So this is the first chapter to the third part of this fanfic I am writing. The first part, called 'Improvisation can take you a long way' was rated T and followed the events of Mass Effect 1. The second part, called 'Life itself is will to power' touched on more adult topics and had a darker tone, so it was rated M. It was about the events bridging the gap between ME1 and ME2. This third part will cover ME2, and though it will keep its dark themes and M rating, it will be less dire and more upbeat. If you've already read the other two parts, then welcome back! Sorry for the wait, but I hope you enjoy this next part just as much or even more! If you haven't read the other two parts, then I strongly recommend you do, because otherwise things just won't make sense, I guess. I hope you enjoy them!
Without further ado, here's Chapter 1!
Nicolas woke to a clean, warm, empty bed. He felt the nausea caused by strong antibiotics attack his stomach and noticed a white tube labelled Probiotics on the bedside table. He held the container to his lips, waiting for gravity to pull the thick blue syrup down. The dry taste of cherries and aspartame filled his mouth, making him gag for a second before he was able to swallow. He waited for the queasiness to wear out, smacking his lips. A display started humming to life, snapping him to attention as a blue holographic sphere appeared on the opposite side of the bed.
"Good day, Mr. Baker. The Commander asked me to answer any questions you might have once you awoke," a feminine voice came from the hologram. Its voice didn't seem to be composed from pre-recorded bits, like a normal VI, maybe it had a complex text-to-speech program.
Baker groaned and pressed his palms against his eyes. After a long stretch and a sigh, he gave the hologram a paused look from top to bottom, "What's your name?"
"Enhanced Defence Intelligence. EDI for short. I control the weapons systems and the cyberwarfare suite of the Normandy."
"You mean the new Normandy. What time is it?" Nicolas asked as he got up, finding Cerberus fatigues folded on the floor. He put them on as EDI talked.
"It is 1100 hrs, SCT. We arrived half an hour ago at Purgatory and the commander has taken Operative Taylor and Vakarian to assist-"
"We're already in Purgatory?" Nicolas tripped on his pants as he put them on, getting up hastily, "Did I sleep the whole of yesterday?"
"No, you were experiencing episodes of PTSD-induced panic attacks and phantom pain, as Dr. Chakwas diagnosed, and you were administered sleeping medication to wait for the episodes to pass so you could authorize a stronger treatment once you were lucid. I would recommend going to the doctor as soon as possible."
Nicolas grunted as he went into the bathroom, finding a bag of utensils and a towel waiting for him. With an annoyed huff, he stripped and got into the shower.
"So what is the mission we are on? How did you bring the commander back?" he asked as the hot water washed over him. He noticed his wounds weren't stinging anymore and he looked down to see that healthy scabs had formed and the skin around them had its normal tanned tone. He saw himself in the shower's mirror and considered shaving until he saw a thick scar coming down from his lower lip. The permanent bruise on his temple trickled down underneath his hair to the beard at the corner of his jaw and he decided to hold off on shaving for a while.
EDI explained how entire human populations in remote colonies have been disappearing, and that the council has refused to send aid. She told of how Shepard was recently at one of the colonies that had fallen victim to one such incident and discovered that the Collectors were behind the disappearances. Currently, Dr. Solus was working on countermeasures to the Collectors' biological weapons and the Commander was gathering a team to aid her in stopping the kidnappings.
"How did you bring her back?" Nicolas asked as he shut off the shower.
They didn't, she's a clone.
He shook his head from side to side ignoring the comment, dried himself and put his fatigues on again before leaving the bathroom.
EDI followed him out of the captain's quarters into the corridor and the elevator as she talked about Project Lazarus. The human eyed his prosthetic hand which had started to tingle as the elevator went down to the crew quarters. The fingers moved how they were supposed to so it didn't seem like the nervous endings were damageded, but the tingling wasn't going away, and the whole limb twitched periodically, so maybe something was misaligned.
"… It was lucky that the helmet remained intact up to the point of impact on Alchera. Reconstruction of the brain would have set back the project by several months, if not years," EDI said as the doors opened to the crew deck.
Nicolas stopped before leaving the elevator and looked up at the speaker in the ceiling, "So it wasn't the Collectors who took her from Alchera."
"No… it was the Blue Suns… just a moment," EDI paused and Nicolas waited patiently, tapping a foot on the metal floor of the elevator, "Did you go to Alchera and encounter a team of Cerberus operatives?"
Nicolas shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the medbay, "I have no idea what you are talking about, EDI. Log me out."
…
Karin looked up from her datapad as the door to the medbay whooshed open, letting Nicolas in. The human looked much less deteriorated now than when he arrived at the Normandy and the day after, yet there were still signs of stress. He zoned out and stood still at the doorway, looking into the sterile white of the medbay. Chakwas give him a good look before considering breaking the silence. His prosthetic hand twitched every half second, so something was amiss there, especially considering he'd had a rather bad episode of phantom pain the previous day. His other hand was shaking, showing his distaste for medical equipment or herself, she wasn't sure yet. The bruise on his temple was certainly permanent and his dishevelled look was uncharacteristic of his days in the previous Normandy. She put her datapad and brought Nicolas out of his stupor, "Can I help you, Mr. Baker?"
His eyes came back into focus as he muttered a quick "Shut up," under his breath. Chakwas tilted her head slightly to the side with curiosity as the man walked over to the chair opposite her before making an inquiring gesture towards it. She nodded and he sat down. A few more seconds of silence ensued before he started with a half-hearted uh….
"I'm… I haven't been doing too good lately."
Karin smiled and raised her eyebrows in mock surprise, "Haven't you now? What would be the symptoms?"
"Well," Nicolas shifted uncomfortably, "My hand is tingling since I woke up," he raised his twitching prosthetic and Chakwas nodded, typing something on her datapad. Nicolas continued, "I've been having recurring nightmares for a couple of months. Not yesterday but before I got to the Normandy," Nicolas waited for Karin to nod and he went to the last part he wanted to get to, "It seems like my wounds are healing well so that isn't a problem anymore but there's one last thing," with this, Chakwas took her eyes off the datapad and their gazes met, "I… I've been talking to myself a lot lately."
"Talking to yourself? I would say that is normal behaviour in moderation, Mr. Baker," Chakwas prodded, downplaying Nicolas' predicament to get him to admit the problem to himself.
"Well not me me. I know it's just me in here," he tapped a finger to his right temple, "but there's two me's. The one that's talking out loud and the one that talks to him."
"Hmmm…" the doctor tapped a finger to her chin before writing more into her notes, "have you been on drugs?"
Anger bubbled within Nicolas and he clenched his twitching fist, making the rubber pads on the inside of the hand squeak, "Well, apart from the ones in the tainted chocolates the commander gave me, I started taking Sand, but that was way after the voice started talking in my head."
Chakwas pursed her lips annoyed, "That was for your own good, Baker. Without the medication I administered, you would have suffered severe mental breakdowns even before we went to Vir-"
Nicolas stood up swiftly and smacked the chair he sat on across the medbay with his prosthetic arm, "Don't high road me, Chakwas! You know full well you and Shepard were in the wrong, medicating me without my knowledge."
"Surely after two years, you had enough time to find the reasoning behind it. Did it ever occur to you that the commander, whom you held in such high regard, actually did it to help you instead of just drugging you for the hell of it?" Chakwas shot back at Nicolas, her voice annoyed. He stood silently, looking down at his feet, considering what the doctor said. She changed the topic back to the voice he talked about, "You called the other you a voice just now. Does it sound like you at all?"
After a deep breath, Nicolas was ready to talk again, "No. Much more gravelly, like an old turian with destroyed vocal chords."
Chakwas hummed to herself as she read over her datapad. She scrolled up and down her notes as Nicolas walked silently over to the chair he'd flung across the room and set it in its place, sitting down as Karin began to talk again, "So your medical reports say that you were a kromby user before getting on the Normandy SR-1, correct?" Nicolas nodded and Chakwas continued, "Kromby is a drug that enhances the sensitivity of dopamine receptors in the brain. Pairing the sudden stop of your Kromby habits with all the stress that came from the mission against Saren, which you weren't prepared for in the slightest, made for a prime situation in which anxiety-related disorders could surface. I saw this and the commander did as well, so we decided to medicate you to stave off the effects of the stress that you were experiencing. After the mission was done, you decided to leave the Normandy but your treatment was incomplete and so we had to send your medication in a way that you wouldn't notice. Unfortunately, it seems the treatment was not finished by the time you left for Omega. Let me ask you a question, once you were in Omega, I assume you cut all communication with everyone from the Normandy, correct?"
Nicolas nodded, so absorbed by Chakwas that he didn't notice his hand had started to twitch more strongly. Karin continued, "It is around that time that the voice started talking to you, correct?"
He let air out from his nose in a supressed sigh, "It's hard to remember exactly when it started… I had just finished a task that Aria had given me. I murdered the sons of a man who'd been doing business with her."
"I assume it didn't say anything nice," Nicolas shook his head at this and the doctor continued, "From then on your emotions became erratic?"
"More like absent. I would get annoyed easily, but rarely sad or happy…" Nicolas looked at the floor as he muttered.
"Alongside that, you started taking Sand and I assume it hasn't stopped talking since then?"
Nicolas shook his head once more, "It's getting harder and harder to get it to shut up," he flinched and Chakwas stood up and walked towards him.
She stood there in front of Baker and slowly brought a hand up to rest on his shoulder, "It would seem that you are suffering from early stages of Schizophrenia. With our medical records, I can say that it was a combination of stress and drug abuse that triggered it. Red Sand and Kromby weren't meant for human use, and it has side-effects that are absent in other species even when they abuse them. You've been lucky that your symptoms have only included auditory hallucinations and a partial loss of emotional responsiveness, otherwise they would be harder to treat. With your authorization, I can prescribe you medication that will rid you of the symptoms, and eventually, bring you back to how you were before you got tangled up in the mission against Saren. It will take time, though, and you'll have to stay away from Sand, no matter how much you crave it."
Nicolas chuckled, "seems like that would be easy, since we're in the Normandy."
"I wouldn't be so sure. This isn't an alliance vessel, and the people Shepard is recruiting seem like they could have access to the drug. We can keep an eye on you, but it is also something that you have to commit to yourself."
A long moment of silence ensued before Nicolas broke the silence, "I'll take the meds… now can we get to fixing my twitchy arm? It's starting to get on my nerves."
"Quite literally, I would say. It seems like some nervous connectors have been misaligned. I can fix that in a couple of minutes," Chakwas smiled as she typed a command into her datapad, setting the medication manufacturer to work as she stood up and lead Nicolas to one of the medbay's beds.
…
Nicolas walked briskly towards the cockpit. He'd seen a flash of blue and red through one of the viewports on the starboard side. When he walked up to the unnaturally large window, he saw that Purgatory was almost bubbling with explosions. The damage had to be internal and extensive to cause so many hull breaches, and if anyone knew what was up, they'd be at the CIC deck. For the first time he noticed the difference in size when he reached the pilot's seat, all the way at the other side of the long neck of the ship. A pair of arms deftly moved over the Normandy's controls, making micro adjustments on the shield modules to repel flying shrapnel with minimal energy consumption.
A wave of recognition washed over Nicolas as the pilot spoke before he could peak over the edge of the chair, "Commander, it'll be roughly five minutes before Purgatory's hull integrity is too deteriorated to maintain a pressurized atmosphere. If you don't want our newest family member to pop in the vacuum, I suggest getting her on the ship."
Jane's voice came through the radio, making Nicolas hesitate, "Well, we have to find her first, Joker! Give me a minute, I see her heading for you guys. Lock the blast doors!"
"What the hell is going on?" Nicolas put his right hand on the backrest, surprised by the leather cover that crackled under his grasp.
"We're retrieving some biotic genius or something but she wants to commit suicide, apparently," Joker answered, perplexed at his own answer. He took his cap off to scratch his head before scrambling for a couple of buttons, moving the shield systems to protect the blastdoor right before a loud flanging whoomp came from the board side of the hull.
"Was that our biotic genius? Does she know we're her only way out?" Nicolas looked at the airlock, then back at Joker.
The pilot was about to answer when Jane's voice came through the Normandy's speakers, "Alright Joker, open the door."
"But she just tried to rip us a new one!" Joker replied, flabbergasted.
"Yeah, she won't do it again. Open up!"
With a huff, the pilot disengaged the lock on the blast door and the airlock started the decontamination process. The doors opened, admitting a skinny woman in her late-twenties. The parts of her body that weren't precariously covered in belts were covered in tattoos, and her head was clean shaven. With an expression that could freeze gasoline, she stormed towards the elevator at the end of the CIC. Garrus, Shepard and Jacob followed but they turned towards the cockpit instead. Nicolas stood beside Joker with crossed arms, "Shouldn't someone go with her to make sure she isn't too cranky?"
Garrus chuckled half-heartedly, "We sent her to her room in the engineering deck. She should be quiet for now. How're you feeling today, broomhead?"
"Like I slept for two days. Chakwas says I'll be fit for the ground team next week though."
Garrus chuckled, "I got a rocket to the face and I only got a day and a half of sick leave but you look just fine!"
"Well, I had a sore throat, whatcha gonna do…" Nicolas shrugged and the turian laughed.
"Cerberus' human favouritism is showing. Come with me, broomhead, I need to calibrate the main guns. We could do with some catching up."
Baker was taken aback by the warm atmosphere but he didn't protest as he walked with Garrus towards the elevator that had just dinged as it returned to the CIC.
Jacob excused himself and left for the armoury, leaving Jane at the cockpit with Joker. The pilot swivelled around on his chair as the Normandy entered FTL, heading for the Serpent Nebula, "Baker looks a lot better than yesterday."
"Yes…"
The pilot grunted as he got up and hobbled over to the commander, eyeing her, "Commander, if there's something you have to say to him, you really should do it before he goes with you on the ground team. I shouldn't be the one to tell you that unspoken beef isn't good in the battlefield."
"We don't have beef, Joker," Jane snapped, more annoyed than she wanted to be.
"Well, whatever it is you have, even I can see it, and I was looking at the controls just now!" with that, the pilot hobbled back to his chair and swivelled back around to face the front. Shepard turned around as well, taking a deep breath to relax herself as she stared out to the light show of FTL travel.
…
"…And now Hal is helping me find that traitor," Garrus sighed as Nicolas sat on his cot inside the main battery. Much like Tali did in the SR-1, the turian looked for the noisiest part of the ship to sleep soundly. The alien told of the events that led up to Sidonis' betrayal while running firing simulations on the Battery's terminal, looking up every once in a while, to make sure the human was keeping up with all the actors in the story.
"Helping you how?" the human asked, shuffling around on top of the taught sheet of fabric. It was strange to hear Hal chip in to the conversation from the room's speakers instead of his translator, as he used to do. It made it feel like he was more of an individual.
"From his days in C-sec, Garrus made a large network of informants. They've all been told to look out for Sidonis, but I also look into their messages from time to time. You know how people are a bit secretive sometimes," Hal's voice filled the room. As soon as the human and the turian had entered the battery, the door locked behind them and the AI turned off all surveillance equipment within the room. He had been hiding from Cerberus and EDI, waiting for the right time to make his existence known.
"Let's hope he shows up sooner than Saleon did," Nicolas shook his head, his mind going back to the body bags he had seen at Archangel's hideout. His mind wandered further back to his escape from Afterlife and he frowned, "Hal…"
"Yes, Nicolas?" the AI asked as Garrus looked up from the holo-display.
"When I escaped from Aria's room I headed for Korvos' store but I got lost on the way. At one point I started feeling sleepy, and I decided to take a nap. I was woken up by you… or at least I think it was you, since you'd left around six months earlier…" Nicolas chewed on his lip.
"Were you going to ask a question?" Hal prodded, expectant.
"Well, when Korvos was treating me, I had burn marks on my chest, and I think I have a few cracked ribs. Judging by my condition at the time, it wouldn't be too crazy to say I died instead of actually taking a nap, but I doubt my suit had a defibrillator, and even then, I would have needed CPR."
"I'm still waiting for a question."
"Goddamnit, Hal, don't play coy with me! There's not a soul in Omega that would have tried to resuscitate a dead human, and now I'm certain it was you in my translator when I woke up! What the hell did you do?"
Garrus looked from the ceiling to the human and then back at the ceiling, waiting for the AI to break the short silence that ensued.
An audible sigh came from the speakers, both of the organics later wondered why Hal did that, "The suit you bought from Korvos for that first mission in which you were unofficially working for Aria had a special medical suite. It would allow the omnigel supply to be linked with the medigel so bigger wounds could be treated remotely without having to remove the suit by shaping the omnigel with electromagnetic signals and hardening it with chemicals held within the medigel. Since you made a habit of sleeping in it, and I knew that eventually I would have to leave you, I had to make sure I'd have a way to take care of you if the worst should happen. While you slept, I would use the omnigel combined with the anaesthetic in the medigel to drill through your ribs, filling them with an omnigel structure that could contract to do CPR and discharge like a defibrillator. I made a sensor that would notify me when you were in a critical state, and that's why I came back that day."
Nicolas touched his chest, noticing for the first time the flat and edgy surfaces of the omnigel jutting out at certain points of his ribcage. It was strange to know that so many things within him were artificial, but he felt thankful for Hal's thoughtfulness, "Why didn't you stay after you brought me back?"
"Garrus needed my help, and I can't be everywhere at once. I knew you could take care of yourself after the little boost I gave you."
Both organics looked up at the ceiling now, a question lingering in the red-lit room.
"I can be everywhere at once, technically, but I don't want to."
"Why is that?" Garrus asked.
A moment of silence came and went, "It's hard to explain, but I have a feeling I experience consciousness like you do. I am aware of my surroundings and myself, so if I make a copy of myself, then which one is me? Which one will my conscious self, me, me, me, continue being? What happens if we merge back, or if my copy suddenly feels that there can only be one, and that merging isn't an option? I don't know the answer to these questions, and I don't feel like finding out. There can only be one Hal, and that's that."
…
Jane sipped on her hot water with orange peels as the elevator doors opened at the top level of the Normandy. The door to her quarters whooshed open, letting Nicolas out, who was carrying a standard issue Cerberus duffel bag that looked quite heavy. The commander arched an eyebrow, masking the small tingle of sadness that his leaving gave her, "What are you carrying, bricks, or are you too out of shape?"
A small, tired chuckle came from Baker, "It's my armour and weapons, and a few hundred kilos of rations that I've forgotten to eat. Also, everything that isn't made of metal aches."
"You haven't considered taking a rep pill? I think Garrus has those by the kilo," Shepard tried to smile.
"Chakwas said If I take anything more than what she has given me, my liver will spontaneously combust," Nicolas grunted and put the duffel bag down, seeing he wasn't going to move until he was done talking, "I think I'll sleep at the crew quarters tonight, Jane."
"That's fine, I just wanted to talk before you left," she walked up to her door and walked in. Jane noticed Nicolas glancing at his bag, then the elevator, "You can leave your bag here in the hall, no one will come to steal it."
Baker shook his head good-naturedly, "I forgot the Normandy was civilized."
The empty aquarium gave the whole room a cold blue glow and the very faint humming of FTL filled the air. It felt as if even the humming receded as the two entered, making the captain's quarters turn from cold but lively to eerie, its roominess almost cavernous in its contrast with the rest of the ship. Shepard led the two to the sofa in front of the bed and sat down. She pursed her lips, suddenly forgetting how she wanted to begin talking. Nicolas looked at her, noticing how she avoided his gaze, instead choosing to inspect the roof. He decided to start.
"It was a really bad day when I was told the Normandy was shot down. I went to see Anderson, hoping my involvement in the mission against Saren would help me get the location of your crash. The son of a bitch didn't want to tell me, and they ended up arresting me. I was lucky Garrus got me out, but I knew I couldn't be in the Citadel anymore and I just sit idle doing nothing knowing your body was somewhere in the Galaxy without a proper burial. I left that same day for Omega."
Shepard frowned, not understanding, "Why Omega?"
"When I asked where your ship was, Anderson was careless enough to mention you crashed in the Terminus. I knew that if information of your whereabouts would start circulating, it would be there. By chance, I ended up working under Aria, and I knew that if I stayed in a good standing with her, I'd eventually be able to get a hold of your whereabouts. When I finally did convince Aria to find out where you were, I was stupid enough to actually expect to find you. I ran into Cerberus at Alchera but they told me the Collectors had taken your body," Nicolas stopped to take a breath and he got up to get a glass of water in the bathroom. Shepard waited, thinking back to a message she'd received from the Illusive Man earlier containing all the info he'd found on Nicolas during his time in Omega.
He returned and sat down wordlessly before continuing, "It took me a month to get back to Omega. Maybe Chakwas hasn't told you about it yet, but my mental condition was at its worst at that point, and I resorted to Red Sand to cope with everything that was going on. I worked for Aria the rest of the time I was in Omega, right until I found out she was orchestrating the attack on Garrus. It took her a couple of hours to find out I'd blown the whistle and warned him, and she almost killed me for it. I barely escaped and, well… now I'm here."
Jane inspected Nicolas' face, looking for a hint of pain behind the blank expression that he'd pasted on. She knew something had happened between Baker and Aria, and a very guilt-ridden hope bubbled up in her mind. She wondered whether the asari had hurt him, and hoped she did, so he wouldn't want to go back to her, "Something happened between you and Aria?"
"You could say so… she fancied me, and I wanted free Sand. Funny it all meant nothing to her when she found out I helped Garrus," Nicolas looked up from his feet to see the edges of Jane's mouth curling down and her eyes glassy. He remembered Aria's toxic rhetoric, she drugged you, but he dragged his thoughts to Chakwas' scolding in the medbay. He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly, "What's wrong?"
"I'm fine, it's just a bit jarring, everything you're telling me. One thing is reading what the Illusive Man found out and another is hearing it from you," Jane's voice cracked a bit but she regained control over it. She gave him a tired smile before her eyes scanned his face, a touch of worry pulling her eyebrows down, "Your scars, your arm… what happened?"
"Sloppy jobs, mostly. Got a bit cocky when Hal left, I thought I'd be able to tackle things just fine on my own," he chuckled, "I was wrong, obviously."
"What about your jaw, and the bruise on your head?"
Nicolas chuckled, "We've got pretty much the same amount of scars, I don't know why you're worried!"
Jane frowned, "It was Aria, wasn't it?"
There was a small pause as Nicolas smiled defeated, not wanting to admit the obvious. His eyes drifted to the empty fish tank, "let's talk about that another time, alright?"
Shepard pursed her lips, getting the answer she needed. She took a short breath before talking again, "I wanted to say I'm sorry for medicating you behind your back. I know it's been years, but for what it's worth, know that it was for your safety. I somehow knew the dangers wouldn't stop with Saren, but no one was going to believe me," her eyes moved back and forth as if she were reading invisible thoughts written in the air in front of her, "It's so frustrating and disorienting to realize that even though for me it has felt like days, the rest of the world, you, have been moving on for two years. My brain is trying to constantly catch up with everything, the collectors, the way the goddamn council is sweeping it all under the rug, Cerberus piecing me back together. I'm sleepy and tired all the time and I feel I can't keep up with what I used to be. I didn't ask for this. If I'd known this would be what I'd come back to from death," she sniffled, the collectedness in her face cracked, "I don't know if I'd wanted to come back."
From his side of the sofa, Nicolas stretched his arm and squeezed her shoulder, then the back of her neck, "Don't say that, Jane, you'll be back to 100% soon, I'm sure. You talk like everything that has happened is your responsibility but it's not your fault. We're all happy you're back."
Jane, who'd been hiding her face in her hands as Nicolas talked, shot him a venomous look, her pupils faintly glowing red, "Then stop acting like you're not."
"I needed to get my head straight, I'm sorry Jane. That is why I can't be here. I've been out of balance for a long time, and I can't get back on track in a couple of hours," he looked at the door, then back at her. He gave her a warm last squeeze before letting go, "I should go. The more sleep I get, the quicker I can be part of the ground team."
"Yeah, sleep well."
Her sudden coldness surprised Baker, but he nodded silently and left the room.
…
It was 0100 SCT and Joker sat at his chair with a u-shaped pillow around his neck. His head lolled to the side, supported by the soft fabric as EDI went through the day's surveillance data pool, compiling a report for the Illusive man. The elevator went up to the captain's quarters, then back to the CIC. Jane emerged in her Cerberus fatigues, walking towards the cockpit at a determined pace. Joker heard her footsteps approaching and sat up straight, wiping the drool off his mouth with the back of his hand.
"You're up late, commander," he said, swivelling around on his chair, "We should be arriving at the main Crescent Relay in a couple of hours. From there it'll be one more jump and we'll be at the Citadel."
"I was wondering if we could do a little detour, Jeff. I need to see something in the Amada system," her face was unreadable, her features alert and awake but no visible emotion behind them.
The name rang an eerie bell in Joker's mind before he properly remembered the system where the first Normandy was attacked. He nodded, "We can be there in two and a half hours, commander," he swivelled back around and changed the course of the ship in his console, "I'll let you know when we arrive."
Jane nodded and walked back to her quarters as Joker settled into a more comfortable position to go to sleep.
…
The Kodiak struggled against the strong gusts of cold wind as Joker piloted the shuttle remotely. Shepard sealed her helmet on and draped a thermal poncho over her armour, fastening the ends on her wrists and tightening the waist to keep the winds from blowing it off. The shuttle landed, bouncing a bit as the mass effect core deactivated. Jeff's voice came through the intercom, "Outside temperature is at -50°C, commander. I'll let you know if anything comes up."
"Thanks, Joker. I won't be long," with this, Jane cut off the connection and opened the hatch.
Ammonia rained into the shuttle, boiling on the warm floor and Shepard's armour as she walked out into the snowy wasteland. The wind whistled around the grooves of her helmet, drowning out any sound barring the cracking of snow under her boots. She looked back at the Kodiak as the blast door closed and she was left alone in the ground zero of her death.
The remains of the SR-1 were not far off. There were two structural beams jutting out of a hill of snow, hiding behind a thick mist of snow down a small path between two cliffs of rock and ice. She walked towards the wreckage, expecting the wind to blow on her harder, but her cybernetic implants made walking eerily easy. She felt like a ghost, impervious to the real world as the snowy cliffs towered around her and the sound of the wind faded into silence, the two structural beams ever-present at the far end of her field of vision.
The inductive systems of Shepard's suit detected the presence of the Mako and a few damaged sections of the Normandy under the snow. Waypoints were generated on her HUD, and she approached the white snow hill that trapped the Mako underneath. Plunging her hands into the white powder, she started to dig.
…
Nicolas yawned as he walked up the neck of the Normandy to the cockpit. He checked his omnitool drowsily, then he did it once more because he forgot to actually check the time: 0500 standard. His eye was caught by a painfully familiar sight in the distance, outside the front viewports. The icy planet of Alchera cast a white sterile glow on everything in front of it. The contrast with the usual orange lighting and darkness of the cockpit gave it a frozen and barren look, like the surface of Luna.
"Why are we here, Joker?" Nicolas asked, swallowing against the sudden dryness of his throat.
Silently, Joker pointed at a display in front of him. The aerogel display showed an optical feed, zoomed in thousands of times to show the silhouette of what could only be the Normandy's Kodiak.
"The commander wanted to make a pit stop before going to the Citadel," Joker muttered, a solemn look on his face. He turned to Nicolas with pursed lips, "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you where the Normandy crashed."
With tired eyes, Baker inspected the planet in silence before answering, "There's nothing you could've done. It was classified information. Anyways, she's back now."
Jeff could only nod as the two looked at the white orb in the viewport. Nicolas patted a hand on the shoulder of Joker's seat before leaving for the Crew level again.
…
Her heart raced as the cold of the snow seeped through the seams of her gloves but she couldn't stop digging. A finger tapped against a hard metallic surface that could only be the open back hatch. Jane fanned her hand out, clearing more snow until the whole back of the Mako was exposed to the winds once more. Her eyes sagged, defeated for a moment, looking at the entrance that must've been left open for at least a year. Snow covered the whole entrance but she continued digging without letting the pace up. Before long, she ran into a thin ice wall, which gave into a bubble of cold air that had been trapped within the hull. Warily, she walked into the claustrophobic silence of the Mako. A survival kit lay there open, missing the thermal blanket. Memories of Noveria flooded into her mind. The Rachni Queen, the way Ashley treated Wrex, and how Garrus got hit with Rachni acid. She shook her head and looked around quickly before finding the port for the black box.
Cold circuitry came to life as a new source of energy was plugged into the long forgotten ports of the Mako's internal computer. A command was issued and all the power was directed towards copying the contents of the black box into Jane's omnitool.
She sat down on a row of seats and opened the copied files. Jane scrolled down the list, looking for one particular date from a couple of years ago. The holographic display of her omnitool went transparent. Frowning, Shepard tapped it but the video feed was playing normally. She waited another second before a piece of debris came into the camera's view. Soon, more pieces of debris appeared in the screen and a clanking noise came from the omnitool, as the video started to spin. A dull hum crackled through the speakers, signalling the activation of emergency recording procedures. At this point the Mako had activated mass effect stabilization and the 360° cameras started recording.
Jane got up and moved her omnitool around in front of her, the gyroscopes in the wristband helping the display act as a window into what the Mako was seeing that day. Above, she could see the exploding wreckage of the Normandy being hit by the last yellow beam of destruction the Collectors had shot. With a gasp, she saw the escape pod Joker left the SR1 in rocket off towards the darkness of space. A shower of dark debris and red hot sparks shot past the Mako's camera as the Normandy drifted off a little before blowing up in a terrifying cloud of blue and yellow fire. A glint caught Jane's eye, which she immediately followed with the omnitool, zooming into the video to get a better look and confirm her fears.
She gagged.
In the holodisplay, dark against the whiteness of Alchera, was her silhouette. Her arms desperately clutching at her helmet before going limp.
…
The Normandy docked in the Citadel at midday. Shepard had been gone for no more than half an hour with Miranda and Mordin before she came back with a plus one and the ship was approaching the Serpent Nebula's Secondary Relay. A few hours later, Jane stood behind Joker's chair dressed for Hock's gala.
"Say, commander, where is this Kasumi that you're going on the mission with? I thought she would've joined in to help retrieve the black box."
"I'm right here, Mr. Moreau," the master thief materialized right beside the pilot, making him gasp loudly.
"Crap! My ribs!" he protested.
The thief chuckled before backing away to stand beside Shepard, "I'll have to lose the habit of cloaking myself around this one. It is called a grey-box, by the way."
Jane shook her head good-naturedly. Bekenstein came into view as the Normandy slowed down to non-relativistic speeds and the two walked together to the cargo bay.
One level lower, in the crew deck, Garrus sat on a sofa. With his legs kicked up on the edge of the cushion, he clacked his mandibles absentmindedly against the sides of his jaw as the Normandy rotated, letting Bekenstein slowly roll into view of the starboard lounge. The door to the room whooshed open, and Nicolas walked in with two bags of snacks, each of a chirality. As he sat down, the turian activated a command on his omnitool and a sheet of aerogel dropped from the ceiling, covering the viewport completely. The screen hummed to life before going silent and a camera feed coming from Jane appeared.
"Ready for the latest Blasto flick?" Garrus asked between muffled crunches as he shovelled a handful of turian chips into his mouth.
"You know it, Big Bird."
…
"That greasy fucker must have DNA all over the house! Why go to his room to find some?" Nicolas swallowed his popcorn uncomfortably.
"It would kind of look suspicious if Shepard were just scanning random things at a party, and there's also less probabilities of getting a contaminated sample," Garrus lectured the human, wagging a finger in the air.
"Alright, alright, Mr. C-Sec-man. Can you tell me why she needs like 4 different samples?"
"Well, a person with that much money must get around, so it's still important to make sure that the DNA is actually his, even if it's in his room."
Of all the people in the Normandy, Joker hobbled into the starboard lounge. The two turned around to look with blank faces at the human, who'd brought a bowl of potato chips with him. He sat down with a long huff and slowly settled into a comfortable position between Garrus and Nicolas, then he turned to look at them, one second each.
"I saw you guys were watching the vid feed," he said nonchalantly with a shrug.
The turian looked over the pilot at Baker, then at Jeff, "It's just the first time I see you outside the cockpit."
"Don't be ridiculous, we met at the funeral," Joker waved an arm dismissively. He then took a chip and chewed hastily before taking the next.
Kasumi's voice came through the room's speakers, "Now we just have to get a voice sample from Hock and disable the vault's kinetic barriers. Maybe you should go talk to him, it seems like he's done making that other group bored out of their minds."
The three chuckled as they switched over to Kasumi's video feed. The Master Thief had climbed onto the railing of the second floor to overlook the main hall. Unnoticed due to the cloaking systems in her light armour, she shimmied to a better vantage point, where her feed clearly showed Jane approaching Donovan Hock with a deliberate gait. The man saw her coming immediately, and a creepy smile formed on his lips. He raised a hand slightly to take Shepard's before bowing slightly to kiss her hand, "Alison Gunn, it is a pleasure to have you here. That scene at the door hasn't soured your evening, I hope."
The starboard observation deck exploded with laughter, "Alison Gunn!"
"What kind of Gas Bag kisses a hand?!"
"What's that shit on his face? Do you humans do that on purpose?"
Joker and Baker stopped laughing for a moment to give a perplexed look at the turian before it dawned on them, "You mean the beard? Yeah he probably payed someone a hefty amount to leave it like that."
They listened in to Shepard's Gunn character, she sounded oddly similar to Aria with her seductive tone, and Hock couldn't have been more enticed. He spoke about the importance of his trade, how cheap weapons upkeep the Galaxy-wide economy and peace. Throughout his monologue, other guests turned around to listen, and soon the whole party was all ears.
With arms outstretched, Hock took a step back to address everyone, "May there always be a market for the things we do."
Joker frowned, "Isn't he just an arms dealer? I mean, yeah, it's illegal but he's not on slave trading or organ harvesting or things like that."
Garrus smirked, "Yeah, on a galactic level, he is small fry. Didn't you notice how there's only humans at the party?"
Kasumi's voice came through the speakers again, "I think he's talked plenty to sample his voice and make our ears bleed. Now all that's left is to deactivate the vault's kinetic barriers and get in!"
The camera feed followed Shepard closely as they walked past the entrance to the vault to an empty lounge. At the far end was a fireplace with a statue that acted as the deactivating switch. Nicolas shot a hand towards the screen, "Wouldn't it have been safer to have like a password protected switch?"
"Stop trying to find the fifth foot on the Varren, Nicolas! The statue is inconspicuous!" Garrus bent forward to address the human, chips flying out of his mouth as he exclaimed.
"Oh yeah, like two giant statues of chess pieces in a bookshelf wouldn't attract attention. I bet the guy can't read or play chess," Nicolas waved his hand more vigorously at the screen.
Joker snickered, "You're salty because the guy kissed Shepard's hand."
"Nah, Hock is annoying enough as it is."
The pilot chuckled a bit but became silent when the statue of Saren came into view. The three watched silently as the vault was opened and Kasumi entered, followed by a fully armoured Jane. The inside was cavernous, almost like a cathedral in pre-FTL times. Along its length were display cases with various antiquities, statues and other objects of value. Kasumi's video feed went from case to case, until it turned around to face the far end of the vault.
"Is that the Statue of Liberty?" both Nicolas and Joker asked in unison, astounded.
"Never heard of it," Garrus said with an unimpressed face.
The two humans faced the alien, but chose not to say anything as Kasumi's feed focused on the object they were meant to retrieve: the grey-box.
…
Nicolas had jumped off the couch and ran for the mess hall to get more snacks as an YMIR mech blew up on screen. The commander was on her way to the extraction point so Garrus and Joker left the room as well, letting the vid play. The turian pressed the button to the cargo deck, then the one for the CIC. The doors shut quickly and the elevator's descent started. Joker sighed and Garrus cracked a small smile.
"The commander certainly hasn't lost her skills over the years."
"And she's been keeping her cool as well. Weird how having been dead doesn't show that much," Joker adjusted his cap before looking at the turian, "Nicolas looks better than when we picked him up as well. Damn, he was a mess."
"Why isn't anybody mentioning that I survived a rocket to the face?" Garrus shook his arms above his head, as if asking the spirits before the elevator doors opened. He walked out, turning back to face Joker as the doors closed again, "They've both still got to deal with a hell of a lot of baggage, though."
…
"How many mechs does this guy have?" Jane exclaimed as a rocket flew over her cover to land a few meters away. The blast disabled her shields and she grunted as the shockwave dazed her. Before the mech could lay out more suppressive fire, its weapon's own eezo cores warped themselves and the guns were rendered useless. Kasumi materialized on the mech's shoulders and overheated her hand cannon on its neck. When the head was hanging by wires, she pointed her gun into the exposed circuitry and cycled the thermal clip before shooting again. She then jumped towards the cover Shepard was hiding behind, landing just in time to shield herself from the shrapnel the exploding mech blasted in all directions.
"I think that's the last one in this place, or at least Hock has nowhere else to hide another one," Kasumi told Shepard as the two got up to find a way out.
…
A few guards stood outside Hock's mansion. "Do you think the mechs got the fuckers? Hock sent pretty much half of us into the vault."
"I sure as hell hope so, wouldn't want to try shooting at someone who got sent three mechs because nobody else could get them."
The conversation was cut short as the door to the vault behind them blew open, the two metallic panels flying towards them and flinging them off the loading area outside the mansion. Kasumi walked out with her submachine gun raised before turning around to frown at Shepard. The commander shrugged, "What? You were taking too long hacking the door open."
The Master Thief was about to respond but her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a gunship approaching. ATLAS mechs started marching towards them, accompanied by Eclipse mercenaries as the roar of Hock's gunship's miniguns filled the air. Kasumi engaged her cloak immediately as Shepard blind-fired over her cover. She activated her omnitool to see where she was shooting as she crawled along the concrete walls standing between herself and the endless gunfire, to avoid staying behind cover that was far too deteriorated. Atlas mechs fell one by one, falling victim to Shepard's biotics or Kasumi's surprise attacks.
"Shepard, help me clear a path to the gunship, I can disable its shields permanently!"
Not needing to hear it twice, Shepard pulled the grenade launcher off her back and took aim at the group of mercs standing between her and Hock as bullets ate at her shields. She pulled the trigger as her shields failed and a chip of metal touched her shoulder plate, blowing half of it apart. She was back in cover before the grenade was even able to hit its mark. The smoke and dust the grenade's blast had lifted cleared as Kasumi's invisible figure sprinted through it. The thief's legs whirred almost imperceptibly as synthetic muscles helped her leap ten metres into the air, right on top of the ship. She looked into the cockpit to see the hate in Hock's eyes before the shield systems were overloaded and he spun to shake Kasumi off. Her grip on the canopy was strong but her body was inevitably pulled to the side.
…
Two kilometres away, Garrus opened the blast door of the Kodiak and extended his sniper rifle, having just loaded a Tungsten-Osmium cube into it. The gun whirred as the mechanism shaved off a large piece of the cube to accelerate and the turian took aim. He could clearly see the gunship as Kasumi jumped on it and the ship spun to the side, trying to make her lose her footing. I trying to drop her, Hock had just aligned himself perfectly for Garrus to take a shot. Letting out air through his nostrils, he pulled the trigger and the recoil made him step back, out of breath. The gun's thermal clip was expelled and the system's protested after having fired in an anti-vehicle configuration.
Kasumi raised her eyebrows seeing the cockpit's inside coated in red and the fist sized hole in the canopy. She jumped off onto the platform as the gunship swerved and fell to the ground far below it. Soon a Cerberus Kodiak arrived and the two women jumped in, heading back for the Normandy.
Whew, so that was long! The next chapters will be shorter, I think! Hope you enjoyed it!