Chapter 4 Chasing the Shadows

Miranda's POV

The briefing had just ended and Miranda rushed to the elevator so she could finally have the chance to recruit the Master Chief to Cerberus. As the elevator opened Miranda dropped one of the new bugs she used to monitor the rest of the ship. She hadn't bugged the cargo bay because no one was really ever there, so it seemed like a waste. But now things have changed, that was one of the biggest understatements of all time. Now they had a seven foot killing machine that beat a perfect Krogan down in hand to hand combat easily.

Now she finally turned the corner and saw Master Chief just sitting there almost like he was having a conversation with someone except he wasn't talking and no one was there to talk to.

Master Chief's POV

"Cortana I know what I am doing. I need to gain Shepard's trust if I'm going to get anywhere."

"I know that but you may have put her even more on edge. Most people wouldn't believe the story you gave her."

"It wasn't a story."

"To her it probably is."

"Well sometimes it is better to just say the truth."

"Maybe this isn't one of those times."

This was getting the Master Chief nowhere. He had been arguing with Cortana ever since he got out of the briefing. Then he heard a strange sound of something falling, it wasn't something like a bolt or something that came out of the wall. More like the type of listening devices he had once used back when he was fighting the insurrection, he made a mental note to go check it out later. Just then Shepard's second in command came in. Her name was Miranda and one of the top members at Cerberus. He wouldn't kill her but he remained on edge whenever one of the crew that worked for the Illusive Man was around. It was strange, excluding the members that manned the ship there were only two that had been working as a Cerberus member before Shepard had showed up.

She approached and asked, "Are you ok Chief?"

"Yes I'm fine, is there something you need?"

"Yes I came down here to ask if you would join-"

"No"

"You didn't even let me answer my question."

"You didn't need to, I don't work for terrorists."

"We are people who are fighting for what we believe in, don't you do that?"

"Not with your methods. I don't force people to become an abomination like Cerberus did at Project Overlord."

Miranda's POV

That was something she didn't expect him to say, and she knew it showed. How did he know about that, Shepard had dealt with that problem before he had arrived?

"How do you know about that?"

"Your Illusive Man uses some very weak encryption. I was able to pick it up and decode it."

Miranda didn't believe him and said, "He uses the best money can buy."

"Then that just shows how weak your technology is."

"What do you mean by "your technology"?"

"Ask Shepard if you want to know."

He then proceeded to sit down and just ignore her. Realizing he was sending a message that he wasn't going to talk to her anymore she started to leave, until the Master Chief said, "Miranda".

"Yes?"

"Don't ever bug my quarters again."

Miranda's face turned bright red; he had heard her place the first bug. How, that would require super human hearing? She walked swiftly to the door before he took any more of her pride away.

20 Minutes Later Shepard's POV

"Shepard we are about twenty minutes out from Illium."

"Thanks Joker"

Now this was usually where Shepard started to really think about the mission ahead of her. This one was a little different than the rest she had done so far, it had nothing to do with the collectors. She was going to give Liara the information she needed to finally track down the Shadow Broker. The stakes were huge here; if the Shadow broker got wind of this he would send the best after her. Unfortunately the Shadow broker knew almost everything.

"EDI"

"Yes Shepard"

"Call Legion and Master Chief up to the briefing room, they are coming with me on the next mission."

"Alright Shepard"

Master Chief's POV

"Master Chief, Shepard wants to talk with you in the briefing room."

"Tell her I will be there in a few minutes."

That was odd; they had been talking with each other an hour ago. What could have happened? But maybe it wasn't something bad; EDI probably would have shown some signs of worry if it was. Maybe she needed him for a mission already. These questions weren't getting anything done but stalling him so he stopped thinking and got in the elevator.

Shepard's POV

This mission was going to dangerous, if the Chief wasn't as good as she thought he was; they could pay the price. But if things get bad the back up team was ready, but she doubted that they could get there in time.

The door opened and before her stood a seven foot killing machine as far as she could tell, and a mystery.

"Master Chief, I'm taking you on my next mission. I hope you are ready, it will be dangerous."

"I'm ready ma'am. But what are we going to be doing?"

"A friend of mine is chasing a ruthless information broker, one who almost sold my body to the Collectors."

"Your body?"

"I better explain that, two years ago I was killed when my vessel was attacked by a Collector vessel. He stole my body to sell to them. My friend who we will be meeting shortly rescued my body, who then took me to Cerberus who revived me."

"That is one hell of a story."

"So was yours"

"Fair point"

"Cerberus found out some information that could lead us to the Shadow Broker himself."

"And he probably already knows and is going to try and get the data back."

Shepard smiled, this man was smart. Much more than the average person she dealt with on a regular basis.

"Yes"

"Tell me when it's time to move out."

"We just landed so let's go."

Shepard's POV 45 Minutes later

This was mission was really starting to worry Shepard. Liara had already been shot at and now the Shadow Broker bombed the building and had sent his private army. Shepard opened the door to see a metal object flying towards her.

She yelled, "Flash bang watch out!"

But it was too late and Shepard dove behind cover just as it went off. Giving her a temporary image of what was there as it went off. As she was struggling to recover she heard several bangs followed by someone pulling her up. She tried to shake the enemy off but it didn't budge.

"Calm down Shepard it's me"

"Thanks Chief, where is Legion"

"Here Shepard Commander, optical sensors were temporarily overloaded."

"Were made it, Sekat should be on the other side of the door."

Just then a gunshot rang out. It was from the other side of the door, that wasn't good. Sekat hadn't seemed to be much a fighter. He was probably already dead. As they move d to breach the door a second shot was fired. As the door opened they found Vasir standing over a dead Broker Agent and Sekat. Sekat was dead, no doubt about that.

"Damn it. If I had been a few seconds faster, I could've stopped them."

"This Sekat?"

"Has to be, face is the same as on the message. Plus only person we've seen with a gunshot wound to the head ."

"Your armored friend here is direct but he has a point. Did you find your friend's body?"

"You mean this body."

Shepard turned surprised to hear Liara, but got nervous the second she saw Liara with her gun aimed on Vasir.

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

"This is the woman who tried to kill me."

"You've had a rough day, I'll give you that. How about you put that gun down."

"I doubled back after I left. I watched you break into my home."

"You didn't know where Liara went, because she hid the message. You needed me to find it for you."

"Thanks for the help."

"She found Sekat, took his data, then killed him. I'm guessing she still has the disk on her."

"Good guess. Not that you'll ever see what's on it you pure blood bitch!"

The next few seconds were fast; Liara used to deflect the shards of glass going towards them, then Shepard grabbed on to Vasir and wrestled her off the ledge. But Vasir used her biotics to position herself to kick Shepard off. Shepard landed hard, but as soon as Vasir started to think about finishing her off, Master Chief landed in front of Vasir. He delivered a punch to Vasir's Chest that sent her flying to the other side of the room. The only reason she didn't fly into the wall was because she used her biotics to stop her mid flight, as Shepard got up she watch Liara use her own biotics to get down. But as soon as she touched the ground however she made a dash after Vasir without a backwards look. As soon as Liara got out of the room several Shadow Broker soldiers came in, and another flash bang started to fly towards the Chief.

"Chief watch out!"

But not even the Chief's super human abilities were enough to get him out of danger. The flash bang exploded, and the chief was struggling to get out of the line of fire. Shepard put in a burst in the first agent that looked in the chief's direction. But to Shepard's dismay, more of the troops were pouring out and she couldn't cover the Chief much longer.

"Chief get down, you are going to get killed if you don't!"

But the Chief couldn't get out of the way, almost like the suit was partially shut down from the flash bang. Shepard had enough and rushed to drag him out of the way, but met an extremely unexpected snag. The Chief seemed to way a ton and even the upgrades Cerberus made to her when she died hardly helped.

Shepard realized this was going to get them both killed and as she looked she found that an agent pulled out his rocket launcher and was preparing to fire. But as Shepard tried to pull out the unexpected happened. A long blade appeared in the agent's throat, and when he pulled it out he instantly fell down and was dead before he hit the floor.

The agents started a retreat, probably leaving a fight they could have won. The Chief rose silently, and when Shepard was about to ask he replied, "I'm fine the armor systems overloaded causing it to shut down, it won't happen again."

"Just glad you're ok, come on we've got a spectre to catch."

Sorry guys that I updated so late, I've been real busy since school started. Hope you enjoyed, have any questions just feel free to ask and I'll try and get back to you. Hopefully I can start getting past my writers block and really start getting these stories out more quickly.