The meeting between Councilor Anderson and Fleet Master Rayta Nar 'Zaconomee was rather civil, though there was some tension between Jorge and Shipmaster Rho, tension that quickly subsided once the talks were underway. Fleet Master Rayta was more than generous, willing to exchange four Huragoks for a reasonable supply of medi-gel and replication devices. Anderson also tried to offer them an ambassadorial place on the Citadel, but Fleet Master Rayta declined, stating he would assist humanity however he could and that for now they needed to withdraw and reevaluate their military strength, weaponry and strategies before they could consider such an offer. Anderson didn't push the subject any further, taking the Huragoks and providing the requested items.
On Omega, Shipmistress Chur'R-Zer made good on her word to Aria, the Kig-Yar scouts were particularly useful in locating and assisting Aria in exterminating the Blue Suns, the Collectors, and the human slaves being traded. Aria was extremely satisfied with how effectively the Kig-Yar managed to keep one of the Blue Suns alive long enough to interrogate to provide detailed information on the trade and the unexpected recovery of the advanced technology that was to be traded. Unlike their previous positions within the Covenant, that was rather low in the hierarchy, Aria was giving them jobs and orders that suited their abilities and putting them at odds with many of her other guards and scouts. The Kig-Yar were used to such rivalries, amongst their own and with the lowly Unggoy, making examples of any who would attempt to remove a Kig-Yar or prevent them from completing their task.
The Kig-Yar and T'vaoans were even able to learn the identity of the pesky 'Archangel' who was starting to kill off gangs and mercs stupid enough to walk into his trap. Aria allowed the turian to continue his games, so long as he and his team didn't decide to interfere with her business, that's all she cared about. His attempt to 'clean' Omega of its corrupt amused her nonetheless, and for some extra credits some of the Kig-Yar or T'vaoans even provided Archangel with intel on locations of gang meetings and dealing sites as well as ways to avoid angering Aria unnecessarily.
Miranda had temporarily handed Wilson control over the Lazarus Project while she recruited someone she had found to be of particular interest for Cerberus. The Illusive Man also had other plans he wanted to initiate. "Noble Six, I want you to assist in the construction of the Normandy."
Six knew he wasn't talking about the SSV Normandy seeing how it had crashed on Alchera about three months ago. "How could I help, sir? I'm not an engineer."
The Director assured her, "No, but you are a pilot and a soldier. Plus, you and Dot are the only ones who understand the UNSC ship technology used on the prowler. I need both of you to work with Cerberus' engineers to improve on the previous Normandy's design. And if you're concerned about expenses and budgets, don't be. The revival of Shepard and the construction of the Normandy are our only priorities at this time. Dot?"
"I will do my best to provide technical schematics and details for material creation and construction."
Six had little choice now, but if they were going to use the ship, she wanted to make sure it was fit to survive an attack like last time and bite back. "Are we planning on assaulting the ones who attack us, sir?"
The Illusive Man fell quiet for a moment. "Before the Commander wakes up, she'll need a ship. The Reapers are just the tip of the iceberg that threatens humanity. I'm entrusting the two of you to help create a worth vessel."
Dot provided Cerberus with the details for crafting vanadium steel, TR steel alloy, titanium-A armor plating, and how to have the different metal's correspond with one another during construction. Six wouldn't allow Dot to reveal the process to create the Black Cat's stealth ablative coating, technology Six didn't trust in Cerberus hands, otherwise she was mostly just monitored the work for Dot, throwing her hands into it whenever the engineers started doing something that would only cause structural problems down the road for the ship when it started to fly across space. During this long process, Six occasionally took time to speak with EDI, getting her prepared to work with humans and trying to avoid the subject on the incident she had created on the Luna base.
As the months continued to pass, Six also started to hear rather disheartening rumors that Cerberus had created a clone of Commander Shepard as a failsafe, should revitalization hit any snags. Even as a rumor, she has learned that there's usually more behind them, if one looks deep enough. Six decided to confront the Illusive Man about this information. "Ah, Six. How goes the construction?"
"Fairly well, sir. We've already have the superstructure completed. Internal designing and hull integrity testing have started."
"Excellent, but I don't believe you're here just to update me on your progress."
Six had leeway to divert her eyes from him within the confines of her helmet without looking like she was looking away. "Sir, I've heard rumor that you've created a clone of Commander Shepard, should Miranda Lawson fail to revive her."
The Illusive Man stared right though Six with his augmented eyes, "Six, I can assure you, the clone was created to benefit Shepard. During the proceedings the Commander might need a new organ, a limb, or tissue transplant. It is to Miranda's discretion to use it as she sees fit. But do not be mistaken, a cheap imitation is just that. If this is to succeed we need the real Commander Shepard at the helm."
Six could tell the Illusive Man was being honest with her about wanting Shepard back at least, though he was still a hard man to read. "Sir, permission to request a transfer."
The Illusive Man released a puff of smoke as it created a halo, "To where exactly?"
"The Lazarus Research Station."
"What about the Normandy?"
"Dot is still supervising and has all of my notes on my suggestions for the internal designs. Whether your engineers use them is another matter, sir."
The Illusive Man quietly pulled up security feeds of the engineers at work as the Director was with Dot now assisting with the supervision. "Very well. The Commander will need a friendly face to greet her when she wakes up. However before you go," The Illusive Man pulled up a hologram of a Cerberus operative, "We've recently lost contact with one of our agents near the Omega-4 Relay. I want someone to investigate before we jump to any conclusions."
Vaht's 2.4 meter height made his time on the Migrant Fleet rather uncomfortable, but he would continue his father's life debt as promised. He also found the quarian's needs to be rather cumbersome as well, coming into question how one of their kind could have saved the life of the Light of Sanghelios. But having seen and fought alongside Tali'Zorah in combat against the geth he had to give the species some credit. "I do not understand your people," starting another conversation with Tali as the two traveled through the Neema, "Why have you forced yourselves into exile for so long. I've seen you in combat against the geth. You were their creators. You should not allow them to hold you in such fear for they will never feel the same dread."
"Most of our ships aren't made for fighting. And the ships that are aren't in the best conditions or use the latest technology." Tali then stopped herself, looking out the viewport they were next to. "How many times do we have to have this discussion?"
Vaht turned, "Until I can understand. Our teachings of the Ancients have shown us the dangers of such Associated Intelligences, for it was one of them that betrayed the Forerunners and aided the Parasite. Your species was spared utter annihilation and instead forced into this delayed extinction by the other races."
"We aren't…"
"Look around," Vaht threw out his arms, "your ships are in disrepair, never allowed access to dry dock, your people are forced to salvage ships that should be in the scrapyard, your species is viewed as nothing more than scavengers and beggars, your own bodies have become weakened and the geth now wage a campaign against all at the bidding of their gods."
Tali though felt like there was something else he wasn't telling her. "This isn't about my people or the geth, is it?"
Vaht finally lowered his head, "Yes and no. I fear this is more about the humans who attacked your people roughly six cycles ago."
Tali still wasn't used to how anyone could view a day to be 265 hours, though she never inquired how the Covenant decided on such unusual time intervals. "You mean Cerberus? Well they aren't exactly the best representatives of their species, not like Shepard…"
"Yes, we have also encountered a splinter group of humans that fought against their own kind. The humans called them 'Insurrectionists'. Though we cared little, they were all viewed as heretics at the time and were to be exterminated just the same. Though, I had wished you would have allowed me to be of assistance in repelling the humans who invaded that ship. They would've been hunted and killed before they could get as far as they did."
"I think it was for the better that you didn't. We wouldn't want to you break into old habits again." Vaht was still conflicted, he knew humans were no longer his enemy, but such bad blood does not wash away so quickly or easily.
Six was used to these kinds of ops. No one says anything, and whatever they're after is usually return in one piece. This time around it was a rescue mission; one of their deep cover operatives was feared lost to unknown forces with incriminating intel. His signal was lost on the planet Lorek in the Fathar system, where a known Eclipse base was. Six was going to drop from orbit in a drop pod to exterminate the Eclipse forces and extract the operative, if the operative wasn't savable then then recover of all intel took precedence.
Six has done this for ONI before, nothing new. She was cleaning up someone else's mess and killing everyone stopping her. The Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle was made almost identical to the ones used by the UNSC. A few modifications were made that provided a few extra inches of metal, like it would help if the pod didn't enter atmosphere in just the right angel. The waiting was always a drag, Six check the weapons she had on the racks lining the side of her seat again, holding onto to the grips that would help alter her decent if needed after breaking through the atmosphere.
Six was inside the pod the entire time since they left the dock. She didn't want to interact with anyone. She was going to get the job done, like she always has. What friends she had, what allies she could trust, they were well beyond her reach now and all she could do was bunker down until Shepard was brought back to fighting order.
"Beginning orbital sync." The ship was now above the base as the drop bay opened up. "Dropping in three. Two. One. Mark." Six could feel the detachment as the pod was now freefalling to the planet's surface.
A hairline crack in the glass, faulty drag chute not deploying, the ceramic armor burning up too quickly, breaking rockets not engaging; so many things could go wrong and the only reason they were running through her mind, beside the pods that have met these unfortunate ends, was because they were built by Cerberus without being tested. The only comfort Six had was that Dot had the specifications for the originals and Cerberus built it to those specifications. The only grantee she had was not getting shot down. No one in this galaxy has experienced an orbital drop on them and they won't live to tell about it.
The drop through the atmosphere was still rough and she could see the base getting closer. There were a few Eclipse mercenaries coming out of the base trying to figure out what she was. Gathering together would only make Six's job that much faster. She shifted the trajectory just slightly to land on a solid platform. When the landing was complete, one of the Eclipse mercs tried to look inside but the hatch blasted open, killing him on impact. Six already had her hand on the M45 shotgun she brought along for the mission, jumping out and killing the salarian next to the pod with a close up blast to the helmet. Six rolled to cover, grabbing the salarian's pistol as she opened fire on the last two Eclipse mercs in her way. With their shields down Six popped back up and blasted the two of them off the railing and down the canyon the base was overlooking.
Six knew her entrance was going to draw plenty of attention, so she returned to the pod and grab the only other weapon she brought with her, the M392 DMR. Instead of rushing through the door into the compound, she hid beside the wall as a hail of fire came through. Six activated a frag grenade and tossed it in, counting off when the grenade exploded after it hit the ground. Now she moved in after confirming the blast killed them all.
Six checked the room adjacent to her entry point to find spare medi-gel and a locker that was filled with credit chits. The room had two other door and both looked lock. Six didn't have the technical skills to open the door so instead she pulled out some plastic explosives and planted them on the sides of the doors. She also placed one in front of the cover right in front a door. She pounded hard against one of the doors then activated the active camouflage as more Eclipse soldiers rushed in. Six moved out of the blast radius and behind cover before detonating the explosives, killing the remaining Eclipse before they realized who had invaded.
Six's motion tracker wasn't picking up anything else, giving her time to check through the area. She had spotted a terminal earlier and fortunately it wasn't damaged by any of the explosions. As she read through the data it would seem that the data was hotter than she was lead to believe. The data the Eclipse managed to snag was related to the rachni experiments and possibly more. It would also seem that Cerberus' undercover operative wasn't as undercover as he thought. Fortunately Eclipse didn't get the cipher needed to crack the data but the operative in question probably didn't survive.
Six continued with caution through the base, keeping her eyes out for anything else that might try to jump her. Using a salarian's omni-tool to bypass security Six walked into the interrogation room to find Agent Rawlings' body, cut up, burned and bloodied from the procedures. The final blow was probably the hold between his eyes, but Six didn't have anything to worry about with him. A terminal nearby had all of the data regarding Cerberus' activities. Transferring the files onto an OSD drive, she hid it into one of her pouches wondering what she could do with the data. Without Dot she wouldn't be able to decipher the data, but if she attempted to relay the data to the Alliance she'd probably be discovered and it would be years before anything would come of it.
Back outside next to her drop point, Six got in contact with the ship she deployed from. "Six reporting. Mission complete. Requesting extraction." Six gathered up all of the important equipment for extraction, bringing the pod back to prevent the design from falling outside of human hands. Six was now wondering to herself if she was going to be used like an attack dog again, but time would tell her fate until Shepard's revival.
Returning to the space station, Six was meeting with the Illusive Man again. "Noble Six. Excellent work on Lorek. It was unfortunate that you couldn't save Agent Rawlings. From your account you said the Eclipse deleted the data before you could recover it."
"One of them ran back to the interrogation room to wipe the data. He shot himself in the head before I could stop him."
"I see." Six stood tall, knowing she could survive against anything they might try to throw at her, but that wasn't her concern. Her concerns were for Shepard and what they had planned for her. "Thank you, Noble Six. That'll be all, for now. We will contact Miranda if we require your services again."
Not long after her discussion with the Illusive Man, Six prepared herself for quite the stay on the research station, or whenever she was to be called out for a mission. She had grabbed her M392 DMR, an M45 tactical shotgun on her back and the M6G pistol holstered to her hip. The first person to greet her as she departed the shuttle at the Lazarus station was a man of African descent, "Damn, I didn't think we needed a walking armory for such a quiet facility." Six ignored him and the security mechs they had, walking past them all as she made a beeline to the observation room of Miranda's procedures. Six wasn't sure how to explain to Shepard about her awakening in a Cerberus facility, she wasn't even sure if Shepard would ever want to speak with her again once the truth was known. The only thing Six knew was that once Shepard was back, they could worry about the real threat, the Reapers.
A/N: Six has started back down her lone wolf path, all to protect Shepard. But is she sacrificing more than she should for someone she barely knows personally?