Miranda Lawson ran as fast as she could through the station. She had to reach the Comm room and wake Project Lazarus and she had to do it now. The Project was nearly a week away from completion but, as luck would have, the only task left was purely cosmetics and final health checks. Coming around the next bend, she barely dodged a shot for a nearby LOKI Mech. Whipping around she used Pull to lift the Mech before firing into the core until it exploded, raining sparks and debris into the air as Miranda dashed into the nearby Comm room.
"Shepard! You need to wake up! Now!" she yelled into the microphone. To her relief she heard the near simultaneous groans of the infamous Shepard Twins, both male and female.
{What the hell…} groaned Odysseus 'Demo' Shepard.
'Khelish? I know they both speak it regularly but this is ridiculous. Shouldn't they reach for their native tongue first?' Miranda thought, swiftly brought back to the task at hand by the sound of gunshots in the halls. "You need to wake up immediately! The station is under attack. There is armour and weapons in the lockers by your beds. Get up! Hurry!" she shouted frantically in an attempt to get the twins moving faster.
Eris Shepard groaned as a panicked voice called out over the Comm system. Finding the armour, Eris and Demo dressed quickly, automatically falling straight back into their old combat routine despite the old, aching feeling in throughout their bodies.
{What the fuck?! No clips makes these as good as toys lady!} barked Demo in frustration.
"Well, it IS a med bay, I know you've been dead for two years but surely you'd recognise one," replied the voice, sarcasm dripping from its tone as Eris rolled her eyes, overlooking the whole "dead for two years thing" for now. A set of explosive canisters by the door quickly drew her gaze, however, and Eris called her brother into cover before firing on them.
{Well… I suppose that's one way to open a door} joked Demo before Eris clipped him lightly.
{Come on, let's get the hell off this base and find out what the fuck is going on and why the fuck we've supposedly been dead for two fucking years!} raged Eris. A short glance at their Omni-tools had told them the date ad their grey boxes had confirmed their deaths and the subsequent beginning of their organic memory pathways' decay. Needless to say, Eris was rather pissed.
Demo was really hating this first day of consciousness. First he woke to some pretentious sounding woman ordering them to find armour. Armour which ended up only being the standard N7 classless model and made him feel blind and deaf. Then they only had pistols and crappy Omni-tools with only enough power to support an Overload and a practically useless battery-eating cloak.
{If I find the guy who put this shit equipment into a locker for us, I'm going to make him eat my boot!} he growled, grunting as bullets flew through the air, receiving a quiet agreement from Eris.
{Use your drone!} Eris called after a few minutes.
{No drone tech!}
{The fuck gives you a tool without Gizmo?!}
{Don't know but he eats boots too!} barked Demo, finally dropping the last Mech in sight with a bullet through the optics. The twins may not have been experts with every weapon in existence but they were certainly at least decent with all of them.
Jacob Taylor's day had started out so well too. He was just watching his favourite movie again, when suddenly the Mechs went mad all over the station and began attacking everyone on sight. His tried to find Miri but had become pinned by the Mech's surrounding the bridge. The door leading to the labs slid open and two demons in sparkling new N7 armour quickly laid waste to the Mechs with a pair of grenade launchers. "The twins?" Jacob asked rhetorically as he sauntered toward the pair. "Damn, things must be bad if-" he started before a pair of pistols were trained on him.
{We have been awake for all of twenty damn minutes. We haven't eaten in two years. The next words out of your mouth had better be a run-down of what in the ancestor's names is going on right now or so help me you will be down before you can scream!} Eris growled. Both twins were far from morning people and without time to wake they tended to hit whoever and whatever upset them.
Needless to say Jacob complied. The day had started so well too.
Miranda raced to the shuttle bay, trying to beat the twins there. If they got on board with Wilson, they'd be as good as dead…again. 'I did not give two years of my life bringing them back for them to die again!" thought Miranda, arriving at the doors just as Wilson came through. He froze, "Miranda, but you're supposed to be-."
He was cut off as his chest was filled with bullets, courtesy of Miranda and the twins. "Miri, what the hell?" Jacob cried.
Before she could respond, Demo broke in: {This bastard had killed the other guy we found him with, his wound didn't match his story AND his Omni-tool had a hacking program written specifically for the station.}
Miranda was impressed with the ruthless assessment and take-down. "Come on. We should leave before any more Mechs turn up. Our boss wants to talk to you," she said as she led to twins to a nearby shuttle.
{You mean the Illusive Man, right?} asked Eris.
Miranda scowled at Jacob, "You couldn't keep quiet, could you?"
"Lying to them won't gain their trust and you know we need that Miri," Jacob replied defensively.
{How about we get on the ship?} Demo asked sarcastically, {And you,} he continued pointing at Miranda, {We just wanted to make sure we were talking to T.I.M and not some piss-ant laddie who knows nothing.} Odysseus climbed up into the shuttle, leaving Miranda shocked at how accepting the twins were of their boss. She quickly climbed in, setting the autopilot for the back-up station.
After speaking with T.I.M, the twins moved over to Miranda. "Captain, Commander, Should we get going?" she asked when they grew close.
"Not yet. First we're going to need proper weapons and gear along with armour," replied Eris.
Miranda smiled. In their profile it stated that twins used nothing but custom arms. "Of course," said Miranda, "we compiled the best and latest gear, based on what you carried two years ago, naturally. It's just through there," she finished as she indicated a door. She was quite proud of her selection and scowled as the twins moved away, shaking their heads in disappointment. As their heads moved their pure white hair and cat-like purple eyes seemed to catch the light in the station, making Miranda uncomfortable with their alien appearance and the glowing cybernetic scars.
"Great. Top of the line she says. It's still going to be at least three years behind what we had," grumbled Demo.
Eris sighed at her brother, "Relax. It should only be a year. We were dead for two, after all."
"Not helping. I just hope they have a copy of Gizmo," Demo said quietly as they entered the room. Behind them, Miranda was still scowling. The tech team had told her that whenever they tried to copy any of the suit tech or programming, written in the quarian programming tongue, it crashed any system they attempted to use it in. Thus far, there had been no progress for the tech teams.