Chapter 2: Investigation

Shepard made sure his arsenal was ready during the trip to Liara's apartment. Due to the collapsibility of weapons in this day and age, coupled with his soldier's training, Shepard had the ability to haul around no less then five different weapons: a handgun, in this case a Carnifex-Hand Cannon he had gotten from Mordin Solus when he'd first met the good doctor on Omega, a Scimitar shotgun that he rarely used except against Husks, a Viper Sniper Rifle, that felt more like an assault rifle with a scope then any sniper rifle he had ever used, and his two personal favorites: the Revenant Machine Gun, which he had found on the Collector Ship, and a Collector Particle Beam, acquired on Harvest and now possibly one of the last remaining Collector items in existence. Ironic it was being used by the man who had wiped them all out.

It was nightfall by the time Shepard and company arrived at Liara's apartment, with the night sky lit up by the occasional flash of lightning. Exiting the car, Shepard led the way inside…and was greeted with police officers and a crime scene set-up.

"Seal off those trace samples and get them back to the lab!" One cop ordered calmly.

"We got multiple shots fired" another cop, an Asari said into her Omni-Tool's communicator. "Yeah, techs are going over the place now"

"Central, we got an open carrier on this end" a Turian cop said. "Switching to a coded relay"

"What's going on?" Shepard asked.

"This area is sealed off" a purple-skinned Asari cop said bluntly. "Please step back sir"

"Sealed off? Why?"

"Someone tried to kill your friend Commander Shepard" a female voice said. Shepard turned to the source of the voice and saw another Asari, this one with the usual light blue skin but with purple tattoos on her face, and clad in impressive looking dark blue armor with a white center, some spare thermal clips strapped to one arm, and uneven shoulder pieces. She turned to the Asari policewoman:

"Thank you officer. Your people are dismissed"

Daniel, Miranda, and Legion walked through, the latter's appearance clearly perturbing the Asari officer. She turned back to the other Asari.

"You can't do that!" She protested.

The Asari stopped, then looked back over her shoulder and said simply: "Already done"

At this, the other officers left. The lead officer looked immensely annoyed, but said nothing more and left with the others.

"Tela Vasir" the one Asari said formally. "Special Tactics and Recon"

"A Spectre?" Miranda asked, being the first to point out the obvious.

"Yes. And you…a…" Vasir's eyes fell on the Cerberus logo that was still on Miranda's cat-suit. "A…Cerberus operative I see"

"Formerly" Miranda said quickly. "I…had an ethical disagreement with the recent ways Cerberus was conducting itself, so I resigned"

"Of course you did" Vasir said with a slight grin. Her eyes fell to Legion. "And a Geth. I must say you keep interesting company commander"

"Please don't shoot him. He's not hostile I swear"

"This unit has no intentions of attacking Spectre Agent Vasir unless ordered" Legion said simply in its usual monotone.

"Dully noted" Vasir said. "So, Shepard. I heard you were reinstated. You always did do good work"

"Thanks. Yeah, so long as I stay in the Terminus Systems anyway"

Vasir nodded understandably. "So, I assume you had business with your friend this evening commander?"

Shepard relaxed a little. Vasir seemed civil enough. Good. The last thing he wanted was another Saren.

"Liara was following a lead on the Shadow Broker"

"The Shadow Broker? Dangerous enemy to have"

"What are the facts so far?"

"About 25 minutes ago, someone took a shot at T'soni. Note the bullet holes"

Shepard turned his gaze to the windows and saw indeed that someone had fired sniper rounds through the windows. That they hadn't shattered completely suggested safety glass, or, more likely a kinetic barrier.

Vasir continued: "She stuck around for four minutes before leaving the building. Whatever she was doing was important"

"Seems rather reckless and stupid if you ask me" Miranda said simply with a shrug. Shepard could agree with her on the first part at least but said nothing in response. Instead he asked Vasir: "If Liara isn't here, where is she?"

"If I knew that" Vasir said simply, "I wouldn't be sifting through her crap. All I know is that there is no blood or body, which means that T'soni got away, and unscratched too. I guess the sniper didn't plan on her kinetic barrier. Clever girl. Paranoid, but clever"

She's definitely changed Shepard thought before asking Vasir: "Did the police find anything when they arrived?"

"Just the mess and the bullet holes. I gave them a gold star for finding the bullet holes"

"I like her" Miranda said with a smile. She turned to Shepard. "Are we still recruiting commander?"

Shepard grinned in response to Miranda's light wit and then said to Vasir: "Liara was expecting me. She would have left a message here…her office wasn't safe"

"I'm not surprised. Illium is just Omega with expensive shoes"

"At least I don't feel like I need a shower every time I leave" Miranda said with a shrug.

Vasir chuckled in response to that. "True enough. I seem to remember Nihlus preferring this place too…" then Vasir said, more seriously as she returned to the task at hand: "I haven't found anything useful in tracking her down yet. You knew T'soni better than I do. Where would she have hidden her back-ups?"

"Let me take a look around and then get back to you"

Vasir chuckled. "Heh. I like you Commander. Knock yourself out. I'll be waiting over there"

Vasir walked off, leaving Shepard to conduct his impromptu investigation.

Always wanted to be like Sherlock Holmes Shepard joked to himself before beginning his search. Before he did, he pulled Miranda to one side and asked her: "Miranda, I've been meaning to ask you and I know this isn't the best time but…about our last talk…"

"I…later Shepard please. This…this isn't the time. I'll tell you I promise just…not right now. Let's just concentrate on finding your friend."

Shepard nodded. "Alright. Oh and just a tip: Liara is obsessed with the Protheans. You find anything related to them, that might be a good place to start."

Miranda nodded. "Understood commander"

As Miranda walked off to search in one area and Legion just stood alert, Shepard went upstairs to investigate. The first thing of note that he saw was a picture sitting on Liara's bed. Curious, Shepard picked it up and examined it. The second he did, the picture changed.

Interesting. Shepard thought. The picture changing to my touch likely means its keyed to my ID…

Taking a look at what the picture showed now, Shepard could see that it was a Prothean dig-site, confirming his earlier suspicion that Liara hid anything of import in a Prothean-related artifact. It was about then when Legion's artificial voice rang out: "Shepard Commander, we have found something that we believe to be of relevance"

"Understood. I'm coming down now"

And with that, Shepard made his way down to where Legion was and saw him standing in front of a framed artifact that Shepard recognized from the design as Prothean.

"We overheard your instructions to Executive Lawson concerning Prothean items being a viable first place to look for items and evidence concerning Information Broker T'soni. We believe that this Prothean artifact may contain something"

"Uh…thanks Legion. Let me check"

Shepard examined the framed case and placed his hand to the glass. As luck would have it, a gray-colored tray slid out from a slot at the top of the display box, and on it was a small device of some kind with blinking red lights. Shepard turned to Miranda and Tela Vasir, who were both also in the process of searching and called for them to come over. Vasir eyed the device with a keen interest.

"That looks like a back-up disc of some kind" Miranda said. Vasir nodded. "Sounds about right to me. Let's try it on her terminal"

Shepard did so and inserted the disc into a terminal. An image of a Salarian in light green and gray garb showed up on the many monitors.

"Looks like she recorded a call" Vasir observed.

"Have you got anything for me Sekat?" Liara asked on the recording.

"It was tricky" The Salarian replied "But you paid for the best. I can narrow it down to a cluster, maybe even a system"

"How soon can you have it?" Liara asked anxiously.

"Shouldn't take long" Sekat replied. "Come to my office. Baria Frontiers, in the Dracon Trade Center. Gotta say though T'soni—you're making me a little nervous. How big is the trouble that could come out of this?"

"Relax Sekat" Liara said in a decidedly un-relaxed tone. "I'll see you in a few hours"

And with that, the call, and the recording, ended.

"This must be important" Shepard said. "The Shadow Broker's people already tried to kill her once."

"I know where the Dracon Trade Center is" Vasir relied. "My car's outside."

"Let's go"

-X-

Vasir's orange sky-car finally arrived at the Dracon Trade Center and touched down. The doors opened, and Vasir and Shepard's team all filed out. Shepard and Vasir took the lead. As they went up the stairs, Vasir told Shepard: "The Baria Frontiers offices are located on the third floor. I don't hear police chatter. We must have missed the party"

Then, as if Vasir had tempted fate, a large fireball ripped through the upper floors of the building, piercing the air with its boom and then dissipating as quickly as it came.

"Liara's in there!" Shepard shouted.

Several more explosions tore through the same floor, blasting out more windows and creating enough of a shock-wave that it knocked Shepard and Vasir flat on their backs. Miranda and Legion were far enough away that they held firm.

A thick pillar of black smoke was now rising from the bombed out area of the building, and the falling rubble had left some people dead. Shepard and Vasir rose to their feet as Miranda and Legion ran forward, the Geth stating the very obvious in its usual monotone: "This is a problematic turn of events"

"I'll say…" Shepard said, viewing the scene of carnage and devastation before him with disgust.

"They just took out three floors to make sure she's dead…" Vasir exclaimed, understandably horrified. She turned to Shepard: "I'll grab the skycar and seal off the building from the top"

"Understood. We'll start down here and work out way up"

"Just leave some for me" Vasir said as she got into her skycar.

Shepard, Miranda, and Legion drew their weapons and made their way past the injured civilians, none of whom had any idea what was going on. As the group made their way through the bottom floor, Shepard caught sight of an employee who had apparently been killed in the explosion. Continuing up the floors, the trio came upon more dead and dying employees, one of them saying something that caught Shepard's attention right before he expired: "Mercs…came from the smoke…set the bombs…killing everyone…"

Shepard and crew kept moving past the devastation, eventually coming to an elevator. Shepard tried it without success. He radioed Vasir: "Vasir, the elevators are out and building security is down"

"No alarms, no police…" Vasir muttered. "Very professional"

Choosing to ignore the noticeable lack of emotion in Vasir's voice as she made her observations, Shepard continued up the stairs, soon coming upon yet more bodies, both employees and customers. One of them, Shepard noticed, had clearly been shot to death.

"Vasir, some of the victims down here have bullet wounds. Watch yourself. They used military-grade hardware"

"Bullet wounds? Guess this was more then just an explosion"

Going up the stairs and past an ATM machine, Shepard saw what was clearly a bomb nearby, albeit one that hadn't gone off…yet. On closer inspection, Shepard saw that it wasn't armed.

"Vasir, I found a military-grade explosive device. It hasn't been armed"

"Sloppy work. You use that kind of hardware when you don't have time to plan"

"Well, I'm at the Baria Frontiers office. Liara signed in just a few minutes ago"

"Understood commander"

Moving forward some more, an explosion suddenly ripped through the area, looking almost like a miniature sun. Guessing that it was some kind of flash-grenade, Shepard ordered his group to fall back behind cover as indeed, some armored men came swarming in. Legion sniped the first one while Shepard gunned down the second with his Revenant.

"Vasir I'm pinned down!" Shepard shouted as he dodged assault-rifle fire. "Mercs! And they're well armed!"

"Say hello to the Shadow Broker's private army commander"

Racing to take cover near the doorway, Shepard machine-gunned another goon as Legion sniped two more and Miranda blasted the others back with biotics.

A rocket whizzed through the air. Luckily it sailed past Shepard and his team and exploded harmlessly against the wall behind them. Miranda locked the heavy in a biotic pull before he could fire off another shot and Legion finished the job with another well-aimed shot from its M-98 Widow. The others retaliated with assault rifle fire, but Shepard replied in kind, leaving them all bullet-ridden and dead.

With the firefight concluded, Shepard got out from behind cover and examined the dead Shadow Broker soldiers. They wore armor almost identical to the ones worn by Eclipse and Blue Suns troopers, but as these men were in a since, mercenaries hired by the Shadow Broker, this made a certain kind of sense to Shepard. The only differences between theirs and the armor of Eclipse and Blue Suns troopers were the color scheme (black, white, and gray), and the logo, which looked vaguely like two red back-to-back boomerangs.

Moving past the bodies, Shepard directed his team through burning hallways and more Shadow Broker goons, who were generally cut down in short order, save for one Asari vanguard who managed to take a bit more punishment courtesy of her barrier before Miranda's Warp short-circuited it and then her Tempest SMG finished the job.

As Shepard and his squad continued to advance, they ran into yet more Shadow Broker agents. One such agent attempted to skewer Shepard with a bladed attachment on his shotgun. Shepard side-stepped out of the way of the thrust in the nick of time and whacked the goon with the butt-end of his Revenant, knocking his helmet askew and exposing his face as that of a Batarian.

"Damn!" he shouted, struggling to get his helmet back on fully, time Legion had to put a fatal bullet in his chest.

As he fell down dead, Shepard took a look at the crude blade attachment on the shotgun.

"Guess the Shadow Broker's men favor unconventional and probably illegal weapons and upgrades" Miranda observed. "Can't say I'm surprised really."

"Me neither" Shepard said. "I've seen bladed shotguns like this one once or twice before, and both times it was Batarian thugs using them"

Continuing past more hallways and into another room, Shepard and company encountered a small army of Shadow Broker men. The leader, a Salarian, pointed at Shepard the second he saw him.

"Shoot him down!" the Engineer shouted as he activated his Tech armor. Shepard leaped behind cover as a pair of heavies left fly with rockets. Miranda protected herself with a mix of agility and biotics while Legion sniped the two heavies behind cover.

Shepard attempted to shoot down the Salarian leader but a withering hail of assault rifle fire from the Salarian's cohorts kept him behind cover. An engineer and some back-up rushed in from another side, and Shepard gunned them down before they could group up with the Salarian's forces. Then he retreated fully behind cover again and waited for an opening. He got it when a biotic explosion that could only be Miranda using Overload detonated within the Shadow Broker force's ranks. Rolling to one side out of cover like the action movie heroes of old, Shepard took aim at the now disarrayed grouping of goons and let loose with his Revenant, cutting down all but the Salarian and one other.

Seeing that the tide of battle had turned against him the Salarian ran, only to be shot in the back by Legion and fall over. That just left the one agent.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! I surrender! I surrender!"

Shepard raised his hand as an indication for Miranda and Legion to hold their fire. Moving forward, Shepard approached the one goon, who had laid down his rifle and had his hands in the air. Deciding to try his luck, Shepard asked: "I'm looking for an Asari. Where is she?" He demanded, his voice making it clear that he wasn't messing around.

"Uh….asari…light blue skin?"

"Yes, do you know where she went?"

"Uh, no, but I think I saw a Salarian go down that way…"

The Shadow Broker agent pointed in the direction he had his back to.

"Thank you. Now get out of here"

"I'm going, I'm going…"

And with that the Shadow Broker agent ran off down the halls Shepard, Miranda, and Legion had already come through.

"Well that was certainly compassionate of you" Miranda said.

"There wasn't anything to get out of killing him" Shepard said simply.

"I suppose you're right. Of course I doubt he'd have been so kind if the roles had been reversed, but I don't object to your decision"

"Appreciated. Now let's keep moving"

Moving forward some more, Shepard and company came under fire from more Shadow Broker goons, including another Salarian hefting a rocker launcher.

"Firing high impact shot" The Salarian heavy said before letting fly with a rocket.

Shepard moved out of the way and Miranda gunned him down with her Tempest as Shepard killed the other agents in the area. Moving forward some more, the trio found the next stairway blocked by a torrent of fire. Investigating the adjacent room, Shepard found a Maintenance control. He activated it and online sprinklers came on, dousing the flames. Moving up the stairs, Shepard and company came up to a floor with a balcony. Shepard gunned down the first agent he saw while Miranda hurled the second one over the side with her biotics. A third one came rushing through the doorway and was shot in the head by Legion. Another coming through another doorway on the opposite side met a similar fate. Moving forward into the next room, Shepard came to a locked door. Behind it, he heard a shotgun blast. He turned to Legion: "Legion, get this door unlocked now!"

"Acknowledged"

As Legion set to work, Shepard heard another gun-shot, this one much fainter and likely from a pistol. His Revenant re-loaded and at the ready, he set himself up on one side of the door and Miranda the other. Finally, Legion unlocked the door and the trio made their way in weapons drawn. Shepard saw a dead Shadow Broker agent lying face-first on the floor with a puddle of blood forming beneath his head, and to the side a Salarian who had clearly been killed by a close-range blast from a shotgun, likely from the dead Shadow Broker agent if the M-27 Scimitar lying near his body was any indication.

It was then that the agent's killer stepped out of the shadows.

"Dammit." Vasir said, taking a look over at the dead Salarian who Shepard recognized from the message from Liara's apartment as Sekat. If I had been a few seconds faster I could have stopped him…"

Shepard examined Sekat's body. "No sign of that data Liara talked about. Looks likes a dead end" Shepard said that last bit with a frustrated and exasperated tone. Still no sign of Liara, who if not dead already was definitely in danger. And he was no closer to finding her it seemed.

"Speaking of which…" Vasir said, "…did you find your friend's body?"

"You mean this body?"

Everyone turned around to see Liara enter the stage clad in a mostly white outfit with blue lining on the coat piece. She had a pistol drawn and aimed at Vasir. Shepard came between the two before Liara could shoot.

"Liara this is Vasir. She's a Spectre"

"This is the woman who tried to kill me" Liara said with just a slight hint of anger, which was more emotion then calm and serene Asari maiden usually displayed.

"You've had a rough day so I'll let that slide" Vasir said as she backed away. "Why don't you the put the gun down?" She asked in a tone that bordered on condescending and indeed, Liara didn't seem to take it well.

"I saw you! I doubled back after I left. I watched you break into my apartment!"

"We detect growing tension and increase in violent impulses in both Information Broker T'soni and Spectre Vasir" Legion added unhelpfully. "We believe that additional conflict is imminent"

Ignoring Legion, Shepard confronted Vasir. "You didn't know where Liara went, because she hid the message" Shepard said accusingly. "You needed me to find it for you"

As Shepard said this, he raised his Revenant and pointed it menacingly at Vasir, and Legion and Miranda followed suit with their Widow and Tempest respectively.

"Brilliant deductions detective Shepard" Vasir said sarcastically and then added: "thanks for the help"

Shepard kept his Revenant ready to fire as Liara continued her accusations: "Once she had my location, she signaled the Shadow Broker's forces. They bombed the building to take me out. She found Sekat, took his data, and killed him. I'm guessing she's still got the disk on her"

"Good guess" Vassir said simply. "Of course, its not like you'll ever see what's on it…"

Before anyone could do a thing, Vasir became consumed by a biotic field and shattered the window, hurling its broken fragments at Shepard and company in a razor-sharp torrent.

"…you pureblood BITCH!"

Reacting just in time, Liara and Miranda conjured up a massive biotic forcefield that all the broken glass collided harmlessly with. As this was happening, Vasir bolted, and Shepard gave chase. Tackling Vasir, the two went tumbling out the window. As they plummeted, Vasir became consumed by her biotic field once more and managed to force Shepard off of her, kicking him down to the ground. Shepard landed hard on the floor, and as he forced himself back up, Vasir took the time to flee. But as Shepard looked on, Liara and Miranda leaped down with the aid of their biotics and gave chase. A pair of Shadow Broker agents ran up to try and halt Liara and Miranda's progress but Miranda simply tossed the two away like rag-dolls with her biotics as Liara kept running after Vasir, Miranda following after dealing with the Shadow Broker agents.

By now, Shepard was back on his feet and Legion had run down as well. The two were ready to bolt after Miranda, Liara, and Vasir, but another door opened up and a squad of Shadow Broker agents rushed out. Racing behind cover, Shepard and Legion engaged the squad in a shoot-out. As Legion sniped from behind cover, Shepard opted to follow suit, swapping out his Revenant for his Viper and letting loose with it. Its torrent of laser-like rounds cut down most of the Shadow Broker agents quickly, Legion's powerful M-98 downing any agents Shepard missed with what was almost always only one shot.

But then reinforcements came in, led by another Asari with a barrier, and this time Miranda wasn't around to short-circuit it. So Shepard decided to do things the old-fashioned way.

Popping out from behind cover and taking aim as the assault rifle bullets of the agents whizzed past him, narrowly missing his head in most instances, Shepard unloaded his Viper's ammunition into the Asari leader, the shots first tearing through her barrier and then her armor as if both were nothing but butter. Shepard then fell back behind cover to reload as more assault rifle fire managed to dispel his own personal shields. Fortunately, Legion was there to provide covering fire, and downed the last of the Shadow Broker agents.

"All hostiles terminated. Shepard Commander are you alright?"

"I'm fine Legion. Now come on, let's catch up with Miranda and Liara"

"Acknowledged"

The two raced forward, following the path Miranda and Liara had taken. As they did, Liara's irritated voice came on on the comm: "She's getting away!"

Shepard and Legion kept moving, gunning down a few more Shadow Broker agents that made the mistake of trying to stop them. As they did, the doors opened and a Salarian engineer flanked by a pair of heavies came in. Shepard and Legion raced behind cover as the rockets started to fly, many narrowly missing Shepard and exploding a little too close for comfort, disorienting him a little before he finally got fully behind cover.

"Legion! Use a combat drone to soften these guys up!"

"Acknowledged"

Legion's combat drone floated forward mindlessly and began shooting at the Shadow Broker trio, getting their attention.

"Don't shoot at it!" The Salarian ordered. "They're just using it as a distraction!"

But one of the heavies didn't listen and fired a rocket at the drone, destroying it…but leaving himself open to a fatal sniper shot from Legion.

"Idiots!" the Salarian shouted. Shepard then killed the other heavy with shots from his viper.

"Fuck!" The Salarian cursed. Now he was on his own. A combined sniper assault from Shepard and Legion cut him down quickly.

Shepard and Legion moved through the door the Salarian's group had entered from. Upon going through the door, Shepard saw Miranda slumped behind cover bleeding. Cursing, Shepard ran forward and applied Medi-Gel to her wounds.

"What happened?"

"That bitch is a better biotic then I thought. I took her on. And I lost" Miranda said that last part incredibly bitterly. Shepard could understand it. One of the many things he had come to know about Miranda was that she did not like being bested in any of her chosen fields of expertise by anyone.

"Where's Liara?"

"Trying to shoot Vasir down over there" Miranda pointed to the right and sure enough, there were Liara and Vasir engaged in a shoot-out, each one using cover to prevent the other from landing a successful shot. Upon seeing Shepard and Legion, as well as Miranda back on her feet, Vasir retreated behind cover again. Shepard turned to see her sky-car come in, apparently having been summoned to its owner via omni-tool. Racing forward and using biotics to aid her, Vasir leaped into the air and into her waiting sky-car.

"Damn it!" Liara cursed. She then raced to another sky-car that was nearby. Shepard got into the driver's seat, Liara the Passenger's side, and Miranda and Legion filed into the back.

"I'm fine by the way, thanks for asking" Shepard said to Liara in a deadpan

Liara said nothing as Shepard took the wheels of the sky-car. He prayed that he still remembered enough about how to fly one to avoid crashing.

"Come on! She's getting away!" Liara shouted.

Keeping careful track of Vasir's orange sky-car, Shepard gunned his forward, and the stolen blue sky-car zoomed forward after Vasir's.

Author's Note: Don't worry folks, you'll get your car chase next chapter, I swear. One of my favorite parts of the DLC actually.