A bright, bluish light filled the room, reflecting off of the metallic walls; they were shining with cleanliness close to sterility. Within was a bench upon which a full set of unused heavy armour lay, along with several racks containing a variety of high tech tools and weapons, both lethal and non-lethal. At the back of the room, a coffin like object, made to stand vertically, could be found next to a lone terminal; inside which laid an aged man, his body battered from the countless battles it had been put through, the right side of his face showing signs of reconstruction and his slicked back hair almost completely a greyish silver. The man looked lifeless, along with the rest of the stoic room; only the dull vibrations of the active cryotube could be heard.
The terminal activated and initiated the defrosting process, the whirring noise of the machine intensifying as it prepared to bring the man, who was wearing an uncharacteristically peaceful expression, back to the harsh and rigid world of the physical realm. The door of the cryotube slid open after the various processes had been taken care of with great precision; defrosting an organic was a delicate process, especially for humans, who were physiologically weaker than some other races.
Zaeed's eyes opened for the first time in years as the warmth of reality washed over him, along with a splitting headache. Squinting from the light which was too bright for his functioning left eye, which had not been used for a long period of time, the gruff looking human almost fell to his knees as he stepped out of the tube before quickly steadying his stance and regaining balance. He was wearing a black body suit, which he had donned before his years long sleep. Not recognising the room he was in, he scanned over it quickly and cautiously; to his left, he found the equipment prepared for him by the bench and racks, amongst which he spotted an omnitool.
The quiet humming noise of a drive core hinted that he was aboard a ship. What ship, he had no idea, but it was something.
Zaeed walked over to the bench slowly while overcoming the stiffness in his body and placed the omnitool on his left arm as he observed the scars, from both battles and operations, including one he had undergone recently, from his perception of time. Each one told a story, held a memory; they gave him a sort of comfort, a way to ground himself, constant and ever present.
Zaeed understood the cryo process and hence was fully aware of what had happened to him, but he found it hard to accept that it really was 2199 CE, as he had confirmed on his omnitool; it had been 2190 CE when he had stepped inside the freezing tube. As he was about to start browsing the extranet to catch up on any important changes that had occurred in the past few years he had been asleep, Zaeed received a call from the Shadow Broker, or as he knew her, Liara T'Soni, through the terminal beside the cryotube.
"Zaeed. It's good to see you," the young asari greeted in her trade mark manner, smiling, looking not a day older than when he had last seen her almost a decade ago.
"It was a comfortable nap I was havin' but it's good to be back. Where am I?"
"You're on one of my ships, headed for Nos Astra on Illium," Liara replied plainly.
Turning to the terminal display, Zaeed let out a grunt, "I feel like shit, Liara."
"That's to be expected, my diagnostics are giving me healthy readings," Liara said, momentarily looking at something off screen, what Zaeed assumed were his live vital signs, "It's probably just a side effect of the cryo; the discomfort should subside in a few hours."
"It better or I won't be of much use to you. Speakin' of which, what do you need me for?"
The Reaper War and his subsequent work for Liara in keeping the peace had taken its toll on the silver haired human; the former Blue Suns leader was getting old and his ferocious willpower could only carry him on so far. Eventually time would get the better of him; a moment which Zaeed felt was fast approaching.
The ex-mercenary knew there was a crisis at hand; he had asked Liara to freeze him until there was one and she needed him. By doing so, he could spend his remaining time most efficiently, is what he told her, but it also allowed him to reduce the down time between fights, at least from his point of view. Down time meant thinking and contemplation, things the hardened man had never learned to really do.
"A group of Geth terrorists," Liara said, to which Zaeed raised a brow in surprise, "Hard to believe how much they have changed over these past few years."
Zaeed gave a dry laugh, "So now they've become more like us and trouble's brewin'."
"Not much is known about them, except that they have been assassinating STG research agents and taking over some of their labs," Liara said with a troubled look, obviously bothered at her lack of information, as she should be; if she, the Shadow Broker, had failed to gather more information on this group, they had to be good. They were better than the run of the mill Geth mercs, who were already a force to be reckoned with, that was for sure. "The only lead I have on them is that one of my agents was able to intercept their communications unnoticed for a brief few milliseconds, just enough time to find out the next most probable target."
"And the lucky bastard's on Illium?" Zaeed asked, to which Liara gave a swift nod.
Zaeed let out a tired sigh before turning back to the armour and weapons, "These are my welcome back presents?"
"Of sorts," the young asari grinned, "You're one of my most valuable assets, Zaeed, and a friend."
The aging human and the older yet more youthful asari were never close during their respective times with Shepard; they had never been a part of the commander's crew at the same time. However, upon meeting at the party on the Citadel in Shepard's apartment, Liara had felt that perhaps there was a caring individual hidden under the tough and cold exterior built over years and years of merciless killing. Maybe Shepard would bring that part of the mercenary out; the Commander had a tendency to change people, intentionally or not.
Liara's suspicions were proven to be correct when she had found that Zaeed had been doing volunteering work after donating most of his money earned as a mercenary, including that from the Collector mission, to the post-war recovery efforts, keeping only just enough credits to survive. The young asari continued to observe the ex-mercenary throughout the years, as he helped others free of charge, defending vulnerable colonies from pirates and securing resources for refugees, something he never would have even considered before meeting Shepard.
After a year or so of observing Zaeed after the end of the Reaper War, Liara revealed her alter ego as the Shadow Broker and offered him a position as one of her agents, which he gladly accepted, while pretending to be reluctant, of course.
Zaeed worked with Liara from the shadows to minimise conflict and maintain the peace that Shepard had offered them, during which they had come to respect and even care for each other, although Zaeed would never openly admit to the latter.
"You're starting to become a helluva soft one, Liara." Zaeed guffawed, feigning disapproval to hide his appreciation for the asari's concern, "There's a job to be done."
Liara gave a soft smile, one Zaeed rarely saw on the young asari now carrying heavy burdens, making him secretly worry if they were even sparser than before, "Indeed. ETA at Illium is in three hours. It should be enough time to get acquainted with your new equipment."
"Let's get the fun started then," Zaeed said with genuine glee he had not felt in a while, but before he started digging into this treats, he had to ask, "Wait. Who the hell's the pilot?"
Walking through the bustling metropolis that was Nos Astra with his full set of armour equipped, Zaeed was looking over the sea of heads to see if he could find the target, his visor's HUD showing him that there was no facial match in the crowd. He continued to walk.
The armour was in the same colour scheme as his original; yellow, black and white. Heavy class and packed full of state of the art gadgets and weaponry, it was too heavy for any normal human being to don and despite all the bravado, Zaeed Massani was just that; a man.
Only with the assistance of the suit's self-supporting systems was Zaeed able to operate within the armour at his maximum capacity. Without the armour powered on, he was forced to embarrassingly lumber around for a few moments before figuring out the activation process. Thankfully, he was alone on the ship when it happened.
Or at least, he was the lone organic on the ship.
"I still can't believe I've got a damn AI as my partner," Zaeed said into his communications unit, "And pilot. The hell is this galaxy coming to?"
"Don't worry, Zaeed. I have more of an advisory role," a synthetic voice transmitted, "You'll still be the one calling the shots." The voice was that of an adult male, perhaps somewhere in his thirties, sounding eerily close in tone to that of an organic, yet still retaining the slight rigidity typical of synthetics, despite the incorporation of more organic habits, such as the contraction of words and emotive inflections. However, being a synthetic, the AIs voice was unreliable as an indicator of its age; it was barely three years old, 'born' while Zaeed was still in cryo. "Mostly," the AI added.
"Good," Zaeed said, although he felt far from 'good' about an AI having control over his amour's functions, "Still no visual on the target."
A few moments passed by as the AI continued to analyse anything it could recognise as a facial structure within the video data it was receiving from Zaeed's integrated helmet camera.
"Oi. You sure you have the right location?" Zaeed asked, "He should be here by now."
"I have a name," the AI said, with a surprising amount of attitude for a synthetic, "And yes, unless we have a bad source, he should be here already."
Zaeed had yet to call the AI by its name, which it had apparently give itself, and he wasn't going to start now.
"We can't just call him up, can we?" Zaeed asked without any real hope.
"No, unfortunately. The Broker believes that the STG agents that were killed were hiding something and that the geth in question are looking for it." the AI explained, sounding a little resigned, "Something worth that much must be dangerous, or at least worth investigating into."
"And if we were to make remote contact, the agent would probably just pack up and leave," Zaeed said with a grunt, adjusting his armour, "Well we better find him soon or it'll be too –"
"There!" Zaeed was cut off by the AI's raised voice as a pop up window on his helmet HUD appeared to display a zoomed in section of his view.
The pop up was tracking the face of a salarian in movement approximately 30 meters dead ahead of Zaeed.
"There's a match," Zaeed said, his voice sounding slightly more serious, "Making contact."
With that, the soldier weaved through the swarm of people at a quick pace, closing the gap between the salarian and himself.
Cutting off the salarian's path as he reached him, Zaeed help up a firm right hand, "Agent Elorn, you need to come with us."
The salarian, looking a little startled, took a moment before speaking, "And who might you be?" He sounded busy, if not a little agitated.
"I'm your goddam back up. We think you'll need it soon," Zaeed said calmly, trying to avoid the subject of his identity, although it really was inevitable.
"Really now? And who's 'we'?" Elorn continued with his questions pointedly.
"Does it really matter? Geth are going to attack you, very soon."
"It really does matter, human. Without a credible source, information is meaningless," Elorn continued, shaking his head, "Who do you think we are? We are already aware of the geth threat and have taken precautions to hide our location, the likes of which you are threatening to compromise. I'm going to report this little incident, to ensure that our secrets remain as secrets."
"The Shadow Broker," Zaeed simply said in a hushed tone, grabbing Elorn's arm as he tried to leave, to which the salarian reacted with a subtle look of surprise, hidden beneath trained self-control.
The AI's voice spoke into Zaeed's comms, "Suspicious individual at your six." A pop up opened up on his HUD to show the video feed from the camera pointed behind himself, showing the figure of a geth hiding between two metallic pillars.
The integrated cameras set around Zaeed's helmet gave the AI a full 360 degree view around the man, allowing it to alert him of any foes or hazards.
By the time Zaeed had turned around to face the potential threat, it was a full-fledged lethal danger, the geth taking aim with his protracted plasma rifle.
"Take cover!" Zaeed shouted to Elorn as he pushed him away from the line of fire and towards a large display terminal nearby to be used as cover, before combat rolling towards the cover himself, dodging the initial three shots from the geth by mere inches.
Panic. People started screaming, scattering frantically, while not being entirely sure in what direction to run as they were unaware of where the slugs had originated from. Most of them had not even seen the slugs; the noise was enough to send them running.
Drawing his own rifle, Zaeed looked at Elorn, who was crouching beside him, looking a little shaken. "Stay calm and stay hidden!" he shouted over the commotion.
Two more geth units were approaching Zaeed and Elorn from their side of the cover, rifles drawn, around 20 meters away. "Move!" Zaeed shouted, before simultaneously crouching to avoid direct fire and firing three slugs of his own, through gaps between the civilians, towards one of the geth units approaching him from the front. After confirming the triple headshot followed by the crumpling geth unit, Zaeed rolled sideways so that he was behind cover for both remaining attackers that were at his 12 and 6.
Elorn moved away swiftly, along with the crowd, maintain a low profile behind cover to avoid the shooting.
"Try not to hit civilians, Zaeed," the AI said in a calm voice, "Uploading advanced IFF algorithms to your armour and rifle."
"Piss off!" Zaeed barked into his comms, peeking out of cover to fire at the geth unit at his 12, "I'm doing fine!" The ex-mercenary clenched his teeth in frustration as the civilians continued to get in the way of him delivering a lethal shot. The geth was taking this opportunity to close the gap between them, its firepower intensifying as it fired towards Zaeed's direction, disregarding the civilians, many of them getting shot down.
"Algorithms installed, fire straight through the civilians," the AI announced.
"The hell does that even mean? You gone nuts already, you damn AI?" Zaeed shouted.
"That's rich, coming from you," the AI replied in jest, before his tone returned to complete seriousness, "Hurry Zaeed, civilians are dying."
"Bloody hell," Zaeed muttered as he reluctantly pulled the trigger on his fully automatic rifle, still unsure of what was going to happen, but when it did, the results surprised him; impressed him, even.
While he held the trigger down, the rifle only fired a slug when it calculated that its predicted travel path would not intersect with that of a civilian, through the video data being read from Zaeed's helmet. It made him feel as if he were actually shooting through the civilians.
The geth unit was downed quickly as it was riddled with a barrage of slugs delivered by the high powered rifle. "Nice going," Zaeed said simply, still in slight disbelief that such a thing was possible.
Turning back around the corner of the terminal, which he was using as cover from the geth unit that had initially attacked him, Zaeed was met with the sight of the attacker standing right in front of him with its weapon drawn, too close for the man to bring up his rifle and take aim.
Shit, Zaeed thought as he knocked the geth's rifle, which had not yet been completely aimed at him, out of the unit's hand, to which it responded with a swift kick to the chest, making him lose grip of his own weapon.
The kick sent Zaeed flying a few meters to land hard on his back, his weapon getting flung away from reach, leaving him disorientated. Despite being a mere geth trooper unit, it was physically superior to humans by far. While Zaeed was still recovering from the blow, the geth unit was already picking up his lost rifle, which seemed to be malfunctioning.
Giving up on its rifle, the geth unit was now fast approaching Zaeed, presumably determined to pummel the man to death with its fists.
"Zaeed, get up!" the AI shouted into the man's ear, "I was able to sabotage that rifle at this range but it'll only buy you so much more time."
Zaeed returned to focus as he lifted himself up off of the ground, ready to face his attacker. "Retractable blade," he said, over pained groans, with experienced calmness into his comms, a command to which the AI unsheathed the carbon-steel blade hidden within the armour of Zaeed's left arm.
The geth threw a quick left jab that Zaeed dodged by moving further to the left, throwing himself at an opening by thrusting his blade into the direction of the geth unit's optics, but the unit was faster than the man had anticipated and widely swung its left arm square into Zaeed's face, stunning him momentarily.
Taking the opportunity, the geth unit delivered a crushing blow to Zaeed's stomach, which sent him flying back into the terminal he had been using as cover earlier. The impact of the man's body, and his armour, cracked and destroyed the terminal and sparks flew out from the edges of its screen, yet it managed to remain standing as Zaeed fell to the ground as if he was peeling off of it.
Zaeed raised his head while clutching his stomach to face the threat, only to be met with the sight of a fist flying towards him, knocking his head back and causing severe whiplash.
"Kinetic barriers are depleted, Zaeed," said the AI, "The next one's going to really hurt."
Regaining his posture, Zaeed ducked under the follow up straight punch that the geth unit attempted to deliver to his face again. Unable to get a clean stab into the geth's optics, Zaeed stabbed at anything he could, and the closest part was the unit's abdominal area. After four quick stabs the geth squirmed, swinging its arms around widely.
Zaeed, unable to dodge the geth's sudden movements because of his extreme proximity to it, was knocked away into the air, this time landing a good six meters away on top of a public table. With the kinetic barriers unavailable to soak up the impact of neither the take-off nor the landing, the pain was intense and severe, but for Zaeed, pain was merely a constant companion, one of the few things that seemed to stick around with him over all those years of fighting. Helluva lot better than a bullet to the face, Zaeed thought to himself, as he properly regained visual of the attacker.
The geth unit was looking to finish the fight after its desperation manoeuvre, looking slightly confused as its target had disappeared while it was in a momentary frenzy, despite the fact that it had been the one that threw the man away. It strangely reminded Zaeed of a young child, lost and uncertain, a stark contrast to the absolute and infallible nature of the geth he usually encountered. In this state, the geth unit seemed almost organic; human, even.
After a slight lull, during which time seemed to slow down for the man, the geth finally located him, downed above a pile of rubble that was once a table, its optics locking with his eyes.
Panicking and losing sight of your enemy, Zaeed thought to himself, human error.
Zaeed quickly drew his sidearm, lined up a shot at the 'eyes' and pulled the trigger thrice in rapid succession; all in one fluid motion.
The geth units 'head' shattered into pieces, its 'body' crumpling into a heap of soulless metal.