05.01.2187, 09:58, Illium

The two persons lay cuddled up together on the bed in her apartment in Nos Astra. Illium wasn't hit as hard as Thessia or Earth by the Reaper so in the months after the war many people from all races who could afford it went to Illium to seek peace and stay away from the destroyed planets once called their homes. If someone would have seen the couple through the windows – which was impossible, because the windows were in fact one-way mirrors – it would be a surprising sight. The person would see that both of them had instead of her arms and legs prostheses built of metal which functioned like normal body parts. None of the persons lying on the bed cared about this; they behaved like a normal couple spending the night together. Some minutes later the male woke up, kissed the female gently on her cheek and stood up. He then walked into the kitchen and prepared breakfast for the both of them and took it back to the bed where his girlfriend woke up. "Breakfast in the bed? I love you.", she said. "I love you too.", he answered and kissed her. "Life's been good the last months." "You could say that.", she grinned. After the war against the Reaper they moved to Illium and were basically just relaxing. They thought they deserved some R&R after the war. "But I know both of us aren't made for just lying around and relaxing.", he said. "We need to do something or we're going nuts here." "That's true.", she answered. "So what're you up to? I guess you've got an idea in your mind." "Kind of. I still have a few friends in the Alliance." "Joining the Alliance, huh?" "Yeah. It isn't going to be easy with our past but at least we left Cerberus before the Illusive Man allied himself with the Reaper. And during the war we attacked Cerberus where we could. That should count for something." "True thing. So how do you want to get back into the Alliance?" He was surprised that she agreed so fast with his idea. "What, are you surprised?", she asked. "We'll go nuts if we spend more time here. It was nice, don't get me wrong, I loved it, but we aren't made for this."

26.02.2187, 15:12, Earth

They both sat in a small waiting room waiting to speak with an Alliance Officer about rejoining the Alliance. Despite the effort of a friend of him in the Alliance they had to speak with an Officer which tested all people who wanted to join the Alliance but came from organizations like Cerberus. Some minutes later they were told to enter the room where the Officer sat they were supposed to talk to. It was a young man, probably around the age of 27. He was obviously bored by his job. "Sit down please.", he told them. "Your names?" "Jonathan Dunn." "Aliana Wyler." He was looking at his computer. "So, you both served the Alliance for some time and … Wait a moment. This can't be true." "He straightened on his chair. "My information says that you both died on Elysium. So either you're too are lying or this information is wrong. "We're not lying. The short form is that Cerberus saved us and we then worked for them. When the Reaper attacked Earth we saw the madness of the Illusive Man and left. We then attacked Cerberus on several occasions and helped defend some colonies against the Reaper. The long form is here." He gave the officer a PDA.

Half an hour later they stood in the office of Admiral Hackett. "You two are an interesting case.", the highest Officer in the Alliance spoke. "Nearly died at Elysium, saved by Cerberus and then worked for them. Left them a few years later when the Illusive Man allied himself with the Reaper. Fought against Cerberus and the Reaper and helped the Alliance in several cases. You both completed the N-School as N7. Highly recommended by your officers. You're reminding me of Shepard.", he said with a chuckle. And now you want to rejoin the Alliance. Although most of your actions working for Cerberus were against the Batarians some of them were against the Asari and the Turians, against our allies. That you've left Cerberus and fought against them counts for you but I don't know if I can trust you entirely. So you have to do something to gain my trust and rejoin the Alliance. We have reports from some leftover Cerberus troops on Bekenstein. "Bekenstein? Wasn't it destroyed during the war against the Reaper?", Aliana asked. "Yes it was. We don't know what Cerberus wants do there but I don't think they want to help rebuild our colony. So it's your job to find out what they're doing there, eliminate them and report back. I don't think that should be a problem for you, considering your outstanding abilities you've proven while serving for the Alliance." "We're on it, Sir.", Jonny and Aliana said and saluted.

04.03.2187, 19:36, Orbit of Bekenstein

"I'm going to land somewhere near the position Hackett gave us. It should be out of range of their sensors. Don't want their attention.", Jonny said to Aliana. The spaceship they were travelling with was engineered by Cerberus a few years ago. It suited perfectly to their kind of missions. Like the SSV Normandy it was equipped with a stealth device. The main difference between the Normandy and the Avalanche (the name of their ship) was that the Avalanche wasn't a frigate but just a small spaceship, about 30 meters long, eleven meters wide and 4 meters high. It was lightly armed and had strong shields but the main purpose of this ship was to get its crew unnoticed wherever they went. When they left Cerberus they stole the ship. Since then it helped them a lot on their missions. To support them they had an A.I. installed they called Argus. Additional to that they had two human-sized robots which worked mainly at the reactor when needed and four small drones which could detect damage on the hull and repair lesser damage given the materials.

One hour later

After landing the ship they send out three small scouting drones to scout the area the Cerberus forces were suspected to hide. Not much later they had found the position of the Cerberus troops. They hid in a factory building that wasn't destroyed as much as the majority of the buildings on Bekenstein. Besides the fifteen Cerberus Troopers there were four Krogans. "What are the Krogans doing here? Cerberus usually doesn't work with Non-Humans.", Aliana asked. "Maybe some mercenaries but I don't know. They aren't attacking Cerberus so they're our enemies. I hope we'll find out more about this unusual alliance. Let's try to let one of the Cerberus guys alive so we can interrogate him."

A few minutes later they had shut off most of the security systems from Cerberus and slipped unnoticed through the main entrance of the building. "The main room with the computer containing the data we want should be only a few doors further.", Aliana said as they sneaked around a corner into corridor. One second later they heard footsteps and immediately went back behind the corner. When the two patrolling Cerberus passed the corner where they were hiding Jonny activated his Omni-Blade and stabbed the first Cerberus trooper right in his face through the helmet that couldn't protect the wearer from the Omni-Blade. Almost in the same moment Aliana jumped about the corner and kicked the second Cerberus trooper in the crotch. As he felt onto his knees she broke his neck. They dragged the corpses around the corner so they wouldn't be found so easily. "Activating thermal scanners.", Aliana whispered. She now could see the positions of the remaining enemies on her Kuwashii Visor. The image was transferred to Jonny's Visor as well. She saw three more patrols consisting of each two Cerberus Troopers. One of them was headed to their position; the other two were patrolling the rest of the building. The remaining seven Cerberus Troopers and the four Krogans were all in the biggest room about 20 meters along the corridor. "Let's kill the three patrols first and then try to lure some of them out of this room. I don't want to face them straight on. Could be nasty with these Krogans.", Jonny whispered back. "But it would be fun.", Aliana answered with a smile on her face. "Not this time. Let's try to show Hackett how by-the-book we can go through this mission."

Eight minutes later they had eliminated all the three patrols silently without getting noticed. After preparing an ambush with a few grenades Jonny took the radio of one of the Troopers. "Encountered several enemies at the western entrance. Need help!", he said into the radio hoping they would believe him. "Understood. Patrols one, two and four support them!", he heard the typical deep voice of a Cerberus Centurion. "Patrols one, two and four? Respond! Fuck! You six, go support them!", he said probably to the other Cerberus Troopers. About half a minute later they heard the heavy footsteps of the approaching Cerberus Troopers. Both Aliana and Jonny waited with drawn N7 Valkyries. Because of the high accuracy and the good damage these weapons were very popular on the black market. In the right hands they were death bringing machines. As the first Cerberus Trooper ran into their trap several grenades placed in the corridor exploded. Two Troopers were immediately dead and one received severely wounds, making it impossible to fight for him anymore. The remaining three Cerberus Troopers were totally surprised and were killed by several shots from both Aliana and Jonny. Their little ambush had worked perfectly. After making sure none of the Troopers were alive they went to the room where the Cerberus Centurion and the four Krogans were hiding. Aliana broke through the door and in the same moment she and Jonny threw two grenades in the room. Before they exploded they went quickly behind the wall to be not in the blast radius of the grenades. After hearing the explosions they stormed the room and saw that the Cerberus Centurion and one of the Krogans were lying dead on the ground. Another Krogan lied hurt in one of the corners. There were only two Krogans remaining. While one of them did something for Krogans not so typical – he dived into cover and began firing with his shotgun at Aliana who went as well behind cover and started firing back – the other Krogan did what you would expect a Krogan would do in this kind of situation: He charged right at Jonny. Despite the fact that he could move faster than any normal human with his augmented legs he wasn't fast enough to completely dodge the charging Krogan Battlemaster. The Krogan caught Jonny at his thigh and rammed him at the wall behind him. If it wasn't for his advanced armor protecting him the Krogan would have surely broke his spine. But because of this he received only several bruises on his back and chest. Before the Krogan could ram his fists into the human who was surprised that he survived the charge Jonny caught the two fists flying towards him with his own hands before they could reach his face and due to the immense power of his augmented body parts he pushed them back and crushed the bones in them. The Krogan yelled in pain and surprise. Before he could do anything to defend himself an insanely fast moving Omni-Blade cut through his throat and killed him. While the yellow blood of the Krogan splashed against his armor Jonny grabbed his sidearm – a M5 Phalanx – and shot the last Krogan who still was behind his cover firing at Aliana two times in the head. "You okay?", he asked her breathing heavily from his fight with the Krogan Battlemaster. "Yes. This Bastard dropped half of my shield but nothing serious. You?", she asked back. "Got a couple bruises but nothing serious I think. Now look at this Computer if there are any data we could use. I check the bodies if they're all dead. I hope there's a survivor we can interrogate." "That would be good.", Aliana answered before checking the computer at any important data. Meanwhile Jonny found the fourth Krogan who was hurt by the grenade but not killed. After completely disarming him (he was surprised how many weapons the Krogan was carrying: one large shotgun which could easily rip a man apart if hid directly, one heavy pistol he hadn't seen before, probably some model used by pirates and batarian slavers, two rather large knives and one ancient looking mace) he punched the Krogan lightly in the face. "Still living, Krogan?", he asked with an authoritarian voice. The Krogan only mumbled some not understandable words. Jonny took that as a yes. "Why do you work with Cerberus? What were your plans here?", he continued to ask the Krogan. This time he answered, but barely understandable. Obviously he was hurt pretty hard. "We … will take our … vengeance human. You will all … die.", were the last words of the Krogan before he died. "Now that didn't sound very nice.", Jonny said with a slightly upset and ironic voice to the dead Krogan.

Why Vengeance? What reason the Krogans have for vengeance against the humans? A human healed the genophage so I don't see why they want vengeance.

"Found anything?", he asked Aliana. "They were looking after something here on Bekenstein. Something to heal … the genophage? What the fuck? I thought Shepard healed the genophage back on Tuchanka.", she answered with a confused look on her face. "Strange … One of the Krogans was still alive so I tried to find out what they're doing here and the only answer I've got was something with vengeance and that we all will die." "Not the kind of thing you want to hear all day.", Aliana said with a smile at her face. "Definitely not.", Jonny said grinning back at her. "But let's get back to the ship and report back to Hackett. He should be interested in this as well as we are."

Three hours later

After leaving Bekenstein, setting course back to Earth and cleaning themselves and their armor from the dirt and blood of the battle they activated the QEC of their ship and contacted Admiral Hackett. "Sir.", they both greeted him. "I assume you pulled the mission off?", he asked. "Yes, Sir. Sending the report now. But we detected something interesting. Four Krogans supported Cerberus. They searched after something to heal the Genophage although she was cured and one of the Krogans said something about Vengeance before he died.", Jonny informed Hackett. "That doesn't sound very good. Cerberus never has done something without a plan behind it. I'm expecting you in two days at my office. You've handled this mission well and earned some R&R. Hackett out."

After the conversation with the two former Alliance Soldiers and Cerberus Agents he read the mission report and still had no clue what Cerberus wanted. He decided to ask the man who probably knew most about curing the genophage besides Mordin Solus. The man that had saved the entire galaxy and nearly died but survived and was found in the debris of the Citadel. John Shepard, now Rear Admiral and commanding officer of the Third Fleet of the Alliance. He replaced Admiral Singh who died sacrificing his ship to protect the Crucible at the Battle of Earth.

John Shepard spend the last days together with his love, Tali'Zorah in an apartment located somewhere in Florida. He could leave the Hospital a week earlier after he was saved from the debris of the Citadel and spend a long time in the best available Hospital on Earth in which his body fully healed. He thought about what happened to him after the war when he was lying on his bed and enjoying the beautiful landscape. He was now Read Admiral and commanded the Third Fleet. He had to give up his command of the Normandy and hated it every moment but he knew also that he would help the galaxy at this moment more if he commanded the Third Fleet. In addition he knew that the Normandy was in good hands, his former Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams, now promoted to Captain commanded the Normandy. His thoughts were disrupted then the V.I. of his house told him that Hackett stand in front of his door.

What in hell is Hackett doing here? He could have contacted me in nearly a dozen other ways.

He put on his clothes without waking up Tali who was still catching up the sleep they had missed in the night by virtue of other activities. He went to the door and opened it. "Admiral Hackett, I didn't expect you. You could have contacted me on a dozen other ways." "I am sorry to interrupt the little time you have but this is important, Shepard. I wanted to meet you in privacy because I don't want that someone monitored this conversation.", he said to Shepard who was still a little bit tired and entered the apartment. "What's going on?, Shepard asked having no clue about what Hackett wanted to tell him. About four hours ago two agents reported back who were on a mission on Bekenstein finding out what some Cerberus Troops were doing there." "Bekenstein? What was Cerberus doing there?", Shepard asked. The two Agents said they were searching something to cure the Genophage. As unlikely as it sounds, it's true.", the old Admiral answered as he saw that Shepard immediately stopped. "Fuck.", he only said. "What's going on Shepard?", Hackett asked, now being the person who didn't know what the other one was talking about. "I thought the Salarians had covered it." "Covered what?", Hackett asked again. "It seems like I have to tell something …", Shepard said to Hackett. "Have you ever wondered about the fact that in Salarians fought side to side to Krogans, Admiral? The short form is, before we launched the mission on Tuchanka to cure the genophage the salarian Councilor called me and made an offer. An offer I couldn't resist. She said only if I would sabotage the cure the Salarians would support us. I agreed. After releasing the sabotaged cure the Krogans believed the genophage was cured. In the end we got both the Salarians and the Krogans. Not healing the genophage gave us the support we needed. If I hadn't sabotaged the cure many more would have died and we maybe had loosed the war. The Salarians assured me that the Krogans would figure it out in a couple of years and they had plans to tell the Krogans that the genophage couldn't be cured and so on. I didn't think they would figure it out so fast." For a short time both men said nothing. Hackett wasn't entirely sure if he could believe it. He called the curing of the genophage a miracle to find out only some months later that it was a huge lie. But he understood Shepard. He understood that he did it to save the galaxy. He sacrificed the future of one race to safe the future of an entire galaxy. He couldn't imagine how hard this decision must have been. He respected Shepard for making such a difficult choice. "It was the right choice.", Hackett said, breaking the silence. "Are you sure about that?", Shepard asked. He wasn't sure if he heard right. "Yes. We both know that. We have to warn the other races. We must face the option of another Krogan Rebellion. But it hasn't started yes. If we act quickly we might prevent another war."

That was the first chapter of my new series. I hope you enjoyed it. Please note that english is NOT my mothertongue so it isn't the easiest for me to write. I would be happy if you could say if my english is terrible like hell or if it is quite okay. Until next time.