My husband would never have wanted that. He was proud of the work he did on Garrus' squad. He was taking back Omega from the gangs. He died fighting with honor. I miss him. God, I'd give anything to get him back. But whatever happened there wasn't Garrus' fault.
You're his commander now. Please, if you can, help him stop blaming himself. And please don't tell that I sent you this. Thank you.
- Nalah Butler

I?ll have to talk to Garrus about this. Of course, it?s also something I perhaps need to hear myself. The last message is from a Cerberus group.

From: Project Firewalker
Commander,
The MSV Rosalie, a survey ship with Cerberus connections, has gone missing. The survey team was field-testing a new prototype: the Hammerhead planet-side exploration rover. In addition, scientists Dr. Manuel Cayce and Dr. Robert O'Loy are aboard the MSV Rosalie and conducting research for us. We need you to find the ship, her survey team, and the doctors.
The MSV Rosalie was last seen near planet Zeona (Elysta, Ismar Frontier).

If remember correctly, the Ismar Frontier is where Zaeed had that mission he wanted to perform, and we might as well get the two done together. Off we go.

The two missions are in separate systems, neither of which has a mass relay in it. I decide to deal with the Cerberus one first. We head for Zeona, where the Rosalie has gone down in a volcanic area of the planet. I can only imagine they were using it for testing, but orbital scans show the ship has broken up. We take the shuttle down, and I order it to return to the Normandy rather than remain on unstable ground.

As we approach the largest piece of wreckage, an automated voice recorder comes on. ?If you?re listening to this, we?ve relocated to another location. We?ve had too many Geth encounters for it to be a coincidence. I?m moving my team to Doctor O?Loy?s site, which is more secure.?

Nearby is a large shipping container, which we open up. Inside is the Hammerhead. There?s a turret with a missile launcher and screen generators, but it?s the propulsion that?s most original. The vehicle is a pure Mass Effect field vehicle, with a main lift field under the rear of the main body, and two vectored thrust ME drivers attached to the side at the front. This thing is going to be highly mobile, but the power drain from the propulsion means it can?t have much in the way of shields.

We take it, and the vehicle handles well. There?s a speed burst option, allowing for short bursts of higher speed, and by overloading the main driver you can jump the vehicle. Of course, you could jump the Mako, but this is designed that way. We take the vehicle back to the Normandy. I report it?s recovery to Cerberus, and a couple of hours later as we?re leaving the system we get a reply.

From: Project Firewalker
Good work on recovering the Hammerhead in one piece, Commander --- it will prove useful. Also, the data you recovered from the MSV Rosalie's emergency beacon contained significant intel on a few planets that Dr. Cayce and Dr. O'Loy investigated. EDI has added the locations to your galaxy map. We hope that one of them leads to the Prothean site.
Despite Dr. Cayce's obvious instability, he?s proven to be a brilliant and dedicated scientist. If you salvage any more of his logs or journals, it would greatly help our efforts.
We still don't know how the geth are tracking Dr. Cayce, so be careful.

We reach the Faia system, and head for the planet Zorya. The refinry Zaeed wants us to recapture is in the Northern hemisphere, in the temperate zone of the planet. Which in this case, means it?s pretty much a jungle. The world is famous for it?s aggressive plant and fungal life, and the atmosphere contains lots of spores which you really don?t want to breathe in. We land in a rough clearing, not too far from the refinery. Over the treetops, we can see a tall chimney belching smoke into the atmosphere.

Zaeed sounds pretty grim. ?I?ll monitor the frequencies the Blue Suns use. They have to have noticed our landing.?

We start off towards the camp, and a couple of minutes later he holds up a hand. A message he?s intercepting comes over our comms. ?Team Two, an unidentified shuttle landed just south of your position. Santiago says to check it out.?

Zaeed?s smile is predatory. ?This is the place. We?d better get moving, before the whole base comes down on us.?

Our advance takes us towards the refinery, along rough jungle tracks. Round one corner, we come across a trio of corpses, human workers from the refinery. Zaeed spits. ?Shot in the back and left to die. That?s Vido?s style, all right.?

?Doesn?t sound like a nice person.? Miranda manages to make that sound amazingly sarcastic.

?He isn?t.? Zaeed seems to be taking this very seriously.

We move on. A couple of minutes later, we get our first contact with the mercenaries. A group are standing around near some refinery equipment. Tapped into their communications, we hear their report. ?Command, we?ve got a group of mercenary commandoes incoming. We?re engaging them.?

I?m sure there was more said, but I wasn?t really paying much attention. Instead, I was shooting at mercenaries. Most of them fall without too much trouble, but one with a rocket launcher is on a walkway over our heads. She launches several rockets at us, before I?m able to catch her with a biotic slam. As she staggers, two sniper rounds knock her backwards and she falls off the walkway.

The mercenary comm traffic is getting more heated. It is helpful of them to tell us that reinforcements are on the way, as it gives us a chance to prepare an ambush. The troopers that come this time are more heavily equipped, but there really isn?t too much cover where they approach us and while I can?t always guarantee to have a shot myself one of my team will.

Moving on, we find a narrow canyon, fortunately with an extending bridge over it. As I hack the controls to extend it, a new voice comes over the comms. ?Deal with these intruders. If anyone retreats without orders, I?ll shoot them myself.?

?That?s Vido Santiago, all right.? Zaeed sounds both angry and almost frustrated.

?You know him from somewhere??

?You could say that. About twenty years ago, we founded the Blue Suns together.?

I look up, and lose the thread I?m hacking. ?Why didn?t anyone tell me you founded the Blue Suns??

?Because most people don?t know. When he staged his little coup, Vido altered the records.?

?How did that happen??

?When we started out, I was the field commander and Vido handled the administrative aspects, finance and recruitment. It worked for a while, but then Vido started hiring more and more Batarians. ?Cheap muslce?, says he. ?Goddamn terrorists?, I tell him. Well, he didn?t like that. He paid three of his cronies to hold me down, and then he shot me in the face.? He gestures to the damage around his left eye.

?You survived a shot in the face at point blank range.?

?And you survived your ship disintegrating around you. A stubborn enough person can survive just about anything. And hate is a great anaesthetic.?

The bridge extends, and we head across it. As we?re approaching the refinery proper, another communication over the mercenary comm. Net lets us know we?ll have a reception committee. ?They?re coming in through the South-Western entrance. Watch for the other teams. I?ll handle these.? Vido, sounds confident.

We go in, and he has a right to be. With half a dozen troopers at his back, he?s standing on a balcony overlooking the entrance, pipes running above and below it. He doesn?t look entirely surprised to see us. ?Zaeed Massani. You?ve finally found me after twenty years. What are you going to do now??

?I?m going to kill you, you son of a bitch.?

?Be reasonable, Zaeed. I?ve got you outgunned and outmanoeuvred. Leave, and I?ll maybe let you live another twenty years.?

Zaeed gives me a look, and I realize he?s got something planned. I move slightly closer to Miranda. As Zaeed breaks for the corner, he fires a couple of rounds wildly in Santiago?s direction. And unlike Santiago, I realize what he?s hit.

Santiago doesn?t. ?Getting nearsighted, old friend? Can?t hit what you aim at any more??

?Guess again.? Zaeed has pulled out his pistol, which I know is loaded with incendiary rounds. I drag Miranda behind me into cover as he fires.

Vido ducks as the pipes start spewing flame. ?What the? Kill him.? Directing that last at his men, he dashes for the main building. Even in this position, we?re pretty vulnerable to mercenary fire. Then I notice Zaeed is hammering on a valve with his rifle butt.

?What the hell are you doing?? If he?s trying to start a worse fire in a refinery, I think I have a problem with that.

?Evening the odds.? He sounds gleeful, especially when the valve suddenly gives way and the mercenaries on the catwalk above us are doused in burning liquid. What I?m not so pleased about is that the fires start spreading. He has a smirk on his face when he comes over towards me, but I?m not so pleased.

?This is fucking stupid. You?re starting a fire in a refinery that we?ve been hired to recover. Are you nuts??

?Listen.? His face has an ugly snarl. ?I don?t give a shit about the refinery. I?m here for Vido Santiago, and anything that gets in my way is going to regret it.?

?You follow my orders, Zaeed, or we?re going to have a problem.?

?I think perhaps we already do. Why are we standing around here talking when Vido?s getting away??

I glare at him, but he?s right. We work our way towards the main building, avoiding places where fires are starting. A couple of guards try to stop us, uselessly. And then, we?re outside the main entrance. It?s been locked, and I start to hack it, when a worker runs out of the building above us. ?Please, you?ve got to help us. The fires going to kill everyone, and the doors won?t open till they?re out.?

?No time. Vido?s getting away.? Zaeed sounds totally unconcerned.

I haul myself to my feet. ?Damn it. We?re being paid to save the refinery. Can you really go through it listening to the screams of the workers dying??

?Wasn?t planning on listening.?

?Well, I?m not. We get in and get the fire out.?

?If Vido gets away because you?re delaying, we?re going to have words.? I glare at him. ?Come on, if we?re gonna do it then let?s not waste time.?

We move through a side entrance, which I have to hack. Inside, some of the pipes are already spitting fire. As we move through the passages and up stairs I have to switch some of the valves to transfer fuel down different pipes, which starts fires in other areas. But eventually, we find ourselves in a control room. For some reason, there?s no one on duty in here, but I?m able to hack the controls and set off the fire control system. A few seconds later, it?s as if we?re in a tropical monsoon, as the system pumps out water that douses the flames, soaking the surviving workers and us. My hair is plastered to the inside of my helmet, and Miranda looks like a drowned rat. Still, we saved the workers.

As we push on, we kill a few more Blue Suns troopers, and discover what they were using the refinery for. Apparently, they were making flame throwers. I pick one up, but I won?t be using it inside a refinery even if water is still steadily raining from the fire containment system in the ceiling. It wouldn?t have been that useful anyway, considering the next major fight we get into. As we enter a large room, which I suspect is the main delivery area, Vido?s voice comes over the loudspeakers. ?The man who brings me Massani?s head will get a nice surprise in their pay packet this month.? That?s his idea of motivation?

It works moderately well, as Blue Sun troopers attempt to take us, but none of them are going to collect. We actually eliminate most of them with parts of the building, since it?s used to deliver fuel to other settlements. Zaeed notices two large tanks are on railings attached to the ceiling, and contain plenty of fuel. Incendiary rounds into them bring them crashing down in massive explosions that leave most of the mercenaries dead. Their Ymir mech proves much more survivable, nearly taking us out on its own when it comes clanking up as we cross the open area, but we fall back and pump rifle fire, missiles, and tech overloads into it until it explodes. And then we crash out of the front door of the refinery.

A gunship is just taking off, with three people on board. As it blasts away, Vido proves it has a loudspeaker. ?Not this time, Zaeed, you son of a bitch. Try again in another twenty years.?

?Arrrgh!? As the gunship flies off, Zaeed empties his assault rifle in its direction. For a moment it falters in its flight, and I think he?s brought it down, but it rights itself. Zaeed turns on me, raising his rifle. ?You just cost me twenty years of my life.?

For a moment I?m of the opinion that a shootout with Zaeed would be in my immediate future. And then, there?s one last secondary explosion. As we look round, a structural girder comes crashing down, glances off the side of a truck, and flattens Zaeed. As I look around, I see it?s lying on his legs. ?Son of a bitch! Arrgh.? I think he and Vido have some things in common, like their preferred curses.

?Zaeed. You all right?? I actually manage to sound concerned, and to be truthful I am. Apart from this mission, he?s been one of the more sensible and efficient crew members. This might need careful handling.

?What do you care? I?m fine. Now come on, get me out of this shithole.?

I bend down next to him. ?You put your revenge ahead of the mission. How can I trust that you?ll be there when we need you??

?I?ll do what I was goddamn paid to do, Shepard. Just don?t expect any more than that.?

My pistol in his face gets his attention. ?You?re part of a team now, Zaeed. There?s no way we can do this unless we?re all working together.?

Held down and with my gun in his face, I think Zaeed is remembering a situation he faced twenty years ago. ?You might have a point.? His faces changes. ?Come on, get me out from under this thing, and let?s just leave. Vido can wait his turn. There?ll be another time for him.?

And in other news, the refinery owners paid us; eventually. 15,000 credits, which is a lot more than the 500 I?m still owed for getting rid of Archangel on Omega. He is gone, after all.

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 21
Project Firewalker

?A lot of them were people who?d been hurt by the gangs on Omega in some way.? Garrus is explaining to me how he?d created his team on Omega, while we travel to Lattesh. I?ve decided to finish dealing with the Firewalker Project, and Cerberus have a number of leads on possible locations for the sicentists involved. Lattesh is uninhabited, and pretty much uninhabitable. While we?re on the way between the sites, I?m taking time to talk to crew members. ?Or they wanted to atone for something they?d done, or they just wanted to make a difference. So when I came to Omega and started working against the gangs, they tried to get in touch with me and eventually succeeded.?

?None of the gangs ever tried to get close to you that way?? I?m not terribly impressed by the brains involved, if that?s the case.

?I was careful. Someone would put out feelers, and I?d make sure they were for real. One or two I turned down, because I didn?t think they were cut out for it. The ones I had were tough enough to handle the job, or so I thought.?

?How?d you end up on Omega anyway? Last time we talked after the Citadel, you were going to apply for Spectre training.?

?I did. I even started it. But after a while, it seemed so pointless. I?d been doing things, with you. Now it was all tests, and assessments, and ?what would you do in this situation, Mister Vakarian?. After a while, I jsut got fed up. I thought I could do more good out here than sitting on Palaven learning the right way to do things.?

?So that got you to Omega. What sort of people did you recruit??

?All sorts, really. Ex-mercenaries, former C-Sec people, and others with stranger backgrounds. I had a Salarian explosives expert, who I?m pretty certain had been in the STG. My tech specialist was a Batarian, believe it or not. Not the friendliest guy, but he could hack any system anywhere. Everyone had a specialty, and could llook after themselves in a fight too.?

?And you took on the gangs, and the mercenary groups.?

?We did. After a while, people would start slipping information to us about things they were doing. We?d investigate, find out what we could, and then we?d make a plan. Usually, I?d lead a raid on the gang, destroy something, perhaps kill a few, get them all angry at us and then fall back. They?d follow us, straight into our killing zone. We?d have explosives rigged, clear lines of fire, alternative firing positions, and they?d just come in and get wiped out. After which if we wanted to we could go in and remove whatever they were doing with no opposition. Really, it paid for itself.?

?So you were funding yourselves by wiping out gangs. They must have really hated you.?

?I got three of Omega?s top mercenary groups to team up against me. My old C-Sec instructor would be proud.?

?So, how?d they get to you??

?We were betrayed.? His voice turns savage. ?One of our own, a Turian, too. I wouldn?t have believed it possible. I didn?t believe it possible, else he wouldn?t have got away with it.?

?What happened??

?Sidonis called me out of our hideout one day, said he had a lead on something really big going down, but the person would only speak to me in person. I was warned not to go by one of my team, who said he ?had an odd feeling? about it. But I trusted Sidonis. I went where he said, and he didn?t show. Then the station news started broadcasting, about Archangel?s gang being wiped out. I raced back to our hideout, and they were all dead. Though they took a lot of gang members down with them.?

?You?re sure Sidonis wasn?t dead too.?

?I?m sure. I still have a few contacts, and I put out some feelers. He cleared out his accounts, and boarded a shuttle out of Omega an hour earlier. But some day I?ll track him down, and then...? Abruptly he turns away. ?Excuse me, Shepard. I promised I?d do some calibrations on the main gun.?


Lattesh is a frozen wasteland of a planet, and the Hammerhead?s engines have a lower limit at which they?ll operate efficiently. Fortunately, all we need to do is move around, downloading data from a number of Geth probes that are studying the planets atmosphere. That turns out not to be much of a problem, and the Normandy is able to pick us up afterwards.


?Got a minute to talk, Professor??

?Certainly. Tissue samples compiling, nothing else to do.?

?What sort of research did you do with the STG, assuming it?s not too classified for you to tell me anything about it??

?Not jsut research. Fieldwork too. Studying Krogan Genophage. Recover water, tissue samples.?

?Studying the Genophage? What for?? That surprises me. I?d have thought the Genophage was ancient history at this point.

?Krogan Rebellions one of worst periods in galactic history. Bloody, dangerous. Nearly as bad as Rachni attacks. Need to check Krogan breeding success rates, make sure they aren?t adapting. Prepare scenarios in case of problem. Military schematics for likely population growth. Political scenarios for attack points. Genophage reduced Krogan numbers. Species aggression unchecked.
STG helped check Krogan Rebellions. Needed to be ready to do the same. Simple recon. Nothing to worry about.?

?That must have meant going to Tuchanka. Sounds risky.?

?Yes. Very dangerous. Not many Salarians on Tuchanka. Have to avoid contact as much as possible. Covert recon missions. Served under a young captain called Kirrahe.?

?I worked with an STG captain called Kirrahe. His team helped me destroy Saren?s research base on Virmire.?

?Yes. Heard he was part of that. Jury-rigged explosives. Always got job done with limited resources. Good Captain.? He turns slightly thoughtful. ?Bit of a cloacae, though. Loved his speeches. ?Hold the Line!? Personally prefer to get job done and go home. Probably military bravado. Jargon, chest-pounding. Err, no offence.?

?None taken. I?ll talk to you later.?


Corang, in the Hawking Eta cluster, is a planet with a lot of surface ruins after a failed colonisation attempt six hundred years ago. The Hammerhead is deployed to search for several sites the researchers were conducting tests at, and immediately we start engaging Geth. Troopers at first, but several of the sites are guarded by Geth Colossi. The Hammerhead is a lot less sturdy than the Mako, and can?t stand up to much damage. Although the missile launcher is long ranged and highly accurate, so are Geth missile systems. I also can?t recommend ramming, which is something the Mako did really well. We work our way through the ruins, shooting at Geth as we locate them and withdrawing when necessary for our shields to replenish. I have to say, while a missile launcher is nice I?d like a machine gun as well. If Geth troopers had been more plentiful or equipped with heavier weapons, I?m pretty sure we wouldn?t have survived some of the engagements. As it is, with two Colossi and a Geth Prime our last engagement gets quite hairy for a time.


?Have to say, you run this ship tight, and we?re getting things done. We keep on track, and maybe we?ll figure all this out. I hope so. I?m not looking forward to the debrief if it all goes to hell.? Jacob looks slightly puzzled. ?Is there something specific, or are you just checking in??

?I like to get to know my crew. Tell me about yourself.?

?Informal, huh? Everything?s in my file. Ex-Alliance like you. No Reapers or anything, but I get swept under the carpet too.?

?You look like you came out if it all right.?

?Alliance trains their people well. Once you?ve lived that life, you can?t sit in a chair getting fat. Most of us didn?t get a Cerberus rebuild. They outdid themselves with you. Ask for any upgrades??

?I?m just pleased enough to be returned to stock. Couldn?t help to keep a few spare parts handy, though.?

?I hear that. Your job isn?t getting any safer. You know, I used to wonder what the big deal with you was. But now that we?re in deep, I?m glad it?s not me under the spotlight.?

?There?s no hiding, Jacob. Not for any of us. ?

?Don?t worry. This is exactly what I signed on for. If that?s all, Commander, I?ll get back to my duties. There?s a lot to get ready.?


Karumto is an uninhabited planet in the Caleston Rift. The atmosphere is mostly Carbon Dioxide, and extensive volcanic activity plus a general lack of resources means no one has ever been interested in settling the site. The research station the Firewalker Project scientists were using is located inside an active volcano. After Joker drops the Normandy into atmosphere and we launch, I drive the Hammerhead down into the volcano. I can?t imagine why someone came here, or what they intended achieving. Yet down deep inside, we find a door built into the caldera.

Dismounting, we go inside with our breather masks on. The base is abandoned, as far as we can tell. Metal walkways cross over lava channels, where they haven?t collapsed. We soon find a datapad, and then a second, describing Doctor Cayce?s thoughts.

Dr. Cayce's Log #1
We have detected a site of incredible significance located beneath the volcano. The unpredictable terrain will make retrieval of any data extremely hazardous.
Dr. Cayce's Log #2

This hellish planet is a star map that points to a Prothean site of major significance. Dr. O'Loy and I have mere hours to retrieve all we can before the conditions become too dangerous to continue. We learned too late that the local volcanic instability is magnified by our power grid.
If we only had more time to study this. I'm sure the key to unlocking everything is here. Everything! Damn this planet!

Further in, we find the room that he was studying. On a recording, he sounds increasingly hysterical. ?I was right! This site was a roadmap leading to the main Prothean ruins. Dr. O'Loy and I agree that this must remain a secret at all costs. I will not allow another Eden Prime to occur. The geth, the Reapers, all of them... they must be stopped.?

When I activate the sensors to download their information, the bases power grid increases its activity. Almost immediately, there?s a rumble from the volcano. A VI calmly announces that reactivating the power grid has increased volcanic activity, and the base must be evacuated immediately.

Which we do, rushing out even as walkways start to collapse. I?ll say this in favour of the Hammerhead, it can do things the Mako could not have. We run up the tunnels and ridges inside the volcano, leaping over gaps as if our lives depend on it. Eventually, we reach the upper slopes of the volcano. Last time I tried to get Joker to land his beloved Normandy near a volcano he wasn?t happy with me, so I hope he doesn?t think this is a habit of mine.


?So, how are things in the cockpit??

?We?re just having a little argument about personalisation of my workspace.? Joker sounds like he?s having fun.

EDI pipes up. ?Cerberus regulations are quite clear, Mister Moreau. Personalisation does not include grease on my bridge cameras.?

?It?s just mad because all its security footage of me looks like a dream sequence.?

?You ever think about the old days, when we were after Saren?? I?m curious how much nostalgia Joker feels for those days.

?Yeah, they seem like good times now, but it was hell at the time. Geth, Saren, the Council being all obstructive. We might be in an odd place now, but it wasn?t all kittens and roses back then.?


Kopis is in the Hades Nexus, another of our old stomping grounds from the Saren mission. This time, scans from orbit locate the site, protected by an energy barrier. We land the Hammerhead, and it turns out that it?s a Geth construction. Geth combat drones are buried in the ground, activating as the Vehicle comes near. Rocket armament, which means they?re dangerous to the vehicle. But we work our way through, slowly and carefully so we don?t activate too many at a time, and destroy the generators they?re guarding. As the last generator disintegrates, the force field drops.

Inside and dismounted, we come across several dead Blue Suns mercenaries near the entrance. Another of Doctor Crace?s recordings greets us. ?Dr. O'Loy must have been indoctrinated by the Reapers. I found him sending our data to a geth ship. I won't be responsible for another geth attack, another Eden Prime. I've silenced O'Loy... forever.?

This doesn?t sound like we?re going to find something good. A little further on, with more dead mercenaries, we find another of Crace?s recordings. ?It's too late for me. They're still in my head, stealing my thoughts. I can't keep them out. I've got no choice but to destroy this relic... and myself.? There?s also a pair of datapads.

The site is spectacular. Time, however, has proven to be the real enemy. Even with those Blue Sun thugs hired to protect the dig site, we barely managed to erect the shield before the geth arrived.
How can they know our movements almost before we do? Am I beaming my thoughts directly to them? I must find out how they are doing this. I shall ask Dr. O'Loy for whatever help he can provide.
Doctor Martin Cayce

Dr. Cayce would never understand the deal I made with the Collectors. He's obsessed with these Protheans. He would sacrifice everything to learn their secrets. It nearly cost me my life but I did it for you, Helen. To ensure you remained safe. The damned Collectors agreed to spare your colony in exchange for this Prothean find.
I can only hope you remained innocent in any of this ugly business. It was all for you.
-Dr. Robert O'Loy

We don?t find any more bodies. What we do find, is a huge floating sphere of... mercury? I reach out and touch it, and suddenly it starts to glow green. We step back, and it shrinks down, crashing to the floor with a loud thump. Yet strangely, it?s easily liftable in my hands. Considering it was large before that it looked like it could crush all three of us, this seems strange. Now if I knew what it was for, I?d be delighted. Until I find out, it?s a paperweight in my cabin.

In the aftermath, we get an email from Cerberus.

From: Project Firewalker
The burst of energy that coincided with your retrieval of the Prothean artifact contained coded information. Most of the data was beyond our ability to track, but the threads we were able to decrypt have provided new avenues for research on energy transfer and biotics. It will keep the scientists busy for years to come.
The data indicates that the artifact is currently inert and not dangerous. We wonder, however, that if Dr. Cayne had more time, would he have unlocked its secrets? We will continue his research.
A landmark find for humanity! Good work, Shepard.

I think they don?t know what it is, either.

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 22
Piles of trash make great cover

It seems that turning up on the Citadel attracted attention. There are certainly several personal messages waiting for me when we next download our incoming mail.

Title: You?re Not Dead!
From: Emily Wong
You?re alive? How come you broke whatever cover you?ve been under for the past two years and didn?t offer an exclusive interview to your favourite reporter?
Whenever you come up for air and are ready to talk, let me know.
-Emily Wong

From: Doctor Chloe Michel
Dear Commander Shepard,
I was relieved to hear that you were alive. I was devastated to hear of the destruction of the Normandy and those people who didn?t make it off in time. After you went missing and were presumed dead, I feared I?d never see you or Garrus ever again. You did so much to clean up the Wards when you were hunting for Saren. The galaxy needs more people like you, and I?m glad that you?re still here to protect those of us who?ve come to depend on you.
Is Garrus with you, by any chance? After being so happy to hear of your survival, I wondered if he might have ended up with you. I left a few messages on his public accounts, but you know how he is about checking his mail, and I don?t think the comm address I had for him works any more, because he hasn?t returned any calls. Always so busy on his great crusades, his grand passions, that he focuses on them to the exclusion of everything and everyone else.
Anyway, If you know where he might be, I would love to hear from him. Or both of you could stop by next time you?re on the Citadel.
Thanks,
-Chloe Michel

From: Consort Sha?ira
Commander--
I had thought that my gift of words had been incorrect -- an embarrassing notion -- but my contacts tell me you yet survive. I am pleased to hear that your journey continues, yet I sense that you travel towards an even deeper darkness. When you fought Saren, only your resolve was tested, but now I fear you cannot rely only on your own strength. Take whatever steps you must to ensure that those battling at your side fight with clear minds and glad hearts.
Be well.
-Consort Sha?ira

From: Finch
Shepard.
Had family on a colony that got hit. I used some contacts with the Reds and found some people who said they could get you this message.
You might not have much use for me. You spend too much time with the damn aliens, pretending your time in the gangs back on Earth never happened. I know you weren?t happy when I found you at the Citadel a couple of years back.
But I?m glad you?re on this. I hope you find whoever took my people on Freedom?s Progress and kick their scaly asses. I?m glad it?s a human finding these bastards. I?m glad it?s you.
Make the Reds proud.



Warlord Okeer has an interesting dossier. ?A brilliant and brutal Krogan warlord who fought in the Krogan Rebellions, Doctor Okeer has become obsessed with saving the Krogan people from the the Genophage. He is believed to have contacted the Collectors in an attempt to gain technology to that end. He is currently in a Blue Suns training camp on Korlus, though the nature of his relationship with that group is unknown.

Ah, beautiful Korlus. ?A garbage scow with a climate? to quote one visitor?s description from a century ago. The Korlus Tourist Board weren?t happy, and took out a hit on him, but the description stuck. Rebranding as ?the galaxy?s largest recycling centre? or even 'the spaceship graveyard' hasn?t done so well. Corruption scandals and a murder rate that ranks them second in the Terminus systems (first for off world murders) don?t help the tourist trade much. The planetary economy is based on recycling of decommissioned or junked spacecraft. Megatons of scrap lie around, waiting for processing. I?m advised that as a traveller I should see about obtaining reputable security before visiting the planet. One good thing about it, despite the large number of mercenary groups that have bases here, is that their defences consist mostly of heavy anti-ship batteries salvaged from the junked vessels. A small team could infiltrate on foot quite easily.


The shuttle comes in low and drops us near the Blue Suns camp. I check my weapons. ?The dossier doesn?t say if Okeer is on this planet by choice. Assume hostiles.?

A woman?s voice comes over a loudspeaker. ?There is only one measure of success: kill or be killed. Perfection is your goal.?

Miranda sounds disgusted. ?Broadcasting messages over loudspeaker? Charming.?

?Stay focused. we?re looking for a Krogan warlord.?

We move on through empty ?streets? strewn with rubble. Our loudspeaker user keeps up her commentary. ?Being hired is merely the beginning. You must earn your place in the mighty army we are building.?

It isn?t much further before Garrus, on point, holds up an arm. ?Observation post. And ready for a fight, it looks like.?

On the other hand, I don?t think they were expecting us. Trouble, perhaps, but their first reaction to seeing us is surprise. Eventually, they get off a warning about intruders. By that time, we?re already in position. While Garrus snipes, and Miranda uses her machine pistol to keep their heads down and her biotics to make ones who don?t regret it, I work my way forward. One at a time I outflank them, staying in cover myself, and give them a choice. Be shot at from close range with a shotgun, or move and expose yourself to one of the best snipers around or Miranda?s powerful biotics. Most of them elect to try the latter, since it?s the option that gives them a chance to survive.

That choice fails. Yet when they?re down, one of them turns out to have survived, lying on the ground. He is wounded in the leg, and not happy about it. ?Shit. Shit. It won?t stop bleeding. I?m gonna? son of a bitch!?

Miranda leans in, and murmurs to me. ?Actually, it doesn?t look that bad.?

I raise my gun, as if checking the ammunition status, and reply quietly. ?He doesn?t need to know that.? With a smile on my face, which is obviously false, I move over towards him.

?I knew it wasn?t berserkers. Not at range. You?re mercs. Or Alliance. I?m not? I?m not telling you anything.? He?s young, stupid, and full of bravado. And I suppose with Miranda in fairly ordinary clothes, Garrus in Turian combat armour, and me in Cerberus assault armour, he can be excused for thinking we?re mercenaries.

?That?s a shame.? I raise a pack of medigel thoughtfully, and he watches my movements. ?Guess I won?t be leaving you this, then.?

?Shit.? I wonder if he knows any other swear words? ?Shit. I don't even know anything!?

?I?m looking for a Krogan named Okeer.?

?Who?? He snorts. ?You already know more than I do. I just kill krogan. The old one in the lab dumps crazy ones down here all the time. Jedore hired him to make her an army, but the krogan he creates are insane, so we use them for live ammo training. It?s all crap.? Ah, one other. ?I don?t get paid enough to goddamn bleed out.?

I want directions, but before I can ask him anything his communicator comes on. A man?s voice asks, ?Outpost Four. Jedore wants us to move. We need co-ordinates on that Krogan pack.?

?You heard the man on the radio.? I lean in so he can see my face, which isn?t smiling. ?He needs direction.?

?I don?t have the info they want. You showed up before I could get my normal sightings.?

?You have other problems.?

?Patrol.? He hesitates slightly. ?Pack sighting east of station two.?

?Roger. East of two.? There?s a click of acknowledgement as the other mercenary signs off.

?You bitch. They?ll run blind into krogan.? That?s such a shame.

?Is Jedore?s lab heavily guarded??

?There are big guns to keep ships away. We?re not outfitted to fight goddamn commandoes.?

?What?s Jedore planning to do with all these krogan.?

?Replace us, probably.? He doesn?t sound happy about that. "I sure wouldn?t want to see an army of them coming at me. Only, she can?t control them. They aren?t supposed to be crazy, but they?re krogan. How smart are they to start??

?Have you seen Okeer? Does he know about all this??

?We can?t go in the labs, but everyone sees what happens when the krogan come out. I?ve shot hundreds. They?re crazy, mindless. Anyone up there, they know what?s going on.?

I look up towards the sun. ?If you start limping now, you might find a shady spot before you bleed out.?

?Shit.? Painfully, he hauls himself to his feet. ?Shit.? He starts to limp off. As he does so, Miranda leans over towards me.

?The scare was a nice touch.?

?I thought so. Come on, let?s keep moving. Our warlord is somewhere in Jedore?s lab.?


Loudspeaker message, again. ?Training is part of your core contract. Failure to perform mean liquidation, legal or otherwise.? Charming woman, Jedore.

We have a short firefight with some mercenaries, who are on a walkway above us. This might not be the best idea they?ve ever had, as both Garrus and I can knock them backwards with high impact shots by overloading our rifle chargers temporarily. The fall has a tendency to be fatal. The whole area though seems to have a lot of high walkways, and odd little platforms, passing between the gutted hulls of abandoned starships.

We encounter the next group as we slip into the hull of the 72XR. Some of the internal structure is intact, although the machinery and internal walls has been stripped out. A few have rocket launchers, so for a minute or so there?s a lot more noise While the fight is going on, Jedore manages another inspirational message over the loudspeakers. ?The Krogan are your example and your warning. As ferocious as they are, they are expendable.?

Yeah, right.

We slip out of the other side of the hull when the group we?re fighting are all down, and find ourselves outside a heavily adapted ship, which appears to be the Blue Suns base. As we hit cover, and start engaging them, I hear one reporting, ?Code Six. Shift fire from the Krogan. Outsiders are in the compound. I repeat, outsiders are in the compound.?

Jedore is apparently listening. ?If they?re not dealt with immediately, all bonuses will be denied.?

And interestingly, it?s not just us fighting the Blue Suns. There?s a battle-armoured krogan also shooting at them, rather competently. After we finish the mercenaries, I approach him, warily.

He sniffs me. ?You are different. You don?t smell like this world. Seven night cycles, and I have felt only the need to kill. But you? something makes me speak.?

?Seven night cycles?? Miranda sounds astonished. ?This krogan is only a week old??

?They must breed them full size, ready to kill. Not much improvement over regular mercs, if they need training.? Mind you, this one fought competently. I?m missing something.

?Bred to kill? No. I kill because my blood and bone tell me to, but it?s not why I was flushed from glass mother. Survival is what I hear in my head, against the enemy that threatens all my kind. But I failed, even before waking. That is what the voice in the water said. That is why I wait here.?

"The voice in the water. Was that Okeer?"

"It was just a voice. Not one that I heard with my ears, like no. Inside. I called it father. It liked that. But then I was found not to be perfect, and it stopped talking to me."

"Did it say anything about Jedore?"

"That is name that inspires anger, but also laughter. It is not a name that will be sung when our army marches." He hesitates slightly. "I do not know what that means, but I have heard it many times."

"A lab, breeding krogan." Garrus remembers Virmire. "Another attempt to cure the genophage."

"Cure? Cure was never spoken. Adapt, survive ignore, but not cure."

?Can you show me the laboratory? I need to speak with Okeer.?

?The glass mother? She is up, past the broken parts, behind many of you fleshy things. I will show you.? The krogan walks over to the edge of the building, where a massive metal bulkhead blocks the entrance. He rubs his hands together, then lifts it and tosses it aside in one go.

?Glad he?s friendly.? Garrus sounds as if he can?t quite believe it. I certainly don?t.

?You fleshy things are slow when big things are in your way.?

?You could come with us.? I look down the passage, which leads down a slope into a basement.

?I am waiting. The voice told me, ?if they come, I should fight.? I am not perfect, but I have purpose. I must wait until called.? He tromps back over to the cover outside the Blue Suns headquarters, waiting for someone else to come and try to kill him.

Inside, a Blue Suns mercenary lies dead near the wall. Miranda comments on him. ?I don?t like the look of that. Stay alert.?

As we?re going down the slope, a human voice calls out at the bottom. ?They?re loose. Run for your damn life, they?re all free.? Two Blue Suns mercenaries start retreating towards us, firing in the opposite direction. This is possibly not the safest thing they could do, as we take them down with shots in the back before they realize we?re here. Jedore again has commentary. ?Who authorised the Krogan release? Okeer? I will have order in my compound.?

It?s soon clear what the mercenaries were retreating from. Krogan are spilling out of a tunnel on the other side of the basement, and start heading in our direction. Mostly, they have a single shot rocket launcher and a shotgun, and if you can avoid the first rocket and engage at range, they aren?t too dangerous. This doesn?t mean you want to be standing in the way when they get close, as a shotgun blast followed by a charge in the close confines is rather nasty. Miranda found that out the hard way, having to be revived with medigel before she could continue.

The mercenaries communications spring to life again, though this time with a male voice. ?Krogan took down the grid. We?re blind and getting hit from all sides. Where are the heavies?? I?m mildly surprised that Jedore doesn?t respond.

Moving through the interior, it?s a series of landings, stairwells, and decks. In a few places security doors have to be hacked, and some mercenary teams attempt to delay us. Tapped in to mercenary communications, we hear several groups having problems that aren?t our fault. ?Krogan on our six. Copy, damnit. Where?s Jedore and her personal guard??

We?re soon out of the ship we were passing through, and the next one over also has Blue Suns in it. For a few seconds, we?re engaged in a shootout across the gap between the two vessels. Rockets fly, and I end it with a shot into some fuels tanks from my missile launcher, which burns away the mercenaries.

Our destination is in this ship, at least it appears to be. We encounter opposition almost immediately when we head back inside. Jedore is not feeling happy, and these are some of her elite troops. ?Jedore does not pay for failure. I want the intruders dead.?

Well, it seems she can?t always have what she wants. After we?ve dealt with them, a different male voice manages to get to the loudspeakers. ?Concentrate on the krogan charge or we?re all dead. Who was the genius who gave them arms??

More staircases, and more stripped out decks. As we start engaging more Blue Suns, Jedore again decides to add her opinion. ?Kill the trespassers. I will deal with the treacherous Okeer.? Well, they try. Rocket fire, and calls for suppressive fire ring our. Yet we carry on moving forward, and the mercenaries notice. One of them comes up on the communcators. ?Berserkers are going down, but the outsider commandoes are still incoming. I repeat, still incoming.? As we keep pushing on, he manages another message. ?I need everyone out of the labs to fight this. Every floor, every outpost, move.?

Jedore of course has her own opinion. ?No more. I command that they be killed. What is so hard to understand?? My official opinion of her leadership style; it sucks. More helpfully, their chatter reveals something else. ?What do you mean, Jedore won?t release the mechs. She?ll lose all of her toys if we don?t get support.?

We keep pushing, and I?m pretty sure the krogan do too. As we move across another deck, the male voice manages to get another message out. ?Concentrate fire on my position. Concentrate? arrgh.? That?s the last we hear from him.

Not from Jedore, mind you. She sounds decidedly pissed off. ?There are only three of them. Three! Anything can be killed if you do your damn jobs!?

?Jedore! Damnit, someone stop her clogging up the comm channels.? It?s a different man this time, displaying distinct insubordination and far too much sense for my liking. Fortunately, I think he?s in the next group we run into, as we only here from him this once. Again, some have rockets. And others are elite troopers, but we?ve dealt with them many times before.

Again, another man gets on to the comms. ?The outsider commandoes are topside. We can?t deal with them and the Krogan at the same time. We?re getting slaughtered out here.? If he?s the officer who I shoot about ten seconds later, I feel mildly sorry for him. His commander is an idiot, and he?s way down the command chain, and he still has to try to sort things out.

And of course Jedore has her opinion. ?Squad Four. Outpost, outpost Six. Damn it. Do I have to do everything myself??

Well, yes, probably. Once we?ve dealt with this group, there doesn?t seem to be any more opposition. We cross the wreckage of the deck, and come to a closed door. And the person on the other side is someone I?ve met before, in strangely similar circumstances.

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 23
It?ll make a nice conversation piece

?Shepard, don?t shoot. You know me.?

I look carefully at the desk that?s talking to me. Doesn?t look that familiar, but I suppose being dead for two years might have made me forget a few things. Then a blue asari face appears, rising up like a submarine from the waters.

?When I saw it was you I turned off the internal security cameras. Never thought I?d say this, but I?m glad it?s you shooting up the place. Sorry. It?s me, Rana Thanoptis. We met on Virmire. You let me go when you destroyed Saren?s lab on Virmire. I had to outrun a nuclear explosion in a utility pod, but it was still a second chance. ?

?So what are you doing in this lab??

?Oh, don?t worry, I?m not wasting the second chance you gave me. My work here; strictly therapeutic. Not for the mercs, Jedore?s on a standard power trip. But Okeer is trying to do something good, I can tell.? For a moment she glances over at a dead Krogan on an operating table. ?Even if his methods can seem a little? extreme. Everyone deserves a second chance, right? And sometimes it pays off. I take care of my debts.?

?What?s Okeeer trying to achieve here??

?It?s complicated. Jedore wants a private army, but Okeer mostly ignores her. He?s running the project for his own private reasons. I created an indoctrination program to educate the Krogan he?s breeding here, but for most of them it doesn?t stick. For some reason, he dumps them. He wants to help his people, but he?s not looking for a genophage cure, and he?s not going for numbers. That?s all I know.?

?Finding you in a place like this makes me wonder if letting you go in the first place was a mistake. You don?t want that.?

?We agree on that. Don?t worry, I plan on staying as far away from anything to do with you as possible. Now if you don?t mind, I?m getting out of here before you blow the place up or something. I?ve seen you work.?

As we watch her leave, Garrus mutters under his breath. ?I?m all for second chances. Not so sure about third ones.?

The next room is the main lab, and while it?s not as flashy as Sarens on Virmire it contains much of the same equipment, including cloning facilities. Also, a rather large Krogan. ?Here you are. I?ve watched your progress. It?s about time you got here. The batteries on these tanks will not wait while you play with these idiotic mercs.?

?I take it you?re Okeer. You don?t seem particularly like a prisoner, or grateful that I?m here.?

?You may claim to be here to help, but the formerly deceased Shepard is not a sign of gentle change.? I raise my eyebrows slightly, and he snorts. ?Surprised? All Krogan should know you. I?m sure Rana has already revisited your actions on Virmire.?

?I make no apologies. It was the most efficient solution.?

?But I approve. Saren?s pale horde were not true Krogan. Numbers alone are nothing. The mistake of an outsider, one that these mercenaries have also made.? He walks over to a window in the lab, where we have a view of a room several levels down containing a series of cloning tanks. ?I gave their leader my rejects for her army. But she grows impatient. It?s time for you to take me out of here.?

?We couldn?t care less about your problems.? Miranda might want to be careful what she says to armed Krogan in future. ?We?re here about the Collectors.?

?Ah yes. Collector attacks have increased. A human concern. My requests,? he walks over to a colning tank, where a large Krogan is suspended in fluid, ?were elsewhere. I obtained the knowledge to create one pure soldier. With that, I will inflict on the genophage the greatest insult any enemy can suffer. To be ignored.?

?What was your deal with the Collectors? I need everything you know about them.?

?Ah, the Collectors. So aloof, and yet so available when your sacrifice is big enough. I gave them many Krogan. With that, I had the technology to build one prototype. I may have information for you, but the tech was consumed in my prototype. After I determined how to use it without killing the subjects. The deaths were? unfortunate, but I only need one success to start the process.?

?I thought the Krogan ideal was a return to the numbers that threatened the galaxy.?

?We will not need numbers. My soldier is a template. It is a greater threat than all the phantom siblings that would have been at its flank. The galaxy still bears the scars of the horde, but it will learn to fear the lance.?

?Your quest for the perfect soldier created a lot of failures.?

?I failed no-one. My rejects are exactly what Jedore asked for, she simply lacks the ability to command. They are strong, healthy, and useless to me. I need perfection. If a few thousand must be rejected, so be it. My work will purify the Krogan. We will not be restored. We will be renewed.?

?So you don?t want to cure the Genophage.?

?Contrary to what survivors claim, the genophage does not produce strong Krogan -- the only quality it filters for is the ability to survive the genophage. For every thousand stillborn, too many weaklings live. Every surviving child is seen as precious. That?s created more coddling than all your collective human teats. I say let us carry the genophage! We will defeat it by climbing atop our dead. That is the Krogan way.?

?Your methods are extreme, but you understand how to deconstruct a threat. Will you join us??

?Perhaps I can strike a deal to secure passage. But my prototype is not negotiable. It is the key to my legacy.?

We look at the tank. It?s far too big to move manually, and I sigh mentally. ?We?ll need the shuttle. Which means we?ll have to deal with the heavy anti-ship batteries. But I think??

?Attention.? Not now, Jedore! ?I?ve traced the Krogan release. Okeer, of course.? When we look out of the window, an armoured woman is pacing up and down among the cloning tanks. ?I?m calling ?blank slate? on this project. Gas these commandoes. We?ll start over with Okeer?s data. Flush the tanks.?

We look around the lab, and around the walls some pipes start to spew out clouds of gas. Okeer paces over to the cloned Krogan. ?She?s that weak willed that she?ll kill my legacy with a damned valve? Shepard! You want information on the Collectors? Stop her. She?ll try to access contaminants in the storage bay.?

?Couldn?t you just start over somewhere else? She seems willing to.?

?No. This tank is pure. It involved as much trial as data. Starting over will not duplicate it. It must survive. ? Suddenly he sounds as sad as any Krogan I?ve ever heard. ?Jefore will be with the rejected tanks. Kill her. I will stay, and do what must be done.?

So we?ve climbed six flights of stairs, and now Jedore is forcing us to descend half of them again. I;m going to shoot her, a lot. Still, we leave the lab and start down to her.

As we come through the door, she?s yelling at someone else over the loudspeaker. ?I don?t know who they are. I just want them dead. This is my world. I?ll poison them all.?

?I think she?s talked enough.? I rather suspect Miranda feels the same way about Jedore that I do.

Eventually Jedore notices us. ?You! You made a big mistake coming here. I?ll show you how to fight.?

Personal combat? No. She starts releasing Krogan from their tanks, and activates and Ymir mech she happens to have lying around, while firing a missile launcher at us from across the room. While we methodically work our way through the Ymir?s shields and armour, and use whatever we have left to keep the Krogan back, she keeps up a running litany of threats. They?d be slightly more impressive if she actually hit anything, but we?ve got adequate amounts of cover. When Garrus finally lands a head shot on the Ymir it explodes, killing one of the Krogan and damaged several tanks. With no more krogan or mechs to hide behind, Garrus keeps her pinned down with sniper fire, and Miranda and I cross the room on opposite sides. She doesn?t find having us outflanking her good for her health, and the battle is soon finished. Though now, there?s a really loud klaxon going off somewhere.

?Alarms in the lab.? Miranda doesn?t sound pleased. ?Damn it, what is Okeer doing back there.?

?Shepard, the lab alarms coincided with a systems failure.? EDI has the information. ?The remaining lab systems are unprotected, and I have gained limited access. According to lab scanners, the room is flooded with toxins, and Okeer?s personal life signs are failing rapidly. I recommend haste.?

So now it?s EDI who wants me to run around in stairwells. Well, alright. We grab Jedore?s omnitool, and I toss it to Miranda to deactivate the weapons systems and mercenary communications. As we head back up the stairs, a local VI decides to announce what it?s doing about the situation. ?Contamination detected. Emergency vent in progress.? Well, I doubt if the local atmosphere will mind a few more toxic chemicals. ?Contamination detected. Emergency vent in progress.? That could get annoying after a while. ?Contamination detected. Emergency?? The crack of my pistol and splutter from the speaker prevents it getting too annoying.

Okeer?s body is on the ground near his Krogan in a jar. But he?s left a message for us on his console. ?You gave me time, Shepard. If I knew why the Collectors wanted humans, I would tell you. But everything is in my prototype. My legacy is pure. This? one soldier. This grunt. Perfect.? On the recording, he slowly slips down as the gasses overcome him.

?Why would someone so fanatical sacrifice himself for one Krogan?? Garrus is looking at the tank with an odd expression.

?No telling what Okeer jammed into this thing?s head. Releasing it may not be wise.? Miranda has a practical concern.

?Do we need the trouble of a ?pure? Krogan? The normal ones are hardly team players.?

?We can?t know what he?s like until we let him out. By which time, it might be too late.?

?Normandy, this is the shore party.? I make a judgement call. ?We have a package for retrieval."

"And he?s a big one.?

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, chapter 24
What shall we do with the tanked-up Krogan?

?Bringing the Krogan to study makes sense, but I have concerns about waking it.? It?s an interesting note to walk into the briefing room on.

?Yeah, you?ve said that a few times now.? Jacob sounds just a little weary of Miranda?s complaint.

?A normal Krogan is dangerous. This one was created, and likely educated, by a madman.?

?I see everyone?s enjoying the new paperweight. Concerns?? I fold my arms. We could be here some time.

?We don?t know anything about it, Commander.? Miranda brings up the core of the argument immediately.

?You don?t find that interesting?? I?m concentrating on Miranda, but notice Jacob shaking his head out of the corner of my eye.

?Krogan fight well at close quarters.? I think Miranda realises she?s on a losing mission with me over this. ?Perhaps waking him in a confined space wouldn?t be prudent.?

?Noted.? It is a valid point, after all. ?The cargo hold is safe enough, until I decide what to do with him.?


?Ah, Shepard. Have time to talk?? Leaving, I head out via the laboratory while Jacob and Miranda head for the armoury. I run, not surprisingly, into Professor Solus.

?Of course, Professor. Do you need something??

?Need to talk. Clear the air. Wasn?t entirely honest in our previous conversation about work with STG. Lies of omission. Also, other kind. Want to make sure no misunderstandings between us.?

??Studying the Genophage? did seem a slightly odd thing for someone of your expertise to be involved in.?

?Yes. Wasn?t just study. Was in response to previous operation. Modification.?

?You were modifying the Genophage. Why??

?Genophage intended to stabilise Krogan birth rate at pre-industrial levels. Keep population stable. Not intended to wipe out Krogan, or allow more aggression. Only, Krogan birth rate slowly increasing. Population growing.?

?They weren?t just having a good year??

?Please, Shepard. Not undergraduate. Accounted for variables. No question. Krogan adapting to Genophage.?

?That could be bad.?

?Yes. Glad you agree. No desire for repeat of Krogan rebellions.?

?Can you explain how it happened in a way I can understand??

?Krogan physiology incredibly resilient. Multiple organs, tissue regeneration, resistant to many things. Genophage virus attaches to sites in genome, alters ability to produce viable embryo. Krogan evolution to attach virus to junk DNA, prevent effect on fertility.?

?And you fixed it.?

?Yes. Altered virus to attach to multiple different sites in genome. Makes evolution much harder. Problem for another generation if occurs.?

?You could have wiped the Krogan out entirely, you know. Why didn?t you, they, the people who developed the original plague.?

?What? No! Horrible suggestion. Krogan deserved better. Used as weapon to fight Rachni, left to adapt on own. Their position our fault. Extermination terrible idea. Terrible.?

?So the ethical choice was to keep their population stable, rather than exterminate them or let them become a threat again.? I shrug slightly. ?You did the right thing, Professor.?

?Glad you agree. Felt I had to tell you. Prove I was willing to do what was necessary. Should get back to work. Much research, more Collector data always desirable.?


News gets around. Kelly interrupts me as soon as I get to CiC. ?Is it true we have a baby Krogan in a pod in the cargo hold??

?Not a baby. He?s a full grown super-soldier ready for combat.? Inside, I sigh slightly. Mass Effect drives are faster than light. Gossip moves much quicker than that.

She blinks. ?Please be careful if you decide to, err? birth him. I have no idea about his personality traits.?


Also, I?ve got messages, though not about baby Krogan.

From: Kate Bowman
Shepard,
I called in some favours and found out how to get to you and what you?re working on. We?ve got a big celebration planned for the anniversary of you and the others saving the Terra Nova colony. Last year we added a memorial for you, too. I guess that was premature, huh?
I figure finding out who?s attacking colonies is why you had to go undercover, so I won?t invite you to come give a speech or anything. But I wanted you to know that all of us living on colonies are worried about what?s happening in the Terminus systems. And I?m really glad you?re there to help. There?s a lot of crazy military talk going around. I?m glad someone?s there who isn?t going to take the easy way out.
Thanks,
Kate Bowman


From: Martin Burns
Commander Shepard,
Udina said this would reach you. I wanted you to know that I haven?t forgotten what you did for me the day those crazy biotics took me prisoner. You talked them down and you got me off that ship alive.
I won?t lie to you. I took this job for the pull and the power. I saw the biotics issue as a stepping stone, something good to put on my resume. And I was wrong.
We all serve humanity in our own way. I don?t know what you?re doing, but I?m going to see to it that humanity reaches it?s potential with a minimum of bloodshed. I?m getting letters of thanks from L2 biotics who just received their reparations. Those letters should really be coming to you. I just thought you should know.
Good luck. I?ve taken some political heat, so I don?t know that any offer to help you would ever be useful. But if you need me, I won?t let you down.
Martin Burns
Chairman, Sub-Committee on Transhuman Studies

And some people say I never help anyone. Well, I do. Sometimes. Of course, the biotics and Batarians I killed in the process would probably define 'help? differently.


There?s not really much point delaying this, so I head down to the cargo deck. The Krogan tank is in the starboard cargo bay. As I pass the windows, I notice the Hammerhead in the main bay. It looks as if it was long planned, since the ceiling clamps that suspend it were fitted when I first came on board. Of course, looking at that is just a way to delay making the decision. I go in, and there?s the pod, in all it?s menace.

?The subject is stable, Shepard.? EDI of course is monitoring things. ?Integration into shipboard systems was seamless.?

?Can it see anything in there? Is it aware of us??

?Unlikely. Current neural patterns indicate minimal cognition. Barring ship-wide power loss, nutrients in the tank could sustain him for over a year.?

?Any indication how dangerous it is??

?He is a Krogan, Shepard. If you are asking whether he is actively hostile, I do not have the necessary data to answer. Okeer?s technology could implant data, not methods of thinking. The subject may know of his views, but not necessarily share them.?

?Can you find anything unusual about it??

?The subject is an exceptional example of the Krogan species, with fully formed primary, secondary, and tertiary organs where applicable. No defects of any kind, aside from the genetic markers of the Genophage present in all Krogan. I cannot judge mental functioning.?

?Stand by. I?m going to open the tank and let it out.?

?Cerberus protocols are very clear regarding untested alien technology. And if you intend going ahead, I recommend a security team be present and you should wear full combat gear.?

?It?s either a powerful addition to the team, or a potential time bomb. We won?t find out while it?s sleeping in there. And I don?t want a security team in here, or to be wearing armour. That shows fear, and I need to impress it.?

?Very well, Shepard. Controls are online. The switch - and consequences - are yours.?

After EDI stops talking, though I?m sure she?s still monitoring the room, I examine the controls. They?re simple enough, although I suspect they?ve been quietly translated into English. On the holodisplay, I select the option to activate the subject, and step back.

The fluid drains from the tank rapidly, and the clear front slides back into the base unit. The krogan collapses slowly to it?s knees, opening it?s mouth and coughing up fluid. As I step forward, it raises it?s head. It?s eyes narrow.

The last krogan I spent much time with was Wrex, and he was big, tough, and strong. For this one, you can add quick. It?s on its feet and rushing me before I can react, and then ithe slams me hard against the wall. I get my left arm up as partial protection, as it leans in with its right arm pressed across my upper body.

?Human. Female. Before you die, I need a name.?

?I?m Commander Shepard, of the Normandy.?

?Not your name. Mine. I am trained, I know things, but the tank?Okeer couldn?t implant connections. His words are hollow. Warlord, legacy, grunt? grunt. ?Grunt? was among the last. It has no meaning. It?ll do.? He pauses for a moment. ?I am Grunt. If you are worthy of your command, prove your strength and try to destroy me.?

?Why do you want me to try to kill you?? He?s not yet putting as much pressure as he can on me, but then my Cerberus-provided bones and muscles are stronger than the old ones. And I?ve got a little surprise for him.

?Want? I do what I am meant to? fight and reveal the strongest. Nothing in the tank eveer asked what I want. I feel nothing for Okeer?s clan or his enemies. That imprint failed. He has failed. Without a reason that?s mine, one fight is as good as another. Might as well start with you.?

?I took you and I released you. Follow my command and you?ll have purpose.?

?Hmm. Nothing in the imprints suggested humans could be so forceful. You command as if you?ve earned it.?.

?My enemies threaten galaxies. Everyone on my ship has earned their place.?

?Hmm. Hmmph. That?s? acceptable. I?ll fight for you.? Grunt sounds satisfied.

?I?m glad you saw reason.? I smirk slightly, and my eyes flicker downwards for a moment. Grunt follows my gaze. My right hand holds a heavy pistol millimetres from his stomach.

?Hmmm.? He steps back a pace, lowering his arm. ?You offer one hand, but arm the other. Wise, Shepard. If I find a clan, if I find what I? want, I will be honoured to eventually pit them against you.? He steps back again, as if pleased, and then looks around. ?I will stay here. These are my weapons and armour? Let me examine them, I may know of others that would suit me better.?


Next time I speak to Joker, he?s got a comment on the situation. ?Commander, did you collect stray cats when you were a child? Because we really needed a mega-Krogan, so thanks for dragging him home.?

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 25
Mad, bad, and locked up

Purgatory Station has an interesting Codex entry:

Originally an "ark ship" designed to carry agricultural animals, the Purgatory was taken by the Blue Suns mercenary company during a large-scale battle in the Skyllian Verge. In a years-long reconstruction of its interior, the Blue Suns repurposed it to hold sapient prisoners, supposedly because they captured so many in their conflicts throughout the galaxy. When media outlets started investigating claims that the ship was used for slaving operations, the Blue Suns turned a public relations nightmare into a regular income source.
Claiming to be in full accordance with Citadel law. the crew of Purgatory now regularly lands on planets or space stations claiming that they can no longer hold their prisoners because of cost overruns. To avoid keeping prisoners under inhumane conditions, they will have to release them at the nearest port, dumping the scum of the galaxy directly into the local population. Faced with such a scenario, the government usually grants Purgatory's crew massive discounts in fuel, food, and repairs as long as they go away. Some even offload their own prisoners to Purgatory for a fee, grateful to have a problem relocated somewhere other than their backyard. Such unfortunates go in the dark depths of the ship, never to be seen again by their families or contacts.
Purgatory is minimally armed with GARDIAN defenses. Though a cruiser-weight ship, it relies on the Blue Suns' fighters to prevent any attacks bent on a jailbreak or similar events.

We’re going there to recruit Jack, whose description is also quite interesting:

Jack (no last name known)
- Exceptional biotic ability
- Note: Criminal background, currently in custody
Jack is rumored to be the most powerful human biotic ever encountered. Very little additional data regarding Jack is available, except that the subject has a history of violence and should be approached carefully. Currently, Jack is being held on the turian prison ship Purgatory. Cerberus has negotiated for the prisoner's release.

Jack is the last of the first set of dossiers, and I hope he’s worth it. He sounds like he might be trouble, but then I thought that about Okeer, and he’s dead. Grunt isn’t, but he hasn’t caused any problems so far. Still, a Turian ship full of convicts. I’ll take Garrus, who might have some advice on Turians, and Jacob, because he doesn’t get out enough.

Purgatory certainly doesn’t look particularly hellish from outside. We bring the Normandy alongside, and they’re expecting us. A docking tube extends, and we go on board. Where we run into a slight problem.

“Welcome to the Purgatory, Shepard. Your package is being prepped as I speak. As this is a high security vessel, you‘ll need to relinquish your weapons before you proceed..” The turian saying this sounds certain that I’ll play along.

“I’ll relinquish one bullet. Where would you like it?” Well, that might not have been particularly positive, but there’s something about this place which puts me on edge. And I’m sure we can win a shoot out with three Blue Suns guards.

“Everyone stand down.” It’s almost disappointing when a big turian in blue armour walks in. “I’m Warden Kuril, and this is my ship. Commander, you must realise this is simply standard procedure.”

“It’s my standard procedure to keep my gun.”

He tries to stare me down. He actually tries to stare me down. Laughing would be impolite, and I’m trying to be positive, so I narrow my eyes and glare back at him. After a few seconds, it’s as if that satisfies him. “Let them keep there weapons. Purgatory is well enough protected not to fear a few armed visitors.” Right. “Commander, if you’ll come with me. Outprocessing is this way. You can collect your package there.”

“Lead on.”

I don’t think this ship would be a nice place to stay. As we’re moving through the corridors, we can look out windows to both sides. They run a tight ship here. Governments from all over Citadel space send criminals here, and as long as the money to keep them carries on coming, they’re happy to keep them. If it doesn’t, well, people can’t really escape, this being space, but occasionally they get let loose on their home planet, and the government gets informed later. Certainly Warden Kuril seems proud of his ability to control the inmates. On one side he points out how one of his guards breaks up a shoving match between two inmates with an electric shock from a device; on the other, he shows us how each prisoner is in a separate cell, embedded in one wall of the ship‘s bay as if in a honeycomb, and only released from the outside. Presumably, Jack is in one of those. When I ask about her, he seems almost admiring. “Cerberus haven’t told you? Jack is the meanest handful of violence and hate I’ve ever encountered. You‘ll see soon enough.”

Just a few yards down the passage, he turns aside. “Commander, I need to check that the payment has come through. Carry on down this corridor, Outprocessing is through the door at the end. Past the interrogation rooms, and the supermax wing. I’ll catch up with you later… Shepard.”

Shrugging, I carry on down the corridor and turn right. Garus pulls me aside for a quiet word. "Shepard, did you notice anything unusual about Kuril?"

"No face markings." I'm equally quiet. "Is that significant?"

"Face markings are a sign of which clan you belong to. Any turian without them is a renegade, a bad one. Don't trust him."

"I don't."


Outside the next cell, a guard watches while two of his compatriots beat a prisoner with batons. Jacob sounds disgusted. “That’s just sick.”

Garrus is also not in favour. “After a while, he’d say anything to get the beating stopped. You don’t get good information that way.”

I approach the guard. “Is that really necessary?”

He sounds bored. “It’s a lot better than his victims got.”

"And it's pointless and stupid. Call it off."

"And why should I do that?"

I lean close in to him. "Because I told you to."

"You're in a high security facility with guns and cameras everywhere, and you're threatening me?"

"Those guns and cameras won't be fast enough to save you."

He stares at me for a few seconds, then reaches for his helmet communicator. "Call it off. At least, for now."

I smirk at him as I go by. I can still intimidate people.


“Hey.” A human calls out to me from a cell. I glare at him, and he seems to treat that as permission to continue. “Hey, if you’re here buying prisoners, could you buy me? I don’t care what you do to me, it’s got to be better than this.”

“What did you mean about buying prisoners?” Garrus is I think affronted by the morality of that.

“Warden gets paid to keep you here, but there are people who’ll pay more to get there hands on you. Always a few who want revenge, or want people who they own and who’ll do anything for them. So if you’ve got the money, you can have a prisoner released to you.”

“We’re here got Jack.” Jacob sounds as if he doesn’t like the place.

“Jack? Forget I said anything. Don’t want to get close to that.”

"What's so special about Jack."

"The worst trouble you ever saw, mixed with some crazy and way too much biotic power."

“Is it worse in here?” If Jack is that bad, well, maybe I don’t want her.

“There’s bad, and there’s worse. In here, there’s always someone who’ll take your stuff. Your smokes, your clothes, your… pride. I ain’t taken a shower in three months.”

“What are they doing to that guy down there? Does he know something?”

“What, Bimmy? Nah, he don’t know nothing, Offed a guy in the shower last week. Only thing is, that was someone the Warden got a lot of money for. Sucks to be Bimmy right now.”

“Do they know when to stop?” For all I think of Garrus as a cowboy cop, he has a strong attachment to procedure that he doesn’t recognise in himself.

“Warden don’t get no money for a dead prisoner. They’ll stop. Thing is, after you do that for a while you start to like it more, do it harder. They rotate guards through every six months or so, else they get too brutal, start cutting profits.”

“We have to go.”

“Wish I could go.” He slumps back, looking bored. Down the hall, we pass a corridor labelled supermax and on into another room, which looks like it might be an office. The door at the far side should be out processing.

It isn’t. When I open it, it’s nothing more than a small, empty room. Warden Kuril’s voice comes over an internal speaker. “Apologies, Shepard, but you’re worth much more to me as a prisoner. Disarm, and get in the room, now.”

Edited by Bluenose, 11 August 2010 - 12:36 PM.

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 26
Trashing the Warden's nice not-so-new ship

?Go to hell.? Oops. That?s just the sort of uncontrolled aggressive reaction Doctor Chakwas warned me against, and my scars do seem to be getting a little nasty.

I think he?s a little surprised by my reaction, which surprises me. There?s one technician in the room, which even Warden Kuril doesn?t think is enough. His orders go out over the intercom. ?Get security to Outprocessing, now.?

I notice that the technician has made a sensible decision, running away. We move back towards the entrance, and a group of guards appear in the corridor. There?s plenty of cover here, and we have our weapons. There isn?t much cover near the entrance, which I?m sure the guards aren?t too happy with. Aggressively moving forward stops means they?re stood firing at us in the open, or trying to get to a piece of cover that I?m behind. Neither is good for their health. As the last one falls, and a couple of Fenris mechs come charging in and get overloaded, Jacob manages another example of why he?s Chief Obvious. ?We need to get Jack out of cryo.? Well, the Illusive Man paid for him, and I hate the idea of being thrown out without our property.

I think Warden Kuril is suddenly having a bad day. As we move out, he?s on the intercom again. ?Reinforce Outprocessing. Shepard is loose.? That is a personal remark backed up by absolutely no evidence, but revenge only crosses my mind a little bit.

A few more guards engage us in the corridor outside, led by a Batarian. A combination of incendiary ammunition and Jacob?s biotics mean part of the battle is fought with a Batarian on fire overhead. Very nice pyrotechnics on this ship. I think we should make some more. We head down the corridor, into the control room for the supermax wing. A technician without any body armour and armed only with a pistol makes a rather futile attempt to stop us. Jacob blasts him with his shotgun, setting him on fire, just as I?m moving over to punch him unconscious. Either way gets him out of the way, I suppose. With him down, I?m stood over the console.

?Shepard, if you hack that console every door in the cell block will open.? Jacob has a point.

?It?s the only way to get Jack out.? So does Garrus.

?Stand by. I?m doing it.?

I do. Every prisoner in the Supermax wing of the galaxy?s nastiest prison is suddenly loose. Including Jack. With access, I can find the monitors for individual cells, and we see what happens. The pod opens, and inside is a seated prisoner restrained by collars at the wrists and throat. She opens her eyes.

?That?s Jack?? Garrus sounds as surprised as I am. Jack is a small human woman, bald, with tattoos over almost all of her head and upper body - which is easy enough to see, as the belts that are all she?s wearing above the waist don?t hide very much. As she starts to revive, she pulls her arm out of one restraint, then the other, and then opens her throat collar. Security mechs start to close in on her, and she glares at them, then she starts to glow blue with biotic energy and launches herself at them.

?We have to get down there.? There?s a crash on the audio system, as the monitor gives us a close up of flying mech parts.

We move out, down a passage. The ship?s VI comes on, announcing, ?Warning. Warning.? As an explosion rocks the bulkheads, Jacob mutters, ?What the hell was that??

We reach the room Jack was held in, and there are no intact mechs present. Though there are lots of spare parts, and a sizeable hole in the wall. Warden Kuril is giving orders. ?All guards, restore order. Lethal force authorised. But don?t kill Jack. Techs, lockdown. Lockdown!? Yes, he?s definitely having a bad day.

We follow Jack through the hole she punched in the wall, along a service tunnel. There?s a dead guard there, missing his weapons. The VI manages another report. ?Sectors Seven, Nine and Eleven have lost life support. No survivors.? Through another hole, we get out of the tunnel into part of the ship. Some prisoners are there, and they seem to have armed themselves, probably from dead guards. Other guards are alive, and they?ve deployed an Ymir mech in an attempt to restore order. That suffices against prisoners armed with whatever they can get their hands on, but we?ve got heavy weapons and body armour, and the Ymir blows up after killing the last prisoner.

EDI has managed to hack through the jamming to reach our communicators. ?Shepard, the warden has locked down the area behind you. You must find another escape route.? Since we?re following Jack, that should be easy. Just follow the trail of destruction.

AS we move on, the VI gives a report that worries me a little. ?Warning: power plant damage has led to overload. Core systems failure imminent.? We need to get off this ship quickly. As we pass a dead security, Garrus mutters under his breath. ?Shows what sort of person they?ve got locked up in here. I don?t agree with everything they do here, but it?s in the galaxies best interests. This guard kept maniacs away from innocent people.?

Warden Kuril is still trying to give orders, but it sounds like he?s swimming against the tide. ?Lockdown in blocks Four, Seven, and Eight.? Wasn?t Seven one the VI thinks has lost life support? Someone?s starting to panic.

In a long wide corridor, probably used for shifting cargo, we take fire from the balconies and the main floor. While Garrus snipes the Blue Suns on the balconies, Jacob and I deal with the batarian supervisor and his team on the floor. The VI has more information. ?Hull has been breached in Sectors Twelve, Fourteen, and Thirty. No survivors.? This part of the ship seems to have restored order, with a lot of dead prisoners and Blue Suns in control of the situation. We change that, even when they employ another Ymir against us. After we destroy it, and push further forward, Kuril has more demands. ?Full alert. Find Jack. Repeat, find Jack.? A few seconds later, as we hack through a door, he gives another. ?All guards to cell block one.? I suspect that?s what we?re reaching.

We are. Some of the prisoners have made it this far, but Kuril is pretty good with a rifle. He?s on a platform in the opposite corner of the room, and although there?s a fair amount of cover that platform is protected by energy shields, powered be three generators in various places around the room. As we slip in, Kuril shoots the last prisoner. It appears he?s noticed us. ?You?re valuable, Shepard. I could have sold you and lived like a king for the rest of my life. But you?re too much trouble. At least I can recapture Jack.?

Well, he?s wrong on two counts. ?Not happening. You?re a two bit slave trader and I don?t have time for it.?

?I do the hard things civil governments are unwilling to. This is for the good of the galaxy.? That?s obviously a cue to his surviving guards, who are converging on the area.

Most of the surviving guards are officer-types, which probably indicates their superior protection has kept them alive through the riot. We deal with them as best we can, while I try to work into positions from which I can destroy the generators. Gradually the flow of merc reinforcements slows and stops, and I take out all three generators. As Garrus snipes the last Blue Suns centurion, it?s just us and Kuril left. He?s in a good position, he?s well armed, he?s confident; and soon, he?s dead.

This is when we see Jack again. She?s running along a corridor above us, trying to get to the boarding tubes. When two guards try to stop her, she throws one with bone smashing force against an exterior window, and nearly twists the other in half with a biotic warp. We head for Kuril?s platform, since it has an exit to the corridor, when Jack stops. She?s seen the Normandy through the window, and something about it has halted her escape plans. She?s pounding on the window and pacing the floor as we catch up to her.

She doesn?t seem to notice us, and she also hasn?t noticed the guard sneaking up on her with a shotgun. I have. My pistol ends his attempt to be a hero. Jack wheels around, first looking at the dead guard and then at me. ?What the fuck are you doing??

?Saving your ass.? I lower my gun so it?s not pointing at her, but make no attempt to stop Garrus and Jacob moving into position to flank and cover me.

?He was already dead, he just didn?t know it. Now who are you, and what do you want?? Her fists start to glow biotically.

?I?m Commander Shepard, and I?ve come to take you off this ship.?

?No way. I?m not going anywhere with you. You?re Cerberus.?

?Why does that matter?? What would she have against Cerberus?

?Every time I get loose, Cerberus puts this huge bounty on my head till I?m recaptured. You show up here in a Cerberus ship, saying you?re taking me away, and expect me to go along with that. Do you think I?m stupid??

Sarcasm fills my tone. ?This ship is going down in flames. I?ve got the only way off it. I?m offering to take you with me. And you?re arguing.?

That actually seems to get through to her. She hesitates, looks out the window at the Normandy, and seems to make up her mind. ?All right. But I want something in exchange.?

?What??

?I bet your ship has lots of Cerberus databases. I want access to them. I want to know what they have about me.?

?Done.? It?s no skin off my nose if Jack gets to look at a few Cerberus files, and I?m sure that this deal won?t be a surprise to the Illusive Man.

?You?d better be straight with me.? Jack looks out the window again. ?So why are we standing around here arguing? Let?s go.?



The first few times we picked up a new crewmember, Jacob was here when we introduced them to the Normandy. This time, it?s Miranda alone. ?Welcome to the Normandy, Jack. I?m Miranda Lawson, Shepard?s second in command. On this ship, we obey orders.? I have a feeling she doesn?t like Jack much.

?Tell the Cerberus cheerleader to back off, Shepard. I?m here because of our deal, nothing else. Now, when can I have those files??

?Now, if you want. Miranda will give you access. Let me know what you find.?

?Hear that, precious?? Jack leans closer to Miranda. ?We?re going to be friends. You, me, and all Cerberus? dirty little secrets.? She looks back at me. ?I?ll be in the hold, or somewhere low down. I don?t like interruptions, so keep your crew away from me. Safer that way.? She swaggers off, noticeably without asking directions.

Miranda turns to me. ?How could you give that access to Cerberus files? The Illusive Man will never stand for it.?

I lean back against the wall as she paces, glaring at me. ?Do you think the Illusive Man is an idiot, Miranda??

?What?? That stops her pacing. ?Of course not. I don?t know what??

?Nor do I.? I don?t let her finish. ?If Cerberus has files on Jack, it?s because they know something about her. And if Cerberus does, the Illusive Man does. He has to know there?d be a price to pay to recruit her, and I doubt if he?s surprised that that price is letting her look through files about her.?

?You really think so?? Miranda actually seems to contemplate that. ?You should still have consulted him before giving permission, though.?

?There wasn?t time, Miranda. And he gave me a free hand to run this mission as I saw fit. If he doesn?t like the results, he can let me know.?

?I.. suppose so. Excuse me, Commander, I?ve got work to do.?

After that meeting, I make a quick trip to CiC. Kelly is waiting or me, and she looks quite pleased with herself. "Commander, the Illusive Man would like to speak to you in the briefing room."

That wass quick. If he's unhappy about my decision with regard to Jack, we're going to have a shouting match influenced by the fact we're half a galaxy apart. I make sure I've got a pistol with me.

"Shepard." He's smoking again. That's bad for you. "I think we have them. One of our colonies in the Terminus systems - Horizon - just went quiet. If it isn't under attack, it soon will be. Has Mordin delivered the countermeasure for the seeker swarms."

"Not yet."

"Let's hope he works well under pressure, then." He takes a quick drag on his cigarette. "There's something else you should know. One of your former crew, Ashley Williams; she's stationed on Horizon."

"The Collectors' just happened to pick a colony with one of my former crew? I don't buy it."

"It shouldn't be a surprise the Collectors are interested in you. Especially if they're working for the Reapers. They might be going after her to get to you."

"Last I knew, Ash was Alliance. What's she doing out in the Terminus systems?" Though it would explain what Anderson wouldn't tell me.

"Officially, it's an outreach program to improve Alliance relations with the colonies. But they're up to something. And if they sent chief Williams, it must be big. Perhaps you should take it up with her."

"Send the co-ordinates. We'll head straight there."

He taps a command into the arm of his chair. "Sent. This is the most warning we've ever had, Shepard. Good luck." He signs off the communcation.

I look at the ceiling. "Joker, set a course for Horizon. I've got to go see the Professor."

"Aye, aye, Commander."


"Tell me you have something." I'm in the lab.

The Professor stands there for a second, then a broad smile crosses his face. "Yes."


Well, Collectors. Here we come, ready or not.

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, An Interlude
Mosquito nets won?t save you

Near the edge of a human colony, there?s a picnic site. It?s popular at this time of day, with individuals, groups, and couples choosing it to take a break for lunch on such a nice summer day.

One of the women finishes eating, and starts walking purposefully towards the centre of the colony. ?Lilith.? At the interruption, she turns her head.

A woman in Alliance combat armour is approaching her. And it?s someone we should all recognise. ?Chief Williams. What can I do for you?? She slows down and let?s Ashley catch up with her, smiling as she does so.

?Is there any progress on the problem with my calibration systems?? Ash sounds worried, and a little harassed.

?Sorry, Chief.? In contrast, Lilith sound sympathetic. ?We?re still trying to find out what?s wrong with the communications array. That has priority.?

?Yeah.? Ashley sounds rather bitter. ?I?m surprised someone hasn?t tried to pin that on me, too.?

?People came out here to get away from the Alliance. You?re a symbol of it.? I have a feeling Lilith and Ashley know each other well, and Lilith has said this many times. ?It?s nothing personal.?

?Sure seems personal.? Ashley mutters it under her breath.

Lilith looks around, and lowers her voice to reply. ?People are scared. All these colonies vanishing. They want something to blame, and you?re? What is that!? As they?re talking, a hum has started in the air. People are standing up to see what?s happening.

Through some high scattered clouds, a ship is descending towards the colony. A large one, with a rocky exterior around a metal core. To those that know, it?s recognisable as a Collector vessel. Ashley raises her rifle and looks through the sight. ?Get everyone to the shelters.? As no-one moves, she raises her voice. ?Now!?

Suddenly, people are running. All except Ashley, who stands their with her rifle to her shoulder. As a massive swarm of artificial insects descends on the colony, she starts firing short bursts. As the last colonists start to pass her, she takes a step back. Fires. Another step. More shooting.

Then the swarm is down at ground level, and it?s too late for anyone caught in it. A colonist collapses on the ground, squirming, and then freezes. Then another. And then Ashley jerks. She claps her free hand to the back of her neck, and comes away with one of the insects, it?s four legs squirming. She crushes it, and takes a step away. And then she freezes.

Lilith is still running. As a colonist collapses in front of her, she tries to help him up. Futilely. She tries to move further, and trips over a body on the ground. As she starts to rise, a bug lands on her chest. She stares upwards through a suddenly paralysed body as Collectors start descending from the ship, their wings beating to slow their descent.


A Collector stands in the colony, looking round at the paralysed humans. Already, more Collectors are starting to collect bodies and move them towards the stacks of stasis pods. Suddenly, it jerks. As all the other Collectors halt their actions and look in it?s direction, it rises a metre into the air. It?s skin starts to crack, and beneath it looks like a layer of lava. As it descends, all it?s eyes start to glow. It looks around. ?We are the Harbinger of their perfection. Prepare them for ascension.?


And on the fringe of the colony, a shuttle with Cerberus markings lands.

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 27
Bugs. Bugs with guns.

The Galactic Codex has this to say about Horizon:

A typical Terminus colony possessing minimal tourist value, Horizon promises substantial economic opportunity especially in providing new products for humans and supplying the Turian Hierarchy. Surveyed 18 years ago, Horizon received pilot habitation four years later; the colony proper is now eight years old.
Blessed with verdant forests and abundant fresh water, Horizon maintains a colonial culture that thrives as a refuge from the increasing restrictions of Citadel-governed society. Horizon has attracted numerous dissidents, marginal people, and fringe-dwellers from across Alliance space.

?We?re groundside. Mordin, are you sure your modifications will protect us from the seeker swarms?? He?s in the lab on the Normandy, in communication with us as Garrus, Jack and I move out of the shuttle on Horizon.

?Certainty impossible. But in limited numbers, should confuse detection, make us invisible to swarms. In theory.?

?In theory. That sounds promising.? Garrus sounds sceptical, as I peer round a corner. There?s a park ahead of us, with benching and tables, and it looks like people were having a picnic when the storm hit.

?Experimental technology. Only test is contact with seeker swarms. Look forward to seeing if you survive.? After a moment?s hesitation, Mordin adds, ?Should be fine.?

Well, that?s good to here. We?re as safe on the ground as he is in the Normandy. Or not.

In fact, as we go through the picnic area, a cloud of seekers approaches. When they fly past without paying any attention, I breathe a sigh of relief. Jack mutters something about coming back to haunt Mordin if it hadn?t worked. She?d have to have got in line.


A beating of wings is the first warning we get. We?ve got company coming, and it?s our Collector friends. A fairly large group of them land, objecting to our interference in their mission. They?ve got something like the Geth screens that they set up to give them cover, although these seem to be powered biotically. And one of them is not only armoured, he?s (she?s? it?s?) firing the only energy weapon I?ve ever seen in actual use. Some sort of particle accelerator technology, it must have a stupendous power pack, and in fact there?s some sort of bulge on it?s back between it?s wings. Garrus snipes it, and suddenly there?s a rather nasty explosion and bit?s of insectoid flying around. The others burn well, as I turn incendiary ammunition on them.

As the last falls, Garrus looks around. ?They remind me of insects. I don?t like think I like that.?

?They?re bugs.? Jack is less restrained. ?They?re fuck ugly.?

?Hey, they aren?t any uglier than Garrus.? I flash a grin at him from inside my helmet.

?Hey.? Garrus protests, though his mandibles are spread wide with amusement.

?There?s a reason we don?t leave mirrors around you, buddy.? I smirk at him, knowing he won?t know the human superstition. Then he surprises me.

?Something about bad luck, right??

?Yeah.? Jack sounds amused. ?If you break a mirror, it?s seven years bad luck, and we don?t want that when we?re fighting these. Though, I dunno Shepard, do you really think he?s ugly enough to break a mirror??

?Do you want to take the chance?? I slip forward, to take point again. Lots of abandoned gear here.

?And you always seem so serious to people.? Garrus is shaking his head, his mandibles wide.

?This sounds like it?ll be more fun than I expected.? I?m hurt that Jack would think being around me wouldn?t be fun for a homicidal lunatic like her.


The Collector ship looms over the far side of the colony, nose pointing at the sky. They appear to have some defence guns, a modified GARDIAN system, but when I inspect them the weapons aren?t functional. A pretty expensive setup for a semi-rogue colony. I wonder who paid for it.

More worrying is that the Normandy loses contact with us. Joker?s voice comes through, ?Commander, we?re getting all kin%^ ? ^&%?& erference. Can?t m%?£$ $?!^tact.?

?The Collectors must be jamming signals.? Yeah, Garrus, point out the obvious.

?We?re on our own now.? And now I?m doing it. Must be contagious.

Pushing on, we hear more wing beats. Though this time, the Collectors are accompanied by something Garrus and I are much more familiar with. Husks. Jack?s ?urghh, what are they?? doesn?t stop her throwing them biotically away from us, and the Collectors really aren?t proving to be good fighters; we handle this group quite routinely. Afterwards, Jack kicks at one of the shattered husks. ?What are they??

?They look like the husks we encountered on Eden Prime and other places we fought the Geth.?

?The Geth got that technology from Sovereign?? Garrus remembers.

?Shit.? Jack of course swears. ?So the Illusive Man was right. The Collectors answer to the Reapers.?

Jack kicks again at the husk as we move on. ?Looks half human. Guess we know what happened to the colonists.?

?No.? Garrus saw the reports, and fought alongside me. ?On Eden Prime, the Geth brought some sort of spike to impale their victims on to create the husks. We haven?t seen any. They must have brought these husks with them. They want the colonists for something else.?

?They aren?t quite the same as the ones I fought before. Faster, more advanced, more evolved.?

?They still die when you shoot them, right.?

?The Collectors aren?t getting away with more victims. Let?s move on.?

?Whatever you say, boss-lady.? Jack raises her shotgun again.

We search a few nearby buildings, but there?s still no sign of any colonists. I really hope we?re in time to save them, but with the Collector ship dirtside they?re probably being loaded aboard. Hopefully we can disrupt that. Horizon is really reminding me a lot of Freedom?s Progress though, with abandoned work, half finished food, music playing to nobody at all. I will not let this end that way, with an empty colony. And they aren?t taking Ashley Williams. She?s part of my crew.

As we?re moving on, Jack comments. ?Peaceful.? Contemplatively she adds, ?Usually takes a lot of chemicals for me to get this quiet.?

Garrus is less happy. ?All these empty buildings. It?s unsettling.?

?Freedom?s Progress was like this. Though then, the Collectors could do what they wanted. We?re going to stop them.?

I peer round a corner, and see more Collectors. These ones are working, though. There?s some of the pods, like those that they loaded colonists into on Freedom?s Progress. Theses seem empty, and the Collectors appear to be waiting for something. We sneak up, and a couple are killed before they can react. The others attempt to take us on, but Garrus and Jack hold one end of the street while I sneak through a building and outflank them. Fire from behind and the side leaves them dead on the ground. At least, we aren?t dealing with their victims, but these won?t be going home with more.

When we go up a flight of stairs behind these buildings, we find our first colonists. Just as Veetor said all the way back on Freedom?s Progress, the seeker swarms sting you and freeze you. There?s some sort of energy field around the colonists. I?m not willing to interfere with it, certainly not without consulting Mordin, and we can?t contact the ship at the moment. Garrus sounds interested. ?Looks like some kind of stasis field. Leaves victims helpless, but fully aware.?

?They?ve been like this a long time.? Mentally, I shrug. It?s not something I can change right now.

The familiar beat of winds heralds more Collectors. I get ready for more of the same combat, and direct Garrus onto a balcony overlooking the area where his sniping will be most useful. What happens next is a surprise. The same types of Collectors we?ve encountered before are present, the normal ones with their rather peculiar rifles and the armoured ones with their particle accelerators. I?m confident about the engagement, given their previous fighting prowess, when one of the soldiers rises and starts to hang in the air. It?s skin blackens and cracks, there?s a nasty amber glow both under the skin and to it?s eyes, and it?s voice booms. ?Shepard.? And it knows me. Which is frankly creepy. ?We are the Harbinger of your genetic destiny.?

It does seem to have abandoned the concept of the gun, though. Mind you, the biotic energy it throws at me, and to a lesser extent at Jack, hurts. It?s also a lot tougher than most of it?s compatriots, protected both by a biotic barrier and by it?s now armoured skin. Although once we?ve worked through that with assault rifle fire, ignoring the trash-talk it comes out with, the body beneath isn?t tough at all. ?Your form is fragile, Shepard.? Indeed, but so is yours. We start to finish them off, and then the same voice booms from a Collector. ?Assuming direct control.? There?s another of them. ?Our numbers are infinite.? Maybe, but I?m not currently short of ammunition and if you?re going to pop up near a tractor recharging station it seems rude not to explode it behind you and set you on fire. This ?Harbinger? seems a bit taken aback to be on fire before he can get any shots off, and Garrus finishes this version with a sniper round. We also deal with a small group that were clustered around the door to a building, trying to get it open. We have more luck with the door.

It wasn?t obvious from outside, but this is a power station. As we move in, the door closes behind us and I hear feet scuffing behind some machinery. On a hand signal, we spread out. With my pistol raised, I let whoever it is know they have company. ?Get out here. Now.?

For a moment, there?s silence. Then an older man in a cap pokes his head out. ?You?re human. What are you doing, you?ll lead them right here.?

?You had to hear them trying to get in. Seems like it?s hard to hide from the Collectors.? At least he could have grabbed a gun, if only to shoot himself.

?Those things are Collectors? You mean, they?re real? I though they were just made up, you know. Propaganda. To keep us in Alliance space. No. They got Lilith. I saw her go down. Sten too. They got damn near eveerybody.?

?What?s your name, and what do you do here??

?Name?s Delann. Mechanic. I came down to check on the main grid when we lost our comm signals. Then I heard screaming. I looked outside and there was swarms of bugs. Everybody they touched just froze. I sealed the doors. Damnit, it?s the Alliance?s fault. They sent that Chief Williams here, and built those defence towers. It made us a target.?

?Why do you think this is the Alliance?s fault??

?We?re just a small colony. Nobody bothered us before we started building those damn defence towers and drew attention to ourselves. I left Council space to get away from the Alliance. Nothing good eveer comes from getting mixed up with them.?

?The Collectors are targeting remote colonies. The Alliance was trying to help.?

?I don?t need their help. Too many strings attached. That rep said she was just here to get the towers online, but mark my words, there?s more to it.?

?Tell me more about this Alliance rep.?

?Chief Williams? Heard she was kind of hero or something. Didn?t mean nothing to me though. I?d rather she just stayed back in Council Space.?

?Any idea what she was doing on Horizon??

?Supposed to be helping us get the defence towers up and running. I get the feeling she was here for something else, spying on us maybe.?

?What?s wrong with the defence towers??

?A gift from the Alliance. High-powered Gardian lasers. Supposed to keep hostile ships from landing near the colony. Had to build a massive underground generator just to give them enough juice. Only we couldn?t get the targeting systems online. So the Alliance gave us a giant gun that couldn?t shoot straight. Stupid sons of bitches.? My word, he does sound vehement, almost spitting that last line. Not that I really blame him.

?If you have defences, we could use them against the Collector ship.?

?You?d need to calibrate the targeting system first.? Delann shakes his head. ?It?s never worked right.?

?We can figure it out.? Garrus, as a weapons expert, sounds confident. ?Just tell us where to find it.?

?Head for the main transmitter on the other side of the colony. Pretty hard to miss. The targetting controls are at the base.?

?You know this colony and the equipment. You?d better come with us.? He might be useful.

?Not a chance in hell.?Delann takes a step back.

?You?d probably just get in the way.? Jack sounds sarcastic, or maybe she?s trying to shame him into coming.

?Yeah, that?s what I was thinking too.? If it was the last, it hasn?t worked. He just sounds relieved. ?I?ll let you out,? he raises his omnitool, ?but I?m locking the door behind you. I?m not taking any chances. Good lick. I think you?re gonna need it.?

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 28
Things don?t always go as planned

I like it when my enemies leave me toys to play with.

Soon after we left the power plant by the back door, we ran into another group of Collectors. That Harbinger seems to have feelings for me that I really don?t reciprocate; After he ?possessed? one of the Collectors, he made a general announcement. ?You can kill Shepard, but keep her body intact.? Not that the others seem to pay much attention. I?m not sure the husks are even capable of understanding instructions more sophisticated than ?kill, crush, destroy?. Space zombies are how they?re described, although I?m not sure that comedy-horror is how I see them; the new film Husks 2 differs in it?s approach to reality. The other collectors seem quite happy firing their rifles and energy beams at me.

There?s also something new, which I think is a new model husk. I later discover they?re called Scions, and have been seen a few times before. Take three normal husks, glue a gun to one of them, and attach the other two torsos to the main torso. It doesn?t exactly move fast, but with a ranged weapon it doesn?t need to. I guess we?re not the only people experimenting with new technology. The efficiency of using anti-tank missiles on infantry targets is doubtful, but I use a couple to get rid of the thing. Harbinger goes down in a hail of rifle fire. As for the husks, Jack has a trick I?ve never seen before with her biotics. She waits till they get close, and then suddenly her biotics flare and a whole group of them go flying backwards. This shockwave is almost the biotic equivalent of a shotgun blast. I?m somehow not surprised Jack?s preferred weapon is also a shotgun.

The new toy comes after the fight, where we find a collector with the distinct signs of Garrus Vakarian?s work (a hole in the head) lying on the ground. While normally a Collector?s death means their gun stops working, in this case the Collector wasn?t carrying it?s weapon; it?s leaning against the wall. So now I?ve got a particle beam weapon to play with.

As we move on through deserted streets and ramps, Jack makes a rather thoughtful comment. ?How come we aren?t seeing any more frozen colonists??

?We?re closer to the ship.? Garrus thinks it?s obvious. ?Presumably they?re all on board already.?

?Yeah, but there weren?t any on the edge of the colony either. Did they grab them from the edge, and from the middle, but leave a ring about halfway out??

?Seems like it.? I?m curious about it. ?Perhaps they shift the closest manually, and for the further ones they have to use vehicles, and they meet in the middle.?

?That?s a guess, right?? Jack sound doubtful.

?Yes, it is. Honestly, Jack, I don?t know either.? I wonder if Ash is one of them. If so, we?re going to have to storm the ship. It?s only a couple of kilometres long, how dangerous could that be?

?Whatever. Let?s just kill them all.?

That's the idea. With the Collector ship looming not far ahead of us, I hack through a door into the area where we should find the communication array. It?s there, a fairly standard mast unit surrounded by computer consoles. So are two of the new gun-equipped mega-husks, and a rather large number of normal ones. If we need a collective name for a group of husks, I propose ?charge?. Because it?s what they do, and puns on their electrical attack.

Anyway, several charges of husks charge us. The others shoot at us. Jack flings husks away as fast as she can, I cover the other side with a shotgun, getting a similar effect, and Garrus takes his sniper rifle and starts blasting apart the big ones. Jack and I run out of space zombies just about the time the first of Garrus? targets goes down. Flanking the other, we blast away at it with shotgun fire until Jack can flatten it with a shockwave, then keep knocking it off it?s feet and firing into it?s prone body. As it dies, a self-destruct charge destroys the body.

I hack the communication tower, while Garrus and Jack keep watch. With it active, I raise my wrist communicator. ?Normandy, this is Shepard. Are you reading me??

?Hearing you loud and clear, Commander.? Joker?s voice is welcome.

?EDI, the colony has defence lasers. I want to get them working to fire on the Collector ship. Can you do that.?

?Analysing.? There?s a couple of seconds, before EDI?s synthesized voice returns. ?Errors in the calibration software are easily rectified. However, I am activating the power plant to enable firing. It will be impossible to mask the signature from their sensors. Expect the Collectors to attempt a counter-attack.?

?Any other pieces of advice?? That last is pretty sarcastic, but EDI shouldn?t feel a need to state the obvious like that.

?Just one. Collectors are closing in on your position. Find cover.?

?Bring ?em on.? Jack sounds enthusiastic.


Wing beats from the direction of the Collector ship indicate a wave arriving. ?Assuming direct control,? indicates that one of them is Harbinger. The Illusive man has told me the Collectors have a personal interest in me, and I think there?s no doubt he?s right. Although standing in the open throwing biotic energy at me, specifically, doesn?t indicate smart tactics. Admittedly I?m the closest target, and Harbinger is right to claim I can?t actually kill it since it?ll just possess another, but it makes a very easy target out of it?s latest host. Garrus particularly likes that he?s an easy target. This time it only occupies one host, as we kill the others rather quickly.

Jack looks around wildly. ?That can?t be all of them.? She sounds almost disappointed. Though not for long. EDI announces, ?Power at 40%?. We here more wing beats, and collectors are coming in from the opposite direction to their ship, possibly one of the last groups left in the colony. We can also hear the sound of a charge of husks. While Jack and I clear the husks away, Garrus snipes a few Collectors. We?re forced to fall back across the area, since we can?t deal with both Collectors and husks at the same time. But as we do, the Collectors attempts to outflank us fail, and they find themselves moving into our crossfire.

Jack looks flushed when we finish. ?Now that?s a fight.?

As EDI is announcing the completion of calibration, and power at 70%, Garrus looks through the sight on his rifle towards the Collector ship. ?We?ve got something incoming. I don?t know what it is.?

It?s a Praetorian. Not that I knew that at the time, but the Alliance gave them that code name. Two previous sightings, one of which destroyed a platoon of Alliance marines on Akuze before withdrawing, and the other which was destroyed by a tank platoon on Mexinal. Take a power plant, a mass effect field generator sufficient to let the whole thing fly, two particle beams, and wrap the whole lot around with a layer of husk tissue. Not only do the husks provide armour, they also generate a biotic barrier for protection. Creepily, the thing, which is about ten times the mass of a human, has a mouth. When it opens it, about twenty humanoid heads are inside staring out at you.

We destroy it. It isn?t easy; it can fly slowly, it?s particle accelerators do a lot of damage quickly, and when it gets damaged it will slam into the ground, not only generating a shock field that throws people away, but draining energy from the soil to regenerate it?s barrier. At some point during the fight EDI announces ?Power at 100%. Commencing firing.? The Praetorian pauses momentarily, then redoubles it?s efforts to finish us. It then makes the mistake of floating over an obstacle to close in on me. There?s a reason I wasn?t using that particular obstacle as cover; it?s a set of security baffles around a refuelling station. A quick burst of fire, and I set them off.

Burning Praetorian smells. And the shriek from inside it?s mouth is definitely off-putting. It doesn?t prevent us from carrying on firing, however. It disintegrates into a cloud of putrid gas, which none of us feel like approaching.

That seems to decide the Collectors. As their Praetorian falls, their ship activates it?s drives. We drop into shelter, as it blasts off from the ground heading for orbit even as more laser shots hit it. There?s not much we can do to stop it, and I?m not sending the Normandy in. ?Ash, be safe?. It?s not a prayer, but a hope, as we watch.

?There?s no reason for them to stay.? Garrus sounds as annoyed as I feel. ?Most of the colonists are on board. They got what they came for.?

?No!? It looks like Dellan started to follow us after all. ?Don?t let them get away.? He gazes after the ship.

?What do you expect me to do?? My response is unreasonably angry, I suspect.

?Half the colony?s in there. They took Egan and Sam and? and Lilith. Do something!?

?I didn?t want it to end this way. I did what I could.? Yelling at him won?t help, and I suppose he?s got a reason to be upset. I don?t like that he?s yelling at me, but I want to keep my temper.

?More than most, Shepard.? Garrus sounds as if he?s trying to reassure me.

?Shepard?? Dellan looks at me again. ?Wait, I know that name. Sure, I remember you. You?re some type of big Alliance hero.?

?Commander Zoe Shepard.? That?s a voice I remember. ?Captain of the Normandy. The first human Spectre. Saviour of the Citadel. You?re in the presence of a god, Dellan. Back from the dead.?

?All the good people we lost and you get left behind. Figures. Screw this.? Dellan turns and walks away. ?I?m done with you Alliance types.?

I?m left standing a few feet from Ashley Williams. She?s got an odd expression on her face, and I can?t read her the way I used to. ?I thought you were dead, Commander.? She reaches out a hand for me to shake. ?We all did.?

I shake her hand, and her grip is firm. ?It?s been too long, Ash. How have you been??

?That?s it?? She takes a step back, and now I can read her emotions better. She?s.. angry? ?You show up after two years and act like nothing?s happened? I would have followed you anywhere, Commander. I thought you were gone? I? you were more than our commander. Why didn?t you try to contact me? Why didn?t you let me know you were alive??

?I was out for two years, in some sort of coma while Cerberus rebuilt me. When I got back, Anderson wouldn?t tell me where you were. I couldn?t spend all my time trying to recontact the old crew.?

?You?re with Cerberus now. Garrus too? I can?t believe the reports were right.?

?Reports?? Garrus sounds like he?s annoyed. ?You mean you already knew??

?Alliance intel said Cerberus could be behind our missing colonies.? Yeah, I-Corps always did think with something other than it?s brain. ?We got a tip that this one could be the next to get hit. I won?t to Anderson, but he wouldn?t talk. But there were rumours you weren?t dead. Worse, that you were working for the enemy.?

?Our colonies are disappearing.? Keep a reasonable, calm tone. Even when you?re listening to nonsense. This is Ash you?re talking to. ?The Alliance turned its back on them. Cerberus is the only group willing to do something about it.?

?Bullshit! I know what Cerberus is like. They talk about putting humans first, but at what cost?? Too much for me to consider it always worth paying, but that?s not the point here. ?I wanted to believe you were alive? I just never expected something like this.? Now it?s less anger, more disappointment. ?You?ve turned you r back on everything we stood for!?

?Ash, you know me. You know I?d only do this for the right reason.? I won?t cry. I will not. Even if my face feels like it?s turned to stone. ?You saw it yourself; the Collectors are targeting human colonies. And they?re working for the Reapers.?

?I?d like to believe you, Shepard. But I don?t trust Cerberus. And it worries me that you do. What did they do to you??

They brought me back to life, gave me a ship and a crew, and told me to do something that benefits humans. I don?t doubt the Illusive Man has an agenda of his own, but we?re doing something that needs doing.

Ash is still talking. What if they?re behind it? What if they?re the ones working with the Collectors??

?Damn it, Williams. You?re so focused on Cerberus that you?re ignoring the real threat.? Garrus sounds angry with Ashley, while I feel sad. I suspect that?s one friend gone, and I don?t have that many. For the first time today, I think about Liara. I hope she doesn?t feel I?ve let her down, not contacting her. I just don?t know what to say.

?You?re letting how you feel about their history get in the way of the facts, Ashley.? I don?t think I?ll get through, but I still want to try.

Ashley remains full of righteous anger. ?Or maybe you feel like you owe Cerberus because they saved you. Maybe it?s you. Doesn?t matter. I still know where my loyalties lie. I?m an Alliance soldier. It?s in my blood.? So is Shanxi, where you r grandfather surrendered to the Turians and no Williams could ever be good enough again.. till I came along. ?I?m reporting back to the Citadel. I?ll let them decide if they believe your story.? She starts walking away.

?We both know how that?s going to work out. The Alliance will try to blame Cerberus, just as you did.? Despite the evidence of your own eyes, that the Collectors were here.

?With good reason. Cerberus can?t be trusted.? Ash takes one look back at me. ?So long, Commander. Good luck.?

Once she?s moved out of sight, I raise a suddenly tired arm. ?Joker. Send the shuttle to pick us up. I?ve had enough of this colony.?

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 29
I?ve got clothes already! What have you got me into!

?Shepard.? The Illusive Man puffs away at his cigarette. ?Excellent job on Horizon. Hopefully, the Collectors will think twice about attacking any more of our colonies.?

I shake my head. ?It?s not a victory. We interrupted them, but they still got away with half the colony.?

?About a third, actually. It?s better than a whole colony, and more than anyone has accomplished since the abductions began. The Collectors will be more careful now, but I think we can find another way to lure them in.?

?I wondered if you had something to do with that attack. Ash said the Alliance got a tip about me and Cerberus.?

?I released a few carefully disguised rumours that you might be alive and working for Cerberus.?

?I see. What were you trying to prove??

?I had a suspicion that the Collectors are trying to get to you, or people connected to you. Now I know for certain. It was a risk, but I couldn?t just wait for them to take another colony. You understand.?

?We stopped them once. Find me a target, and I?ll hit it.?

?The target is set, but we can?t reach it yet. The Collector homeworld. I?m devoting all resources I can spare to finding a way through the Omega 4 Relay. We have to hit them where they live.? For the first time I?ve seen, he stubs a cigarette out and doesn?t light another. ?When your team hits that relay, they have to be strong, their resolve unshakeable. They have to be focused solely on the mission. That goes for you, too. Can I assume you?ve put your past relationships behind you??

?I?m free, clear, and ready for action.?

?Glad to hear it. Shepard. Once we find a way through the Omega 4 relay to the Collector homeworld? there?s no guarantee you?ll return. To have any hope of surviving, you, and your entire team, must be fully committed to this.?

?You let me worry about them. You find us a way through that relay.?

?I just want to be up front about your odds. You?ll need everyone at their best. We?ll only get one chance at this.? He lights up another cigarette. ?I?m forwarding three more dossiers. All exceptionally talented. Keep building your team, while I find a way through the relay. And I?ve arranged for the Normandy to visit the Citadel. Jacob obtained information on some new armour the Alliance is testing, and I?ve obtained enough to apply to the Normandy. Two or three days should do it. And, be careful, Shepard. The Collectors will be watching you.?


Jacob is waiting in the briefing room, listening to the conversation. ?I guess we?re really going to do it, huh. Go through the Omega 4 Relay. Hit the Collectors where it counts. Looking forward to the action. But, after seeing what those bastards did on Horizon? it really makes you think.?

?They?re strong, but we?ve beaten them in every engagement so far. We can do this.?

?No argument there, Commander. Horizon just made it hit home, what we?re doing, what?s at stake. I think I?m going to send a few messages, clear up a little unfinished business. Get some closure, you know?. I imagine everyone will want to.? He salutes, and slips out.

Talking to Mordin:
?Have you got a minute to talk??

?No. Not at moment. Think I?ve unlocked Collector interest in humans. Wait. No. Only one heart. Krogan have two. Scratch that.?

?I?ll let you work.?

?I saw the reports on Horizon, Commander. What you did was amazing.? Or Kelly is easily impressed by military lunacy. Three of us against a Praetorian indeed. ?The report mentioned that Ashley Williams was there. How did that go??

?We?ve been through a lot. I would have liked more time together.?

?I understand.? Almost, I believe her. ?Anyway, how can I help you.?

?Anything I need to know about.?

?You have a message on your private terminal.?

Title: (Untitled)
From: (Error, Invalid Sender Name)
Hey Shepherd [sic] heard I have you to thank you for getting out of Purgatory (sent a ship to round me up, but they didn't weapons-check good enough)! I'm gonna carve your name instead of mine into my next victim as thanks, got anyone you need dead (haha)? You did take a shot at me though on my way out so I have to kill you, you know how it goes. Dad taught me that you let anybody hurt you, they get ideas so you make sure to send a message, not like I'm sending now, though! See you around, the people who live here are coming back and it's showtime! Look around for your name, I'll make sure you find it before I find you!
Billy?

Yeah, Billy you come after me. I?m sure a serial killer against a Specter will end just as you want.


?Hey, Commander. That?s, uh, pretty crazy the people you can run into out here, huh? I mena, it was probably a setup or something, but it was good to see Ash, Operations Chief Williams, wasn?t it. Wasn?t it??

?Another reminder of how I lost two years. We might be friends. One day. Perhaps.?

?Right. Understood, Commander.? I think I?ve embarrassed Joker.

?I assume everything is going well up here.?

?Shh, shh, shh, shh.? He leans forward in his chair. ?I can tell when it?s listening.?

?I am always listening, Mister Moreau.? EDI manages to sound chiding.

?I know!? Joker throws his hands in the air.


The Citadel leaves us in parking orbit for longer than before. I wonder if that?s deliberate or not. Although it?s three days since Horizon, I?m still not in a happy mood. After we get the Normandy in dock, I give the crew leave ? except for those who have to help with the armour refit ? and head up to the Alliance embassy to see Anderson. He doesn?t seem surprised when I walk straight through security, fully armed, into his office. ?Something I can do for you, Commander??

?Ashley Williams was on Horizon. She said she was looking into Cerberus.?

?I know. I approved the mission. We had to find out if they were behind the missing colonists. I couldn?t tell you anything without compromising the investigation. I?m sorry.?

?I thought we were friends. I never expected you to go behind my back.? Or to take up the rest of the Council?s attitude to me, that you can?t trust what I say.

?I didn?t know about you at the time. And I wouldn?t have told you if I did. What if the Illusive Man was manipulating you? Lying to you. The report actually confirmed your story. I still don?t trust Cerberus, but they were right about the Collectors abducting the colonists. Unfortunately, Williams didn?t find any evidence to convince the Council that the Reapers are behind this, or even that they exist.?

?We?ll see how they feel in a month or so. See you, Counsellor.?

In the news:
The Shepard Memorial Flame on Torfan has been attacked again by protestors attempting to extinguish it. Security prevented this, but in accordance with Admiral Hackett?s orders, no arrests were made.

?Commander Shepard. Over here.? I?m browsing a few stores on the Citadel, with the intention of meeting Kasumi later. She?s got something she wants me to do. And now, someone?s calling out to me. Her, again. I suppose I should talk to her.

?Khalisah al-Sinan al-Jilani, Westerlund News.? She?s not getting a handshake, even if she offers. I fold my arms. ?I interviewed you two years ago, when you first became a Spectre. You presented your case very well on camera. Do you have a minute??

?What, so you can try to do another smear job on me??

?Now, Shepard, you may object to my methods, but we?re on the same side. You?re back, you?re news. I just want to give your story its due.? She?s got a hover-camera, and activates its spotlight right in my face.

?Now, Shepard, sources say you were close to the heart of the Presidium during the Battle of the Citadel. It?s fair to say the course of the battle hinged on your words. If true, you told Admiral Hackett to assist the Destiny Ascension, costing hundreds of human lives, and securing the continued dominance of the Citadel Council.?

Bitch. Damn right I did. ?The Turians lost twenty cruisers, figure each had a crew of around three hundred. The Ascension, the Asari dreadnought we saved, had a crew of nearly ten thousand.?

?But surely the human cost??

?Don?t try to tell me about the human cost! I was there. I know it. The Alliance lost eight cruiser, Shenyang, Emden, Jakarta, Cairo, Seoul, Cape Town, Warsaw, Madrid, and yes, I remember them all. Everyone in the Fifth Fleet is a hero. The Alliance owes them all medals, and the Council owes them a lot more than that. And so do you.? I storm off, before I can hit her.

?Did we get that? Check. Damn, bull-rushed on my own show.? Her voice fades behind me.

In the news:
The Kaiden Alenko Memorial Scholarship has begun sending human gifted biotics to the Ascension Project for care and training. Alenko, a graduate of the controversial Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training project, sacrificed his life to help stop Saren on Virmire.

?So, Kasumi, what do you want me to do??

?You know I joined you because I wanted help with a mission of mine. Well, if we?re on the Citadel we?re only a couple of hour?s flight by shuttle from the world we need to go. We could do it while the Normandy is in dock. It doesn?t need the ship.?

?Sound sensible. What?s the job??

?I?ll tell you more about it later. But we?re going to a party, on Bekenstein. First, though, we have to buy you a dress.?

?A dress. For the party??

?Yep. Don?t worry, Shep. Being someone else for a while, hanging around with a bunch of snobs, and stealing from them. It?ll be fun.?

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 30
Nouveau riche and vulgar with it

Codex: Bekenstein
"More glittering than diamonds, more expensive than surgery," is how travel agents describe this planet behind closed doors. Given the opportunity to colonize planets after the First Contact War, the Systems Alliance chose Bekenstein to be their trading arm, producing goods to be sold on the nearby Citadel. Cracking the vast galactic marketplace proved difficult -- the first human products sold on novelty alone, then lack of demand hit Bekenstein's economy hard. Only in the second generation of colonists did the planet find a sustainable niche in high-quality entertainment and luxury goods. Once brand awareness sunk in, aliens flocked to Bekenstein's many spaceports. The planet today boasts more millionaires and billionaires per capita than any other human colony.
Though its crime tends to be white-collar and nonviolent, Bekenstein is not without its dark side. Both its suicide rate and inflation are extremely high compared to other worlds. Unemployment is artificially low because few people immigrate to the expensive planet without having a job lined up, and the cost of living is so great that unemployed workers typically leave for kinder planets after just a few months. Those who stay see themselves as tougher, sharper, and more skillful than the rest, as well as capable of getting respect and employment on any lesser planet. As a popular song says, "If you can make it on the Bek, you got 'em by the neck."

About eight hours later I?m on Bekenstein with Kasumi, wearing a little black dress that I?m not sure suits me particularly. Though since Kasumi has already smacked my hand for pulling at the hem, I suppose I won?t do that any more. Miranda was not at all pleased to hear I was leaving for a day or two, and insisted we take the Normandy?s assault shuttle rather than a regular civilian flight. I don?t think Kasumi was that bothered, since we do have a rather large package with us and this means she doesn?t have to pay for shipping. She does seem to have prepared everything very efficiently; there?s an air car waiting for us at the shuttle port, and an air truck for the package. While our Cerberus pilot has two hours at the spaceport, to take a meal and look around the souvenir stands, Kasumi is flying us to an island where Mister Donovan Hock has his estate. And I?m twitching in my seat.

?Relax.? Kasumi jerks me out of my thoughts. ?You look fine, Miss Alison Gunn.?

?I assume Alison Gunn is my cover identity?? I don?t feel like telling her my nervousness is because I hate other people driving me around on planets.

?You run a small but talented band of mercenaries out in the Terminus systems. I?ve taken the liberty of giving you a reputation. Papers, witnesses, articles in Badass Weekly. Just the sort of person Hock respects. As long as you don?t talk shop with him, everything should be fine.?

?Tell me about Donovan Hock. He?s our target, yes??

?He?s the man who killed Keiji and took his grey box. He?s a weapons dealer and smuggler. Other than that, he?s not so bad. Rich, charismatic, willing to crack a man?s skull open to get at the neural implants inside.?

?Sounds like a really nice fellow.? My lip curls, sarcastically.

?Oh, he is.?

?So, what?s the objective, and what?s the plan??

?You have been very patient.? She glances over at me, ?accidentally? checking out my figure as she does so. ?All right. I got you an invitation to one of Hock?s parties. A couple of dozen of his friends will be there; some of the worst liars, cheaters, mass murderers, and nouveau riche you?ll find in Citadel space. All bringing gifts as a tribute for the man himself, to go in Hock?s private collection, which he keeps in an underground vault. Our contribution is a statue of your old sparring partner Saren, lovingly rendered in life-size detail and with our weapons and armour hidden in a shielded compartment in the plinth. Once we?re inside, we?ll need to find the entry to the vault, case the security, and start peeling away the layers. The statue should be there, waiting for you to crack it open and grab our gear. Then we just waltz into the vault, and take back Keiji?s greybox. And I?ll get a chance to say goodbye.?

?You?ve put a lot of effort into this. Keiji meant a lot to you.?

?Was I that obvious? But yes, that box contains some priceless personal memories, the last things of Keiji?s that I?ll have. That might not mean as much to you, but he also had something else. I don?t know what it was, but he?d find out some secret. I don?t know what it was, but he was scared. Said it could shake the Alliance if it came out, maybe even start a war. If you won?t do it for me, at least do it for that.?

?Hey, you bargained for it to get done, I?m happy to do it. Besides, I don?t like the sound of this Hock, taking him down a peg sounds interesting.?

?That?s what I?m going for. We?ll be in and out of there in no time. We probably won?t even need to do any fighting.?

While I applaud her optimism, and her preparation and planning has been excellent, I hope she?s got some contingencies in place for when things go wrong. They always do, or so my instructors claimed, once people get involved.


Of course, I didn?t expect it to be quite so soon. When we get to the island, Kasumi brings us in to land neatly and I finally get to breathe properly. The air truck with the statue also lands, and that unloads smoothly, though I think the truck crew can?t wait to leave. The armed Eclipse mercenaries providing security are in full combat gear, and I don?t think most people like being scanned by them.

I don?t mind. Although I?m carrying a body pistol, it?s just as Kasumi suggested when she gave it to me. They don?t mind a handgun, as long as it?s discreet. We don?t even have a problem with the statue of Saren, although it seems like there will be one. One of the mercenaries is trying to scan it, and he keeps repeating the scan. He speaks into his earpiece for a moment, though I?m not close enough to catch what he says. A few moments later a well-built man in a smart suit comes out of the building. ?What seems to be the problem, here?? If this guy is not a white South African, I have no ear for accents.

?Sorry, Mister Hock. I can?t seem to get any readings from the statue.? The mercenary is quick to excuse himself.

?Hmm.? He looks at us, and strokes his chin.

?Alison Gunn.? I hold my hand out for him to shake, and he folds his arms behind his back. ?Is something wrong??

?I don?t think these people would come all the way from Illium to cause trouble, do you?? While he?s addressing the mercenary, he?s staring at us.

?No, Mister Hock.?

?Take it inside.? I think the mercenary is actually glad to be out of Hock?s presence, as he wheels the statue away on a float-cart. ?You can come in, Miss Gunn. You were invited, after all. But I?m going to have to ask your friend to wait outside. You understand, I hope.?

?It?s your party.? And I?m quite certain she can get inside anyway, master thief that she is.

?Good. Enjoy the party, Miss Gunn.? While he goes inside, I move over to the edge of the terrace to confer quietly with Kasumi.

?Well, I wasn?t expecting that.? She does sound quite amused.

?Can you think of any reason why he might have been against you coming in??

?Nope. He doesn?t know what I look like. Hardly anyone does. Just watching his ass, I?m sure.?

?So how are we playing this now??

?More or less the same as before. You go inside, and I?ll find a way to get in. You?ll have to do the talking, but I?ll try to stay in contact by communicator. When you come across the entrance to the vault, I?ll get over there and see what we need to do.?

?All right.? Sometimes, it?s nice not to be the one doing the thinking.


It?s all very obviously expensive inside. Statues, velvet wall coverings, bookcases full of actual printed books, two marble staircases to the upper floor, an indoor fountain tinkling away. Artificial wood fires in the middle of the bookcase, which is pretty silly in a sub-tropical climate. The guests are mostly human, but there?s at least one salarian and a couple of turians. I circulate round the room, noting where the security guards are and that the terrace overlooking the sea has few people out on it. I hear several conversations, on subjects such as strike busting, employment of gunships in urban environments, the death of Archangel on Omega and good riddance, and one conversation that I actually get dragged into that I manage not to laugh about. I was reaching for a non-alcoholic drink, when someone in a group turned to me. ?So what do you think??

?Pardon?? I wasn?t actually listening to the conversation, being more interested in the security guard in front of a door.

?Oh, sorry. I was just wondering what you thought about the stories coming out of Omega. The ones where they claim Commander Shepard is alive.?

?Oh, come on, Martin.? One of the women in the group sounds frustrated. ?You don?t really believe stories coming out of Omega, do you??

?It?s not just Omega.? ?Martin? sounds like he?s been defending himself for a while. ?Westerlund News are claiming one of their interviewers got to talk to Shepard on the Citadel. It?s their big splash for tonight?s Comment is Free.?

?I?ll believe it when I see it. Not that I haven?t seen strange things,? Stranger ones than anyone here, I?ll bet, ?but I?d be more inclined to believe Shepard was never dead in the first place.?

?So what has she been doing for the last two years, then?? It?s not so much a challenge, as an appraisal, from the woman who challenged Martin.

?She was a Spectre. They don?t tend to publicise what they?re doing.?

?I suppose not. Though she always made a splash in the news.?

?She could also have been in hospital for a while. The Normandy was destroyed.?

?Hmm. I wonder if anyone knows the truth.?

?I operate out of Illium. She hasn?t been there.?

?Well, no doubt we?ll all find out eventually.?


That was bizarre. I was apparently the poster child for Alliance enlistment, for about six months after my ?death?. Yet people don?t recognize me. I wonder how different I actually look. Apparently my face is thinner, and of course the scars don?t help, and my hair is a lot shorter, and? Come to think of it, how come people recognize me?

After an initial reconnaissance, I head downstairs while no-one is paying attention. There?s a door to the right, which I slip through. And inside is the statue of Saren, and an elevator. Kasumi releases her stealth field, and pulls out her omnitool. ?Looks like a multi-layer security system. Very nice. There?s more here than I expected. Password protected voice lock, kinetic barrier, DNA scanner, looks like an X700 series. Everything a vault needs to be impenetrable.?

?This going to be a problem??

?Please. Remember who you?re talking to. We?ll need to get a voice sample for the voice lock. You?ll have to go chat up Hock for that. We?ll have to find a password, too. DNA, child?s play. We should find plenty of samples in Hock?s private quarters. And the barrier, cut the power. Never fails, if we can find it. Kaiji could get through a system like this in his sleep; and I?m better. Let?s get to it.? She disappears again as she activates her stealth field.

As I move out, Kasumi starts talking through my earpiece. ?It looks like the barrier?s power cable runs under the floor here. I?ll set your omnitool to scan for the electromagnetic signature.?

The signal actually comes through as a buzz in my earpiece, getting louder as a follow it and quieter as I move further away. It?s not hard to track it down, until I?m staring at the fireplace that stands in the middle of the bookcase. At the back of it, are some controls. I reach in, carefully, and flip the switch. ?Perfect. That takes care of the barrier. Good work, Shep.?

I suppose the next thing to do is get the password. Earlier, I noticed an out-of-the-way door with a serious lock on it. I saunter over there. ?That door leads to a security room. Let me hack the lock.? As it opens, I slip through. Kasumi steps out of the shadows after me. ?Ready when you are.?

Two guards look up, startled, when the door opens. ?You can?t be back here.? Actually, my gun says I can. Kasumi explains the same thing to the one who was smart enough to start drawing a weapon on armed intruders, with a electroshiv in the kidneys. ?Search the room. I have an idea.? She starts in on the computer consoles, while I check for any indication of passwords. Fortunately, I find a datapad.

Nance
I have that problem too. So many passwords here, it?s hard keeping them all straight. The password for tonight is ?Peruggia?, so it?s not even all that easy to remember.
It?s no big deal. That voice scanner means the password?s only useful to Hock, anyway.
After this party, want to grab some beers? Let me know.
Samuels.

I pocket the datapad. ?Got something?? Apparently, Kasumi was paying attention.

?Password is Peruggia.?

?Huh. That?s the name of the man who stole the Mona Lisa. Nice. I tapped into their communications. That might come in handy. We still need that voice sample, and some DNA off Hock.?

I head back into the party. Hock is standing near the fountain. ?There he is. All you need to do is keep him talking long enough for me to get a voice sample. Pull out the charm on this one, Shep. Whenever you?re ready.?

I walk over to him. ?Miss Gunn. Good to see you.? This time, he does offer his hand. ?That scene at the door hasn?t soured your evening, I hope.?

?I understand the need for security, but who?d try anything here? At Donovan Hock?s place??

?Gunn, in our line of work we attract a certain element. Few understand the pains we take to keep the barbarians at bay. People these days want comfort, entertainment, love, but they don?t see that the galaxy is fragile. They only have to worry about simple luxuries.? His speech seems to be attracting a crowd. ?Why? Because people like me, and you, are doing the terrible things that keep the galaxy spinning.? He seems to realize it, too. ?This party is for us, the cleaners, the support structure for the galaxy?s gleeful delusions of peace. May there always be a market for the things we do.? His arms are spread wide, while the other guests, and I, applaud him. He nods, left and right, to show his appreciation. ?Enjoy the party, Miss Gunn.?

?Well, I said to get him talking, and you got him talking. Good work, Shep. We?ve got enough of a voice sample now. Let?s go crack that voice scanner.?

Rather than head straight downstairs, I head out onto the veranda. A few people are getting rather flirty out there, not paying attention to other people. I take in the sea breeze. And then, I check the datapad on the wall.

Reems
No way can we sneak out of that party. The place is locked down tight, and Security Chief Roe?s in charge. No way Roe would let that get past her. I?d rather stand around bored on guard duty than risk her wrath. Sorry.
Samuels.

?Chief Roe, huh. She sounds like a hardass. I?m usre this information will come in handy.?

At one end of the veranda, a low wall closes off part of the area. This looks like the bit outside Hock?s personal quarters. I lean against the wall, and slip my shoes off. No-one is watching, and I hop over it. Two rather bored guards are watching the sea, over an inlet. Kasumi slips out of the shadows. ?What are you thinking, Shep??

?You take the far one, I?ll deal with the near guy.? I draw my gun, but I don?t expect to need it. ?Give me a click when you?re ready.?

After about ten seconds, my earpiece clicks. Kasumi is in position. I slip around the corner, and step towards the nearest guard. ?Hey.? Before he can react properly, I smack him around the head. As he sags, I give him a solid shove. He falls over the railing, onto the rocks below, and then slides into the sea. When I look around, the other is face down on the ground with Kasumi standing over him.

Getting in isn?t much of a problem. Nice large windows they have here, and I smash the glass in one of them once Kasumi has assured me it doesn?t have security. We head up the stairs, and into Hock?s private rooms. ?Look for anything we can get useable DNA from. Just make it quick, and quiet.?

We both start searching the room. ?Ah hah.? I can?t resist the exclamation as I pocket it.

?Found a sample?? Kasumi on the other side of the room wants to know.

?No, a credit chit.?

?No skin flakes. Housekeepers must be thorough.? Kasumi is examining

There?s a desk in the corner, with some hardcopy papers, a computer, and a datapad. I check those. The computer is useless. ?The keyboard is holographic. No physical contact.? The datapad is another matter.

?Okuda? Decryption Project Update
Little progress to report. We have now completed dictionary attacks using words and phrases from 4800 galactic languages. Research into the Okuda family has produced no matches. It is unlikely that a random brute-force approach will produce a result in our lifetime.
Given the nature of the greybox technology, it?s possible that the decryption key may not be a password at all. It could be a memory, an emotion, even a smell ? the permutations could be infinite. I suggest that we begin investigating alternative methods for breaking through the security on the box,

I show it to Kasumi. ?We can probably get Hock?s DNA off the datapad. He seems to have obsessed over this. But I?m not sure there?s enough. Let?s keep looking.?

I get some more DNa off a weapons rack. Kasumi sounds pleased. ?The cleaners would never dare touch treasures like this. We can get some skin cells from the dust.?

An ashtray proves disappointing. ?Empty. Too bad. A cigarette butt would have been a good source.? But on the same table, there?s a wine glass. ?Not a great saliva sample, but it?s useable. That should do it. Let?s get out of here.?

We slip out the waay we came in. The missing guards haven?t yet been missed. And downstairs, Kasumi cracks vault security. With the barrier unpowered, and DNA in hand, and a voice sample, it?s not hard for her. ?I?ll check for security cams.? Kasumi heads into the lift, omnitool ready. ?Go ahead and get dressed.?

I feel a lot more normal in N7 armour, with my full range of weapons to hand. We head into the elevator, and head downstairs.

To the vault.

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 31
Barbarians inside the gates

So this is the Vault. It?s not quite what I was expecting. Though I suspect a lot of the material upstairs would be in here, if Hock didn?t feel the need to display it. Down here, it?s mostly pieces of sculpture that it would be inconvenient to move regularly.

As for me, I don?t recognise most of this stuff. Even where there?s a label, it doesn?t mean much to me. Oh, I can recognise some of the creatures depicted; there are several statues of Krogan warriors, a Rachni queen, some humans, and a sculpture of a Turian spaceship. Kasumi on the other hand is absolutely delighted, or in some cases appalled. Michelangelo?s David is a larger-than-life-size male human nude missing most of the left leg, a part of the arm, and the penis, yet Kasumi treats it as a big deal; though I am sure she?s joking when she suggests taking it with us. There are some stone tablets with what Kasumi identifies as Quarian inscriptions on them; I would love to take those, as I?m sure I could ship them to Tali and she?d appreciate the gift, but they?re bigger than I am. There?s a very old human bust, of some man with a headdress on; Kasumi identifies it as Egyptian, and says she could find lots of buyers, especially among the Asari. Then she gets annoyed, because Hock has somehow got hold of the head of that old tourist attraction, the Statue of Liberty; damn him.

Finally we find a display case which doesn?t have some sculpture in it. My eyes are drawn to a pair of sub-machine-guns; a Kassa Locust. Possibly the best, most accurate gun in it?s class. One of them was used in a successful assassination attempt against the President of the North American States, and in the same incident killed the President of China when he interposed his body to protect her. Kasumi identifies one of these two as the gun used in that incident. I let her take it, and attach the other one to my harness. I?m sure if we adapt it to modern ammunition someone will be able to use it effectively; not me, as my normal mix of assault rifle, pistol, shotgun, sniper rifle, and missile launcher can do anything it can, probably more efficiently.

We still haven?t found this greybox, and that?s a little puzzling. Kasumi?s scan suggests we?re right on top of it. I take a closer look at the case. There?s a strangely regular square pattern in the velvet of the display case. At first, it doesn?t want to move, then I give a proper pull. It comes up, wood, lock, and some of the velvet. Kasumi immediately pounces on the depression below. ?There it is. Keiji?s greybox.?

She lifts it out, and sets it almost reverentially on the cabinet. I wait, while she starts scanning it with her omnitool. It seems like she?s having trouble getting a response, and I start to wonder why. Fortunately, someone is on hand to explain.

?Don?t bother, Kasumi. It?s code locked.? I don?t think our presence is as much a surprise to Mister Hock as we?d like. His head is projected on the far wall, about ten metres in height. ?I thought that might be you at the door. I knew that if it was really you, you?d get through anyway.?

?You know me. I don?t like to disappoint.? Kasumi sounds casual, but there?s a hint of something else.

?I want what?s in that greybox, Kasumi. You know I?m willing to kill to get it. Hand it over, and make it easier on yourself.?

?It isn?t yours to keep.? Determination, rather than bravado. And she?s got a sense of humour. I think I like Kasumi. I step a little further away, and pull out my pistol as if to clean it.

?Your friend died screaming, Kasumi. I?ll admit, your skills are impressive. You got in my vault as if I?d left it?? Bang! ?Noooo!? He glares furiously at the camera, where I?m lowering my pistol.

?Have I got you attention?? And if I haven?t there are things other than vases I can blow apart.

?That shut him up.? Kasumi sounds amused.

?Kill Alison Gunn. Capture Kasumi Goto.? Hock doesn?t sound happy. That?s a good thing. Since any mercenaries will be entering at the far end of the room, we duck for cover and I unlimber my sniper rifle.

This being the Eclipse, they?re not heavily armoured. They do have a tech specialist deploying combat drones, and an asari biotic commando among them. I drop a couple of the ordinary mercenaries, while Kasumi works on the biotics barriers with the Locust. They go down rather fast, which gives me the chance to hit her with a round. I?m starting to dislike this particular sniper model; while it?s helpful against armoured or shielded targets to fire three highly accurate rounds with one pull of the trigger, as soon as one round impacts the target, kinetic energy moves them, and the other rounds are promptly less accurate. I should write to the manufacturers.

After we finish off the last of the mercenaries, Kasumi checks her omnitool. ?OK. There?s an exit other than the elevator, out to a shuttle pad. It?s where they bring cargo in. We can get out that way.?

We set off for the door she indicates, which is the one the mercenaries came in through on the far side of the room. I call up the shuttle. ?Get airborne, and be ready to move for Hock?s landing pad on my signal.?

?Understood, Commander Shepard.? I feel a slight pang as I realise it?s not Joker responding. ?ETA to airborne, seventeen minutes.?

?Why would that take so long?? Kasumi sounds puzzled.

?Getting flight clearance. He could ignore it, but then we get into a lot of hassle with flight control services and I have to pull rank on them.? She looks slightly incredulously at me, even as we keep moving. ?I am a Spectre. I can cut through an awful lot of rules and regulations, and break most laws. If I have to, I can make what we?re doing not only legal but make it a crime for Hock to defend himself. Takes away some of the excitement.?

?I?ll say.? Kasumi shakes her head. ?It makes stealing a lot less fun if you?re doing it legally.?

?You can handle it.? I snort with laughter at her outraged look, and then should does too.


The service tunnels are a lot less fancy than the vault. Low, claustrophobic ceilings, ceramacrete walls, pipes and ducting openly on display, heavily armed Ymir mech. Two of the latter, in fact, intercept us as we work our way through the tunnels. There are also quite large numbers of mercenaries, who we also have to shoot. Hock sounds quite annoyed with them when they can?t stop us. At one point, we?re forced into a diversion The vault doors aren?t something we have the firepower to destroy, and they?re sealed. On the other hand, Hock is an arms dealer. While most of the things we find are small arms or trucks, we do come across a piece of self propelled artillery. That proves more than sufficient to blow a rather large hole in the wall. ?What the hell are you people doing down there?? Hock apparently doesn?t have security cameras, but that explosion must have been felt through the mansion.

Eventually though we get through the service tunnels, into a loading area. Several more Eclipse mercenaries attempt to stop us. Asari biotics, engineers, rocket launchers, some of the little Loki mechs, and everything else they can throw at us. It?s not enough.

We come out of the loading area onto a landing pad. I reach for my communicator to call in the shuttle, when Hock?s voice fills the air. ?You could have done this the easy way, Kasumi. Now, let me show you the hard way.? There?s the roar of engines, and then a gunship rises from below the level of the pad. Kasumi and I look at each other, and then we dive into cover.

?This has to be a movie set.? I mutter it, loud enough for Kasumi to here. ?And it has to be the last action scene, else I?d order in the assault shuttle to blow the gunship away.?

Kasumi looks at me. ?Can you??

?We didn?t load up on air-to-air weaponry for this trip.?

She smirks. ?Guess we do this the hard way.?

I guess we do. It?s not only a gunship, but Loki mechs and Eclipse troopers too. Fortunately, this is a landing pad. There?s a lot of heavy machinery around to provide cover, and if we could get to the far side there?s even a crane, which I?m quite certain would provide a good field of fire. But to get over there, it would take a lot of effort. The gunship has rockets and an autocannon, and Hock seems to like spraying the area you?re in cover for the sheer fun of it. That Kasumi remains cloaked a lot of the time may also explain it. Since I tend to be closest to him, that means he?s firing at me a lot of the time. The mercs repeatedly attempt to outflank me, which isn?t as bad as it sounds. I stay near the centre of the platform, and they?re usually working round the outside. It?s a long drop off the edge, as several of them find out when I hit them with high impact rounds. Others discover that an invisible Kasumi is extremely dangerous, getting a shiv in the back when she works around behind them. Very helpful, when they?re behind cover and I?m pinned down.

We gradually work our way across the area, even with repeated waves of mercenaries attempting to stop us. I even manage to bring down the shields on the gunship, and Hock retreats. Unfortunately, he returns, with the shields recharged. By now though, we?re near the carne, and he?s hovering near it. Kasumi calls to me. ?I?ve got a clear shot. Cover me.?

I duck into cover. There are a couple of mercs trying to close in, but I shoot them down. I have no idea what Kasumi is planning. Then she moves. She leaps onto the outside of the crane, and starts climbing it. Even with Hock firing at her. When she?s high enough, she leaps off. And lands on the gunship. Hock looks as shocked as I feel. Kasumi presses her omnitool against the shields. Apparently, on the ?overload? setting. Then she salutes Hock, as his controls stop functioning for the moment, and leaps off, back onto the crane. ?That should make things easier.?

It does. While it?s still not trivial, without shields a gunship is a target we can take down. Four missiles impact, then I switch to the sniper rifle and track the movements. One short burst, and Donovan Hock goes down in flames. And I call in the shuttle.

On board, we leave the planet. In the back of the shuttle, I pull up the computer station. Kasumi has cracked the greybox, and is ready to open it. She puts on a pair of VI goggles, and gives me a nod. I connect the greybox, and activate the computer.

On the monitor, I can see some of what happens. Keiji is an ordinary-looking man, about the same height as Kasumi. He obviously prepared this with his death in mind. ?Kasumi, if you?re seeing this it?s because I?m dead. The information we found is all here. It?s big, Kasumi. If the Council ever got wind of this, the alliance could be implicated. Kasumi, I? I encrypted the information to keep it safe, and I uploaded the encryption key to your greybox so no-one could get the whole package. But if I?m dead, then if anyone knows about this, then I?ve made you a target. I?m sorry, my love. I?m so, so sorry.?

?Keiji.? Kasumi has been wandering through the virtual memories, touching them.

?I know you, Kasumi. You?ll want to keep these memories forever. But you don?t need some neural implant to know I?ll always be with you. Please, Kasumi, destroy these files. There?s nothing ore I can do to protect you.?

?I can?t do that.? She runs over, and starts hugging the hologram. ?This is all that?s left.?

?Goodbye, Kasumi. I love you.? He fades away in the virtual interface, and I deactivate the program. Kasumi won?t look at me, as if she knows what I?m going to say.

?Is there any way to just destroy the information but keep the memories intact??

?No. Keiji?s a master at encrypting files. He laced the information into his memories. You can?t get one without experiencing the other.?

?It?s really important to you, isn?t it. Are you ready to deal with the consequences of keeping it??

?Yeah, I am.? She looks up at me, gratefully. ?I?ll stay off the grid. No-one will know I exist. I think I want this. Thanks, Shepard.?

I hope she means it. It?d be really easy to get lost in memories this way. But it?s her mission, her choice, and I?m not sure I care about the Alliance?s embarrassment any more.

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 32
Bring me sunshine; but not this much

?This, recruits, is a twenty kilo ferrous slug. Feel the weight.? I?m waiting politely in line to pass through customs at the Citadel, although I know they?ll take one look and wave me through. An Alliance gunny is yelling at two miscreant privates, and they don?t seem happy. ?Every five seconds the main gun of an Everest class dreadnought accelerates one to one-point-two percent of light speed. It impacts with the force of thirty-eight kilotons of TNT. That is three times the yield of the city-buster dropped on Hiroshima back on earth. This means Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space. Serviceman Burnside. What is Newton?s First Law??

?Sir. An object in motion stays in motion, Sir.? Poor kid.

?No credit for partial answers, maggot!?

?Sir, unless acted upon by an outside force, Sir.?

?That? is correct. I dare to assume that you ignoramuses know that space is a vacuum. Once you fire one of these it will keep travelling until it hits something. That might be the target drone you are aiming at. It might be a civilian vessel fourteen million kilometres away. It might head out into deep space and smash into a planet ten thousand years later. If you pull the trigger on this thing, you are ruining someone?s day, somewhere, sometime. That is why, Serviceman Chung, you wait for the computer to give you a firing solution.? Oh, he didn?t. ?We do not eyeball it.? He did. ?We are not cowboys firing from the hip. Have I made myself clear??

?Sir, yes, Sir.? Now spend the next two weeks cleaning the toilets with a toothbrush. That won?t help you remember, but it?ll show you what happens when you don?t.

We are waved through customs, without anyone even bothering to scan us. The armour refit seems to be nearly complete. There are remotes working to retouch the paint job, but otherwise everything is done. I feel quite pleased when I go on board, and Kasumi seems pretty happy as she heads below decks. So when Kelly comes up to me with a slightly worried expression, I give her a broad smile. ?Kelly. What can I do for you??

?Commander.? She looks at me slightly warily. That?s odd. ?The Illusive Man has sent through the dossiers on the people he thinks you should recruit. As you weren?t here, Miranda asked me to look through them, in case there was anything urgent for when you returned.? She proffers three folders, neatly labelled in her handwriting, which presumably contain the information the Illusive Man sent. ?You?ll want to read the top one immediately, Commander. It?s? I wouldn?t have pried, only Miranda told me too, and, well, with you away??

?With me away, you did your job.? I take the folders. ?Thanks for bringing it to my attention.?

?No problem, Commander. Is there anything else I can do for you?? From puppy-expecting-a-smack to eager puppy in a few seconds. I?m not sure why she thought I?d be upset with her.

I head over to my CiC console. It occurs to me that if the Normandy was ever in a combat situation and acting as a command ship, we?d need proper combat seats with restraints and fixed positions similar to those in the bridge corridor. Maybe in a refit. I open up the top folder, just to see who it is, and freeze.

TIM wants me to recruit a Quarian. Not just any Quarian. Tali?Zorah vas Neema. I guess he meant it when he said he?d look into whether it might be possible to recruit my old team. My opinion of him goes up, just a little.

Reading on, I realise why Kelly thought I needed to see this. ?EDI!?

?Yes, Shepard.? Her familiar blue ball comes to life by my console.

?How long until the drones finish their work??

?On the current schedule, they will be finished in one hour and forty minutes.?

?Have Joker get us launch clearance for one forty five. If Traffic Control give him any delays, tell them there?s a Spectre on board who knows where they are. We?re off to Haestrom.?

?Understood, Shepard. Is there anything else??

?Not right now. Got some reading to do.?

?Logging you out, Shepard.?


?Have you got a minute, Professor??
?Not right now. Trying to determine how Scale-Itch got on the Normandy. Sexually transmitted disease, carried only by Varren. Implications are? disturbing.?


In my inbox today:
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Knowing of your interest in protheon technology, i be happy to deliver most of it into your hands if your transfer me 20,000 credits.
please reply urgently with your credit trsnafer account information
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Ganak Ej'hal


Codex: Haestrom
Before the geth revolt 300 years ago, the quarians colonised Haestrom to study the mysterious instabilities of its sun, which threatened premature eruption into a red giant. As a scientific outpost of minimal military value, Haestrom was ill-equipped to repel geth forces during the insurrection and fell quickly under their control.
Captured geth planetary survey data indicates that despite suffering damage, Haestrom?s architecture remains as it was before the war, preserving a quarian architectural style that no longer exists anywhere else in the galaxy.
Because Haestrom?s sun has overwhelmed the planet?s protective magnetosphere, humans foolhardy enough to venture into geth-controlled Haestrom must exercise extreme caution. Minutes of radiation exposure will overload shields and hours of exposure will kill. Furthermore, solar output renders surface to orbit communication nearly impossible.


I?ve no idea what the quarians were thinking, sending Tali here. There were geth ships in orbit when the Normandy arrived, and I don?t think they were hanging around for fun. The Normandy slipped in using stealth mode, and dropped the shuttle off while in atmosphere, so I hope our presence will be a surprise.

?Shepard, our data indicates that Tali is somewhere in these ruins. There is considerable geth activity, and an environmental hazard.? Well, EDI, I?m not here to improve my tan.

?Good.? Grunt sounds pleased. ?The more geth, the better.?

Within limits. Not that the geth seem particularly interested in my opinion of how many of them should be allowed around here. Having discovered that ten seconds in direct sunlight is enough to strip my shields, we?re informed by Miranda that, ?We need to stay out of the sunlight.? No, really?

Quarian architecture is interesting. Buildings flare out just above the ground level, providing a balcony with some shade to walk under. Above that, they taper into tower blocks. Lots of curved edges, even where they don?t seem to be part of the structure. I suspect the flat areas this creates were used for decorative plants, since there are shallow depressions with remnants of soil and plant matter inside them. Our first encounter with Tali?s quarian team is with a body. They left a log entry playing in a building. ?Emergency log entry. The geth are here. I?ve stayed behind to buy hte others time. Anyone who gets this, find Tali?Zorah. She and that data are all that matters. Keelah se?lai.? He took three geth troopers down with him, before he died. More will be here.

They?re delivered, past a heavy security door, by a geth dropship. We fight our way through a few troopers, but there are more coming out of a building at the end fo the area. It?s not easy to get to it, since the approaches are in full sunlight. With some of the geth armed with rocket launchers, this could get bad. While Grunt and Miranda keep them occupied frontally, I dash for some stairs to the right. The balcony provides me a clear firing position to outflank and shoot down upon the Geth. With them pinned, Miranda and Grunt join me up there. While Grunt deals with any geth that try to come up the stairs, Miranda and I methodically shoot the others. Since they?re now directly exposed to the sunlight, they have no shields and are relatively easy targets. I look around as the last one falls, just in time to see Grunt charging an unfortunate geth trooper and body slamming it into a wall. Hard enough to shatter the torso. Damn, but he?s strong.

Two more geth are in a passageway beyond, firing on someone. I peer round the corner, and direct Miranda into cover. She opens up with an overload. I use my biotics to slam one of the geth to the ground, and then Grunt charges in. He targets the geth that?s jerking around in response to Miranda?s overload, blasting it with his heavy shotgun and then smashing straight into it. Miranda and I finsih off the geth I slammed to the floor, disruptor ammunition pretty much making it helpless as that effectively overloads it?s circuitry with every shot.

And then I realise what the geth were shooting at. Three quarians are dead in the passage behind a makeshift barrier, with several more geth destroyed in front of it. The wuarian communicator still works, and it?s tuned to their frequency. ?Break break break. OP1, this is Squad Leader Kal?Reegar, do you copy? The geth sent a dropship towards OP2. Tali?Zorah is secure, but we need backup. We?re bunkered up here. Can you send support?? Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Miranda examining a sub-machine-gun of unusual design. I?m more interested in the radio.

?OP1, this is Squad Leader Kal?reegar. Come in. Over.?

?This is Commander Zoe Shepard of the Normandy. Your OP is down. Can we provide support??

?Patch your radio into channel 617 Theta. We were on a stealth mission. High risk. We found what we were looking for, but then the geth found us. They?ve got us pinned down. Can?t get to our ship, can?t transmit data through the solar radiation.?

?How are you holding up? We can be there in a few minutes.?

?Take it slow and careful. Direct sunlight fries your shields to hell.? Yeah, we noticed. ?We?re bunkered down at a base camp across the valley. I left Tali?Zorah at a secure shelter, than doubled back to hold this choke point. Getting Tali out safely is our top priority. If you can extract her, we?ll keep them off you.?

?Hold position. We?ll hit their back ranks.?

?Wait! Watch your ass. We?ve got a dropship coming in.?

There it is. The quarians are behind some hefty barricades in front of a building, when it comes out of the sky. And it?s using starship-grade weaponry in atmosphere, blasting away the front of the building, killing all the quarians, and bringing down a huge support column that blocks the entrance. That will be hard to shift. On the other hand it appears Kal?Reegar wasn?t among that group of quarians. ?Crap. Doorways blocked. Grab the demo charges from the nearby buildings. Use them to clear a path.?

A few geth have survived the destruction, and attempt to intercept us. I?m not really in the mood, and rapid assault rifle fire blasts them away. A lot of the area is in direct sunlight, but there?s enough cover to stay out of the sunlight. One is on the walkway above us, and regrets it when a concussive shot knocks it back over the railing. Some more fire at us from a garage to our left and we storm the building. One of the demolition charges we?re looking for is in there, along with a message pad Tali left. ?We need a core sample to get a timeline on the rate of radiation increase, but our equipment keeps dying on us. Shepard once used a mining laser to clear some rubble on Therum. Maybe I can do something similar with demolition charges.?

Unfortunately, getting out of the garage isn?t as easy as getting in. Three more geth approach, and while the numbers aren?t excessive one of them is a Prime and the other two are heavy units. We keep our heads down as best we can, hitting the prime with everything we?ve got when there?s a moment when their fire pauses. That doesn?t stop it getting into the garage, but that proves a mistake. Two shotgun blasts at close range drop it?s already weakened shields and damage its armour, and then Grunt charges it and knocks it to the floor. Miranda and I promptly switch to the support units, keeping them occupied while Grunt beats the prime to death. Once that?s done, we concentrate fire on one geth after another, till they?re both down.

If they?d waited, more geth troopers were arriving. We shoot our way through those too. Cover is annoyingly placed, since we?re in the sunlight, but that just requires extra care. I?d rather have cover, so I let the sunlight take my shields down while I engage the geth. Since they?re paying attention to me, it leaves Grunt and Miranda free to wreak havoc among them.

At the back of the area is another room, holding the quarians other demolition charge. Again, more geth turn up after we recover it. We put down a geth destroyer, but are still pinned down. Some of them are on the walkway, so I dash over to the stairs and head up. It?s exposed to direct sunlight, while I?m inside a building and my shields recharge. The geth try to withdraw down the stairs, but that doesn?t help them much with Grunt and Miranda down there. On the walkway, there?s another of Tali?s datapads. ?It?s next ot impossible to get accurate solar measurements. The radiation keeps burning out our equipment. This sun shouldn?t be like this. It was stable a few hundred years ago. Stars don?t die that quickly.?

With the last geth in the area down, I plant the explosive charges against the pillar. ?That should do it. I recommend we move clear.? Now Miranda is doing a Jacob impression. Maybe it?s a Cerberus thing, stating the obvious. However, it is a sensible idea. We move away, and duck behind cover. When the explosion comes, it rips apart the already weakened pillar.

The building beyond has been the scene of a battle. Several dead quarians and destroyed geth, and one geth actually still active, crawling across the floor. I stamp heavily on it as I go by, and then Grunt jumps up and comes crashing down. ?That?s the way to do it.? He sounds pleased with himself.

?This colony predates the geth uprising.? Miranda sounds interested. ?Look, another datapad.?

?Our ancestors walked these halls with uncovered heads. The sun must have been normal back then.? Tali?s voice comes from it, strangely plaintive. ?So much space. Walls of stone? it?s amazing. I wish my friends could see it. I wish Shepard were here.?

We scan some of the technology in the room, but then the communicator beeps. Tali?s voice comes from it, this time live. ?Calling Reegar. Come in, Reegar.?

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 33
Boom! Shepard tests her new toy

I pounce on the communicator. ?Tali. It?s Shepard.? I try to sound sympathetic. ?I?m sorry. Everyone here is dead. Any survivors must have withdrawn.?

Tali sounds weary. ?We knew this mission was high risk, but? And what are you doing here, Shepard? We?re in the middle of geth space.?

?I was in the neighbourhood. Thought you want like a hand.?

?Thanks for coming, Shepard. It means a lot to hear your voice.?

?What is your mission? The Admiralty Board sent you into geth space!?

?There?s something wrong with the sun here. It?s destabilising faster than it should. There was a project to study it before the geth, and for some reason the Board want to know what it?s like now.?

?How many of you are left??

?There weren?t too many to start with. Just a dozen marines, and a small team of scientists. I?m in the main observatory on my own. There are geth outside, but they can?t get in for now. And someone?s still alive, because I can here firing. I don?t know how many, though.?

?I think I can account for twelve casualties. All dead.?

?That means there?s no more than seven apart from me alive. Damn it.? Now that does shock me. I?ve never heard Tali swear before.

?Right, we?re on our? Wait one.? Miranda is signalling to me. ?Problem??

?Commander, the door is sealed and someone has damaged the control panel on this side. We can?t open it.?

?Tali, did you get that? The door is sealed, and we have no controls on this side. Can you open it??

?Yes, I think so. Hold on.? There?s a delay, then the door controls turn green. ?That should do it.?

?It has. See you soon, Tali.?

?Shepard, if any of my marines, Reegar or the others, are alive, try to keep them that way.?

?Will do.?


?EDI? I shold be able to get a message to the Normandy, relayed through the shuttle.

?Yes, Shepard.?

?How many geth dropships are still in orbit??

?One remains. The other entered atmosphere approximately twelve minutes ago.?

?Yeah, we saw it. Get Joker and Garrus in on this. Use the stealth systems, sneak up, and turn that ship into an orbital debris problem. I don?t want more coming down here.?

?Understood, Shepard. Normandy will comply. Do you need assistance groundside??

?No. I think we can manage to deal with the geth with what we have.?

?Logging you out, Shepard.?


It does depend on us staying alive ourselves, which isn?t entirely guaranteed. Our next geth encounter includes two geth primes, and a swarm of their reconnaissance drones; the ones that killed Corporal Jenkins on Eden Prime two years ago. I?m getting a little too enthusiastic blasting away at the drones when a prime gets close enough to show me their new toy. It has a built-in flamethrower. A nice we to get people out of cover, but I?d really rather they didn?t do it to me. Targeting priorities change. Assault rifle fire with disruptor ammunition, and Miranda?s tech overload, strips the shields from the Prime. Concussion rounds knock it down, and then there?s the ?blam? of Grunt?s heavy shotgun as he moves in close. The recon drones don?t seem happy, buzzing aggressively around us, which doesn?t stop Grunt finishing it off or prevent me and Miranda disposing of several drones. I wave Grunt to take cover round the side of a structural wall when the other Prime comes towards us, and Miranda and I repeat the trick of levelling it?s shields. As it passes Grunt, he pounces. Again, the drones swarm around, but he still finishes it off. That shotgun of his is really nasty, if short ranged. As we finish off the drones, I?m a little worried. The geth are upgrading, and they weren?t easy to kill before. We can?t upgrade humans the same way. Then I laugh at myself, and reach over my shoulder. I give a reassuring pat to the weapon in the middle of my back. We might not be able to upgrade people, but we can give them better toys, and this prototype sounds like my idea of fun.

It?s easy enough to sober my mood. Another dead quarian lies nearby. I always think they look sadder than human corpses, for some reason. Possibly it?s the environment suits, which make me think they could be human, but they?re smaller and slighter? and it?s as if they?re teenagers caught up in a battle.

Or perhaps I just like quarians more than humans. Ahead, there?s more firing. The chatter of geth pulse rifles, quarian longarms, and more than one heavy weapon firing. I hustle us forward, through another building which overlooks a large square. Through the windows, I can see geth troopers firing at something below my line of sight on this side of the area. There are walkways left and right, and some obstructions in the middle. On the far side? ?Get down!?

I take my own advice and duck. The Colossus had obviously noticed us, and it blasted straight through the windows and did a lot of damage to the far wall.

?This is why I follow you, Shepard. Big things!? At least Grunt is happy. This looks like a nice place to test my new toy, but we?ll have to get a little closer.

Out the door, and down a set of stairs. Another quarian is here, and this one?s alive, and has bright red patches on his armoured suit. He notices us coming, and squirms into a corner of the cover he?s using.

?Get down before that Colossus gets any more ideas.?

Sounds like a good idea. I slip in next to him. ?Squad Leader Kal?Regar, Migrant Fleet Marines. We talke don the radio before that dropship arrived. Tali?s inside the observatory over there.? He gestures, and I peek long enough for two geth to take shots at me. ?Geth killed the rest of my squad and they?re trying to get to her. Best I?ve been able to do is draw their attention.?

?How many geth are out there??

?They?re near platoon strength, but the Colossus is the worst problem. It?s got a repair protocol. Huddles up and fixes itself. I can?t get a clear shot when it?s down like that. I tried to move in closer, but one of the bastards punched a shot clean through my suit.? He gestures at his leg, where there?s blood on the outside of his suit.

?How bad is it? Can you fight??

?Combat seals clamped down to isolate contamination, and I?m swimming in antibiotics. The geth might get me, but I?m not going to die from an infection in the middle of a battle. That?s just insulting.?

?Can you give me a quick idea of the battlefield layout??

?Right side has a catwalk that?d be a good sniper perch. You could wreak some havoc from there, but none of my men made it past the geth. Middle has cover, but the colossus has a clear shot at you the whole time and you?ve got geth coming in from both sides. The left, you?re out of the colossus? view but your ass is hanging out for the geth. That?s how I got hit.?

?How would you deal with the colossus??

?Standard procedure with armature class units it?s to drop the shields and whittle it down... you know, kill it with bug bites. But the repair protocol blows that plan to hell. You try to wear it down, it jsut huddles up and fixes itself. Whatever we do, has to scrap that thing fast, which probably means getting up close past that cover.?

?Not necessarily.? I give him a grin under my helmet. ?We need to get to Tali.?

?I don?t move so good, but I can still pull a trigger. You start working your way forward, and I?ll keep them occupied as long as I can. I?ve got a rocket launcher that the sun hasn?t fried yet.? To emphasises, he gestures with it. I take a look, and then a closer one.

?That?s an ML-77, Alliance issue. The migant fleet is buying heavy weapons from the Alliance now?? Certainly wasn?t the case two years ago.

?Tali suggested it when she got back from her Pilgrimage, and it?s worked out well. Human manufacturers are willing to sell to us, which a lot of races won?t. We?re a lot better equipped than we were.?

?Well, you might not be needing it. You?ve done enough, Reegar. You don?t need to throw your life away. Stay down.?

?Wasn?t asking your permission. My job is to keep Tali alive.?

The crazy brave bastard raises himself up to fire at the geth, and I grab him and pull him back down, hard.

?We don?t have enough people on our side for you to take one for the team.? I notice as I lean in that I?m quite a lot bigger than he is, but he doesn?t seem intimidated.

?I?m not going to stand there while you run into enemy fire. They killed my whole squad.?

?And if you want to honour your squad, watch my back. I need you here in case what I?m trying goes wrong.? I start unlimbering the heavy weapon from my back.

Reegar stares at it. ?What the hell is that??

?M-920 Cain. Experimental. I?m nt sure it?s safe to use, but the Colossus won?t survive.?

?You?ve got a weapon which can kill a Colossus with one shot?? I can?t tell whetheer he?s impressed or horrified.

?Assuming it works properly, it?ll kill the colossus and most of the other geth in the area. Which is why I fire it, and duck into cover.?

?All right, Shepard, we?ll do it your way. Hit ?em for me. Keelah Se?lai.?


The big drawback of the Cain is that it?s slow to fire. I have to stay in the open aiming it and letting the charge build, which gives the geth plenty of opportunity to shoot at me. Even with Grunt and Miranda shooting back, they strip my shields. And then I get the ping signifying it?s ready to fire. I squeeze the trigger, and we duck.

So that?s why they call it the ?mini-nuke launcher?. We ceertainly aren?t going to have a problem with the Colossus huddling up and repairing itself, unless it can do so when it?s pieces are spread over most of the area. Astonishingly ? they must have been in a position that left them in cover from the explosion ? three geth troopers start firing on us again a few seconds later. They don?t last very long.

For a few seconds Kal?Reegar doesn?t react. Then I hear him mutter under his breath. ?Keelah.? He looks at me. ?Nice job. Now get to Tali. I?ll jsut be a minute.?


?Just a second. I locked the door to keep more geth from getting inside.? There?s a beep, and Talie speaks again. ?That should do it.? I can?t seen anything, but Tali obviosuly has some way to know who?s outside the door of the observatory. ?Just let me finish this download.? She?s at the back of the room , near a computer console. I head over there. ?Thank you, Shepard. If not for you I would never have made it out of this room. This whole mission has been a disaster. I wish I?d joined you back on freedom?s Progress, but I couldn?t let anyone take my place on something this risky.?

?A lot of quarians lost their lives here. Was it worth it??

?They died fighting. Of course it was!? Grunt might not be particularly sublte when he interrupts, but he knows what he likes.

Tali sighs. ?I don?t know, Shepard. It wasn;t my call. The Admiralty Board believed that the information here was worth sacrificing all our lives for. I have ot believe that they know what?s best.?

?I didn?t ask what some admiral thought. I asked what you thought.?

?A lot of people died here. Some of them were my friends. All of them were good at their jobs. That damn data better be worth it. The price was too high.?

?What can you tell me about your research here??

?Haestrom?s sun is destabilising. Back when this was a quarian colony, it was normal. It shouldn?t change that quickly.?

?Any idea what?s causing it??

?If I had to guess, I?d say it was dark energy affecting the interior of the star. The effect is similar to when star?s blow off mass to enter a red giant phase, but Haestrom?s sun is far too young for this to be natural.?

?I know you couldn?t come with me before. Can you join me know?? It sounds like I?m pleading, and I suppose I am.

?Just let me transmit this data on a secure channel, and I can leave with you. And if the admirals have a problem with it, they can go to hell. I just watched the rest of my team die.?

?Maybe not the whole rest of your team, ma?am.? Kal?Reegar has caught us up.

?Kal?Reegar. You made it!? Now if the way Tali sounds doesn?t indicate some feelings are involved, I know nothing. Though maybe I don?t, with quarians.

?Your old captain is as good as you said.? He limps towards us, and if I could see his face I?m sure he?d be grinning. ?Damn colossus never stood a chance.?

?If need be, the Normandy can get you out of here, Reegar.?

?The geth didn?t damage our ship. Long as we get out of here before reinforcements show up, we?ll be fine.?

?Actually, I won?t be going with you. I?m joining Commander Shepard.?

?I?ll pass the data to the Admiralty Board, and let them know what happened.? He sounds slightly disappointed. ?She?s all yours know, Shepard. Keep her safe.?

She'll be as safe as the rest of us. I hope it's enough.

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 34
Chat, chat, chatatty chat

?Welcome aboard the Normandy, Tali?Zorah. We?re looking forward to having you on the team. Your engineering expertise will really benefit the mission.? Ever since Jack came aboard, Miranda has avoided being present when we introduce new members to the ship. Jacob persists in doing so.

?I don?t know who you are, but Cerberus threatened the security of the Migrant Fleet. Don?t make nice.?

?That?s why I want you on the ship, Tali. I want people who aren?t Cerberus - people I can trust.? Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Jacob wince slightly.

?I wasn?t part of what happened to the migrant fleet, but I understand your distrust. I hope we?ll get past that as we work together.?

Tali ignores him. ?I assumed you were working undercover, Shepard. Perhaps planning to blow Cerberus up.? Not quite yet. ?If that?s the case, I?ll lend you a grenade. Otherwise, I?m here for you, not for them.?

Fair enough. ?Feel free to study the ship and pass on anything you find interesting. We?ve got a few upgrades on the old Normandy.?

?I?ll get Tali the necessary clearances to work with the ship systems.? Jacob is still trying to be helpful, despite the hostile atmosphere.

?Please do. I can?t be part of the team if I don?t know how the ship works.? She starts to leave. ?Remember, Shepard, these people thought enslaving thorian creepers and rachni was a good idea. I?ll be in engineering.?

?Don?t forget to introduce yourself to EDI, the ships artificial intelligence.? Ok, that settles it. Jacob is an idiot. And if looks could kill through a face plate, I?m pretty certain Tali just killed him.



?Jacob would like to speak to you, Commander.? He could have done so while we were in the briefing room, but perhaps my bemused stare that someone would want to introduce a quarian to an AI put him off.

?Thanks, Kelly. Anything else??

?You have??

?Unread messages at your private terminal.? We finish together. ?That?s normal. Don?t worry, Kelly, I?ll read them.?

From: Doctor Samesh Bhatia
Commander Shepard
Mr. Udina offered to pass on a message for me. I wished to again express my thanks for your assistance in retrieving my wife?s body. While nothing can ever banish the pain of losing Nirali, being able to see her body was treated properly helped me more than you can imagine.
I have opened the restaurant that my wife always wished to start, back on Earth. Nirali?s picture hangs on the wall, and Alliance soldiers eat for free. It is the least I can do to honour the courage with which both you and my wife have served humanity.
Sincerely,
Samesh Bhatia

Don't thank me, Samesh. your wife gave her life for humanity, the least we should do is give her body back to you.

Can You Help?
From: Robyn Reeve
Commander
The Alliance soldier gave me this contact information - I hope this reaches you.
You said you were trying to stop those Collectors. They took my son and my brother. Have you found them? Do you know where they are? I know you?re looking, but so many people are just gone. Every family lost someone. The children are the worst. Empty desks at the schools. Winter clothes that never got worn.
Please. The Alliance isn?t doing anything. The Council isn?t doing anything. If you can find our people, I?m begging you to do something. Tell me something I can do.
Tell me anything.
Robyn Reeve

I think I'll put that on the ship's bulletin board. With a heading, 'This is why we're fighting'.

YOUR 2 SMALL
From: Morlan
?I am sorry my mate, I leave you for a Krogan because you are not endowed as good for your species!?
Do you fear those words? Morlan?s famous shop sells many enhancements online that are not restricted by Citadel trading regulations! Whether you require hormone augmentation, cybernetic enhancement, or gene biotic engrafting, Morlan has many things you will be pleased with!
All species and gender order online from Morlan?s famous extranet site, hotlinked from this message!
(Product availability varies by local trade regulations. All element zero products require shipping surcharge. No shipping to Omega. Krogan reproductive organs not available. Other restrictions may apply.)

Morlan, you're a prick.

?Commander.? Jacob?s working in the armoury, though judging by the parts scattered around without really focusing on his task. Normally, he?s very tidy. ?I?m a little distracted right now, but it won?t affect my performance.?

?Kelly said you left a message. You want to see me about something??

?Yeah, I guess I did. I got pinged by a ghost last night. Someone picked up a distress call. From the Hugo Gernsback.?

I prompt him when he seems unwilling to continue. ?And??

His face shows surprise and some chagrin. ?My father was serving on that ship. Shepard, that ship disappeared ten years ago. We hadn?t spoken for three years before that. But, I?d still like to go there, see what happened, if we have time.?

?We should be able to. Until the Illusive Man comes through, there?s nothing we can do about the Collectors.? And he was probably right about getting people into the right state of mind. Which includes me. Plus practice working as a team, in different combinations, is always useful. ?You say you got pinged with it? Specifically, you??

?Yeah. Someone detected a distress beacon on the planet Aeia, and reported it. Now, I?m not convinced it isn?t just some automated thing, but who knows? It?s a garden world, habitable.? He takes a deep breath. ?There?s the other thing. This came through to my personal Cerberus inbox. No header on it, nothing. No trace of how it got there. That shouldn?t have happened.?

?Could the Gernsback have been a Cerberus front??

?Maybe. But if so, the Illusive Man would have done something about it by now. He doesn?t like to leave projects with loose ends for so long.?

?What was the Gernsback? What mission was it on??

?Privately owned frigate on a speculative exploration mission. Head out into relatively uncharted space, see what you find. Put down claim markers, recover relics, perform surveys of habitable planets to sell, that sort of thing.?

?It sounds like you didn?t get on with your father.?

?No. Give him his due, he didn?t apologise for it. We just couldn?t relate to each other .?

?All right. Pass the co-ordinates to Joker. We?ll head out and see what?s going on.?

Transfer request approved
From: Admiralty Board, Migrant Fleet
Commander Shepard
Per Tali?Zorah vas Neema?s request included with her data delivery from Haestrom, the Admiralty Board has approved her transfer to your command. She has been informed that additional duties to the Migrant Fleet may be necessary on occasion, but has been given extended leeway to determine when her mission with you is considered complete.
This choice was hers, but your role as de facto captain during her Pilgrimage may have caused her to be more susceptible to your requests. The Admiralty Board trusts that you will treat your new crewmember with the respect due to an honoured member of the Fleet. Should any harm come to her due to negligence on your part, this board will take severe and appropriate action.
Admiral Rael?Zorah
Migrant Fleet Admiralty Board

Or, to put it another way, if I let his daughter get killed I'm going to be sorry. I wonder if making Tali chief engineer is enough respect for him.


?Shepard. Did you need something??

?I came down to see how you were settling in. Have you had any problems with the Normandy??

?Please, Shepard, I?m a Quarian. Give me a chunk of scrap metal, a circuit board, and some element zero and I?ll have it making precision jumps. I?m worried about our ability to stand up to a Collector attack, though. Even with more firepower and better armour. They shredded the old Normandy?s screens like tissue paper. I?m doing some research on possible improvements. When I know what we need, I?ll send it to you with my recommendations.?

I lower my voice. ?You aren?t having any problems with the crew, are you??

?No. I was worried about working with Cerberus engineers, but they know what they?re doing and they?ve been very polite.?

?Have you got time to talk??

She takes a look around, and then gestures at me to follow her. We head down the gangway to a station directly overlooking the engine core. ?I don?t think we can be overheard here. I scan it for monitoring devices anyway, but it?s hard for them to survive this close to the engine core.?

?I?m glad you?re taking precautions.?

?Are you really working for Cerberus, Shepard? Really?? Even through a face plate, I?m certain Tali is staring intently at me.

?For the moment. The Alliance, the Council, they?re doing, well, not quite nothing, but nothing effective. Cerberus gave me this ship, a crew, and told me to do something about it. Over half-a-million humans have been taken. The Illusive Man is convinced the Reapers are involved somehow, and I?m beginning to think he?s right. I don?t trust his motives, but I can?t do this on my own. When it comes to a reckoning though, Cerberus is not the side I?m going to pick.?

?Good.? There?s a slightly savage tone in Tali?s voice. ?Let me know what I can do to help when the time comes.?

?What happened between the Flotilla and Cerberus? I caught tension on Freedom?s Progress, and now, but I don?t know what it?s about.?

?I don?t have the details myself. At some point a small group of humans were given refuge on one of our ships, the Idemna. One of them was a powerful biotic, and they were on the run from Cerberus. Somehow, Cerberus recruited a quarian exile and infiltrated the flotilla, trying to get them back. They killed some of the crew, and worse they exposed the ship to infection.?

?Sounds like Cerberus. Thay aren?t big on letting things go.?

?That?s what made me wonder why you were here. Whatever else you are, you aren?t ?pro-human?. You wouldn?t do the things Cerberus has done.?

?No, I wouldn?t. But plenty of people seem to believe I would.? I can?t keep a touch of bitter anger out of my voice.

?They don?t know you.?

?Let?s get back. Don?t want to make it obvious we?re talking mutiny.? We move away from the reactor core, and I think of something. ?Oh, Tali? Did Kal?Reegar make it back to the Fleet all right? Have you heard from him??

?Yes, he did. Any time you get a suit puncture it?s serious, but the medical team say he?ll make a full recovery. I?m glad.?

?You seem to like him.?

?I... Just because I?m friendly with him doesn?t mean there?s any romance between us!?

?Easy, Tali. I wasn?t trying to suggest anything.?

?I know. It?s just that as an Admiral?s daughter everyone always pays a lot of attention to anything I do, so as soon as I talk to a man more than twice it?s suddenly a great romance. If we could sell gossip, the Fleet would be the galaxy?s main producer.?

?I?ll, ah, talk to you later.?

?Hm. Where are we heading now, Shepard??

?Aeia.? In response to her quetioning look, I shrug. ?I?ve never been there, just read the codex entry. Jacob?s father was on a ship that may have crashed there ten years ago. The emergency beacon has just activated, so we?re going there to see what happened.?

?Oh.? Suddenly she sounds regretful. ?I shouldn?t have been quite so unpleasant to him. I thought he was being deliberately offensive, but if he had that distracting him? I?ll have to apologise.?

?That actually makes some sense. I couldn?t figure out what he was thinking to talk like that myself.?



?Hey Commander. It?s great to have Tali back on board, isn?t it.? Joker suddenly looks thoughtful. ?It is Tali, right? Because with that mask on? OK, shutting up now.?

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 35
Not my favourite person, Mister Taylor

“I had a wonderful chat with your friend Tali. She’s not what I expected from her psych report. I like her.” Been psychoanalysing people again, Kelly?

“Tali’s a good friend. We’ve been through a lot together.”

“Quarians are so fascinating to me, but they also make me a little sad.”

“Why do they make you sad?”

“Their environment suits are so beautiful, but with their immune systems they’re trapped inside.”

“Are you into aliens?”

“Well, part of my job is predicting the motives and feelings of humans and aliens. Intimacy brings understanding. Character matters, not race or gender.”

Codex: Aeia
Named after an asari scientist, this remote planet appears to have been on the list of forbidden mass relays that led to uncharted space. The little data available comes from one far-off probe that reported two planets orbiting a white dwarf star. Humans detected Aeia as an Earth-like world via telemetry in 2165. After probe surveys indicated life - lush vegetation, ample fresh water and breathable air - the Alliance upgraded the planet to a garden-world colonisation priority. The Alliance survey vessel Hugo Gernsback made planet fall on the jungle world in 2173. Soon after, ship transmission inexplicably stopped. While the precise fate of the Hugo Gernsback command and crew is unknown, they are presumed killed in action and their vessel destroyed.

“I have run a scan of the ship. I detect no life signs, but there may be useful technology or information still inside.” EDI has a full telemetry link to our vehicles, and is very helpful when it comes to analysing places we land. In this case, it reminds me of Virmire - though we’re not paddling. The remains of the Gernsback are on the far side of the bay we landed at, partly submerged, and with it’s hull broken into sections, though fairly solid ones.

“There it is.” Jacob is of course with me. “The hull’s mostly intact. They could have survived impact, but it’s been years.”

As we go down the hill, spray from the sea starts to splash us. Getting closer to the wreck, it’s obvious there were survivors. “Looks like it was stripped after the crash. They’d have tried to get a beacon up as soon as possible.” Jacob sounds puzzled, as I am. If they survived, why hasn’t the beacon activated sooner? If they didn’t what set it off? Perhaps there’s some clue in the wreckage.

While the ship is partly in the sea, it’s got a bridge to the shore. Some of the equipment has also been left along the shoreline, including a data pad which doesn’t look too damaged. Tali presses a few buttons, and the voice of its owner speaks one more time. “?along with this any more. We’ve done horrible things to the crew. The condition they’re in, they don’t understand what we’re doing to them. Distract them for two seconds, and they forget what you did before the bruises show. It’s got to stop. I’m talking to the others as soon as?” While it breaks up into static, this does not sound good.

We go on board, even though the bridge doesn’t look entirely safe and the deck tilts. Another log entry suggests more about what’s happening. “?always said no. She even threatened a report if I didn’t stop sending messages. But now she’s so innocent. They all are. And that look she gives me when she smiles. It’s sure easier now. What’s the harm? We’re stuck here.”

Another log, this time a woman’s voice, sounding upset. “What? what was her name. Sarah? -Suzanne. My god, I can’t remember? I can’t remember her face. We need to get out? so I can remember, can think straight. They have to hurry.”

A different woman, and this time it sounds as if it’s very soon after the crash. “? not a military ship. You can’t just bump the command chain up a notch. Captain Fairchild knew this crew. His replacement doesn’t command the same level of respect. I’m hoping the man has it in him, but?”

I’m beginning to think something happened here that qualifies as a crime. Finding the ship’s VI emergency beacon provides more evidence. It’s making an announcement. “Repeat: Toxicology Alert. Danger of rapid neural decay. Local flora chmically incompatible with human physiology. Override: beacon resumed. Pause time, eight years, 237 days, seven hours.”

I approach it. “This beacon doesn’t look damaged. Why would they not activate it for eight years?”

It’s intelligent enough to respond. “Pause in beacon protocol, eight years, 237 days, 7 hours. Pause is recorded as: RECORD DELETED by Acting Captain Ronald Taylor.”

“That’s not right. My father was first officer.”

“Ronald Taylor was promoted under emergency command protocols. Other flagged issues: unsafe deceleration. Local food and neural decay. Beacon activation protocols.”

“Who is in command of this ship? Where are the survivors?”

“Captain Harris Fairchild reported killed following unscheduled suborbital descent. First Officer Ronald Taylor promoted in field to acting Captain.”

“But where is he now.” Jacob sounds annoyed.

“The location of the remaining crew members of the Hugo Gernsback is unknown. This beacon has been unattended for several maintenance cycles.”

“I assume ‘unscheduled suborbital descent’ refers to the crash. Give me the details.”

“Following an unspecified impact and sublight drive failure, the Hugo Gernsback made an unscheduled descent at 465% of theoretical recommended suborbital velocity. The Hugo Gernsback then decelerated at 782% of theoretical recommended approach velocity, sustaining significant damage to investment and crew.”

“Local food causes neural decay. What happens?” Tali sounds curious.

“Impairment of mental functions due to chemical imbalance begins within seven days of ingesting local flora, regardless of decontamination procedures. Impact on higher cognitive functions is cumulative, but significant within a standard month. It is not known whether impairment is permanent. Data collection was interrupted.”

“Why wasn’t the beacon activated before now?”

“This emergency beacon became functional 358 days, 12 hours, following the unscheduled suborbital descent of the Hugo Gernsback. The beacon was reactivated remotely after eight years, 237 days, seven hours, on authority of Acting Captain Ronald Taylor. Pause in beacon activation is recorded as: Record Deleted.”

“Come on, let’s get going.”

“My father had a working beacon but didn’t signal for nearly nine years.” Jacob sounds puzzled. “Maybe? maybe that neural decay affected him.”

“After ten years?” Tali seems to think it’s simple. “It must have.”

We move on along the beach. Our first survivor is hiding behind some supply crates. When she steps out, I almost shoot at her, it’s so sudden.

“You came! In a star from the sky. The leader said someone would come. He delayed for so long, but he still has power. Some have lost faith. The hunters! They will have seen your star. They will not let you help him.”

“Slow down. What happened here? Can you tell me?”

“I? I, uh? I don’t remember how to say it. He’s our leader, and we serve him so? we can go home? But some want to fight him. They were. They were cast out! He exiled them, so they hunt his machines, and those who help him. They don’t believe that rescue will come.” Behind her, a group of men dressed in rough clothes are trying to creep forward stealthily. I move closer to her, and one of them raises a gun.

“Look out.” I drag her down with me, behind the crates, before he fires in frustration.

“Kill them! Agents of the liar. They must not escape.” Well, that’s a rallying cry.

Meanwhile, the woman is terrified. “Hunters. They will kill all of us.”

Actually, they won’t. There’s only ten of them, they’re armed with pistols and shotguns, and they aren’t particularly competent fighters. Expose yourself for a second, and two or three of them will move into the open to try to get a better shot. That leaves them exposed to counter-fire. Tali also deploys her combat drone, and flushes some of them out of cover. It’s a massacre, and if they would run I’d let them go, but they won’t.

“These people didn’t have ‘neural decay’. They’re crazy.” Tali looks around sorrowfully.

“My father wouldn’t let this go on. Something is very wrong.”

We can’t get any more information from the woman, who refuses to leave the shelter of the crates, and I’m not going to force her to go with us. Instead, the three of us push on. The path rises around the bay, and there’s a mech of some sort lying by the side of the path. “Stripped for parts.” Tali examines it. “Modified for combat at some point.”

“The hunters must be really laying on the pressure.” Jacob sounds like he wants to fight them off. “Is that a settlement?” Looking ahead, there’s a large clearing with some shelters in it, and people walking around. “They’d better be friendlier than the beach group. I need answers.”

I move into the settlement, and notice something. They’re all women.

“These people seem calm, but they’re part of the same group that attacked us.” Tali has stayed close to me, while Jacob scans some of the crates by the entrance.

“There aren’t any men here. Maybe it affects genders differently? Makes males get violent?”

“Perhaps.” Which I think might be Tali’s polite way of saying no. “But the woman on the beach said something about the hunters being exiled.” A few of the locals have noticed us, and some come wandering up, staring at us curiously.

“It doesn’t matter.” Jacob has caught up with us.

“You have his face. He said he would call the sky, but he sends nothing.” One of the women is staring at Jacob in horror.

“He forced us to eat, to decay. You are cursed with his face.” A second also glares at Jacob.

“Not the best reaction to the family resemblance, Jacob.” I smile at him.

“You heard her. I have his face. My father forced the crew to eat toxic food for years. What the hell. There’s food here, even if it’s spoiled now. They were eating toxic food from the start. As if that isn’t obvious.”

People round the camp don’t seem terribly happy to see Jacob. A few are willing to make comments to me or Tali. Though as one of them explains to me how the leader keeps them safe and they please him as he demands, I start to feel pretty angry. I soon get to let that anger out. A few armed mechs, vaguely similar to the Loki models currently in use, enter the camp and notice us. “Your captain demands obedience. Weapons are forbidden.” Their attempt to enforce that rule doesn’t work out too well.

“He‘s gunning down his own crew to keep control?” I’m not surprised Tali sounds upset. “That’s horrible.”

“Well that would make them hate him.” Jacob seems to want to make excuses, but I think he suspects the same thing I do. “But maybe they were just for defence.”

And yet, not all the women are as far gone. After this fight, one of them approaches us. “You have his face, but you fight his machines. You might help us. Here.” She thrusts a data pad at Jacob. “I? I forget how to read but this? was the start. What he promised, and what was done to us. We need the sky. Take us back to the sky.” She retreats back to a shelter and starts humming.

“Jacob.” I keep my voice calm. “What does it say?”

“It’s a crew logbook. Some of them were worried that the beacon repair was taking too long. They were afraid they’d run out of supplies and lose their minds to the decay. My father restricted the ship food for himself and the other officers so they wouldn’t be affected. Everybody else had to eat the toxic food and hope for treatment later. The rest is a casualty list. Some of them mutinied over the decision. My father and the other officers turned the mechs on them.”

“He wasn’t command material. Couldn’t keep order without the threat of violence.”

“It didn‘t stop there. More incidents, harsh punishments. It’s like they’re cattle. Or toys. Within a year of the crash, all the male crewmembers are marked as dead or exiled. The officers divided up the women between them like toys. And after the beacon is fixed, the officers appear in the casualties too. My father took control, and didn‘t stop it.”

“There were other officers alive? What happened to them?”

“Engineering, Medical, bridge staff. Enough to get the beacon repaired and people safe. All killed in the same week, about a month after the beacon was repaired.”

“Does it say why they separated the women, or is it as bad as it seems?”

“No, it turns to gibberish. Maybe the men got violent early on, but by the look of this place I’d say the hunter thing was recent. What happened here? I don’t see any justification.”

“It looks like he only activated the beacon because the men have come back ready to fight.”

“He had nine years. Why didn’t he set this right? I need to find this man.”

With some explosives Tali improvises from a wrecked mech, we blow our way through a barricade. Someone has a loudspeaker nearby. “This is Captain Ronald Taylor. Thank god you’re here! My crew went insane. I only just got free.”

“Damn it, it’s really him.” Jacob sounds angry. “Only just got free? He’s covering his ass.”


He carries on doing so. We move up a slope, and run into a clearing with a functioning power plant and a pack of guard mechs. Ronald Taylor decides it’s worth telling us that he automated his defences after some of his crew turned violent. After we deal with them, he tells us that we’re coming up on some of his guards. “I spent years training them. I’m afraid you’ll have to fight them to rescue me.”

It might have helped if he’d mentioned the modified cargo mech they had with them. If the others were a rough equivalent to a Loki, this is much larger. And even if it wasn’t originally a combat model, it’s had armour plating welded on, a larger power plant and shield generators, and weapons fitted. It might not be up to the standard of an Ymir heavy combat model, but it’s pretty nasty. And has people firing in support of it. They are rather sadly disappointed by what happens, as after we smash through its shields with weapon fire Tali overrides it’s central processor and switches it to our side. That’s only temporary, but the guards aren’t willing to wait it out. They pour fire into the mech, and it returns fire. I wait for the right moment, and then snipe the mech in the area of its power plant. Just as happens with an Ymir, it blows apart in a chain reaction. This certainly doesn’t help the situation of the guards. Flank them, force them into the open, and shoot them down.

And then there was Ronald Taylor.

He certainly doesn’t seem to have been suffering too much. A nice private section of his own, behind a timber wall, overlooking the ocean and with a power generator for his own use. He’s stood on a platform overlooking the sea when we arrive.

“You’re here.” He walks towards us. “I knew a real squad would blow through just fine. Sorry if the mechs scuffed your pads.” I step up to the railing overlooking the sea, so that he’s behind my back. “I’ll get you something nice when we get back to Alliance space. I’ve gotta have some back pay coming.”

“What about your crew, Acting Captain?” Jacob sounds angry. Well, I feel angry.

“Total loss. The toxic food turned them wild. They propped me up here in some kind of ritual behaviour. Waiting for a chance to signal has been hell.”

“That’s the best you can do.” Jacob’s anger turns to disgust.

“You let all your people talk back like that... uh... who are you exactly?”

I turn round to glare at him. “I’m Commander Shepard of the Normandy. I believe you are already acquainted with Mister Taylor.”

“Taylor? Jacob. No, not Jacob.” I think Ronald is just a little shaken.

“Why not me? Would ten years of this look better to anyone else in the galaxy?”

“You have to understand. This isn’t me.” Though if he is shaken, he’s quick to recover. I’ve known people like him, quick to find an excuse for anything they do. “The realities of command, they change you. I wasn’t ready for that. I made sure you were taught right, before I left. I had hoped to leave it at that.”

“I’m not unreasonable, Captain. But ten years? What happened?” I lean against the railing, watching him as he almost shrinks before my stare.

“Goddamnit. Why did you do this to your crew?” Jacob isn’t as relaxed about this.

“There was resistance to the plan. Mutiny.” While Misters Taylor Sr and Jr are having their discussion, some of the male crew have started to sneak into the compound. “We had to take a hard line to keep order. And things settled down. As the decay set in, we made sure the crew were comfortable. Some even seemed happier. Ignorance is bliss, right? And they were grateful for guidance, like an instinct. Pure authority was easy... at first. Months in, the effects lowered inhibitions. They got territorial. Rank, protocol, they couldn’t understand. We had to establish dominance. After a while the perks seemed normal.” I gesture to Tali to watch the intruders, and continue listening to the conversation.

“That’s it? You created a harem and played king? Ten years in a juvenile fantasy!”

“I can’t point to where it all went wrong. But when the beacon was ready, revealing what happened didn’t seem like a good idea.”

“What happened to the other officers?” I’ve set my omnitool to record this. It’s evidence, if it ever goes to court.

“Anders found his conscience a little too late to step back. He had an accident. Things got... tense. End of the day, I was the one with the mechs. I got a little basic in setting examples, but I was kind to my people once things settled down. Seemed like I’d earned some peace.”

“You fought over people like they were toys. Things.” Part of me wishes Jacob wouldn’t interrupt, but he has a right to be upset.

“The stores from the ship couldn’t last forever. You had to know this would end one day.”

“Dining for one can really stretch things out. Besides, I can think of a lot worse retirement plans than stripping down and joining the droolers. That was before the hunters, of course. Dumb or not, I’d feel it if they got their hands on me now. They want blood. I’d prefer to keep it.”

“It’s all about you, isn’t it?” Jacob gestures angrily in his father’s face.

“You didn’t feel any responsibility to get out of here for the sake of family?”

“I gave him a good start.” Not just yours, you twit! “He was a smart kid and was better off not following me. We figured that out a long time before I took jobs in deep space. And after things escalated here, it seemed best to just disappear off the galactic map.”

“Until you needed someone to save your ass.”

“What triggered the males to change their behaviour?”

“This planet has some strange cycles to it. I’ve seen some plants around I never saw before. Odd weather. Maybe some just adapted a little too well.”

“And if you treat them like animals, big shock, they become animals.” Jacob shakes his head.

“We can help these people. Cerberus can have ships here in days, pull everyone out.”

“He’s not worth the fuel to haul him out, or the air he’s breathing.” Jacob draws his pistol, and aims it at his father. “He’s damn lucky. I don’t think he’s even worth the price of a bullet.” He lowers the gun. “I don’t know who you are, because you’re not any father I remember.”

“You’re lucky, Mister Taylor. Jacob doesn’t feel like wasting a bullet on you. I’m nastier than he is, and I’ve seriously considered leaving you here for the hunters to deal with. But I think you serve better as an example, so we’ll haul you back, put you in front of an Alliance court, and you can have ten years to think about what you did here for every year you spent doing it.”

“Give him all the time in the galaxy. The man who did this doesn’t know right from wrong.”

“I’m sorry Jacob. I did the best I could.”

“I’m ten years past believing that.”

We shoo the hunters off. A few days later, vessels owned by Cerberus front companies arrive on planet, along with medical teams and a news crew. They’ll handle the survivors, and Mister Taylor can look forward to a nice long time in prison. Their initial prognosis is that the neural degeneration is treatable.

Edited by Bluenose, 25 August 2010 - 05:05 AM.

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 36
Stupid Shepard

?What do you mean, it wasn?t you?? I haven?t heard the start of the conversation, but EDI told me Jacob was talking to the Illusive Man in the comms room and I thought I needed to be there.

?Jacob, if I had passed the information about your father to you, I would be smiling at your resolution of the problem. I am not smiling.? He does sound rather annoyed, for the first time in my encounters with him.

?I don?t believe anything goes through this ship - my ship - without you knowing about it.? I join the conversation, wagging my finger

?I had no more reason to think Jacob?s father was alive than he did. This was as much a surprise to me as it was to you.?

?Well if you didn?t do it, who did?? Jacob sounds really frustrated, when a new voice joins in.

?I did.? Miranda walks calmly into the communicators field.

?What for? Messing with people?s minds isn?t your style.? I give her a hard glare.

?At one time, it mattered. Better to get it behind him. And I pay my debts. All of them.? That last is said as she looks back at me.

?Miranda, we?ll discuss your violation of communication protocols. In private.? That?s a dismissal from TIM. ?Shepard, Jacob.?


We retreat tot the armoury. ?You had no idea Miranda was behind this, Jacob?? I don?t really doubt it, but it never hurts to ask, and it starts a conversation.

?No. I didn?t think she paid that much attention. She?s got a good memory, though. Good, but selective.?

?You okay with this??

?It?s all bull, Shepard. I mourned the man he was ten years ago. This was just clearing up some remains. I?m glad we did it, but it?s part of my past now.?

?Sometimes the best thing you can do is accept you can?t fix things, and move on.? Jacob gives me a curious look at the sadness in my tone. ?Nothing I want to talk about, Jacob. Ten years for me, too. I?ll be in the gym if someone needs to speak to me.?



?So, Shepard, where are we going next?? I?ve started taking breakfast in the mess with Garrus and Tali, and sometimes other crewmembers. It seems the crew are happier approaching me in such informal circumstances, rather than going through Kelly. It does mean I often don?t get to eat my breakfast before it goes cold.

?Illium, Tali.? Of course, Tali doesn?t eat the same food I do - nor Garrus, for that matter. ?The Illusive Man has a list of the baddest bad-asses in the galaxy, who he thinks I should recruit for my team to take on the Collectors, and two are apparently on Illium.? I take a sly galnce at Garrus, who is sipping his drink. ?Can?t think how Garrus got on it.?

?Something funny?? While we?re wiping up the mess from Garrus? accident, Kasumi has come over.

Garrus complains to me. ?You know, Shepard, that was unfair. I got three mercenary groups teaming up to take me down. That wasn?t an accident.?
?I don?t know. It could have been.? Tali sounds amused, and I can see her shoulders shifting slightly in her suit.

?We were just commenting on the people I?ve been picking up, Kasumi.? She still looks slightly puzzled. ?Everyone?s among the best in their field. You?re the best thief in the galaxy, Tali?s the best engineer around, Mordin?s one of the top sicentists, and so on. And then we?ve got Garrus. We were just wondering how he got on the list.?

?Must be a case of mistaken identity. Garrus is far too nice to be on it otherwise.? With that, Kasumi and Tali dissolve into laughter while Garrus sits there trying to look as if his dingity doesn?t allow a response.

Of course, that doesn?t prevent him getting some retaliation in once they?ve stopped smirking. ?Of course, there?s another reaspm we#re going to Illium.?

?What?s that?? Tali?s curiosity will be the death of her.

?Someone we know is there.?

?Come on, you bosh?tet. Who??

?Liara T?soni.? He looks at me, smugly.

?Liara?s on Illium?? Tali sounds surprised, but Kasumi is looking between them, and I realise she doesn?t know what they?re talking about. Given how red my face feels, I?m quite glad. ?How does she feel about you beign alive again?? Tali looks directly at me, and I look down at my plate.

?Don?t know.? I mutter it quietly.

?She doesn?t know?? Now Garrus sounds shocked.

?I haven?t sent her any messages.?

?Why not?? Tali sounds appalled.

?I tried!? I snap at the pair of them. ?I tried so many times. I just couldn?t work out how to say it. ??Hi, Liara. Sorry I died, but I?m back now. Wanna get back together???

?But not saying anything?? Tali seems upset. ?Don#t you think that will upset her??

?I don?t know. Probably. But there are limits to my courage, and I?d rather explain things face ?to-face than any other way. I can talk to Liara, but I just can?t write to her. Not about this.?

?I? you might be right, Shepard. Let?s hope so.? I don?t think Tali sounds happy, and now she?s got me worried. Perhaps Liara won?t be pleased to see me. Should I have tried harder to write to her? What will I do if she?s angry? Everyone else moved on with their lives, except me. Why should she be different? Oh hell. My first real relationship, and I?ve buggered it up before it even had a chance to get going. How could I be so stupid.



?How are you getting on, Jack? You don?t have to stay down here, you know.?

?I like it down here. It?s warm, and quiet, and people don?t disturb me asking stupid questions.?

?So what are you looking for in those Cerberus files I let you have? Have you made progress??

?Not yet. I?m looking for the place I was brought up, but I can?t find it. Can you believe all the shit they got up to??

?I?ve seen some of it. I can believe a lot.?

?Yeah, well, I don?t know what I?m going to do when I find it, but I will find it.?

?What were they doing with you anyway??

?Hell if I know. I was just a kid. It was some sort of biotic project, but I dunno what they were after. Didn?t work. I broke out, got away.?

?That seems to happen a lot.?

I mutter it, but Jack?s hearing is good. ?What the fuck do you mean, Shepard??

?Half the Cerberus projects I dealt with when we were chasing after Saren, something got out. Thorian creepers, Rachni.? I sniff, sarcastically. ?Good times.?

?Why the hell are you with them, Shepard?? She jumps up off her cot, and comes up to me. ?You know what they?re like. They aren?t in this to help humanity, just themselves. This ship, this crew ? they?d follow you. You could turn pirate, take over a planet in the Terminus systems, whatever you wanted.?

?You saw Horizon, Jack.? I wait for her to nod. ?Now imagine that, with the Collectors allowed to finish. And they?ve done it before, and even since. New Canton got hit, yesterday. Whatever Cerberus are, they?re also the only hope these places have. No-one else is trying to help.?

?Shit. You really buy into this hero bullshit, don?t you. Where were you when Cerberus was trying to turn me into their biotic toy??

?Given your age, growing up in a gang and joining the Alliance military.?

?You were in a gang? Seriously? I don?t buy it.? Jack is looking at me, incredulously.

?You can check the extranet. You can?t believe everything it says about me, or anything else really, but the people who say I was in a gang aren?t lying.? She?s now looking just a little shocked. ?Let me know what you want to do when we find the site, and we?ll do it, Jack.?



?Miranda? Kelly said you needed to see me.?

?Yes.? She sits back, away from her console. ?I find myself in the unpleasant position of having to ask you for a favour.?

?Miranda, you?re part of my crew. What do you need??

?You remember I spoke about my father.? Well, yes. Rich guy, had Miranda bred like you?d breed a prize-winning bull. ?When I realised he was more interested in controlling a dynasty than having a daughter, I left. And now that I?m working for Cerberus, he knows not to come after me.? She stands up and starts pacing. ?It wasn?t just me. I have a sister, a twin actually. When I left, I took her with me. Cerberus placed her with a family on Illium. She?s had a totally normal life, and I wanted to keep it that way.?

?You think your father has found her.? It?s the only thing I can think of that would explain why Miranda is telling me this.

?Yes, that?s it exactly. I don?t know how it happened, but I want to move her.?

?Does she know anything about this??

?No. nothing. She?s had a perfectly normal life, and I want to keep it that way. Cerberus has provided a reason for her family to move, and they?ll be doing so soon. I?m still worried, though. My father is very persistent. I?m worried he might try to interrupt the transfer. I?d like us to provide a security detachment when they?re being moved.?

?All right. We can do that.?

?Thank you, Commander. I won?t forget this. When we get to Illium, we need to speak to Captain Lanteia. I?ll let her know when we arrive, and arrange a place to meet.?

[Bluenose]

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 37
When things don't go so well

?Do I look all right??

?Of course you do, Commander.? Kelly is a strangely reassuring presence as we approach Illium. ?You look just like you did five minutes ago, and ten minutes before that.?

?Ah. Am I getting a bit obsessive about this?? She nods, solemnly. ?Sorry. It?s just, well, I want, well, I want everything to go right.?

?Everything will be fine, Commander.? She looks at me strangely, as if pondering something, before continuing. ?You?re obviously nervous about this. Why??

?Because I don?t know how to do this.?

?Commander, you?re going to talk to someone. Now, I haven?t known you for long, but I?ve seen you talk your way through all sorts of situations. I?ve even read about your actions when you were pursuing Saren. You have proved again and again that you?re good at talking to people. Now go along to the docking tube, wait for Tali and Garrus, and go and prove it again.?

I have to make a mental note about Kelly. She?s bossy when she?s frustrated. I think it?s wise to get out of her way, fierce little thing that she is.

Codex: Illium
A regional hub of asari commerce awash in riches, Illium is infamous for its abusive labor practices and legalization of nearly everything except murder. As such, Illium is the preferred production site for weapons and pharmaceuticals that would be illegal nearly everywhere else, made even more lucrative by legal indentured servitude. Among the biotics-related pharmaceutical producers is the Dantius Corporation, a rising star in galactic commerce.
Despite the dangers of its products, Illium is renowned for glamour, luxury, and safety (provided by near-total surveillance), making it a favoured tourist destination. Countless celebrities maintain palatial estates on Illium and in its capital, Nos Astra. The sole obstacle to business on Illium is its extreme bureaucracy, tolerated only for its provision of security.
Regardless of the character of its economy, Illium's self-congratulatory media exalts its own society with the provincial arrogance of "new money", glorifying in "sexiest CEOs" and "ten richest residents" lists.

?We were told about Illium in C-Sec training.? Garrus has never quite got the hang of small-talk, but he keeps trying it, and waiting on the dock for a local official seems like a good place to practice with Tali.

?Really? What did they say??

?It was used as an example of a world where your expectations would probably be at odds with the reality. It?s an asari world, and from appearances it?s pretty much a business capital. You?d expect certain standards to apply. In practice, it?s almost as bad as Omega. That you carefully inspected anything arriving at the Citadel from Omega was a given, but the same rules applied to anything shipped from or through Illium. What was frustrating was the way things would come to Illium, be shipped elsewhere in asari space without it appeared much oversight, and then get dumped into the market even when they originated outside Citadel space. We need to be really careful about what contracts we sign here, too.?

I decide to enter the conversation. ?I?ve got Miranda and EDI going through everything. Although, no-one has even asked for a docking fee yet. Traffic Control just gave us a berth number and said we were free to land.?

?Are you sure they?ll let us leave, Shepard.? Tali sounds worried about the Normandy more than herself.

?They have got a system defence force. If they really wanted to stop us they could have done it anyway.? I shake my head. ?Something?s going on.?

?Perhaps this asari will know.? Tali nods down the dock, where an asari is approaching with two armed mechs in tow. I stop leaning against the wall and head towards her.

?Commander Shepard.? She stops a few paces away from me. ?Welcome to Nos Astra. We?ve been instructed to waive all waive all docking and administration fees for your visit/ My name is Careena. If you need information about the area, it would be my pleasure to assist you.?

?Who ordered you to waive the fees?? It explains why we haven?t been asked for any, but who did it matters.

?The order came from Liara T?soni, who paid all fees on your behalf. She also asked that I direct you to speak with her at your convenience. Her office is near the trading floor.?

?Liara?s here?? I can?t help my voice leaping up half an octave. ?What is she doing??

?Liara is one of Nos Astra?s most respected information brokers. Nos Astra is based upon trade, and information is valuable currency. Liara has done quite well for herself. As I said, you?ll find her near the trading floor. She?s looking forward to seeing you.? That?s a relief. I hoped she would be, but I wasn?t certain.

?Tell me about Nos Astra.?

?It?s an exciting city. We see a lot of new cultures and goods because of our proximity to the Terminus systems. At the same time, Illium is still an asari world. You should be as safe here as you would be on the Citadel.? Remembering some of the firefights I got into on the Citadel, that isn?t as reassuring as Careena thinks; and I like to think I can hear Garrus rolling his eyes. ?For your own safety, however, I recommend against signing anything. Illium is a free trade world, and contract term requirements are more relaxed here than elsewhere in Citadel space. It?s a small price to pay for keeping our competitive edge in the Terminus systems. In order to remain competitive, we?ve relaxed many of the standards you?d find on other asari worlds. Most drugs are legal, provided they are labeled properly. You can buy almost any weapon technology. You can even buy indentured servants.?

?Thank you for your time.?

?Again, welcome to our city, Commander. Please enjoy your stay.?


?I think we should speak to Liara about Samara and Thane Krios. If she?s an information broker, she might have information about them.? I?m taking a short cut through an area as we head towards the trading floor when Garrus brings up our business here.

?Good idea. I?ll do that.? My tone is sunny. I?m happy. And I?m not even killing things.

Advertising on Illium:
Bad luck on the stock market? Debt piling up? Perhaps you need to explore other options. IndentureTech cleared my debts and helped me gain valuable job skills. Try IndentureTech today.

This part of the trading floor is an open air district overlooking the streets of Nos Astra. Tali looks around, and her tone is tense. ?Very few quarians ever set foot here. Illium doesn?t allow the Flotilla to approach past a certain distance. This is the greatest planet in the galaxy for those who can afford it, and theywork hard to jeep the Quarian fleet away.?

Overheard on the trading floor;
Volus: Twenty-five. Sell at twenty-five.
Asari: How can you short sell on prefabs after all these human colony attacks. They?re going to see a ton of business.
Volus: A ton of immediate charity business, perhaps. Followed by a freeze as new colony plans dry up. Just watch. Sell, sell!

We?re working our way around the floor, when an asari interrupts me. ?Excuse me. You?re Commander Shepard. I saw your? I guess you would say aura. I?d recognise you anywhere.? She looks around, trying to check if we?re being observed. ?I was asked to give you a message if I saw you. It?s from a friend you made on Noveria.?

?I met a lot of people on Noveria.? I can think of one particular friend. ?Could you be more specific??

?I believe the message itself should make it clear.? Her eyes turn milky white. ?Shepard. We hide. We burrow. We build. But we know that you seek those who soured the songs of our mothers. When the time comes, our voice will join with yours, and together our crescendo will burn the darkness clean. Thank you, Shepard. The rachni will sing again, because of you.?

?Are you on Illium?? That doesn?t make sense, but it?s the first thing I blurt out.

?No.? The asari is back to normal. ?I encountered her on an uncharted world. She saved my life. More than that, she gave me a purpose. They are an amazing people, Shepard. The galaxy owes you a great debt for giving them a second chance.?

?How did you find? them? I think we?d better not say any names.?

?You are as wise as the queen claimed. As for how I met them, I was working as a courier. Pirates ambushed my ship, and I was forced down on an uncharted planet. I was badly injured, alone, and near death. Then they found me. They saved me.?

?You obviously got off world again. Did they give you a ship??

?No. Countless workers repaired my ship. It runs better now than it did before. The remind me of the Keeprs on the citadel, in a way. All working together, each with a purpose.?

?What happened to the pirates who attacked you??

?They were obliterated. As it should be. They are not aggressive, but they do what they must.?

?I got that they were grateful. What else was she saying??

?That the first war was a mistake. Something soured the voices of her people. In their psychology, that would be like mind control, I think.? Indoctrination! ?It doesn?t really translate. She belives you are fighting the ones who did that, and she promises to help. She is certain her ancestors were forced into war against their will. Her people aren?t naturally aggressive, though they will defend their territory.?

?The queen gave you a purpose. What does that mean??

?The queen shared her song with me as I recovered. I saw them as only an asari could. They are so beautiful? and so vulnerable. They needed someone to purchase things they cannot make themselves. Someone to work within the system. An agent, if you will. I am happy to help. My life was empty and shallow. Now I?m helping a great race rebuild itself.?

?You were really happy walking away from your old life??

?You?re concerned that the queen is controlling me.? She sounds amused. ?I understand, but it doesn?t work like that. Our minds were in perfect harmony. I saw their beautiful spirit, and their needs, I knew what I had to do. If some part of that was suggestion, then it was a side effect of their efforts to save my life. I am happy.?

?Tell her I?m glad to hear you?re rebuilding. And for her promise of help.?

?I will. Be well, Commander Shepard. You will not see me again.?

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Liara?s office is on the first floor of an office block next to the trading floor. I pause at the bottom of the stairs. Come on, Shepard. You can do this. Damn, I should have bought flowers. Too late now. I head up the stairs.

?Hello, Commander Shepard.? Outside Liara?s office she has an asari secretary. ?I?m Nyxeris. Liara will be pleased to see you.?

?What?s Liara?s reputation here on Illium?? Anyone messing with her, I?ll do something about it.

?She is greatly respected. In a few short years, she?s amassed a sizeable network of connections. She could have even more political power than she already wields, if she wasn?t so focused on her personal goals. But I believe she should tell you about that, not me.?

?Can I see her now?? Part of me hopes Nyxeris will say no, and part of me would be furious if that happens. I can?t remember ever being so nervous.

?Of course. You?re expected.?

I push the door button, and Liara is facing away from me talking to a male human in a business suit over a holographic communicator. Her voice sounds? strange. ?Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have.? Flashback to Noveria, and her mother?s words. ?I?ll make it simple. Either you pay me, or I flay you alive. With my mind!?

She?s obviously heard the door opening behind us, as she breaks off the communication and turns round. ?Shepard!? That?s more like Liara?s normal voice. ?Nyxeris, hold my calls.? She comes over, and takes my hands, and then she leans in and we?re kissing, and everything is going as I hoped.

And then we?re not. She turns her face away and seems to be composing herself. She steps back, so that her desk is between us. ?My sources said you were alive, but I never believed? It?s very good to see you.?

?You have sources now?? I try to sound amused.

?A few.? She turns away from me, and starts looking out of her window. ?Sources, contacts, even a little hired muscle. I?ve been working as an information broker. It?s paid the bills since you? well, for the last two years. And now you?re back, gunning for the collectors with Cerberus.? She sits back down.

?If you know that, you know I could use your help.? I want you on my ship. Whatever you need, I?ll do it.

?I can?t, Shepard. I?m sorry. I have commitments here. Things I need to take care of.?

?What kind of things? Are you in trouble?? Is someone threatening you?

?No, no trouble.? She gets back up, to stare outwards again. ?But it?s been a long two years. I had things to do after you were gone. I have debts to repay. Listen, if you want to help, I need someone with hacking expertise. Someone I can trust. If you could disable security at key points around Illium, you could get me information I need. That would help me a great deal.?

?Hacking a terminal sounds pretty easy. Why do you need me?? Why won?t you look at me? Am I that hideous? My scars are nearly cleared up.

?I don?t know anyone else I can trust. Hacking the security node won?t get you the data. It just creates a minor glitch in the system. You?ll have a short time to find a local server left vulnerable by that glitch, and upload the data to my system. I?m leaving my own system vulnerable so that the data can be imported during that short time.?

?If it?ll help you, I?ll take care of it.? I?d take care of anything for you.

?When you hack one, a server will open somewhere nearby for a short time. You can download data from there, if you hurry. Thank you, Shepard. This may help me pay a great debt.?

?Can you help me with something? There?s an asari named Samara here on Illium. Do you have any idea where I can find her?? Or Doctor Liara T?soni, as she used to be?

?Samara. Yes. She arrived recently and registered with Tracking Officer Dara. You can find Dara at the transportation hub.?

?Why would Samara have to register with a tracking officer? Is she some sort of criminal??

?No. In fact, it?s quite the opposite. Samara is a Justicar, one of an ancient order of asari warriors. Dara can give you the details.? She looks at her terminal. ?Is that everything, Shepard??

?Yes. I?ll see what I can do about the hacking.?

?If there?s anything else I can help you with, let me know.? She looks away, checking on her terminal. ?Let me know when you hack those terminals.?

That?s a dismissal if I ever heard one. ?I?ll talk to you later, Liara.? She doesn?t respond.

Strange. I don?t remember leaving her office, or going down the stairs, but I?m leaning against the wall at the bottom a minute later. I rest my forehead against it, letting the coolness seep into me.

?Shepard.? Tali?s here. She sounds concerned about something. ?Shepard, are you all right? Should we go back to the Normandy??

?I?m fine.? I straighten up, and try to put together the fragments of my game face. ?You heard Doctor T?soni. She wants us to hack some terminals for her. Let?s do it.?