Cerberus light frigate Normandy SR-2, briefing and communications compartment

"Here, I'll show you." The door silently closed as Jacob escorted professor Solus to the laboratory. Commander Shepard stood still for a while, waiting for the impression to sink in. Then she moved out to her cabin intending to get rid of the armour for the day. Just as she left the comm room, yeoman Chambers chimed into her earpiece: "Commander, the Illusive man wants to talk to you now." Shepard froze in mid-step. Slowly, she turned on her heels and started to walk back.

"What does he want?" asked Shepard with mild irritation in her voice.
"He didn't tell. Just that it was important." replied Kelly slightly faster than usually.

Holographic star behind the holographic observation port glowed brightly as the holographic Illusive man lit his holographic cigarette and exhaled small cloud of holographic smoke. He then took sip from his holographic glass and turned to Shepard: "Shepard. Good work on the Omega. Even though the way you pulled out Archangel could use a little more subtlety; it was quite harsh even by Omega standards."

"You said it was important. So stop wasting time on the compliments and get to it." Shepard retorted while throwing her hardsuit helmet out of the communicator's pick-up zone. Finally got rid of it! Meanwhile, Illusive man took another pull from his cigarette.

"All right. I have another dossier for you. A man only going under the name Phantom. He is an expert on demolitions and sabotage and also a skilled biotic. Right now, he's carrying out a contract in one of the more remote parts of Illium. I'll send you the details. Also, you might want to go now as he's hard to find once he completes his work."

UT-47 Kodiak drop shuttle, 47 miles from Nos Astra city limits

"OK, here's what we've got. In five minutes we are landing near an innocent-looking factory building which happens to be an Eclipse base. Inside that base is a man only known as Phantom. No description given, exact location unknown, though we know he'll be in the sub-level. He knows someone from Cerberus is coming to offer him a job, so he shouldn't shoot us outright. Oh, and he's probably planning to blow the whole thing up. Any questions?" Garrus punched a few buttons on his sniper rifle's ammo mod panel. He then checked the light codes, nodded slightly and then said: "We're looking for a man whom we have no idea how he looks like, where he is, or if he won't just plain shoot us. I think it's quite clear."

"He knows we're coming and we do not have Eclipse uniforms. He shouldn't shoot at us."

"Not the same as won't shoot."

"Then hope you can duck really quickly."

Shepard came to abrupt halt as she heard gunfire from behind the corner. Sharp cracking of modern assault rifles, sometimes interrupted by pistol-fire or characteristic sound distortions of biotic power. Stop, her hand signalled. Then she carefully peeked around the corner. A short, straight corridor led to what apparently was a control room. At the entrance to that room, four eclipse sisters were shooting at someone inside, while two more were already lying in pool of their own blood, purple mixing with red. As one of the mercenaries rose from the cover to shoot, a brilliant blue-and-white flash hit her in face and exploded, spraying the corridor in purple blood, skull pieces and less desirable pieces of asari anatomy. Shepard's hand moved again. Three hostiles, end of corridor. Garrus left, Miranda centre, myself right. On my three. Three, two, one, go! The remaining Eclipse sisters went down before they could react. Shepard halted for a moment, waiting for any kind of response from the room. When nothing happened, she decided to proceed further. Overstepping the bodies, she jumped over the barricade, which actually was a large and, quite probably, empty reactor fuel tank looking like it was carelessly thrown across the entrance. To the right of the entrance lay a small cargo container riddled with bullet marks. Further into the room and to the right was a large console, on which was lying a dead asari in Eclipse uniform. Right next to her was a man in old Colossus-line medium combat armour, with apparently highly customized helmet. That man moved with surprising speed and aimed an old, heavily modified, pre-clip pistol at her. Then, he put the gun back on the console and turned of the HUD overlays on his visor, finally revealing his face. His sharp features were disturbed by a scar that begun over his nose and ended on his right cheek, barely missing his eye. Then he spoke: "Well, well, if this isn't the lately deceased commander Shepard herself! And working for Cerberus! What a strange universe we live in." His voice was deep and carried no trace of accent. Then he noticed rest of the squad coming in.

"The infamous Miranda Lawson and the Archangel of Omega. This day is just getting better and better." he said and returned to the console, immediately beginning typing away commands. Shepard, thrown off-balance by his unexpected reaction, cleared her throat and said: "You already know my name, so down to business. I came here to-"

"To recruit me for your mission. I know. And I got paid in advance. Don't know if that's good news or bad news. Anyway, hold on a minute I'm almost finished here." Phantom said and continued typing. Only then did Shepard notice a very large knife – or a really small sword – hanging on the belt of his hardsuit. After a while she recognized it from her Cold weapons 101 course back in the boot camp. A M1905 bayonet. Before she could ask about it Phantom hit the console for one last time and with a look of satisfaction on his face he said "Done!" Then he opened a long hard-pocket on his chest, pulled out a cigar, trimmed it with the bayonet (which, as Shepard noticed, was definitely from something harder than common steel and almost certainly ad a monomolecular edge) and ignited it with his omni-tool. He took a long pull, exhaled a large cloud of surprisingly fragrant smoke, holstered his pistol and said: "Now I suggest we run like hell."

"Why? I think we were talking about your recruitment!" said Miranda. Phantom looked at her, took another pull on his cigar (creating small patch of mist around himself) and replied: "Talk, if you want. But in ten to fifteen minutes, this place is going to blow up. Give or take minute. So, I suggest we run and talk later. Also I suggest using the shuttle I... acquired before going here. It's only eight minutes away if we double-time." He stuck the cigar in his mouth, grinning as Shepard's squad exchanged startled looks.

"Run!"