second chance

please read through and though I hate to nag, I could really use some feedback.

I do not own any aspect of mass effect or the mass effect universe, they are property of Bioware.

03:00 am Galactic standard time.

Cerberus Orpheus cell facility, Hades gamma cluster.

Commander Frank Rekki slowly began to edge open the door of the supply closet that had been his hiding place for the past six hours. He checked his cloak was at full strength before carefully stepping over the body of the unlucky Cerberus janitor that had stumbled upon him earlier into the hallway. The lighting was at its lowest setting, giving only a faint orange glow to see by. Deep below him, the stations fusion power plant hummed softly. Most of the non-essential Cerberus crew had gone to bed, Cerberus facilities using earths clock to dictate shift patterns.

But Rekki was not Cerberus. He was part of the Alliance special forces elite section 22, trained to go behind enemy lines, get the job done and get out before anyone even realised he was there. And he had to admit this was going to be tricky.

He edged along the far wall, crouching slightly so his footsteps made no sound. Moving swiftly from shadow to shadow, he eventually came to a corner. He stopped, checking if anyone was coming, and began to edge towards the door at the end of the hall. When he reached it, he was dismayed to find it was an elevator. He quickly weighed up his options. An empty elevator moving on its own would arouse suspicion, but he had no guarantee of when the elevator would next arrive, and even then it might not head to the right floor. He raised his omni-tool and checked his map.

Cerberus had captured a high-profile human politician, Gerrard Dumond, head of the unionist party. Dumond had actively campaigned for greater integration with the citadel council, and from what Rekki had heard he had garnered enough support to threaten even the Cerberus-backed Terra Firma. Upon Dumonds capture, they had sent a message demanding fifteen million credits as a ransom. But the systems Alliance does not negotiate with terrorists, and Cerberus could not be allowed to undermine the election process.

And so Rekki and his team had been sent to extract Dumond and blow up the station for good measure. It was high-risk, and there was not much time. He had little choice but to take the elevator and hope no one noticed. He pushed the button and the doors slid open with a soft whoosh. Frank drew his pistol and stepped into the deserted elevator. He pressed the button indicating the fifth floor and the doors whooshed shut again. As the elevator began its slow crawl downwards he thought about the rest of his team. Until they were in position, radio silence was maintained to avoid detection, so he had no way of where they were. As no alarms had been tripped he had to assume they were en route like he was. His headset crackled into life.

"Zulu-3 in position"

" I hear you ,standby"

Zulu-3 was Nigel Dawes, a close friend of Franks and a specialist in hacking security systems. His job was to clear the way to the target by blocking any attempt at a lockdown.

"I still think this isn't worth it" Dawes said dryly. He had raised a concern before the mission over the value of rescuing Dumond. The way he saw it, Dumond was asking for it by saying what he did and besides; he was wrong anyway. Dawes was no fan of aliens, Flat out refusing to even look at them unless it was down the scope of his rifle. Frank had expected him to opt out of the mission the minute he heard it involved targeting Cerberus, but he hadn't. He just kept moaning about it.

"damn it Nigel stay focused. You compromise us and I swear if Cerberus doesn't get you I will."

"Sorry sir" came the reply. "I just don't like killing my own kind."

Frank was about to give him another order to shut up when zulu-2 reported in. Zulu-2 , Lieutenant Christina Young, was the sabotage specialist, tasked with planting the charges to overload the fusion plant. The plan was to distract the stations staff with the explosion, possibly even force them to evacuate, grab Dumond in the confusion and exfiltrate. The fourth member of the team, Lt. Moreno, was left behind to guard the exit route, one of the stations escape pods. Only Frank needed to get in position now, then the attack could begin.

"Thank you zulu-2. All Zulus resume radio silence and hold position until instructed otherwise."

"Aye,aye"

The elevator beeped and announced that it had finally reached deck 5 – the holding level. Frank readied his pistol as the doors whooshed open, but there was no one on the other side. Relieved, he began to push forward , checking each cell for signs of the hostage. Again he came to a corner. He paused once more, this time hearing the squeak of boots and ceramic armour. He could see the cell Dumond was being held in, e56. Leaning out of the wall to get a better view , he saw two Cerberus operatives, clad head to toe in bone white heavy assault armour , each wielding an assault rifle.

This required more than a pistol.

Frank replaced the pistol and pulled out his shotgun, grasping it with both hands. He took a deep breath in. Already the adrenaline began to flow down his spine in anticipation of the coming battle. Another deep breath and he was ready.

" All Zulus mission is a g-"

He was cut off as the a loud bang rocked the station, causing the guards to stumble and the power to fail. As the lights flicked back on , Frank ducked into an alcove in the wall as both guards raised their rifles, checking left and right for intruders. Frank was grateful that his cloak was still holding out as they walked straight past. Something wasn't right. Young wouldn't blow the core that early, it must be something else. the Sirens rang out:

" Red alert! All hands to stations! We are under attack!"

Frank tapped into the guards comms, hoping for clues as to what was going on.

"we've been boarded!"

"Oh shit,who is it"

"not sure, looks like Asari commandoes"

Asari ? What the hell are they doing here? Thought frank. Why couldn't anything be simple. There were now six guards in in front of him, each crouching behind small , waist high barricades that had folded of the walls between each cell. Their guns were trained on the elevator he had just come through, in readiness for the frontal assault that could only be minutes away. Minutes Frank could no longer afford to wait.

He charged out from behind them, firing his first shot at the man closest to him and diving behind that mans wall. the guards began to turn around some firing blindly in suprise. The poorly aimed bullets bounced off his kinetic barriers , and his cloak held long enough for him to pick off two more of them. As it began to drop, he ducked back behind the wall. The two guards who had been watching the cell were advancing on him , the third kept him pinned down with gunfire. All he could do was wait for the third man to empty his clip, and hope to pick the others off while he reloaded.

The doors of the elevator whooshed open. One of the guards flew past him and slammed into the wall with a heavy clunk. His broken body momentarily glowed with the telltale icy blue light of a biotic attack. Frank reacted immediately, sensing an opportunity . he spun round and leapt up, unloading his shotgun into the dark figures before him. As the smoke cleared he counted eight bodies. Two Asari, six Human.

If anyone asked, Cerberus did it.

Rekki knew what would happen if anyone found out what had really happened; he would be Court-Martialed and likely executed . But he couldn't dwell on it, he still had a mission to complete and besides, there were no witnesses.

"SitRep," he panted. " Now."

Dawes was the first to respond.

"I've gained control of security systems. Just tell me which doors you need opened and I'll unlock them."

" have you seem any Asari?"

"No."

He sounded calm, almost cold . Something in his voice made Rekki suspicious. Dawes didn't trust any aliens, but he had a passionate hatred for the Asari. He had never fully explained why, and didn't like raising the subject. From what Frank had been able to gather from rumours though, it had something to do with his ex-wife. He was hiding something. Rekki was about to ask him what it was when the panicked voice of Lt. Young came over the radio.

" commander, this zulu-2. The energy spike fried my cloak and omni-tool and i'm on backup shields," there was gunfire in the background , and her voice kept getting drowned out by warp attacks and explosions. " I can't set off the charges."

"what?"

" like I said, my omni-tools fried, I can't set off the charges," there was an awkward pause. "i'm sorry." Rekki could tell she was scared. If the fusion plant wasn't destroyed, Cerberus would have no reason to abandon ship, putting the whole mission in danger. Worse still with her cloaking device offline she was as good as dead. if the Asari found her they would shoot her, Thinking she was with Cerberus . And if Cerberus found her...

Section 22 had never Lost an operative, and Rekki wasn't about to let his lieutenant be the first. He knew what he had to do.

"zulu-2 find somewhere safe and bunker down. Zulu-3, open cell e56 ASAP!" the cell door began to unlock, the three metal bolts sliding free. "all Zulus , I am retrieving the package."As the door swung open, he stepped inside.

The inside of the cell was even more dimly lit than the rest of the station. It was barren ,two small crumpled objects on the hippo-skin floor were the sole occupants of the room. One of the objects was Dumond. He was curled up in the fetal position, his bruise-coated hands firmly clamped over his eyes. as Frank reached out and shook him , he let out a little whimper, followed by what sounded like " just kill me."

"Mister Dumond I'm with the Alliance. I can get you out of here but you're gonna have to do exactly as I say." Frank said, trying to sound reassuring whilst conveying a sense of urgency. Dumond slowly raised himself to his feet. He was stooped, unable to raise his head above the line of his shoulders and his he held his whole torso far further than was normal. He had clearly been beaten. He took a few shaky steps forward then nodded his head as much as he could to indicate that he was ready to leave. Frank checked that it was still empty outside before helping the injured man out of the cell. They headed towards the elevator as quickly as Dumond could run.

Thankfully, it was still empty. Frank slammed his fist into the "close door" button . Safe for now, he handed his pistol to Dumond only to be met with a blank expression. "Don't worry,"he said, pressing the button for the engineering deck. " we're just taking a little detour."