Chapter 4! Enjoy!All characters in this fanfic belong to Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.
Jane walked out of the communications room, her hands shaking and her heart racing. She didn't want to look at Jeff in that state and she was in no mood for humour. Activating her omnitool, she spoke to it, "Jeff, set a course for Illium. When will we be there?"
A moment went by before Joker's response. The audio played through her translator, "We'll be arriving tomorrow after lunch, Commander, 1500 SCT."
She thanked the pilot and called the elevator to the CIC. As soon as the doors whooshed closed, it sped down to the cargo hold. There was a certain krogan that had to be woken up, and she was in the perfect mind-set to react if it turned out to be dangerous.
…
Lounge music played within the starboard lounge. Garrus, Kasumi and Jacob sat at the sofa, looking out to the FTL light-show. Bottles clinked as Nicolas prepared drinks, Hal aiding him through his translator. The human walked over to the sofa, offering the drinks on a tray. When each had taken their own, he walked briskly to the bar to get his own and sat on the sofa.
After a long sip, Jacob broke the silence with a satisfied ahhhh. He looked at his drink, admiring the colour and taste, then frowned, "What a nightmare of a mission."
"Tell me about it," Kasumi took a large gulp from her glass, "It'll be a week before I have full mobility on my arm."
"At least you'll be good by Monday. I can't stop thinking about the thousands of people that the Collectors were able to get away with," Jacob muttered, eyes closed and his forehead pressed against the glass' wall.
"If the Collectors hadn't gotten away, the colonists would've been casualties anyway," Nicolas mused, "the GARDIAN lasers aren't exactly sticks and stones."
"You can be a real downer when you want to, you know?" Jacob eyed Nicolas, a tinge of bitter humour in his tone.
"I'm just agreeing the mission was a nightmare," Baker shrugged as he took another sip. He looked at the turian, whom had remained silent, "What's the matter, Garrus? Cat got your tongue?"
He looked at Nicolas blankly, chewing with an empty mouth. He suddenly blinked twice, having understood the human expression, "I'm just thinking," he muttered, "I used to think I knew Williams. She's changed so much."
Nicolas looked down at his drink, pursing his lips, "Yeah. She was unrecognizable. The things she said…"
"Not like skullface is the worst thing I've been called, it's just the tone," Garrus took a sip and smacked his lips, savouring the liquor, "We fought together, we had each other's backs," he paused, "We respected each other."
The rest nodded, agreeing with the turian. The stars whizzed by behind the edges of the mass effect lights as they drank.
…
"Very well Shepard. The activating switch is on the side. The consequences of waking it up are yours to bear." EDI's voice crackled as she left the speakers in the room.
Jane walked to the side and used her omnitool to interface with the tank. A small beep signalled the activation sequence, and the glass disappeared into the tank's base as the nutrient rich liquid's level diminished. When the level was below its knees, an audible high pitched hum, like a defibrillator charging went off from within the krogan. It woke up as latches released its armour, letting it fall. The alien stopped his fall, gripping on to the edge of the tank. Shepard took a step back to see what it would do, hand on her thigh holster.
Without warning, the krogan charged at Shepard, slamming her against the far wall and pinning her up by the shoulders. He inched closer to her face and took a short breath, "You. Human… Female. Before you die I need a name."
Shepard's heart beat with rage. She wasn't about to be threatened in her own ship. She tilted her head to the side, concentrating on the space right in front of her, within the krogan's head. Biotically, she elevated the mass of the alien's connection between its brains and the rest of the nervous system. The tank-born grunted as it let go of her and it dropped to its knees twitching, under a pain that paralysed it.
"I'm Commander Shepard, and I don't take threats lightly," she pulled her shotgun out of its location on the small of her back and extended it, resting the barrel on the krogan's head before letting her biotics die down, "I suggest you relax."
The krogan panted as its eyes scanned its surroundings, understanding the situation. It spoke again, in more complete sentences, "Not your name, mine. Okeer's words… they taught me to talk, move, eat, kill, but they failed to give me purpose. His words are hollow, his implant failed. Warlord, Legacy… Grunt… it was one of the last words he transmitted through the tank. It has no meaning. It'll do," Grunt looked up at the commander and barred its teeth, "I am Grunt. If you are worthy of your command, destroy me."
"Why do you want me to kill you?" she arched an eyebrow.
"Want? I do what I am meant to- fight and reveal the strongest. The tank never asked what I wanted. Okeer tried to instil purpose in me, but I have no interest in his enemies or his clan. Without a purpose that is mine, any fight is as good as the other. My first was against you and I failed. The strongest has been revealed, my purpose has been served."
"I activated you. Had it not been for me, you'd be dead inside that tank, still on Korlus. Follow my command and you will have purpose. My enemies are strong. Everyone on this ship has earned their place. If you want purpose, you can stay," she removed the safety on her shotgun, "or I can just do what you ask and get rid of you once and for all."
"This is… this is acceptable. I will fight for you, Shepard," Grunt's voice rumbled after some thought.
"I'm glad you saw reason," she fake-smiled as she put the safety back on the shotgun and collapsed it.
"If your enemies are at least as strong as you, then my judgment will have been correct. I look forward to fighting alongside you," Grunt spoke as he looked around, now standing. He walked along the room's walls and asked, "Is this my place?"
"It is if you want. Your tank was going to stay here the remainder of the mission, so you might as well use this as your quarters."
The krogan nodded, "Fair."
Having nothing more to say, Shepard walked out of the room, heading for the elevator. She started feeling remorse for using her biotics to incapacitate the krogan. He was just waking up, you could've talked him down. The elevator dinged as it arrived, and she chose to go further down to the cargo deck, where Garrus had layed out his obstacle course.
…
He tripped on the way out of the starboard observation room, cursing under his breath. The flanged chuckle of Garrus carried through the doorway, "Don't let the door getcha, broomhead!"
Nicolas smiled to himself as he went to the bathroom, the buzz from the drinks starting to set in. Hal's signature crackle came to his translator, "So remember that time I was thinking of modifying your prosthetics?"
Baker laughed, unzipping his pants, "That was a loooong time ago, Hal. Tell me, what do you have in mind?"
"Well, I had more spare computing power during the time I spent with Garrus, and I was able to design compact mods that would just replace pre-existing parts of the prosthetics you already have."
"Like what kind of mods are we talking about?"
"Oh, you know," Hal waited half a second, "anti-EMP measures, hidden weapons, the whole shebang."
"The whole she-what?"
Hal stuttered for the first time, "Nothing, something humans u-used to say. Just tell the rest you are going to the cargo hold or they're going to miss you."
…
Shepard jumped with ease past the kodiak's roof to land on the opposite edge. She panted as she wiped sweat off her brow, frowning at the realization that she wasn't getting any more tired. The door to the cargo hold whooshed open as Nicolas walked in, making a bee line for the workbench on the opposite wall, eyes drowsy.
"I can smell the alcohol from here!" Shepard smiled as she yelled with a teasing tone.
Baker jumped, startled. He whispered something, probably to Hal before looking at Jane, "Garrus spilled some on me, that must be why!"
With a chuckle, she jumped off the Kodiak, "I bet that is exactly why. What brings you to the cargo hold?"
He alternated between looking at the workbench and at the approaching commander, "I have some ideas for my prosthetics."
Hal switched over to Shepard's translator, "He means my ideas." Shepard rolled her eyes and her smile widened.
"What were you doing? Horizon wasn't exercise enough?"
Jane snorted bitterly, "I talked with the Illusive douche. He was extra bitchy this time. Thought it'd be good to tire the annoyance away, but these fucking cybernetics," she gestured at her legs, "they won't let me get tired."
Nicolas shrugged, "Then try something else. Talking about it might help! Wanna join as we help Hal with his creations?"
...
"... and since tensile carbon fibre is an electromagnetic isolator, EMPs have no effect."
Both Shepard and Nicolas had been observing the fabricator mesmerized as it printed out the dark grey muscle. Nicolas raised his head to address the air around him, "Yeah, but no hard plating. Can't it be more resistant?"
"If you want it to fit inside the armour, then no. Just do like the rest and don't get shot in the same place twice."
Shepard tried in vain to hold back her laughter as Nicolas retrieved the piece in silence and attached it with Jane's help.
"It's like that time after Noveria, when you got your foot melted," she half smiled as the memories came back.
"Yeah, they got us good that time. Garrus also got his plates that day."
"Oh, yeah. They were those white ones, or I think they were white."
Nicolas didn't have anything to add so he remained silent. Jane looked at him as he frowned, his eyes wide with concentration as the prosthetic arm started to take shape once more. The muscle plates made the arm look like a chrome skeleton hidden under black leaves and apart from the anatomy of the hand, it didn't look human. Her mind went back to Noveria once more, images of Wrex joining her side by a chemical fire, ice melting off his armour as he ate rations she had given him, "Ashley never really changed," she murmured with lament.
"I like to think she did, but she had no one to blame for losing the Normandy and anything that's happened since then, so she's taking it out on us and the other races."
"Why are you so calm about it?" Jane asked, looking to get Nicolas to stop looking at the arm and make eye contact.
"We've got stuff to do, and where we're going there is no place for her. Whether she had been nice or a dick makes no difference," he smiled sadly and gave her a paused look before going back to the modifications.
The hours went by as the two worked silently, with Hal whispering instructions through their translators. Members of the crew walked by every once in a while to tend to their duties and switch between the day and night shifts, and the ship tremored as it exited a zero-mass tunnel to enter the next.
…
Shepard took a step back as Nicolas twisted his last leg into place. The servos whirred like an expanding gun as they calibrated themselves to his sensory input. A button on the ankle glowed, showing where the switch for the hidden weapon's compartment was.
"Well, that was therapeutic," she sighed as she massaged her hands, surprisingly sore from hours of work. Nicolas yawned and she arched an eyebrow, "Is it late?"
"Let me check…" Nicolas raised his arm to wake the omnitool but Hal butted in.
"0300 SCT. Maybe you should get some sleep."
Jane puffed up her cheeks before letting the air out in tired puff, "I think I'll have to sleep in past breakfast."
Baker chuckled and hopped off the workbench to head for the elevator. Once the two were inside, he spoke up, "Hope you got to distract yourself from the whole Illusive Man thing."
"I did, Nicolas," she smiled as Nicolas walked out onto the crew deck, his hands in his pockets, "good night."
…
"Nos Astra port, this is Normandy SR-2 requesting permission to land," Joker spoke over the intercom with a relaxed, practiced voice. It was a few moments before an affirmative response with landing instructions came back.
"Huh. I expected something more like Noveria, this being the Terminus economic capital," Joker scratched his head. Jane, who had been standing behind him, turned around silently and went to the airlock, where Garrus and Nicolas stood waiting.
"Alright, as you know already, the rest of the crew will go on shore leave while we find out where the Drell might be," she stood with her hands on her hips, relaxed.
Nicolas snorted, "I'm a bit tired, can't I get shore leave as well?"
The turian frowned at the comment, "If we're going to be gathering intel on this Drell assassin it's not recommendable to be a noticeable group of people. I bet we could manage fine without you as well, broom head."
"Out of all of us, only Nicolas has come to Illium before. Jack doesn't count, she's anything but inconspicuous," Jane pursed her lips.
"Maybe Lawson has been here. She could replace Baker."
"I don't know how long this is going to take, so I don't know if I'll be able to stand her," Jane chuckled, "Maybe Jacob would be-"
"Guys, I was joking. I'm up for this," Nicolas let his hands clap against his thighs as he bounced on the balls of his feet in play frustration.
"Well then stop fussing around," Garrus looked at him clicking his mandibles with annoyance. Shepard chuckled as the airlock started pressurizing.
…
An asari was waiting for the new arrivals outside the airlock. She stood idly looking at her datapad as the armoured and armed squad got within earshot, "Welcome to Nos Astra port. Your docking fees have been covered for an indefinite time, so enjoy your stay. Ms. T'soni sends her regards."
Garrus' mandibles widened in shock. Shepard blinked twice, "Ms. T'soni? Where can I find her?"
"She should be at her office. I can forward her address if you wish."
With a quick nod, the location was sent and the squad walked into the city at a brisk pace. Garrus was now frowning, processing the new information. Nicolas spoke up, "Maybe Liara knows something about the Drell. It feels like she was expecting us."
"Weird that the Illusive Man didn't give me her dossier, I wonder why she's not available." Jane eyed Garrus as they walked.
The turian made a concerned face that looked like he was pursing his lips, "Hopefully… because she's busy."
…
"I apologize, Ms. T'soni is unavailable. She was expecting your arrival though, and left this for you," a formally dressed asari with iridescent crests as she handed a small data drive to Shepard before diverting her attention back to the terminal in front of her. She spoke once more without taking her eyes off the screen, "certainly, she will contact you as soon as she has the opportunity."
The squad nodded and left, a general feeling of being upset and annoyed.
"I guess the Illium lifestyle got to Liara," Nicolas muttered as they walked away from the address they'd been led to, "what does the drive contain?"
"A note. I guess it was too dangerous to send through the extranet," Shepard mused as she opened the message.
Shepard, it was too dangerous to send this through the extranet, too many possibilities of interception.
The three chuckled, their moods fixed.
I am aware you've come to extract a drell assassin. I know where you can find him, but obviously I can't tell you through here, as I'd risk the failure of his mission. I trust you'll let him finish his job, so go to the Apothecary Bar close to the docks and find Ruvisa R'sanas. She knows where the drell should be for the time being. Best of luck, we'll talk later.
"Well, looks like we have a lead. Let's head for the Apothecary," Garrus seemed pepped up at getting at least a snippet of Liara's rhetoric.
The bar's name rung a bell in Nicolas' head.
...
"Hold up! You and the turian can be in here, but he's banned for life," a turian bartender exclaimed as he pointed at Nicolas, then at a wall behind him with various security camera close-ups of different patrons that had caused problems at the bar.
Shepard shot Nicolas a questioning look before nodding at the turian as Baker turned to leave. He chuckled to himself lighting a cigarette. Memories of running from the turian mercenary accompanied by Tali and the other quarian kid flooded his mind.
"It's been ages," he muttered as he took a long drag, resting against the wall, looking at the sky car traffic above. Patrons came and went as Nicolas smoked, his face blank and relaxed as he went over all the events that had transpired since he first met Hal.
"Alright, we're off, Nicolas," Shepard interrupted his trip down memory lane as she exited the bar followed by Garrus, who was eyeing the human.
"I tested the glasses here and they seemed pretty solid. How badly did you fuck up the turian?" Garrus asked.
"He was able to walk out of the bar and try to shoot us as we left, so maybe they were softer back then. Anyways, what did you guys find out?"
"The drell, Thane is his name, will make the hit today, at the top of a building brimming with security instructed to kill anything that goes in it. The neighbouring building has more sparse security, but we'll have to cross a heavily guarded bridge to get to the target once we get to the top."
Nicolas eyed Shepard as they walked, "and why would we want to be where the target is?"
"Because our hitman is liable to disappear after making the hit. We're going to head for the ship and pick up stealth gear. Sonic dampeners, silenced weapons and urban armour. We'll head to the building straight away. I don't want to miss our chance to get Thane, we won't have time later."
...
The armoury's door whooshed open as booted feet clacked inside. Jacob turned to face the new arrivals and smirked, "I had the feeling you guys might've come back for some lighter gear."
Garrus and Nicolas started looking around at the wide selection of equipment the armoury had, while Shepard just rested a hand on her hip and addressed the Cerberus operative, "we're gonna need stealth gear for this one, otherwise we'd be outnumbered pretty quickly."
Jacob hummed to himself, "if you want real stealth, I wouldn't recommend lethal force. Do you want stun guns and tasers?"
Nicolas answered over his shoulder, a silenced pistol in his hand, "I think we're on a bit of a time constraint, and taking the time to stun our guys could be off the table."
Jane nodded, "by stealth I mean more like I want to get in quiet but not necessarily leave like that..."
The agent nodded with a chuckle, "Ah! So you want your little firefights to be self contained. Well that's easier!" he walked over to a cabinet as he talked, twiddling his fingers before opening a drawer, 'I'd recommend chaff grenades to cut off their short range radios, maybe you can even monitor their radio for callsigns in case you have to speak for them."
Hal crackled to life in Shepard's translator, "I can take care of that." She smiled and looked at Nicolas, who had a knowing look in his eyes. The two winked at each other as Jacob continued with his list of suggestions.
Nicolas marvelled at his new loadout. The first thing that was different was his armour. It was a light weave armour suit covered in a slightly oversized layer of thick, coarse grey fabric that creased in triangular patterns. The fabric was invisible to radar and radiated heat through the boot's soles, making it room temperature and undetectable by heat sensitive instruments. His weapons now had a suppressing module attached. It would create a tunnel of low mass in front and inside the barrel of the gun, creating a vacuum, eliminating all noise from the gun and most of the supersonic crack that the projectile created. Finally, the sonic dampeners were little adhesive boxes that would stick on a surface and would vibrate opposite to the sound that reaches the surface it is stuck on. This would make the surface block all sounds coming towards it.
The squad left the armoury and headed for the kodiak in the lower decks. Hal interfaced with the vehicle and with a quick goodbye to Joker, they were off to the location where the drell assassin's target was.
...
The streets of Nos Astra shone sterile white under the elevated urban street lights. The sky was alive with the aerial traffic and the lights of skyscrapers reaching for the skies, obscuring the blackish orange sky in blue-black buildings. A kodiak broke off the highway and landed in front of a glass-covered tower. It's identical neighbour was open but this one was behind a plastic wall, showing that renovations were being made.
A figure sat atop the inhabited skyscraper, prying open a ventilation grate leading to the top level of the building. The agile hands of the drell laid the metallic grate on the floor without making a sound as he readied himself to slide into the chute. The sound of an approaching sky car made him stop and look. The kodiak flew around the skyscrapers, landing one block further down into the fast asleep district. Three figures rounded a corner, and the optics on the drell's facemask whirred as they zoomed in. He made out two humans and a turian before his photographic memory filled his mind's eye with information.
Shepard, Jane. Hero of the citadel. KIA two years ago. Vakarian, Garrus. Archangel in Omega. MIA two weeks ago. Baker, Nicolas.
500,000 credits. 750,000 alive.
"It would be enough to get you to relax for quite a while, if you accept," the defiance in her blue eyes was palpable.
"I shall think it through more thoroughly."
The drell snapped out of the memories and wondered why a dead commander was approaching his target with a dead turian and his next contract. They had to know about him. Nassana Dantius couldn't possibly be of interest to them. He looked at the group until they had climbed over the desolated building's barrier.
...
The squad drew their guns as soon as they understood their surroundings in the dark of the building's ground floor. Five salarian workers lay dead in the building's main hall, gunshot wounds peppering their clothes.
"Looks like they stopped the renovations," Shepard muttered into her radio as she scanned the ground floor followed by Baker and Vakarian.
Nicolas scoffed as he went by the salarians, "they were civilians. How can someone do this and probably get away with it, yet I get banned for life from a bar after defending myself from a hitman?"
Garrus hummed, "maybe you didn't pay for your drink?"
The human shook his head as they entered a stairwell leading up, "I'm pretty sure the guy was buying."
"Alright guys, focus. It's pretty apparent that the mercs will shoot on sight, let's act like it," Shepard said as she shook her head good-naturedly.
They went up the stairs, keeping an eye on their radar feeds as they went from floor to floor in silence. Shepard instinctively stopped when Hal talked to her through her translator, the other two halting and waiting patiently behind her.
"I'm picking up short-range radio chatter. It's the mercs, but they seem to be at ease. I'll listen in, If you give me enough time, maybe I can generate idle speech from them in case there is someone higher up listening," the AI mused before going silent.
Jane went over the situation, the building has a closed surveillance network, which is organised into 5-level blocks. If Hal can pick up chatter, we are not more than 3 levels away, which means that the corresponding surveillance block will be coming up. Nicolas can hack into the network and give Hal access to it. She turned around to address the turian and the human, "Alright, we're within three levels of a group of mercs. Nicolas, I need you to take point and find us a way into the CCTV for the block that's coming up. We'll be right behind you."
Baker nodded and walked up the next flight of stairs, exiting into the level silently. He activated his omnitool and scanned the walls for data feeds. When he found it, it was only a matter of probing with some omnigel prongs and finding the cable that belonged to the CCTV network for Hal to patch himself in. The AI talked to Shepard once more, "There are 8 mercs on the next level. There are more on the level after that, so a noise dampener will be needed on the ceiling. I marked the most convenient walls to put dampeners on as well."
With a nod, Shepard opened her omnitool and showed Garrus the locations. She then asked Nicolas to set a couple of Chaff charges and await further instructions. Once she was alone, she went over a plan with Hal's help.
...
Jane looked through the eye not behind her scope, finding her designated target, "Alright, Nicolas, blow the chaffs. We fire in 3... 2... 1..."
A mercenary thought he heard something like a flap of wings on the far side of the building. He turned around to see an almost invisible cloud of silver dust spreading. Quickly deactivating his suit's speakers, he started approaching and exclaiming over close range radio, "Something is happening, probable intruders. Hello?" He was about to check his radio when the tell-tale thwip of a silenced round filled the room, "Hostiles, hostiles on level 5! Shit, long range's gone too!"
The mercenary opened his visor and ran for cover behind a structural pillar. Across the floor, he made out two other mercs, standing back to back, looking for the enemy. He waved at them and when he got their attention, a round went through each of their heads. He cursed under his breath before he was also shot from behind.
Jane checked the suppression system on her rifle as Garrus went to the sound dampeners to pop them off the walls for use in another level. Nicolas searched for the next place where the CCTV was hackable from his omnitool and Hal was making the finishing touches on his procedurally generated radio chatter.
"If the next groups of mercs are this easy to take down, we'll reach the top in no time," she sighed as she got up and made for the far stairwell, where Garrus and Nicolas stood waiting.
…
"There is a lone merc up ahead. He's on the radio with someone… he's talking with someone at a higher level. Maybe we should wait until his call's over," Hal spoke to Shepard, who relayed what he said to the other two.
Garrus set a sound dampener on the door going to the merc's room and opened it slowly. The enemy was around a corner, pacing up and down as he talked. Garrus crept up to the corner and planted another dampener, to keep any noise from going past the wall, further towards their goal. The mercenary's call was over and he let his back fall against a wall. To his surprise, his armour didn't make a sound when it impacted on the wall. He immediately realized something was wrong and expanded his handgun before creeping up to the corner that obscured the rest of the room.
As the merc's handgun poked around the corner, the handle of a pistol impacted against the his visor, shattering one of the helmet's shining yellow eyes. The whirring of servos filled the air as a swift and heavy punch was delivered to the other side of the visor, shattering the second eye and whipping the merc's head back. Nicolas caught up to the enemy, who had been stumbing back and gave him a heavy kick to the chest, launching him to a giant window overlooking the street some 70 levels down. The pane cracked as his back made contact and before the merc could come to his senses, Nicolas' pistol was jammed under his neck. Jane and Garrus had formed up on Baker's sides with their guns drawn.
Jane started shouting as soon as the merc made a small gasping sound, "Alright, dipshit. Two options, you tell us everything you know about the guards on the way up, or we see how well humans fly."
Garrus shot the window behind him out to illustrate Shepard's point, and Nicolas grabbed onto the chin of the merc's helmet to avoid him falling.
"So are we going to do things the easy way?" Shepard arched an eyebrow and smirked playfully, "Of course, I don't have all day, so I'll give you to the count of three to cooperate."
"No need, no need!" the merc shook his hands in the air, his knees bent to avoid having to rest all his weight on Nicolas' grip, even if Baker was pushing his chin back to keep the merc's centre of gravity between uncomfortable and alarming, "my boss sent us our patrols ahead of time in one file. Here! You can have it."
Hal assured Shepard that he'd corroborate what they'd seen up to now with the file the merc had given them. After a few seconds, Hal announced that he trusted the mercenary's material. Garrus pulled him in to the safety of the floor and smacked him on the back of the head, dazing him before tossing his omnitool and guns out the window and destroying his radio.
…
Jane frowned as she looked at Nicolas' omnitool. He'd poked a small camera under the door leading to the bridge connecting the two buildings. Nassana Dantius, and by consequence, the assassin Thane Krios were waiting on the other side. She turned from the holographic screen to the squad, "Alright, we won't have the option to isolate Nassana from the noise without getting caught, so we can't allow the enemy to fire a shot. To do that, we have to avoid them seeing us directly and block their short range radio. We'll silence this door and once we open it, Garrus will take out anyone who is closest to us silently. I'll plant a dampener on the floor as soon as we open the door, so have that in mind, Garrus. Nicolas, once Garrus has neutralised the merc outside, you'll toss a chaff so they can't communicate. From there we spread out onto the bridge and take cover as soon as possible. Take as few shots as you can, and remember, don't get caught."
The two nodded and readied themselves as Shepard planted the first dampener on the door itself. After a short countdown, Garrus flung the door wide open and took one long step forward which left him right behind a mercenary. He felt the vibration of his step fade to nothingness as Shepard planted the second dampener and grabbed the mercenary by the visor. With unprecedented strength, he drove the merc's head to the floor. The helmet buckled silently and the human went limp without a sound. The turian pulled him behind cover as Jane and Nicolas spread out.
Baker jogged around a corner silently, bumping headfirst into an eclipse mercenary. Before he could make a noise though, he was punched by Nicolas' prosthetic, making him twirl around to have his back facing Baker. He snaked his normal arm around the merc's chest to hold him in place as the other arm came around and held onto his jaw, quickly pulling it to the side with a muffled crack.
The final mercenary stood with his back against a crate, not understanding why his radio wasn't working and all his colleagues had disappeared. With trembling hands, he used his assault rifle to scan the bridge. A few seconds later, he noticed his armour wasn't making noise as it hit the floor or the wall behind him and a small tap on his shoulder startled him before a kick was delivered to his side, making him stumble. Before he could find his footing, he was able to see a woman in grey armour standing before him for a split second. His visor was immediately shattered as the woman used an assault rifle as a baseball bat to whack him.
"Is he still alive?" Shepard asked as Nicolas walked over.
Nodding, Nicolas cuffed the mercenary and destroyed his radio. The squad then made their way to the far wall, where a large door led to the opposite building's top floor, where Nassana was. Nicolas stuck his camera under the door once more and the squad watched the video feed closely.
The asari paced up and down the room, seemingly berating the people she had in there with them. They were all armed to the teeth, inspecting the room, perhaps looking for surveillance equipment. It was easy to see Nassana was expecting someone to harm her.
"Hey, look at the far corner," Garrus whispered alarmed as he came closer, towering over the other two. Nicolas moved the camera slightly to see a figure laying on the ground. A merc fell on the other side of the camera's field of view, then three more, then another until Nassana was alone. Before the squad could make sense of what was going on, a dark shadow dropped from the ceiling behind Nassana and a gunshot pierced the silence, permeating through the door behind which they had been hiding.
Jane expanded her assault rifle and stormed the room, followed by the other two. She trained her sights on the Drell standing in front of the conference table, Nassana resting on it in front of him. They had found Thane Krios.
Thane stood with his hands folded over the dead asari. He heard the expansion of three firearms and then felt the prickle on the back of his neck he always felt when someone had a gun trained on him. He wanted to address the newcomers but at the moment he was busy.
Shepard took a step closer to the Drell, who seemed to be ignoring them, "I was hoping we could have a little chat."
"I apologize, but prayers for the wicked must not be forsaken," with that, the alien resumed his dead silence, his hands held together in front of him and his eyes closed.
"Do you really think she deserves it?" the commander lifted an arm towards the dead asari, known for her corruption and ruthlessness.
"Not for her, but for me," the drell opened his eyes and turned to face the group, unfazed by their expanded weapons, "Interesting how the measure of an individual is difficult to judge by actions alone. Take you, for instance, all this destruction, this chaos, just to talk to me. Nassana doesn't seem too bad now... I was curious to see how far you'd go to find me." There was a long moment of silence. The drell shrugged slightly before continuing, "Well, here I am."
"How did you know I was coming at all?"
"I didn't. That is, until you came in the front door," the alien's eyes drifted from Jane to Baker and he nodded slowly, "with my next contract."
Jane arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms, "You know you won't be able to get the bounty on his head, right?"
"It is irrelevant at this point, you can obviously protect him from me, and if I fail, someone else will take my place. Anyways, you wouldn't have gone to all this trouble without good reason, perhaps something interesting will be said. I wanted to see my last target up close, and you wanted to talk face to face. So talk."
Shepard gestured the team to lower their weapons.
"Human colonies are going missing. We know the Collectors are behind it and we're putting a stop to it," she explained the mission they had embarked on, stressing that once the Collectors had done what they wanted with the humans, there was no telling what race they would terrorize next. She finished by forwarding the Illusive man's contract and its executive summary, which Thane scanned over quickly.
"Interesting, that a human supremacist group would take on an issue of supposed Galactic importance," Thane said as he eyed the commander, signing the contract on his own omnitool.
"We've come across enough evidence to know they're working for the Reapers. The Council won't listen to anything that mentions their name, so we know we're alone. For the same reason, it's good to have you on board, Thane," Jane smirked as she extended a hand to the Drell, who shook it firmly.
…
The newest member of the crew was quick to excuse himself to his new room. The Life Support room was the driest and coolest section of the ship, making it compatible with a terminal illness the assassin had. It took the squad a long time to realize he was gone, but Kasumi saw him back away immediately and was quite entertained by the rest of the group's lack of perception as they looked around with bewildered faces minutes after the fact.
The Normandy had quieted down. Everyone from the day-shift had hurriedly gone to sleep after coming back from eventful shore leaves. Aside from the skeleton crew of the night shift and Joker snoring at the pilot seat, everyone was asleep. In the starboard lounge, on the long couch, was Nicolas sleeping. He stirred with a bewildered gasp when his omnitool came to life whistling a tone that he hadn't programmed. With a flick of his wrist, the display showed a text box with a short message:
Mr. Baker, I have something to discuss with you. If you could come to the communications room as soon as possible, that would be great.
The Illusive Man
Drowsily, he snorted as he thought, even the 'man' gets a capital M.
Baker shook off the last remnants of sleep that were holding onto his brain on the elevator down. The CIC looked almost cosy in the night-shift lighting and sleepiness threatened to take over him again as the lights in the communications room dimmed to allow for the holographic call to be made.
Nicolas had never seen the Illusive man before, but it was easy to know who he was talking to when the connection had been established, "You wanted to discuss something?"
The man sitting on the holographic chair took a drag from his cigarette before talking, "Indeed, but it would be better if we were both equally comfortable. Why don't you sit? I heard you smoke as well, feel free to do it. The ventilation system on that deck is of the best quality."
Nicolas sat down on a seat that had emerged from the floor behind him. Taking his box of cigarettes out of his fatigues, he took a puff and frowned quizzically at the hologram in front of him their eyes level, "Now that I feel at home, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"
"The mission at hand. You already know about the probabilities of returning alive, and I'm certain you are aware that in each of your contracts there is a clause that makes it possible to obtain Cerberus equipment and funds for any unfinished business you may have before going through the Omega 4 relay."
Nicolas took a long drag, annoyed at the man's condescending tone, "I am aware."
"Well, the thing is," the illusive man blew out a big cloud of smoke that intermittently materialised in the hologram, "I have a good idea of what the other crewmembers might want to get done, but you haven't expressed the need to tie any loose ends during your time in the Normandy."
"You should at least buy me a drink before you get close enough to me that you can tell me what i have or haven't expressed."
The Illusive man ignored him and continued, "Perhaps there are friends from the past you would like to speak to, or family-"
"Don't act like you haven't been going through my history. You know fucking well that I don't have family, and I have no friends from recent years," Nicolas had stood up and blew his smoke on the hologram, making it shake and glitch as it readjusted to the variant refraction coefficients.
The man smirked, having gotten a reaction from Baker, "Maybe you'd like to get revenge on someone. I heard there was a price on your head, quite steep if you ask me. Might be good to get that out of the way before thinking of having a calm life once the mission is over."
The younger human sagged back down on the chair and took a long drag, his fingers shaking at the memory of Aria and this possibility the Illusive man was offering, but it was too good to be true, "You can't offer me something like that. It isn't possible."
"If you give me-"
"No. Aria's not one to let an issue go. That bounty on my head will stay until either she is dead or I am handed over."
The Illusive man was about to start talking once more when Nicolas cut off the connection and walked out of the communications room. The head of Cerberus didn't call again.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Until the next one!
PS: thank you, RFP for letting me know there were no scene cuts! Tried using the app to upload the final draft of the chapter and everything seemed fine but it looks like italics and such things don't cross over.