The Omega People

by Harold3456

The Suicide Mission is complete, but now the damaged Normandy is trapped in Omega-4 space, drifting in an isolated system. When the crew meddles with technology that they can't begin to understand, people start acting strangely. Crewmen start turning on each other. Does Shepard have what it takes to regain their loyalty? Or will the squad devolve into anarchy?

1. The Suicide Mission

"I made you, Shepard! I brought you back from the dead!"

"And I'm going to do what you brought me back to do. I'll fight and win this war without compromising the soul of our species."

Commander Shepard paced in front of the small hologram of the Illusive Man. Shepard stood on a large, hexagonal platform suspended in the middle of an enormous, yawning chamber in the Collector Base, the ultimate fate of which now hinged on this conversation. True to form, the Illusive Man had seen an opportunity even now, in this eleventh hour, to squeeze an opportunity for humanity's galactic dominance out of this gruelling, desperate mission. It wasn't enough that Shepard – and his team – had just neutralized the greatest threat currently facing the human colonies. Now Cerberus wanted to control it and weaponize it.

"Don't let your emotions get in the way of our future!" The Illusive Man derided, his voice tinted with the usual degree of scorn. "You know better than anyone how real the Reaper threat is. Humanity is going to need every advantage it can get!"

"Think about it, Shepard!" Miranda broke in, putting her hand on his shoulder. "A base like this can put us on a level with the Reapers! We could use it to fight them! It could be our best chance for victory."

Shepard looked over at his two teammates, standing beside him on the suspended platform. Miranda, her normally flawless face coated in the blood of multiple species, had a pensive expression as she awaited his response. Jacob's face was stoic as always, betraying neither emotion nor opinion for the arguments being presented. He simply held his shotgun, ready for the next order. He was a good soldier, and he would do what he was told. But whom does he take orders from, if push comes to shove? Shepard thought. His commander, who has led him into the mouth of hell itself, and plans to see him back out of it? Or the man who pays him? At the beginning of this mission he felt like he trusted both of them implicitly – he had helped them to solve deeply personal family issues, and in doing so he had managed to chip into their cold, guarded psyches – considerably deeper into Miranda's than Jacob's. Because of this, both soldiers now wore Shepard's colours, in contrast to the Cerberus uniforms they wore when he'd met them. But it doesn't matter what colours they wear on their uniforms, does it? They're my crew, but HIS employees.

He felt extremely exposed, with two devoted Cerberus agents watching his back. He wondered what he had been thinking, bringing them both along – he supposed that it was a small flight of fancy: finishing the adventure alongside those with whom he started it. It was poetic, in a way. Or at least it could be, so long as he didn't end up with a machinegun volley in his back.

Swallowing his doubts, Shepard turned his back on Miranda again, to look straight at the hologram of the Illusive Man. "The answer is no. I'm not trusting something of this magnitude to you, or to Cerberus. Humanity won't be safe until this abomination is destroyed. EDI! Arm the bomb!"

"May I present an additional alternative, Commander?" EDI's voice asked, as the computer's undulating blue globe appeared on the hologram beside the Illusive Man. "I have done a software scan on the Reaper base, and I've been able to copy all of its blueprints and information into data form! With this software, the base may be eventually replicated, but from the ground up – scientists will be given the chance to study this technology before they expose themselves to it."

"We don't have time for that!" The Illusive Man counselled. "The Reapers will be here sooner rather than later!"

"Thank you, EDI." Shepard said. "Where could I get this data from?"

"It is still stored in the Collector terminals, Commander. You can access it from this very platform, if you so choose. Though it might be faster for me to upload it directly through the ship computer."

"No!" Shepard ordered. "I'll download the schematics, but I don't want them anywhere near Cerberus software! I'll download them onto my own personal Omni-tool."

"As you wish, Commander!" The blue orb disappeared into nothingness, denoting EDI's departure from the conversation.

"Reconsider this position, Shepard." The Illusive Man instructed. "What are you going to do with this information? Give it to the Systems Alliance? The Council? You saw how they both treated the Sovereign threat! Cerberus acts, Shepard, and action is what this galaxy needs right now!"

It was a good argument – the Illusive Man had an uncanny way of saying exactly what his subjects needed to hear. But even in the face of total exhaustion, with his battle armour smouldering from a dozen punctures and every muscle and joint in his body screaming in agony, Shepard wouldn't allow himself to be coerced.

"I think I'll hang onto it myself for awhile." Shepard replied. The platform upon which they all stood had a single podium on one end of it – a control panel of sorts, with an ancient computer interface scrawled upon it. From his mission on the ruined Collectors ship, he knew that this computer was networked to the entire base. He crossed the platform to the computer, meeting Miranda's eyes as he walked past her. She shook her head, almost imperceptibly. In response, Shepard's lip curled in the most subtle of smiles. He linked his Omni-tool into the computer, initiating the download. The positioning required him to still have his back to his teammates, but it was a risk he was willing to take. Though theirs was the loyalty he had the most reason to doubt, he was still willing to trust them.

"Damn it, Shepard." The Illusive Man cried after him. "You're forcing my hand, here! Lawson, Taylor – get that Omni-tool AT ANY COST. Kill him if you have to!"

The silence following that order was palpable, broken only by the shifting of feet as both teammates turned toward Shepard's broad, exposed back. He heard no weapons being drawn, but that didn't mean anything – Jacob had never put his shotgun away after the last firefight, and Miranda was a powerful biotic. Both of them were highly trained operatives, and their skills had sharpened dramatically during their time aboard the Normandy. Shepard was unarmed. There was no hypothetical scenario where he came out of this fight victorious.

"He'll bring about the end of the civilized galaxy as we know it if we don't intervene." The Illusive Man continued, trying to spur one of the two Cerberus agents into action. "Miranda! This is a direct order!"

Shepard turned to look at the duo with whom he shared the platform. Jacob hadn't moved from his spot. He turned to gaze at Miranda. Shepard couldn't read Jacob's expression, but clearly it conveyed something to the female operative, because Miranda nodded to him and crossed the room to the hologram. "Consider this my resignation." She told it.

The look of shock on the Illusive Man's face was unprecedented. He exploded out of his chair. "Miranda, don't forget what I did for-" Miranda cut the transmission. The three humans on the platform were quiet for a minute, and the enormous cavern within which they hovered eerily echoed that silence, reminding Shepard just how big, how advanced, this base was.

The surroundings were completely alien, resembling a giant hive more than anything else Shepard could use as a comparison. The great chamber was wide, and cold, despite a total lack of wind. It was also extremely exposed. At any moment, Shepard expected more flying platforms to glide over to their position, attaching themselves to Shepard's own platform like some giant puzzle, while Collector foot soldiers fired upon the trio. He had just endured a very similar firefight, and his platform was already beset by about six others, all latched on like parasites, creating a small network of hexagonal vessels.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Shepard said finally. His Omni-tool finished downloading with a beep, and he stepped away from the console. "I agree that this base is a powerful weapon that can be used for the benefit of the entire galaxy!" He tapped his Omni-tool, "But in order for that to happen, this information will be used on my terms! I will have total authority over the data held in this Omni-tool, and it will only be under my discretion that it be imparted to anyone else, be it the Alliance, the Citadel or, dare I say it, Cerberus! Understood?"

"Aye aye, Commander."

"Yes, Shepard."

"Good, then let's activate this bomb and go find the others!"

Miranda handed Shepard a small disc, showing only the most minute of hesitations as she relinquished it. Shepard grabbed the disc and uploaded the explosive virus into the computer. "Let's go," he said, "we have about ten minutes before this whole base gets blown to hell! Call Garrus."

Miranda brought her hand up to the headset she wore. "Vakarian, do you read? Pack up and move out! Ten minutes to detonation!"

"Ten minutes?" Garrus' voice cried from the other end, over the din of battle. "This is the geth base all over again! What's with the arbitrary time limits?"

Shepard ignored the quip, instead pointing across the cavern they were in, at a small cave mouth. "Miranda, steer us through there! That should take us around to our ship! We'll meet up with the others, and-"

The air was suddenly pierced by a deafening, electronic wail that seemed to shake the entire cavern, and made Shepard grab his own head in agony. A second later, a giant, skeletal metal hand grabbed the edge of the platform; jagged, razor sharp fingers crushing the tiling of the small platform only a couple feet away from where Jacob stood. The young man cried out and jumped away, scrabbling across the floor as a second hand grabbed the platform as well.

"Shit! That thing is still alive!" Jacob cried, and at that moment two massive eyes cleared the platform, seeming to glare directly at Shepard. He was momentarily immobilized by fear, as the words of Sovereign entered his mind: "We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything." Awe overwhelmed his mind, as it always did when he looked upon these Reapers – even this particular Reaper, a child by the standards of its species, commanded a level of nigh-incomprehensible advancement, along with its characteristic contempt for humankind.

Shepard swallowed this crippling emotion, however, as he had done numerous times before – with Sovereign, and with the Thorian, another ageless horror that had claimed to be undefeatable. Both of them were now dead, by his hand. So he reached back, and grabbed the Collector particle beam that he had slung across his back. "Miranda, hit it with a Warp!" He ordered, finding his voice. "Jacob, use everything you've got!"

The thing roared in response, a battle cry that at point blank range overwhelmed Shepard's auditory senses and engulfed all three humans in complete deafness. Miranda's concentration couldn't be broken, however, and the skilled biotic still managed to release a powerful warp that struck the thing in its face, driving it back. Shepard let loose with his particle beam, showering the creature with firepower. Jacob, beside him, launched volley after volley with his shotgun and, when that overheated, with his pistol.

The human Reaper seemed to stumble under the barrage, and almost lost its grip. It pulled itself back up, farther onto the platform this time, exposing its half-completed chest. Shepard pulled out his assault rifle and fired. The armour on the chest, already damaged from the barrage of damage it must have taken in its initial fall, exploded into pieces. The creature shrieked again, although this time Shepard couldn't hear it. He couldn't hear anything past the ringing in his ears.

The human Reaper slid off the platform, until it hung on only by its two hands. Jacob ran up to one of the hands, and unloaded all of his weapons in it, shredding metal fingers and flaying the thing's palm until it had no choice but to relinquish its grip. Holding on by only one hand put too much weight on the platform, however, and it began tipping precariously. "Shit!" Shepard cried. "Grab onto something!"

Then the platform was falling. The Reaper relinquished its grasp, disappearing into the cavernous depths of the chamber, but the damage was already done. The platform was plummeting. Miranda diligently manned the platform's controls, struggling to prevent the three of them from meeting the monster's fate as she steered the doomed vessel toward the cave opening he had pointed out before.

"We're not gonna make it!" Jacob cried, clinging to a small podium that had previously been used as cover as the platform continued to tip, its grade growing steeper and steeper. The young man's feet lost their purchase and slipped, and he reactively tightened his grip. Miranda was also having increasingly greater trouble keeping herself steady, though she kept at the controls all the same. The platform tilted in Miranda's direction, so that she was at the bottom of the wide, compound vessel. Shepard half-jumped, half-slid down the now almost vertical platform, landing on the opposite side of the control panel, and grabbed Miranda's hand as her stubborn soles finally relinquished their grip and almost sent her plummeting into the darkness, the final victim of the human Reaper.

The platform was now completely vertical, and gaining speed as it careened toward the cave mouth. Shepard knew that this cave led straight to the hangar entrance where the Normandy had crash landed. Still, the trio were not out of danger. He looked down at Miranda, saw the beautiful woman's face etched with lines of fear and desperation as she hung suspended in mid-air, over a chasm of blackness. Shepard held her wrist in both of his hands. He wanted to pull her up, but he was already lying across the entire podium. There was no more room. So he just continued hanging on, drawing on his final reserves of strength as his spent and battered body protested.

The platform crashed into the floor of the cave, and split into pieces. All three squadmates were thrown violently to the floor of the cave, along with most of the debris. Shepard lay there, on his back, for almost a full minute, as the remainder of the platform crashed its way into the bowels of the base. Everything else was quiet, except for the persistent ringing in his ears from the Reaper's shrill cry. Then he heard EDI's voice in his speaker: "Five minutes to detonation."

"Shepard," It was Miranda, standing above him, offering a hand. "Come on, Commander, get up!"

He took the proffered hand and let himself get pulled to his feet. "You're alright?" He asked her.

She took a tentative step, testing her legs. They were clearly sore, but manageable. Then she saw past the commander, at their third team member. "Oh, my God! Jacob!"

Shepard spun around to regard the young man. Jacob had managed to pull himself into a seated position, his back against a large piece of debris. He had a hand pressed up against his side, through which a jagged piece of piping had pierced, and out of which it now jutted.

"Hell of a landing, Miranda." Jacob joked, weakly.

"Jacob! Come on, get up!" Shepard ran to the man's side, reaching out to help him to his feet.

"Not this time, Commander." The soldier replied. They heard footsteps in the distance – Collector troops were approaching. "You know I'd just slow you down. Let me hold them off for you!"

Shepard closed his eyes, stifling the urge to scream in frustration. Akuze, Virmire... it seemed that every time he attempted to do the impossible, and every time a glimmer of hope was starting to reveal itself, then fate would come back around – save your friend, or complete the mission? He thought of Kaidan Alenko, abandoned at Virmire so Shepard could babysit the bomb that would eventually neutralize the krogan facility. Then, days later, he had sacrificed the Destiny Ascension, enormous flagship of the Citadel – along with the thousands of lives on board – in order to assure an Alliance victory."Four minutes, Commander." EDI warned.

Jacob grunted, and then saluted. "It's been an honour, sir. Hell of a fight!"

But Shepard refused to turn away from the young soldier. This was different. This was not Akuze, not Virmire. The bomb had already been placed, and this base was going to blow whether Shepard made it off alive or not. He would be the last person off the battlefield... if he made it off at all.

"Not today, Jacob." He finally said. "Now hold on, this is gonna hurt a lot!" Shepard grabbed the man's hand, pulling him to his feet. Jacob screamed as his gruesome injury was aggravated. There was a loud, gut-wrenching sucking sound as Jacob's loose, tattered flesh broke off of the girder, unstuck from the drying blood which adhered it. Now Jacob bled freely from a hole about the size of a human fist, its edges jagged. Jacob didn't complain, however. Instead, he put one tentative foot in front of the other, his eyes looking down the tunnel toward their eventual salvation.

The trio hurried down the tunnel, Miranda limping slightly, Jacob far more noticeably. They heard footsteps behind far behind them – Collector soldiers, undoubtedly gaining on them. Shepard reached the end of the tunnel first, and that's where he caught sight of the Normandy LZ. The ship was hovering just at the other end of a wide open hangar. A small platoon of Collectors was entering the hangar from another entrance to their left. Shepard opened fire on them with his assault rifle, felling one before the others got a chance to take cover.

"Three minutes to detonation, Commander."

"Come on, Shepard!" Joker's voice cut in. "Where are you guys? I'd prefer to be off this rock before the explosion!"

Shepard traded fire with the Collectors, but they had him pinned down in the cave entrance, and now a couple were crossing the hangar to overtake him. Behind them, the pursuant wave of Collectors had also caught up. Miranda knelt behind a pile of debris, trading fire with them. Jacob lay on the floor behind her, shotgun ready in case any tried to overtake her, but too wounded to do much else but sit there. They were trapped.

"Garrus, come in!" Shepard called. He hazarded a peek back into the hangar, to see that the small platoon of Collectors was practically upon him, advancing with impunity across the wide, open hangar. For his trouble, he got a particle beam to the face. His shields gave out completely, and he pressed himself into safety again. Another such mistake would be fatal.

"I'm here, Commander." Came the reply through the speaker.

"Where are you guys? We need covering fire here, ASAP. Jacob's down, and needs evac!"

"Entering the hangar now, Commander!" Was Garrus' reply. Shepard saw them a second later, coming through hangar doors opposite from the Collector platoon. Within seconds of their arrival, sniper rifle fire erupted from Garrus, Thane and Legion, felling a few of the Collectors nearest Shepard. The rest of them scattered into the scant cover in the hangar, their unit instantly shredded by the seven powerful newcomers.

"Get them into the Normandy!" Shepard ordered into his speaker. "I need Jack and Grunt in this tunnel, ASAP!" Across the hangar, Shepard saw his team comply with practiced synchronicity, fighting their way across the wide open hangar floor, but expertly keeping the enemy pinned down: Tali had send her drone, Chakita, to zap the Collectors out of their cover. Garrus followed it with the scope of his sniper rifle, ready to finish the drone's hapless targets. Samara used her legendary biotics to lift three Collectors into the air, which Thane and Legion easily picked off. All the while, they slowly but surely made their way to the Normandy.

Samara, Legion, Tali, Garrus and Thane all disappeared into the hovering ship. Jack and Grunt charged across the hangar, to where Shepard was helping Jacob cross.

"Grunt, I need you to carry Jacob into the Normandy!" Shepard ordered, relinquishing the wounded soldier to the massive krogan. Grunt glowered, and for a minute Shepard thought that he would disobey the order, swept up in his battle rage. Krogan weren't meant to be organic ambulances; krogan were meant to fight enemies. Grunt then dipped his head in submission to Shepard's order, and the commander turned to face Jack. "Cover him!" He ordered simply.

Miranda had retreated across the hangar, her back to her crew, firing small bursts into the tunnel which Shepard and she had just vacated. Shepard saw a throng of Collectors round the corner within, and then the remaining five Normandy crew members were under fire once more.

Jack launched a biotic warp into the tunnel, which exploded and threw most of the Collectors off their feet. The other creatures stormed the hangar, spreading out quickly to make themselves harder to hit. Shepard fired single shots with his Mattock assault rifle. Every bullet of the single-shot rifle packed a punch, and every slug knocked its target off balance. Meanwhile, Jack and Miranda used a mixture of biotic attacks and weapon fire. Then Shepard heard an all-too familiar, dreaded sound: "ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL".

Orange light leaked through the body of one of the Collector soldiers, and its feet lifted off the ground, hovering in midair as the insectoid creature was slowly possessed by the Harbinger. The other Collectors, seemingly spurred by this transformation, left their cover and charged the trio in the hangar.

Shepard glanced back at the Normandy, which wasn't far behind them. Jack was just hopping in now, being helped up by Garrus. Miranda would go next, and then Shepard. He found a rock to crouch behind, as the Collectors closed the distance.

The Harbinger launched a slow biotic attack toward Shepard. He braced for it as he traded fire with the other Collectors. Behind him, Miranda fired a final volley into her enemies, and then jumped to safety.

"Detonation in sixty seconds." EDI reported into Shepard's earpiece. Before Shepard could react, however, the biotic attack struck the rock he hid behind, shoving him backward. As soon as he was pushed off cover, the other Collectors focused fire on him. Shields evaporated in an instant, and soon the only thing protecting him from death was his expensive, state-of-the-art armour.

His assault rifle was empty, and he had no time to reload. He dropped the weapon on the ground, pulling his pistol and firing. It was a heavy weapon, Spectre-grade, with incendiary rounds. Two bullets were all that were needed to fell a single Collector. He used up all six in the chamber, felling the three other Collectors, and in an instant all that was left was Harbinger.

The possessed Collector glowered through orange eyes, and orange, magma-like energy was visible through the cracks of his skin, as if his sheer power was barely contained in the corporeal form that he possessed. Harbinger neared Shepard as the human reloaded his gun, and then reached out and grabbed the man. Shepard looked into its face, seeing those soulless eyes, a product of the Protheans' indoctrination by the Reapers, and the hard, chitinous skin that closely resembled that of a cockroach back on Earth. The Collector had a strange smell about him – something that Shepard couldn't quite place, but wasn't dissimilar to the smell that arose from dung beetle secretions. As he met those awful eyes, a humming sound buzzed in his head, barely noticeable beyond the roar of the Normandy's engines behind him.

You have the attention of those infinitely your greater! The Harbinger Collector stated, the words transmitted directly into Shepard's head. Those which you know as Reapers will be your salvation through destruction. Shepard choked as the thing strangled him, trying to grab the Collector's arm in his own hands and break its grip. The creature was impossibly strong.

"Thirty seconds to detonation, Commander." EDI said helpfully into his earpiece.

A sniper round cracked near Shepard's ear, and the Harbinger dropped him, stumbling back. A second round caught the Harbinger in the torso, and Shepard saw its biotic barrier evaporate. He raised his pistol and fired, emptying the clip into the thing. He had no time to watch it fall, however, as he turned and ran to the Normandy. Garrus, kneeling in the doorway, tossed his rifle carelessly inside, and clasped Shepard's wrist, pulling him in. No sooner had Shepard's feet left the ground than the Normandy pulled away, steering up toward space. The Commander pushed hurriedly past his fellow crew members, sprawled across the airlock and bridge of the Normandy, to enter the cockpit where Joker sat.

"How we looking, Joker?" Shepard asked.

"You cut it close, Commander." The pilot replied, his hands working seemingly of their own accord as he flipped switches and pulled levers all over the control panel. "But I think we can make it! Hold on, though, it won't be pretty!"

As if to emphasize this point, the Normandy bulldozed through a large chunk of metal debris with a heart-stopping screeching sound, throwing the commander off balance. He grabbed Joker's chair to keep from falling.

"Detonation in ten seconds." EDI said from her small hologram on the dash, the white frequency waves which served as her "face" undulating with every syllable.

"Are you an AI, or an egg timer?" Jacob cried. "Any more useful pieces of trivia, or can you go divert energy into the engines?"

"Get us out of here, Joker! Now!" Shepard commanded redundantly.

The Normandy flew past asteroids and debris, doing barrel-rolls and other tricky manoeuvres to take as little damage as possible. As it neared the designated debris-radius of the explosion site, and therefore relative safety, Shepard couldn't help but once again marvel at his pilot's skill. Joker's face was drawn in a grimace of extreme concentration, his eyes never leaving the viewscreen, and his hands danced along the instrument panel as if it was an extension of his own body.

The cockpit's digital clock changed from green to red, counting down from 5. EDI narrated it for the rest of the crew: "Five, four, three, two, one..."

The explosion was silent, as was to be expected. Before Shepard's eyes, all of the stars seemed to disappear as bright light engulfed the area – the explosion was like a small sun, lighting up the darkness of Omega 4 space. Debris flew past them at high speeds, careening and revolving.

"Shepard." It was Miranda, at his side in the cockpit. She put a hand on his shoulder. "It's done. Congratulations." From the bridge, and the CIC beyond it, he heard a ragged cheer go out. Grunt clapped Thane on the back, causing the assassin to wince. Jack whooped. Tali hugged her fellow squadmates. Shepard allowed himself a smile, as he sagged against the back wall of the cockpit, breathing heavily. After a few seconds of rest, he forced himself back to his feet. "It isn't done. Not yet."

Commander Shepard flipped the switch that interfaced his personal speakers with the ship's PA. "A great victory has been won today." he said, and his voice boomed across the entire ship, to crewmen in every corner. "All of us assumed that this was going to be a one way trip, and for some of us, it was. But rest assured that the sacrifices we endured were not in vain! The effects of our actions will be felt – and appreciated – across the galaxy!" Silence, as everybody digested this information. "We will hold a proper service for those we've lost, and give all of you the respite that you deserve, but unfortunately we don't have the luxury of inaction right now! We are deep in Collector space, and the Reaper threat is as real as ever! I will not rest easy until this ship is seen safely out of the Omega-4 Relay, and until that time I order all hands to their stations! I want status reports on all areas of the ship within the hour, and I want us out through the Omega-4 Relay within three!"

The quiet ship erupted in activity, as Normandy survivors hurried to their stations. "Miranda," Shepard called. The executive officer snapped to attention.

"Get me a list of all the people we've lost, and tell Yeoman Chambers that I want psych reports on all members by tomorrow."

"Yes, sir."

"EDI, I want a full status report on the Normandy's systems; engines, thrusters, defences, drive core, everything! I want to know what we still have to work with!"

"The hangar bay is still destroyed from that Oculus attack, Commander." EDI replied. "We've kinetically sealed the chamber and saved most of the ordnance, but our inventory lacks the materials to repair it this side of the Omega-4 Relay. Our anti-proton thrusters are also heavily damaged. In order to keep them at a level that safely prevents overheating, we need to keep them operating at no higher than 30%."

"Looks like we aren't reaching the Relay in three hours, Commander." Joker sighed.

"Fortunately," EDI continued, "our Tantalus drive core is undamaged, meaning we can still make the jump through the relay."

"Yay, we aren't going to die a slow death in uncharted deep space." The pilot rolled his eyes.

"Thank God for small miracles," Shepard sighed. He looked down the neck of the bridge at the CIC. In addition to Joker's console at the cockpit, the bridge had eight computer consoles straddling the hall. During non-emergency flight, four of these eight computers were usually manned. In an emergency situation, the Normandy usually had the capacity to fill all eight with technicians. Now, however, in the wake of the devastating Collector attack on the Normandy, only two of these computers were being operated. It was one more sign that struck home to Shepard about the heavy casualties sustained in the attack.

Blood stained the far wall of the CIC, near the elevator. There were also burn marks and bullet holes from the Collector attack. Debris littered one corner, where a large metal girder had come loose and had crushed a work station. Only two people stood in the CIC currently, pointing out a course on the massive galaxy map. Kelly Chambers wasn't at her normal post. She would be in her office in Crew Quarters, doing her psych evaluations. Her absence was particularly striking. A few lights were out in the CIC, casting the corners of the once friendly, busy room in haunting shadow. The entire room seemed eerily quiet – there was no conversation among the bridge technicians, the navigators only whispered in hushed tones. The CIC was a massive, empty space – had it always been that big? It reminded Shepard of the Normandy SR-1, which had always seemed so much darker, drearier and lonelier than its successor.

Shepard leaned on the back of Joker's chair, and looked out his cockpit window at the dark expanse of space without, littered in all directions by asteroids, derelict ships and now, explosion debris.

"Look on the bright side, Commander." Joker said, filling the silence. "You got the whole combat team out alive. That's gotta count for something, right?"

"The casualties were still heavy, Joker. Too many people died while the whole team was out in the shuttle!"

"Better a skeleton crew, than a crew turned into a skeleton." Joker quipped, and gazed up at Shepard. When his commander didn't even crack a smile, Joker muttered, "tough crowd."

"I'm heading up to my cabin. I want to study this Reaper data. Call me if anything changes."

"See ya, Commander."

Shepard walked down the bridge hallway, passing the crewman on the computer consoles. Every one saluted him and gave a reverent, "Commander!" as he passed. When he was passing the galaxy map, EDI called after him from a nearby speaker: "Incoming message from the Illusive Man. He wants to speak with you in the conference room!"

Shepard hesitated at the mouth of the bridge, staring into the CIC. The three crewmen on the floor all looked back at him. As far as they knew, a message from on high wasn't a bad thing. He was likely congratulating them on their unexpected victory, or maybe informing them of reinforcements waiting for them on the far side of the Relay. Shepard knew that it wouldn't be anything so cordial, and for a minute he was tempted just to ignore the summons altogether. The crew was tense enough as was, however, and Shepard knew that acting in such an unexpected matter could raise those tensions to a breaking point. Besides, there was nothing that the Illusive Man could do to Shepard from his chair in God-knew-where. He was simply a face in a hologram, no matter how pissed off he got.

So Shepard headed for the conference room, taking his customary route through the science lab. The room was a complete wreck; lab equipment had been shattered, and furniture was strewn about everywhere from the brutal attacks that the Normany had sustained upon entry into the Relay. Mordin nodded at him as he walked by, the salarian barely looking up from the lab equipment that he was trying to repair. The conference room was in even worse shape than the science lab. The roof had caved in completely, and Shepard had to lift a girder out of the way just to reach the holographic projector. The thing scanned him in, and in a second the messy, dishevelled conference room was completely transformed into a sprawling, black chamber. Before him sat the Illusive Man, resplendent in an expensive suit, with his hair finely combed and his legs crossed, cigarette in hand. Behind him churned the tumultuous rays of a dying star – whether it was a genuine, windowed backdrop or just a projection, Shepard could never tell. The Illusive Man's synthetically blue eyes glimmered in the illumination of the star, making them glow against the rest of his silhouetted body. This gave the man an inhuman, if not outright demonic appearance to Shepard. The only other point of focus on the man's shadowy silhouette was the glow from the cigarette he smoked.

"I didn't expect you to answer my call, Shepard." The Illusive Man said. His voice was surprisingly soft, given the circumstances of their previous encounter. "I understand that this is a busy time for you. You made it out of the Collector base, I see. I'm relieved."

"I'll bet." Shepard scoffed. "If it were up to you, I'd still be in that base with a bullet in my skull!"

"I'll be the first to admit that things got... heated." The Illusive Man replied. "You must understand the staggering stakes of our actions here today. The Reapers' plans have been foiled. We've forced their hand now. We can now expect war within a generation, if not sooner. I would order you dead again in a heartbeat if it meant giving the species a fighting chance."

Shepard merely grunted, waiting for the man to get to the point of the transmission. The older man obliged. "I assume you ended up retrieving the plans?"

There was no point in lying. "I did."

"Excellent! And who knows about them? The salarian? The quarian?"

"Just Miranda and Jacob, so far." He thought about that for a second. "And EDI, of course."

"Good. It's best that you keep it that way. We don't want these plans falling into the wrong hands."

"You mean alien hands?"

"Your self-righteousness blinds you, Shepard. I'm not as short-sighted as you think. I'm driven by more than just simple, narrow-minded xenophobia. If this data falls the Council's lap, then the salarians will have operational versions of Reaper technology within the year – and you can wager that no other race will ever be informed of it, not until it's too late. You've seen the effects of the genophage firsthand, Shepard. You know that the salarians ascribe to a more... preventative method of war waging. What would it take for them to perceive humanity as a threat? How long until they make us the new krogan? And the Alliance – they'll just sit on the plans until the Reapers are literally at their door, and by then it will be too late!"

"So that just leaves Cerberus. Very convenient." Shepard replied, not convinced.

"The decision's yours, Shepard. It's been made clear that I have no more chips to cast at this table. I know you consider yourself a loyal Alliance man. But when you're choosing the party to hand the plans to, just remember who believed you about the Reaper threat... and who thinks they're a myth to this day." The Illusive Man disappeared then, and the spacious black chamber faded back into the crowded, destroyed conference room. Shepard ducked a massive chunk of metal that had been resting, invisible, near his head. He worked his way back out into the hall, and then through the armoury. Despite everything, he found himself slightly surprised to find Jacob missing. He would, of course, be in the medical bay. Shepard debated visiting the bay, but decided against it. Best to give the crew some time to settle in before he paid his classic visits. Every muscle of his still ached – his head pounded from sheer fatigue, a throbbing in the back of his eyes. He still wore his full armour, which was currently a wreck. It was burned, dented, punctured in over two dozen places, and covered in Collector blood. He figured it would be awhile before Jacob was well enough to run the diagnostics to repair it – if it was even repairable.

Shepard entered the CIC again, looking around at the empty room, marred with debris, its corners obscured by the shadows from malfunctioning lights, and then he took the elevator to his cabin.

A/N: Some of you have probably noticed the lack of DLC characters in this story. At the time I began writing, I hadn't played ME3 or any ME2 DLC's. Therefore, Kasumi and Zaeed aren't in the crew, and some details in the story might not line up with the canon of these games (I consulted the Wiki on many things, but something always gets through the cracks).

Also, a quick question: How do you feel about chapter length? I planned on every chapter being around 8 Microsoft Word pages (with this intro chapter running long at 12). Would you prefer slightly shorter chapters, or should the length stay the same?