Of Ashes and Dust

Mars – 25th September 2186 – 1300 hours

"Soldiers, you know what's at stake here. Do what you must to get inside and pave the way for the rest of our strike force. Leave no trace of your existence there, and leave no survivors. I expect results."

In a fraction of a second, the hologram vanished into thin air, leaving the Cerberus shuttle to be enveloped by an all-encompassing silence which preyed on every bit of noise made by the 4 fully-armoured troopers sitting inside. The objectives set out by The Illusive Man certainly were simple, but there was far more to it than met the eye. Mark Gully wasn't under any illusions on just what surprises could be thrown at them, but they were experienced men of war. They could deal with it. Unless there was a full battalion of Alliance down there. At that point, The Illusive Man might even be a bit sympathetic with them and order them to carry out a tactical retreat!

The shuttle shuddered and shook slightly as they descended onto the dusty Martian surface. They were designated as being the first ones to land so that they could make headway into the facility, eliminate any possible immediate threats and secure it for a larger force to enter. It was made clear to them that even the researchers needed to be 'taken care of'. Why? Mark had no idea. If he was honest, it all seemed a bit…excessive, although he had learned not to question his orders over the years. Still, he was surprised that no one else had even hinted that they felt just a little uncomfortable about it, but he shrugged it off pretty easily; this was his job and he had trust in Cerberus. Why wouldn't he?

"Alright, Onyx, I want this over with ASAP. It doesn't matter who's in your way. To you, they should just be an enemy, nothing else." Mark, clad in the distinctive white Cerberus armour, wiped a drop of sweat off his brow before donning the helmet to complete the image. To his satisfaction, the seals were all properly locked down, and a few seconds later he jumped out of the shuttle letting the thrusters on his boots slow the descent to the floor. It only took a moment before each of the other five members of his squad were on the ground beside him. He made a quick series of hand gestures before shouldering the Cerberus Harrier and establishing a 360 degree view with his squad.

The squad itself consisted of people with a range of different talents and abilities, each able to complement one another. It gave them extensive capabilities over the unknown. Sure, they weren't as specialised as other squads may have been, but they were perfect for being sent into places where there was no time to observe and plan ahead. This was one of those times.

Jurgen Nielsen: programmer, hacker, tech lunatic…call him what you will, he was great at what he did. Give him your locked datapad to hold just for a minute, turn your back on him, and by the time you've looked back he'll already be well on his way to being able to mock you about those private files you didn't intend to tell anyone about. Look past that little…aspect of him, and you'd be more than glad to have him around. Mark and Jurgen had known each other pretty much ever since they'd joined Cerberus, so a bit of banter between the two was a common sight.

Chen Lin: more than just a little bit quiet, Chen had simply been described in his dossier simply as 'a medic and CQB veteran who would be unwavering in the face of death.' That was the most important part of the dossier, anyway. The Illusive Man had been rather sparing with details, and Mark hadn't been able to speak to him before this mission. In fact, he hadn't even seen his face; it really didn't fill him with much confidence.

James Hill: there wasn't too much to say about him. He had arrived under basically the same circumstances as Chen, and his dossier was equally as brief. He was a sharpshooter. His aim was bloody brilliant, apparently. It did seem a bit cliché, but there had to be a reason why snipers were so commonly stereotyped as being silent. Mark wondered if it actually applied to James this time. Whatever the case was, Mark could only hope the guy justified his seemingly robotic persona. After all, he hadn't seen James' face either. The mission had come at them at such a pace, though, that Mark could understand the reasoning behind The Illusive Man's decision to assign two unknowns to his team at such short notice.

Then there was Mark Gully: he led Onyx team, and had done for a good year and a half. He leaned more towards the support role than anything else, often being the proverbial bulkhead on which to lean on. He was one of the early Project Phoenix operatives, but he only ever used his biotics in difficult combat scenarios. Biotics weren't to be trifled with.

"Hold up. Alliance patrol. Three. Take them out." No more information was needed for the troopers. The Alliance soldiers had their sights set elsewhere. Were they taking a break? It didn't matter. The only think they were going to find out was that it was their unlucky day. It should have been four quick, simple and hassle-free kills. Thankfully, it was just that. A few shots to each head and they slumped to the floor and against a without even a single cry of agony; just how Mark liked it.

They moved cautiously up to the outside walls of the facility, converging on a set of doors that led inside. "Doctor Coré, can you get us in?" Mark had opened up comms with their agent on the inside. He had done his part, so now Eva needed to do her part.

"Of course. Give me a moment." A calm, feminine voice responded to Mark. He didn't expect anything other than success from Eva, really. Neither did anyone else, and it was good to see her deliver.

So far, everything was going to plan, and that was reaffirmed as the holographic interface on the front of the doors began flashing erratically until it turned a bright green and disappeared completely, indicating that the doors had been accessed and opened. Each of the soldiers filed inside with an innate aura of professionalism and efficiency about them. Before they even knew it, the lift had equalised the pressure and they were on their way up into what seemed like a cargo hold of sorts.

"I'll be waiting for you and your squad in the archives. You'll be able to handle the few Alliance guards you see."

"The rest will be researchers?" Mark enquired, letting the rifle drop loosely down by his side. He glanced around briefly, happy to see the rest of his squad – people he'd known well for absolutely years – securing the perimeter.

"Yes, but there is someone else."

"Someone we should be worried about?" There was a much greater urgency in the Cerberus trooper's voice. Whatever Eva was talking about seemed to be concerning her a little if there was something to worry her then that was more than enough to worry him.

"Yes. An Asari. You should know the name: Liara T'Soni."

Liara. That name hit him like a bombshell. It was like something physically smacked the air out of his lungs. He hated firefights against Asari. Their biotics could wreak havoc with anything, but Liara…Mark had seen just what she was able to do and it didn't bode well for them. It also meant that Shepard surely wouldn't be far behind if Liara T'Soni was around here.

After a short pause, Mark replied. "We'll deal with her." A simple statement, but it carried a lot of weight. In truth, he was no xenophobe, but he was young and disillusioned when he decided to join Cerberus. The only reason he decided to stay was because there were certainly a ton of perks. He had joined with a friend, too. He'd since gone to work on something top-secret with Cerberus. Knowing the kinds of experiments Cerberus got up to, it was likely to be fucking crazy. Then again, everything in Cerberus was top-secret, so it could have been anything.

Mark had stayed on the frontlines, though. Besides, there had to be some people to protect Humanity. Cerberus had demonstrated that when the Collectors were attacking those colonies. Why was The Illusive Man adamant on killing all of these innocents, though? He enjoyed the thrill of tracer fire flying over his head and bouncing off of everything around him, but he'd never been ordered to do anything like this before, neither was it something he enjoyed.

Mark could only shake his head and let out an irritated sigh to himself. None of this made any sense. The way The Illusive Man was throwing Mark and his squad around, it was like he was treating them as if they were mindless animals who wouldn't ever question their loyalty to him. For now, Mark had no reason not to follow the orders. Maybe the researchers had some sort of evidence that could bring Cerberus down for completely unjustifiable reasons? Yeah, something like that...

But regardless of everything, Cerberus brought Shepard back to life! Whom they were now tasked with eliminating again...

"Sir."

"Chen?" Now his body and brain were snapped back into gear. "Why are you calling me sir? We've gone over this already. It's just Mark."

There was no reply, only a blank look through that god-awful helmet. Mark gripped his Harrier a bit tighter, now holding it in both hands and close to his chest. They were still being abnormally quiet and-No, no, it was nothing. They just wanted to get the mission done, that was all. He began marching away from Chen, shrugging it all off. Everybody needed clear minds for this, and it felt like he was the only one who didn't.

"Form up on me!" As they did so, Mark turned to look at them all and gave them the next orders. "Doctor Coré has set all of the cameras around this place to play on a loop. They won't notice we're here until we make it very obvious. In the next room we'll need to disable the automated turrets so that the rest of our force can roll in unhindered in the Makos. I don't want The Illusive Man on our backs because we failed."

"And maybe we can all enjoy a nice game of chess after this!"

"Alright, Jurgen, do your job and I'm sure we can arrange something!" Yeah, Mark hadn't really counted on the occasional quips and inappropriate comments of the ever-present Jurgen. It was a nice little informality which was an absolute godsend for him, personally. Jurgen was the only one of the four in Onyx that he'd known for years previous to this. Chen and James were replacements for two regulars in his squad who had been killed by Batarian mercs in their last mission. They were friends. Good friends. But this was war, and war was the most unforgiving of enemies. Mark and Jurgen were forced to try and push it out of their minds, lest they became the next victims of war.

Jurgen had laughed, but it was poorly disguised as a proper one. Mark knew him, and he knew he was nervous. Not about the completion of the mission itself, no, but the fact they were killing so many civilians.

Nevertheless, they moved forward, entering the next room through an already unlocked door. As expected, there were civilians. Seven in total. 14 eyes were trained on the uninvited troopers as they raised their weapons

"Hey! Cerber-" One shot to the chest later, and the man was lying dead on the floor, blood already pooling around his limp body. Mere seconds later, and everyone was eliminated, either slumped against the once pristine walls, draped over consoles or in a heap on the floor. Mark's expression was stoic as he looked around the whole place, trying to avoid any contact with the different corpses littered around. It was a control room, as was made evident with the plethora of holographic displays, terminals and other consoles. The automated turret controls would be here somewhere. Jurgen would likely know where.

"Jurgen, can you get those turrets offline?"

"Sure thing." The tech expert of the group walked up to one of the terminals, pulling one of the bodies off of the terminal in question and dumping it onto the floor. He brought up the display and glanced up to Mark. "Call them in, they'll be well offline by the time they all get here."

Mark nodded, but Jurgen was already focused back on the terminal. He opened comms with the other Cerberus soldiers. "Cobra platoon, you're free to enter the vicinity and make your way into the facility. Turrets are down. I repeat, turrets are down."

"We hear you, Onyx. ETA 3 minutes." Was the reply. Now they just needed to s

Before doing anything else, Mark released a thermal clip and popped another back in. "So, are the turrets actually down?"

"You ever doubted me?" Jurgen remarked with a chuckle after a brief pause, walking back around with his weapon in hand.

"It was that easy?"

"Okay, I may have cheated just a little." He held up one of the researcher's ID cards and shrugged, tossing it to the floor.

"Well, if you can 'cheat' with any other things like that and do it right, then I'm not bothered." Mark patted Jurgen on the shoulder, smiling under the helmet. "We'll have backup soon enough, then we can go play some chess."

A/N: Don't worry, there'll be much more progression of the story in the next chapter! This was just to set the scene and give a little bit of insight into the characters. Also, regarding the date I used at the start (25th September): I couldn't find anything that could tell me at what point in 2186 the events of ME3 began, only that it would be after the 11th of January...If anyone has any sort of information about that, then that'd be awesome!

Remember to leave a review if you liked it, or if you find something that I could improve on!