"Confirmation. We've successfully gone through the relay, all ships reporting in."
"All systems are green. We are running silent."
"Colonel, Lieutenant-Colonel Kien for you on the secondary QEC."
The aforementioned Colonel, garbed in a variant of what was standard for N7 Furys yet painted in Cerberus colors, stood up silently and turned towards the door on the left, a short "Captain O'Reily, the bridge is yours" the only acknowledgement of the subordinates' actions.
"Kien," said the Colonel in an almost quiet voice, "is there a reason you are risking your cover in the Major's organization to try and get in contact with me?"
The Lieutenant-Colonel, dressed as he was in the Cerberus variant of an N7 Slayer's armor, shook his head. "I broke off with them in order to bring in a surprising new solution they've engineered in response to our mutual Phantom problem."
"They've found a cure?" mused the Colonel. "How would you rate the effectiveness?"
"Leaving out the amnesia that was a byproduct of our experiment the day after the Crucible firing? It would be like comparing a Cain to a hunting knife, sir."
"Then bring it in, Lieutenant-Colonel. I want a treatment and re-education center for our Phantom's up and running in three weeks."
The blue-ish form of the subordinate saluted the Colonel, "Acknowledged."
"So," the Colonel said while walking up the stairs to the commanding officer's private quarters, "you've managed to get some impressive technology while hiding your operation from both myself and the Alliance. Barring a couple of spies and incidents, I'd say you're doing better than I possibly could have expected, Major. It still remains to be seen, however, if you will ultimately prove successful."
"Lieutenant Harper," spoke a calm, yet commanding voice on the shuttle's comm speaker, "the facility we're dropping you into is a former research facility of Cerberus, more specifically the Vulcan Station which once powered the entire complex. Your squad's mission is to find and rescue the ex-Cerberus scientists who are being pinned down by a Quarian mercenary group calling themselves the 'Silent Dawn'."
"Quarians, Major?" asked First Lieutenant Harper, her Phantom armor glinting even in the muted light of the shuttle she was in. "What would they want with human scientists?"
"I don't know, Lieutenant, but the Silent Dawn's got a nasty reputation, buried though it is. They've been causing trouble for both above-board and clandestine agencies for the past few months, striking hard, fast, and frequent. They tend to go after experimental technologies, particularly in robotics. If I were to guess, I would say they're trying to covertly discover a way to subjugate the geth."
"I can understand why they would want to keep what they're doing hush-hush, then. No one on Rannoch, Quarian or Geth, wants a second coming of the Morning War. If their motives were to be discovered, no place, in Council or Quarian-Geth space, would be safe for them to hide."
"Exactly," replied the Major, "which is why one of your secondary objectives is to capture one of them alive, if you can. However, I cannot stress this enough that the safe recovery of those scientists takes top priority."
"Understood, sir," said Harper with nod.
"Good," her superior replied, "Smith out."
"So, tell me doc, how bad is it?" asked the recently awoken Phantom to the somewhat elderly male in front of her.
"Jesus," the doctor muttered, before shaking his head to clear his thoughts. "While your eyes have reverted to the acceptable human aesthetic, the majority of your face is so far Reaper-ized that it's impossible to get an identification."
This made the Phantom curious, "What about DNA? Shouldn't that work?"
The doctor shook his head in the negative. "Ever since the Synthesis Event, all of our DNA records have been rendered useless due to our new genetic makeup."
"Synthesis Event? What's that?"
"That," said another voice as an older looking man stepped into the room, his Cerberus dress uniform a bright spot against the dark color of the med-bay, "is what we here at Orthrus have been referring to the Crucible firing, and the 3-day event that crippled and removed indoctrination from all Cerberus operatives who had been implanted with Reaper tech."
"Orthrus...Wasn't that Cerberus' brother?" asked the Phantom.
"Indeed. I chose that name for two reasons: To distance ourselves from Cerberus and its actions..."
"While at the same time tying yourself to Cerberus, as you have no intention of denying your former allegiance to that organization," the Phantom finished.
"Exactly," the man replied, "Most of us joined because we felt the Alliance and the Council weren't capable of getting the job done. Just looking at the Collector attacks, and a Cerberus-run operation taking them out once and for all, was enough for many of us to be open to recruitment. That's what this organization is for; to be what Cerberus was meant to be. Not a terrorist organization that lords humanities interests over the rest of the galaxy, but a sword and spear that will protect humanity from the crazies like the ones we were indoctrinated into becoming." He paused a moment, before offering a hand to the Phantom, "I'm Major Adam Smith, and I'd be glad to have your support."
"Can you fix my face? Don't think I'm gonna be picking up many dates with a husk's definition of a beautiful face."
The Major laughed, "The process takes some time, but yeah, we can work on getting both your face, and if you'll let us, your memories all fixed up."
The Phantom shook his hand with a grin.
The doctor shuddered slightly at the sight.
"Quarians, Lieutenant?" asked Jenkins with a somewhat incredulous tone, "We're going up against a shady merc band filled with Quarians?" His arms lay atop his knees as he leaned forward slightly to look at his commanding officer as she walked back from the cockpit.
"What's the matter, Komodo?" asked Nikolic while she leaned back, her rifle lazily held close by one arm. "Got a dextro-based waifu and genetic impossibilities waiting for you at home?"
"Do I detect a note of jealousy, Nikolic?" he quipped back.
"If you're so brain-damaged you're confusing that with good-natured teasing, then yeah, you are indeed, Batman."
Roberts, sitting in the spot next to Nikolic with his turret in his lap, dropped his two cents into the conversation while tinkering with his portable turret. "I heard they rebooted the continuity again."
"What, really?" asked Jenkins as he looked at the other man. "Why would they do that? They've kept the same continuity since before the First Contact War."
"Oi, nerdologists, let's get back into focus, 'kay?" said Nikolic with a shake of her head and shared glance with her commander that basically said "*sigh*Men...""ugh...I know.." in the span of a moment.
"You think it's weird for there to be a Quarian mercenary group, Jenkins?" asked Harper as she grabbed one of the support railings on the ceiling of the main cabin of the transport.
"A little bit, yeah," he replied while checking his weapon one last time, "usually Eclipse is the only place merc-inclined quarians go. But then again, with all the weird stuff during and since the Reaper War, I guess it's not too surprising."
"Good point," Harper replied, before twisting the release on the shuttle's door. "Let's move, people! We've got some former colleagues to save, and not a lot of time. I want none of you dead, and our enemy blown to tiny bits. Am I clear?"
"Hooah, LT!" came the reply from three different throats.
"Liara, mind telling me what this is about?" asked Garrus Vakarian as he took a seat across from the Shadow Broker at a Presidium Cafe.
"I think I may have tracked down who absconded with their remains, Garrus," was all Liara said before sliding a datapad in the turians direction.
"Their?" he asked, his subharmonics barely betraying his sudden trepidation.
"Admiral Anderson, and..."
Jane Shepard... was the unspoken thought they both shared.
His hands twitched. He wanted a gun in his hand. And lots of enemies to shoot along with it. "Who was it?"
"Cerberus," said Liara. And Garrus's expression of incredulity, she explained further, "It appears that several remnants of Cerberus still operate with relative impunity, even months after the war's end. Some, like the splinter group Orthrus, are actually relatively helpful towards galactic security, even if they operate outside the bounds of Alliance jurisdiction. The largest remnant, however, is a combination of an entire Cerberus battle group and one of its last remaining loyal science cells. They are run by a Colonel Connie West, a ruthless biotic who was in charge of Project Phantom."
"Oh good. I always wondered whose ass needed kicking in response to those crazy," he paused and glanced at Liara, "what did Ash call them? 'Ninja' girls?"
"Speaking of Ash, would you mind working with her and the Normandy again, for one last mission?"
"What do you mean?" asked Garrus.
"We know for sure that they took Anderson's body. But, if there's even a chance that they have hers..."
"Don't worry Liara, I think it's worth it too. Shepard deserves the rest."
TBC
AN: Not very action-y this chapter, I know, but plot does have its place in the grand scheme of things. Trying to keep OC's to a relative minimum, while having a story almost entirely focused on them post Synthesis-ending, is a fun yet exciting challenge.