Uncharted Space

A Mass Effect story

By: Sebastian Moran

Chapter one: Fine Vessel

"Shepard, I can't help but feel a bit put off by this place. I mean honestly, waltzing onto a heavily guarded space station to demand one of their prisoners be turned over to us? I get that the Illusive Man says that he is paying the fee for their release but it still sounds unsettling at best." Garrus was walking down the small corridors of the Purgatory with his weapons drawn, eyes darting to meet every face they passed. "Not to mention that I'm old C-Sec, remember? No telling how many of these wonderful people that I put here, and they likely aren't very appreciative of their new housing arrangements."

The guards had been watching the squad from the moment that their boots crossed the threshold into the station. Their gazes were steely and cold, those of a pack of animals. Both Garrus and Jacob were brandishing their weapons unabashedly; the two of them had been on high alert from the moment they entered the station and they showed no intent of changing that. Even Shepard was feeling a bit apprehensive in the situation, the oppressive gazes of the guards proving numerous and worrisome. His hand hung lazily by his side only inches from his pistol, masking the fact that he was prepared to draw it at a moment's notice.

Jacob hung loosely behind the others as he gazed out of the windows back toward the safety of the Normandy. "I agree with Garrus on this one. This place feels wrong in so many ways. Even the air in here seems wrong." He had seen places like this before during his time in the Alliance. The cramped hallways, the seemingly endless hallways of steel, and the unshakable feeling of corruption and evil. "No disrespect intended, Commander, but can we get the hell off of this thing as soon as possible, please?"

They continued down the hallway, passing by numerous large windows showing nothing but the boundless expanse of space. "The checkpoint is just ahead, looks like Blue Suns mercs are standing guard," Shepard said as his hand inched closer to his pistol, just enough to provide an added sense of security. "Leave this to me."

The Turian in front took a step toward the trio and acknowledged Shepard. "Ah, Commander Shepard I presume. Your package is being prepped and you will be able to retrieve it shortly, however seeing how this is a high security vessel I must ask that you relinquish your weapons before entering. I hope you understand this is solely to insure station-wide security, it is nothing personal." The two mercs by the door drew their weapons on Shepard, in order to further cement the severity of his request.

Shepard reached for his pistol and aimed it directly at the Turian's head, his cybernetic upgrades allowing him to do so with blinding speed. Jacob and Garrus focused their weapons on the men by the door to keep them from trying anything drastic. Shepard grinned slightly as he saw the Turian's eyes darting back and forth, searching for a way out. "Now, I hope that you will realize that this is also nothing personal. I don't relinquish my weapons, and I hope that you realize that this is only to insure my own personal security." The Turian's mandibles flickered nervously as he locked eyes with Shepard. The doors behind them slid to life and a large Turian stepped through, captain's bars adorning his shoulders.

The Turian cleared his throat as he assumed a parade rest position. "Well, seeing how I wasn't able to make it here in time to make a proper introduction, I suppose now is a good enough time. I am Warden Kuril, the captain of this fine vessel." His attention snapped to the guard being held at gunpoint and back to Shepard for a few moments until he came to rest on the guard. "And you! I gave you an order to watch the checkpoint and even that proves a challenge! What are you mercenaries even good for?!" The anger in his voice was evident and the fire raging within his eyes only confirmed it. "You'll be lucky if I don't toss you out of an airlock and leave you to the spirits!" He cleared his throat regained his composure before speaking to Shepard. "Commander Shepard, I was hoping that your visit would be peaceful but that doesn't seem like much of a possibility at the moment. I will ask you personally, relinquish your weapons and they will be returned to you upon your departure."

"That's a pretty tall order, Kuril. Despite that I am going in, weapons included, and none of you are going to stop me." Shepard locked eyes with the slender Turian and could sense the heat of his gaze. Luckily, being stared down by a single man was nothing to Shepard. He had spoken to Sovereign personally, who was much larger than the form before him.

Kuril released a heavy sigh and motioned for his men to lower their weapons. "Fine, you may keep your weapons. Our facility can handle three armed guests" Clearly meaning to be a threat, however it didn't sound like his heart was in it. "Now, follow me Shepard." He spat his name as if it pained him to say it. "I'll take you to out-processing."

He went through the door that he entered from, droning on about how his station was so "innovative" and "for the good of all of the universe" but Shepard and his crew weren't paying him any attention. They were in a massive inmate housing area, hundreds of pods functioning as cells lined the walls, below as well as above. Large mechanical arms moved from row to row extracting pods and moving them out of sigh or simply to another vacant slot. Shepard noticed that a few pod spaces were void; only a kinetic barrier between the pressurized area and the vacuum of space. "Why are some of the spaces empty? Almost all of the others have pods in them or are at least blocked off by a shutter but those on the opposite wall are completely void. Why?"

Kuril's mandibles flared out in excitement at the question. "Ah, I didn't expect you to notice that, I commend your observational skills. Every one of these units is its own self-maintained atmosphere and I have the ability to change each however I see fit. I have blown a few of the pods out of the airlocks into space, thus the empty slots." Yet another attempt at intimidation. Warden Kuril turned to face the honeycomb-like room and folded his hands behind his back, taking in the scene before him. "I wager that your higher ups haven't told you the name of your target. It's Jack. The meanest creature I've ever encountered. Nothing but pure hatred." Kuril shook his head as if he was shaking free from a daydream. He once again stared at the complex before him. "It's glorious isn't it, Shepard? Well, I won't keep you any longer. Jack is being taken out of cryo-sleep as we speak. Out-processing is just down the hallway, Commander. Just past the Cryo room and the Supermax wings, there will be a door directly at the end and your package is awaiting pickup there. I am going to make sure that the funds from Cerberus have cleared. I hope to see you again soon, Shepard."

As Kuril took his leave, the three men turned toward the large complex and scanned the room. Two inmates on the opposite side were in a heated argument that was quickly escalating. A nearby guard took notice and seemed to be warning the two of them to stop. One of the men struck the other and the guard pulled up his omni-tool and a large tower rose from the center of the room and began emitting a dark purple energy. The two men were surrounded by a shield of the energy and as they continued to try and struggle the shield began closing in on them.

Shepard turned to the two men with him and could no longer contain his thoughts. "Does this seem a bit extreme? Everything that is happening here? First we are asked to give up our weapons at the door, then we see that the prisoners are treated like animals and even launched into space, and now a tower that is potentially fatal to the inmates?"

Garrus and Jacob exchanged glances before turning to Shepard and simply shrugging. "It's a prison ship, Shepard. It isn't really meant to make its inhabitants feel at home, but I'll admit that this is a bit much." Garrus said as he continued examining the massive room behind them. "I suggest that we get to our pickup as soon as possible and then get off this damn thing. You in Jacob?" Garrus looked to Jacob expectantly and received a nod. "Well then, we're behind you Shepard. Also, I bet you two hundred credits that we won't make it through this without firing a shot. You up for a little wager?"

Shepard grinned over at his Turian friend and chuckled. "Come on, Garrus. You have already lost some of your face, don't go losing your money and your dignity too."

Garrus's head snapped back in feigned offense. "Now I expected that kind of remark from Joker's crippled ass but not you. That hurt a bit, Shepard. But taking your money after this bet may sooth my pain." Garrus extended his hand with a toothy grin spreading across his face. "Come on, Shepard. You survived Torfan, took down a reaper, killed Saren Arturius, and now you're going to let some measly bet stop you?" Shepard reached out and took his hand firmly. "Good to see you haven't let your death get you down! Besides, you were never one to resist a bet. How else would I make money?'

The two of them were interrupted by Jacob. "Commander, it looks like we made it to out-processing. Now maybe we can get off of this thing." They all casually walked into the room and the doors immediately slammed shut behind them and bolted themselves shut. A door on the opposite side of the room slid open to reveal a reinforced freight elevator that was likely used to transport troublesome prisoners. The intercoms above them sparked to life and a brief cough came over them, soon followed by Warden Kuril's voice.

"I am sorry about this Shepard, well actually after your little stunt at the door I can't say that I'm very contrite. You are much more valuable as a prisoner than as a customer, I'm afraid. Drop your weapons and enter the transport cell in front of you and I won't harm your friends."

Shepard's hands were slowly tightening into fists as rage built up within him. "Kuril, go to hell you son of a bitch. Give me a few minutes and I'll be sure to send your scaly ass there myself." Numerous doors within the room slid open and mercenaries began pouring in before stopping and training their weapons on the group of men by the entrance. Shepard's anger immediately faded and he sprinted for the nearest piece of cover as Garrus and Jacob quickly followed suit.

The gunfire rained down on them from every direction in bursts. The men were popping out of cover at each break in the fire, dropping one or two mercs before crouching back into their protection. Garrus turned to Shepard slowly as the barrage of fire smashed into the metal barrier. "Hey, Shepard. Looks like you owe me two hundred credits" he deadpanned just before he popped out of cover and fired a sniper round into an unfortunate merc's chest. The last of the mercs were cowering behind a short wall halfway across the room, blindly firing over their cover. Shepard stood and hurled a violently pulsing ball of biotic energy in their direction, ripping them from the ground and smashing them into the nearby walls like ragdolls.

"Okay, so now we need to get to the cryo bay and get Jack out of this ship as soon as possible. Any crew we see are hostile, is that clear?" Jacob and Garrus gave an acquiescent nod and hugged their rifles to their chests. As they exited the door Shepard noticed a group of insulated hoses running along the ceiling of the hallway running adjacent to them. He pointed them out and the men started down the hallway, back to back, until they came upon a door where the hoses ran into the doorframe in various locations.

Garrus activated the door panel and they swung to life, revealing an engineer standing before a massive switchboard with a window overlooking the cryo bay directly ahead. He turned to face the door with a smile on his face and a mug of coffee in his hand. He stopped in place as he saw the trio of unknown figures in the doorway. He dropped his coffee to the ground and leapt for a pistol laying on the nearby switchboard. "Garrus, Jacob, get down!" Shepard surrounded himself with a biotic shield just as two pistol rounds uselessly connected with his head. He drew his own pistol, but let it hang at his side and held up his other hand in a mock surrender. "Okay, okay. Calm down. We aren't here to hurt you. All we need is to retrieve a certain prisoner that is being held in cryo. It's Jack." The man's face contorted into a look of pure fear and he turned the pistol on the switchboard, destroying the majority of its functionality, and then turned it on himself and pulled the trigger; littering the ceiling with grey matter and his own lifeblood. Shepard fell to his knees and stared into the man's lifeless and bloodshot eyes. Garrus cautiously stepped around Shepard and up to the switchboard.

"Um, Shepard, that technician just caused us a serious problem. I can't work with these controls in their current state. We can't override a single cryo pod, instead it requires us to do a manual reboot of the entire cell network. Meaning that it will open every cell on the ship for an indefinite amount of time. A full scale riot will happen within minutes, if not instantaneously. However, we also got a bit lucky. Our man Jack is in the tube directly in front of us." Shepard stood and joined him by the window. "I can easily open the tube. I just need the go-ahead, Commander." He turned to Shepard with a conflicted look in his eyes.

Shepard looked to his friend and back to the man's corpse, how many end up like him? He thought. "Okay, Garrus. Open it up. We need to get down there and secure Jack as soon as we can. Then we work our way back to the Normandy and get the hell off of this thing." Garrus strode to the center of the board and his omni-tool flashed to life as he began hacking into the system. Within moments the room before them filled with smoke as the cryo tube began to release from its confines. A large mechanical arm extended from the wall and hovered above the pod as its venting process continued; across the room a trio of YMIR mechs whirred to life and began walking towards the pod. Garrus pressed himself against the glass to get a better view of the machines below. "Shepard, we've got three YMIR mechs down there. The only heavy weapons that we have are grenade launchers! We can take them out but it be a bit of a challenge."

Below them the mechanical arm lowered itself to the pod and latched to the top before rotating to unhinge its magnetic locks. The room was flooded with impenetrable smoke for a few moments as the tube hissed open. Finally Jack's appearance would be revealed to them. Shepard had built an image for himself as to what Jack would look like. He mentally pictured a massive man, covered from head to toe in scars and tattoos. A man who had seen the worst that the universe had to dish out and survived it all. The smoke dissipated enough for him to see and what lay before him struck him dumb. Jack was a woman. The tattoo part was correct but everything else seemed backwards. Shepard leaned against the console to take in the sight before him. Jack was wearing a pair of thick prison pants and a series of leather belts across her chest to cover her breasts, likely to maintain what was left of her modesty. But what surprised Shepard most was her physical features. Her body was lithe and muscular and the majority of the visible skin was adorned with ink. Her head was shaved bald and a thick tattoo ran along the sides of her head. Her facial features were beautifully balanced. Maybe it was the idea of her that enthralled him so deeply: a sense of beauty emanating from something so intimidating.

She was strapped to a chair with thick restraints around her neck, wrists, and feet. She lay motionless at first and then started to groggily stir and shift. She attempted to lift her arm but the restraint kept her arm in place. Her eyes shot open and Shepard had never seen anything truly like them before. They were a gorgeous shade of dark brown that held a look of untold animosity. She looked around the room frantically until she came to rest on the mechs that were lumbering towards her and her pupils began to pulse a faint blue before her whole eye erupted into a blinding blue light. Her hands clenched into fists and biotic energy pulsed from them and the wrist restraints blew off of the chair. She tore the restraint from her neck with a grunt and forcefully ripped her feet from their shackles. She stumbled from the tube and immediately brought her hands to her forehead, having not yet acclimated to her surroundings. She stumbled back to her feet and shook her head furiously as her body strove to recover its equilibrium. One of the machines took a few more steps towards her until it stood mere feet away from her. It stared at her for a few moments before activating its bullhorn. "Please return to your cell and await a technician," it ordered in its monotone voice "If you do not comply we will use extreme force."

Shepard stared down at her as her head slowly rose to meet the machine's gaze and she began to release a low and guttural growl that slowly increased in intensity until she was practically screaming. Her body exploded with a shockwave of biotics before she leapt at the machines and the room was rocked with explosions and the sounds of grinding metal. Jacob and Garrus locked eyes and exchanged shocked looks before simultaneously uttering a single phrase. "Holy shit!" Even Shepard had no idea how to piece together what he had just seen happen. A single woman had just attacked a trio of mechs without a moment's hesitation.

Finally snapping out of his trance, Shepard re-established command. "We need to get down there and provide support! Now!" He ran to the nearby door leading to the cryo room and slammed his hand on the control panel. The door partially opened before shutting down and stopping in place. "Shit, I don't have time for this right now!" Shepard gripped the doors and opened them manually; his new cybernetics once again providing a massive amount of help. "Now let's move!"

Garrus hesitated for a moment before taking off after the Commander. "Shepard, this girl just tackled a YMIR mech. Not a lone one either! I don't expect to find much down here apart from a bullet riddled corpse and a few very irritable machines. I swear if we came here for nothing I'll space Kuril's sorry ass myself."

They rounded the corner into the room and their mouths immediately fell agape. Pieces of the machines littered the entire room and the rear wall was replaced by a gaping breach. The only noise in the room was heavy breathing and the sparking of the mutilated machines. The silence was broken when a massive explosion sounded from deeper within the station.

Shepard slowly turned to his friends who were scanning the devastation. "We need to go after her. She obviously has extreme potential," He continued as Garrus and Jacob stared at him quizzically.

Garrus took a quick survey of his surroundings once again before finally addressing Shepard. "Forgive the insubordination, but am I understanding that you want us to charge towards the escapee that is smashing her way through entire walls of a space station?! She seems a bit unstable to me, Commander."

Shepard stared at the floor for a few moments before making up his mind. He didn't answer his friend, instead he simply stepped through the breach in the wall and began to make his way through the makeshift hallway. Garrus shot Jacob a concerned look before timidly following Shepard into the carnage.

SHIFT

The Crew had to fight their way through numerous rooms in the middle of an all-out riot. The freed prisoners were targeting every guard they saw, the guards were fighting for their lives, and the Blue Suns were shooting anything that moved. After pushing through a heavy defensive force of mercenaries they entered a large room with a tower of crates in the center of it, and a familiar Turian was standing atop the crates and raining down gunfire on a group of unarmed prisoners. Within just a few seconds only a single prisoner remained; cowering behind a box on his hands and knees. He tried to break from his cover towards a nearby door but Kuril fired a volley of rounds into his back.

Kuril noticed Shepard and his squad by the door and turned towards them with a vile grin on his face. "It's a shame that you have laid waste to my station, Shepard. My entire life was invested in this. And now it is all falling apart!" Kuril began firing wildly upon them as they fled to a nearby stack of crates. "I'm going to kill you for this, Shepard! You and all of your friends!"

The men were exhausted from their fight so far and had no idea how they could take out Kuril. The men were all snapped into reality by the sound of shattering glass and a blood-curdling scream. The all turned their gazes upward to see Jack standing in a large hole that had been smashed through the glass catwalks above. She locked eyes with Kuril and her body pulsed once more with biotic energy, shattering the remaining glass on the catwalk. "You! You brought Cerberus here!" She leapt from the catwalk and landed on the tower of boxes near Kuril with a burst of energy that threw Kuril from his makeshift throne. He crashed to the ground with a thud and his rifle slid away from him. He quickly attempted to reach for it but Jack soon stood in his path, a ghoulish grin spreading across her face. He dropped to his knees and proceeded to beg for his life. "Spirits help me! Jack, you don't have to do this to me. You must understand that it was only business!" He discreetly reached behind his back and grabbed a knife as he continued speaking. "Please, Jack! I have a family! Loved ones!"

He lunged the knife towards her abdomen but his arm was stopped by a well-placed bullet from Shepard. He cried out in pain as Jack took the knife from his hand and examined it. "You tried to stab me," She said as she drove the knife into the side of his neck with a large spurt of blood. "I want you to know that I have wanted to do this for a long time." She violently tore the knife sideways and split his throat open, spilling his blood onto her legs. She tucked the knife into her boot before turning to Shepard with a skeptical look on her face. "Who the hell are you exactly?"

"I'm Commander Shepard, and we're the people who just saved your life." Shepard responded curtly.

"He was already dead. He just didn't know it yet." Jack lightly tapped Kuril's head with her boot as she spoke. "So I guess you're the ones who came in the Cerberus ship. Why are you here?"

"We need your help to stop the Collectors. They're abducting entire human colonies."

"You want me to get on a Cerberus ship? Are you kidding me? You're going to have to sweeten the deal. I'm certain your ship has a Cerberus database and I want access to the records, all of them."

"Deal. I've been curious about the records myself." Shepard quickly responded.

"Miranda won't just let that happen, Commander." Jacob muttered under his breath, hoping that Jack wouldn't hear him.

"Oh, it's going to piss off some Cerberus bitch? Even better. You had better not be bullshitting me, Shepard." Jack said as she eyed him suspiciously.

"I assure you that I'm not."

"Then why the fuck are we standing around here?" Jack pivoted towards the door and casually strode off towards the Normandy.