The Mass Effect spinoff game "Mass Effect: Infiltrator" follows a Cerberus infiltrator, Randall Ezno. The game opens with a mission to an ice planet. Early on, Randall says to his handler Inali Renata, "Inali, I'm pretty wide of the drop zone. Where's the rest of my team?" Randall goes rogue after Inali is arrested and tortured by Cerberus.

Randall's team – who were they? You don't see them in the ME:I game. Did they obey Cerberus blindly and try to kill Randall, or did they have doubts and were they loyal to their friends? In my headcanon, Randall Ezno wasn't the only Cerberus infiltrator who went rogue that day. These stories follow a member of Randall's team, rookie Matt Gerrard, during and after the events of the ME:I game. Other members of the team, including Randall and Inali and others, will show up too. Except for Randall and Inali, you won't find them on the Mass Effect wiki. I made them up.

(By the way, for my take on what happened to Randall and Inali at the end of the ME:I game and beyond, see my story "Mass Effect Infiltrator: No Step Backward." The team's stories will eventually intersect.)

…

While the Barn Burned

Cerberus' Ares station was in chaos.

Inside an empty barracks, two soldiers hid. They heard a rumble from a distant explosion, followed by another. They no longer noticed the intermittent cracks of gunfire, which had been a constant for the last couple of hours. Cerberus rookie infiltrator Matt "Bowler" Gerrard groaned from a gunshot wound in his arm. One of his team leaders, Sergeant Jordan Jensen, removed her helmet and tied her blond hair as she crouched alongside him. Dark drops of Bowler's blood stained the floor alongside him.

"Christ. It hurts like a son of a bitch. Do we have any medigel, Sarge?"

"Keep cool, Bowler. Stay with me. I'm getting the medigel now."

"Okay." Bowler's vision swam and he tried to focus through the pain. "I've got the door, Sarge. If anybody comes in, I'll shoot them." He had no idea if he would be able to do either. He needed a good arm to steady his sidearm, and if he tried biotics right now he'd probably miss. He took off his helmet with his good hand, and used it to wipe sweat from his forehead and dark brown hair. The helmet dropped to the floor with a hollow clunk and his left arm hung with dead weight.

"Keep your eyes on the door."

Bowler blinked. "Now I can't feel my arm. It's numb. I hope the medigel works." He had been shot at before, but never hit. This didn't seem real. Nothing did. Only this morning, everything was business as usual and he felt like he had his feet under him. Right now, he felt like he was overboard in the middle of an ocean.

Ares station was one of Cerberus' most productive research facilities. Everyone informally called it the "Barn." Its bland, functionally metallic setting had endeared it to no one, except maybe The Illusive Man and the station's Director. It was quiet inside the barracks while Jordan and Bowler hid. At least they didn't hear screams from the dying. Not right now.

Jordan rubbed medigel into the gunshot wounds on Bowler's arm and shoulder. Bowler groaned again. Did she even notice?

"Stay still, Bowler. I need to wipe away this stuff and work the gel into the wound." This stuff, she had called it. Bowler guessed that Jordan didn't want to say the words "blood" or "guts" or else it might frighten him. Her face showed focus, and no worry.

Ares had turned into a madhouse over the last few hours. Escaped krogan and asari prisoners prowled its corridors, armed with assault rifles that they'd taken from their dead captors. Signs of the prisoners' vengeance filled each room. Cerberus scientists who had tortured and murdered prisoners now littered the station like garbage. Blood and torn flesh smeared floors and splattered across walls. They had seen dead soldiers whose chests and heads were beaten flat. Others had limbs torn off, and still others were mangled so badly you couldn't tell if they were human.

Jordan finished and Bowler felt warmth as the medigel took hold. He waited, then flexed his knuckles white as he clutched the pistol in his hand. He gritted his teeth and groaned again as he stretched his left arm until it fully extended. "Hurts like a son of a bitch, but it works. I think I can use my assault rifle again." He put his pistol away. "I'm just glad I'm still breathing. I still don't know how you got us through that firefight."

"You mean 'we' got through it. You held your own. We're still alive, and we're going to get out of here. Got it?"

"Got it." The rookie looked over his shoulder as Jordan stored the medical gear. "Sarge, do you think anybody on the team is still alive? Other than us?"

Cracks of distant gunfire sounded again. The smell of smoke permeated the air from out-of-control fires all over the station.

Jordan didn't look up as she checked her weapons. "Well, I'm sure that Randall's alive. Somewhere on this station, he's blowing something up. That guy's a one-man wrecking crew. He'll fight his way off this station. Somehow, he'll find a way." Her M-96 Mattock assault rifle still had plenty of ammo. Good thing, because they sure needed it.

Bowler nodded and he checked his own gear. He didn't say how badly he wished the team's other sergeant, Randall Ezno, had stayed with the team instead of charging off by himself to the prisoner wing, demanding answers about the team's handler Inali Renata. Nobody had so much as drawn a weapon, but Randall had ordered them to stay in the hangar, told them that he didn't want to put his team at risk. Randall had told them that he might personally kick the Director's ass to get Inali out, and he didn't want to get everyone court-martialed. If the entire team had gone with him, what would have happened? Would the whole station be on fire, like it was now? He didn't know. Things would have been different, that was for sure.

A nagging thought crossed Bowler's mind. "Sarge, what about the rest of the team? The other rookies?"

"I don't know. I hope that Aussie and Mudbug are okay, but we can't worry about them. We need to concentrate on us."

It bothered Bowler that the unwritten Soldier's rule of never leaving a comrade behind seemed to have gone out the window. His shotgun and heavy beam weapon were ready. The floor vibrated from an explosion rumbling from a lower deck. "Sarge, there's something I need to tell you. Remember when we saw Randall's face on those monitors, and found out that the Director ordered everyone to kill him on sight? And when the Director ordered our team to surrender, or he'd kill us too? Ever since the shooting started, I've had awful headaches. It feels like somebody's grinding a drill inside my head. Worse than that, I've got this creepy feeling I can't shake. I'm telling myself to do things over and over again, and they don't make sense. I mean, I just can't shake it."

Jordan frowned. "We all get the shakes, rook. It's normal. Don't worry about that."

Bowler looked over his shoulder and swallowed before speaking. "But it's like I'm telling myself to do crazy stuff. I haven't had the shakes in a long time. This doesn't feel like it. It doesn't make sense."

"You're telling yourself to do stuff? Like what? Whatever it is, forget about it. I'll figure a way out of here, and then you just do what I tell you. Stay with me, and we're going to make it."

Bowler's voice shook. "Sarge…listen, I don't know how to say this. I feel like I'm trying to convince myself that maybe Randall and Inali really did betray us. But I don't believe that, I swear. It's messed up. Ever since we got a spare moment after that first firefight, I've had this crazy idea. I feel like I need to go back and find Randall. I have to. And then maybe…"

Her eyes narrowed. "Maybe what?"

"Maybe stop him. Stop Randall. Maybe even…I don't want to say it. But what's crazy is, I know that I don't believe they betrayed us. And I'm freaking not crazy enough to want to hunt down Randall and bring him in myself. It doesn't make sense. I don't know why I can't just focus on helping us get out of here. What the hell's happening to me?"

Jordan didn't move, and Bowler thought that her gaze was going to bore its way straight through him. "How long? How long have you felt like that?"

Bowler's eyes darted from Jordan's face to her weapons pack. Finally they settled on her face. "I've felt like that ever since the Director gave his order. Ever since we saw our faces on the monitors."

"All right, listen to me. I've had that feeling too, Bowler. Exactly the same."

Bowler felt nauseous. "You, Sarge? You've had it too?"

"Yeah. I don't know what's happening to us, but the Barn has gone over to the crazy train. Right now, I've got a splitting headache, and the rest is like you said. It started for me after we heard the gunfire from the prisoner wing. I thought it'd go away, but it hasn't. This doesn't feel like doubt. This feels like I've got a creepy little devil on my shoulder whispering what to do. I don't believe any of it, because I've known Randall since we were young. We joined Cerberus together, and he's no traitor. Hell, that guy's proud to be with Cerberus. Always has been. Serving humanity and all that stuff. And Inali's the only handler I've seen who'd go into the field, pick up a rifle and put her life on the line. I trust her. But now this voice in my head, and the Director, they say that Randall and Inali are traitors. Like hell."

Bowler's shoulders tensed. He thought of the team's biotic implants, that were inside their brains and central nervous systems. He settled his palm on the back of his head and closed his eyes. He wondered if Jordan was reading his mind.

"Listen, rookie. I'm starting to think Inali was arrested because she found out something about our implants. Maybe she wanted to warn us something about our implants that the Director didn't want us to know."

Bowler's gaze remained on the door for a moment. His face turned ashen as he looked back. "Sarge, what are you talking about?"

"About a month ago, we were on the training range. Remember that? The Director stopped by and watched us go through our paces. He bragged about how Cerberus was building a better breed of soldier, and how Cerberus was going to engineer away problems that we wouldn't believe. Remember?"

"Yeah, I do. I thought he was just blowing smoke, though. He went on and on about how his guys were going to remove our fear and improve our focus. He said that his guys were going to remove all of our doubt, too. We'd be the most dedicated and loyal troops that Cerberus had ever seen."

"Right. Well I feel like 'his guys' put something in our heads and it's gone wrong. That's what's giving us these headaches and weird thoughts. It's making us focus on killing Randall, and it's dedicated us to that mission. Both of us."

Bowler's jaw hung open. "No." He shook his head. "No, what you're saying…they couldn't. They wouldn't. No way. Nobody can even do that."

Jordan held up her hand like a stop sign. "Look. I don't know what the hell's happening, but I know this much. Yesterday, we were the best infiltrator team on this station. The Director sent us on a mission, and Inali stayed here on the station while she tracked how our new implants performed in combat. Today? The Director says Inali's a traitor, he says Randall's a traitor, he decides he wants us all dead or alive, nobody here on Ares seems to have a freaking problem with that, and the two of us feel like we're drugged or possessed or something."

"What if we're wrong? Suppose the Director didn't find out they were traitors until we were on our way back from the mission?" Bowler knew that his words sounded mechanical, and his eyes betrayed his doubt.

"Bowler, you don't believe that any more than I do. If that were true, he would've arrested Randall right there in the hangar when we got back."

"But…the Director didn't put out a kill-on-sight order for all of us, though. He's offered us a chance to surrender."

"That's only because he's already given up on Randall surrendering, and he knows we're more badass than any of the guys on his side. He's got a huge prisoner breakout already, and he knows he'll lose even people if he tries to bring us in the hard way. We can't stay around here and hope this gets sorted out. We can't try to join up with escaped prisoners that want to shoot us first and ask questions later. We need to get the hell out of here and get as far away as we can. And we are going to get out of here. That's all that matters. You with me?"

Am I with you? Sarge, exactly at the hell am I supposed to say? Bowler sharpened his gaze. His bearing straightened as she spoke. "I'm with you all the way, Sarge. What do we do?"

Jordan glanced around the room until her eyes settled on a computer panel. "I'll tell you what we're going to do. First, we're going to put our electronic warfare training to good use. Inali trained the hell out of us. It'd be a shame to waste it." She strode over to the panel and drove her boot straight through its processing unit, sending out sparks and billowing smoke from the wall. She pushed pieces of the computer aside and reached her gloved hands inside, pulling out black and red signal cables. "Let's hope that doesn't set off a fire alarm. Give me your electronic warfare pack and keep an eye on that door."

Bowler handed her the pack and she started to hack into the Ares station computer network. Her hands moved expertly on the keys, as fluidly as if she were a concert pianist. I wonder if the Sarge ever took piano lessons as a child. Whatever. Within a minute, a schematic diagram of Ares station appeared on the electronics pack. Bowler's brow furrowed as the words INALI J. RENATA appeared on the display, then flickered and disappeared.

"Okay, Bowler. We're in business. Look at this." Jordan activated her holo projector, and a shimmering three-dimensional image of the station appeared between them. The display illuminated some rooms in green, others flashing in red, and the rest appeared in yellow.

"Christ, Sarge. The station's a mess."

"You're not kidding." She pointed to the image. "Okay. We're here, on deck eight. The hangar's over here, on deck three. We're going to make our way to the hangar and steal a shuttle. The green rooms are controlled by Cerberus, the red ones are out of their control, and the yellow ones have status unknown."

"Can we map a way down to the hangar?"

"That's the plan." Jordan adjusted the image and pointed. "We'll use these utility tunnels. They make up the guts of the station, and they crisscross it muscle and veins. All of the maintenance guys are defending against the prisoners, so those tunnels are deserted now. They're big enough to work in, so they should be big enough for us to crawl through. We'll go as far as the tunnels take us, and then we'll use our torches to cut through decks and walls where we need to. If we go into a room with bad guys in it, we'll use our cloaks and stay out of sight. We don't fight unless we absolutely have to. Got it?

Bowler took a breath. "Got it."

"There's a maintenance tunnel a couple of rooms away. We'll cut our way in."

"I'll get my helmet."

The words INALI J. RENATA flickered onto Jordan's holo display again. This time, the words ACCESSING VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE appeared beneath them. A small image of Inali Renata's face materialized in the display and began to speak with her voice.

"Sergeant Jensen. This virtual intelligence was created by Inali Renata for your team fifteen hours and thirty-six minutes ago. Playing message."

"Whoa – Sarge, it's a trick. Turn it off!"

"No, Bowler, wait…I don't think so. Fifteen and a half hours ago, nobody had been arrested or shot at. This message is legit."

The stoic calm image of Inali's virtual intelligence faded away to static, and was replaced by another. It was Inali's real face. She glanced over her shoulder for a moment at some unseen object. Her green eyes were drawn with worry, and her curled auburn hair hung slightly unkempt. "Okay team. This is Inali. I hope you never see this VI or play this message. I found out some bad shit about your new implants and your recent tests. Really bad. I can't say more than that, because you never know who's listening. I don't know if the powers-that-be know what the hell the Director and his scientists are trying to do to you guys, but I don't…." Inali closed her eyes and swallowed.

Jordan and Matt shared a look.

Inali took a breath as her gaze returned forward, and she was all business. "Listen, guys. I am not messing around. This stuff scares me. It's really that bad. I want to tell you everything in person. But if you're seeing this message, then somebody got to me first and things have gone to hell. This VI will help you guys get off the station. It knows a few things and has keys to a bunch of the doors around here. I hope this message is all for nothing, and we'll be laughing about this over a few beers in no time. Until then, you guys mean the world to me. Stay strong and stay safe. Inali out." She glanced over her shoulder again, and then reached for an unseen switch. The VI image of Inali's face returned.

"Jesus," said Bowler.

"All right. She didn't come right out and say it, but I think she said plenty." Jordan turned off her holo projector. After pressing some buttons on her omni-tool, a small image of the Inali VI appeared in Jordan and Bowler's heads-up displays. "Let's do a test. Inali, seal the door to the troop barracks on deck eight."

After a few seconds they heard a hard clicking sound and mechanical beep from the entrance door a few feet away. The access panel on the door turned from green to red, and the VI spoke in their helmet earpieces: "Locked."

Bowler nodded toward Jordan. "Inali, unlock that same door." Seconds later, the door's access panel turned green. The VI spoke again. "Unlocked."

"So Inali gave us the keys to get out of this dungeon. All right, Bowler, engage your cloak." As she activated her own cloak, she hefted her assault rifle. "Let's move out."

…

Beads of sweat rolled off Bowler's face as he wriggled her way around the bundles of cables and pipes that ran through the utility tunnel. The tunnel was only a few feet across and its outer wall was thin like a common air vent. Still, it was strong enough to support their weight. Jordan crawled her way just ahead of him. He had expected the utility tunnels to be big enough to crawl through. Sometimes, though, the space tightened down so far he thought they might get stuck. How the hell did the maintenance guys work in here? If it got much tighter, they'd need to stop using the tunnel, reach for their torches and cut their way out.

"This is like spelunking in a cave," whispered Bowler. "I wonder if Gollum ever felt like this. Myyy Precious…where is my Precious…."

Jordan hissed toward him. "Bowler, shut the hell up, will you?"

The confined space of the tunnel carried signal wires and insulated pipes for Ares station's water, chemical wastes, and who knew what else. The whoosing sound of flowing liquids inside the pipes helped cover the sound of their movements. After a few minutes, voices could be heard from the rooms below them.

"Aussie, what's this I'm hearing about a damn turian infiltrator on the loose?"

After a moment's pause, a familiar voice responded. "The Director ordered my team to go to an ice planet and capture a high value turian target, sir. We brought him in yesterday."

"Well, rookie, you guys were too good at your job. You should've killed him. He broke out of the prisoner wing a couple of hours after the shooting started this morning. He might even be joined up with one of those traitors."

"If I see that turian or those traitors, I'll finish that job."

Jordan and Bowler froze in place as they overheard the voice of their teammate. Aussie was not only alive, but he had joined up with the Cerberus loyalists who fought to control the station. Bowler toggled his com and spoke softly.

"Did you hear that?" whispered Bowler.

"Yes. I heard them. Aussie's alive. I know what you're thinking, and we can't help him. He's chosen his side. Keep moving."

Bowler remained still. "Sarge, if we're right about the implants, then Aussie hasn't 'chosen' anything. He's our teammate. He might know what happened to Mudbug." He flexed his jaw. The subtle unwanted thoughts of killing their friend Randall faded to the front of his mind again, and reminded him of what they faced.

Jordan whispered, "Bowler, we can't help him. He's with them now. If we try, he'll probably fight us and we might get hurt. Or captured. We need to keep moving." She looked over her shoulder, stretched her leg backward, and tapped his shoulder with her boot. "That's an order, soldier. Keep moving."

Bowler said nothing, reached forward and pulled himself along.

After a few minutes, all was quiet again. Jordan addressed the VI image in her helmet. "Inali, can you access the security cameras for the room below us?"

"Accessing," said the VI. Static appeared in their helmets, followed by a grainy black-and-white image of a two-story cargo bay. Groups of gas and liquid cylinders stood double-chained and bolted to storage racks. Tall stacks of crates neatly arranged by rows stood alongside debris and shattered crates whose contents lay strewn about the floor. A group of five asari and three krogan sifted through their contents. Again, Jordan and Bowler heard the voices from below. The first voice was an asari.

"Have you found any weapons? Food?"

The second voice was a krogan. "Cerberus left us a gift. We have rifles and grenades in this crate!"

Jordan toggled her com and whispered. "Keep quiet. Let's leave these guys alone."

A pair of unseen booming explosions from below shook the tunnel and the security camera image in Bowler's HUD went black. Fire alarms sounded and gunfire erupted in the cargo bay and the tunnel shook again. He saw Jordan wrap her arms around the cables above her to steady herself, but he struggled to move between stretches of pipes. Dozens of stray rifle rounds zipped through the tunnel and pierced the pipes near him, spraying fluids all over him. Krogan roars mixed with the sound of gunfire echoing off the walls.

Stray rounds penetrated the tunnel and hit Bowler's midsection, making his kinetic shield crackle as it stopped the bullets from killing him. High pitched ricochets and the shrieking whistle of escaping gas reached their ears as another explosion made the tunnel lurch. The whole space made a heavy groaning sound as the tunnel started to crumple at the midpoint between Bowler and Jordan.

Jordan shouted, "Bowler, move!" It was no use.

The rookie clambered through shredded cables and sprayed fluids, but the sound of ripping metal filled their ears as the tunnel tore apart. Bowler shouted as he lunged his arm forward, too late, and plunged twenty feet down to the deck. He tumbled out of the tunnel and landed in the middle of a crossfire.