A/N: Back again, and with a big chapter to boot! Over 3,000 words! Enjoy!

I don't own Mass Effect

It didn't take the team long to locate the Cerberus station outside of the nebula, orbiting the moon of a uninhabitable planet. The Shadowed Light got closer to the station, but stayed a safe distance just incase things turned south.

Onboard, Eric looked at the upclose image of the station in the briefing room, it wasn't that large, but big enough to house a couple hundred crew members at least. "So, how do we go about this?" asked Talon. Liara, who had opted to come along on the mission, stood on Eric's right looking at the station, "The stations defenses are offline, and according to our scans there is no lifeforms inside. We can safely assume that the station is abandoned." she said to the assembled group.

"Why da hell would dey do dat?" asked Rez. "They must have vacated when the station no longer had a use." said Lazura. "Sev, did you find out what the station was used for?" asked Eric. "According to the information in the memory cores. Cerberus used it for planetary observation. They were developing some new type of mining probe to collect minerals from orbit." said the Quarian.

"Then why the hell would they abandon the facility? It doesn't make sense." said Rico. Eric looked at the hologram of the station with the same thoughts. Something didn't feel right about this. "Cat, keep the ship at this distance. We'll go in on the shuttle. Be ready to pick us up if something happens." He said out loud. 'Aye, aye boss.' Cat replied over the intercom.

"Rico, Lazura, Sev. Your with me. We'll head in and look for the terminal. Talon, you and the others will be back up. Be ready to come in at a moments notice." Talon nodded to the leader. Eric looked to everyone, "Suit up people, we're heading to the station in half and hour."

X

Eric finished suiting up in the armory and headed toward the cargo hold when he saw Liara infront of him. She was dressed in a combat outfit she had designed herself. It looked like a short overcoat over a formfitting suit, and was white with blue trim (Her combat attire in her DLC mission). "Have I ever told you you look damn good in that suit?" asked Eric grinning under his mask.

Liara smiled, "Everytime I put it on." She walked up to him, "Be careful over there. Something doesn't feel right about this." she said seriously. "I know. But if there is a chance of us finding what we need then it has to be done." The young Asari pulled his recon hood up over his mouth and kissed him. "Come back to me." she whispered rolling the mask back down. "I always do." he said gently.

X

The shuttle left the Shadowed Light and headed for the abandoned Cerberus station. Eric piloted the small craft, Sev sitting next to him making sure no surprises were waiting for them. In the troop compartment; Rico was checking his weapons, making sure his assault rifle, grenade launcher and rocket launcher were fully loaded. Lazura was doing a little meditation to keep her mind focused.

They flew in close to the cargo area, Sev remote hacked the large doors allowing Eric to set the shuttle down on the floor and cutting the engine. The hatch popped open and the team filed out, "Shore party to Shadowed Light, we're in." said Eric over his comm. 'Gotcha boss. We're still not getting any lifesigns other than yours so keep your eyes open. Talon and the others are waiting by the second shuttle should you need them.' said Cat.

Eric looked at the team, "Lets go." Sev brought up his omni-tool as they headed out of the cargo area, "The terminal we're looking for is on the top level in the main control room. A few of the doors should be locked but I can hack them open with no problem." The squad tredded down a long corridor and immediately felt off. "Eric, somethings fucking wrong." said Rico sweeping his rifle from side to side.

"I agree with him. This seems...creepy." said Lazura. They had a point, the whole situation felt wrong. The station was as quiet as a crypt, save for the sounds of the life support systems still being active. "Sev, if this place is abandoned, why is life support still active?" asked Eric. "I'm not completely sure. Maybe its just the auxillary power still being active." replied Sev.

They traversed the corridors of the station until they came to a locked door. Sev made quick work of hacking the door open allowing them to continue. 'Shadowed Light to shore party, hows everything going out there boss?' asked Cat. "Absolutely nothing. Are you guys detecting anything?" asked Eric. 'We're checking everything. Except for the stations support systems, theres nothing else active.' replied the pilot.

The squad entered a wide room with several doors along the walls and a large elevator in the center. "Are elevators still active?" Lazura asked. 'The stations auxillary power should be keeping them going.' replied Cat. Eric looked around and saw something on the floor infront of a locked door. The sign above read 'Medical Bay'.

Walking over, he got a closer look. There was a brownish smear on the metal surface that led under the door. "This ain't good." said Rico. Sev hacked the door while the others stood with weapons ready. When the door opened the team saw...nothing. Save for the medical equipment, the room was empty. "This is definately blood." said Lazura looking at the smear. "Then where are the bodies?" asked Sev.

Eric walked over to the terminal and searched through the files. "The last entry log was made about 4 months ago. The doctor on duty applied aid to a guy who broke his arm." "Sounds like this place was running just fine." said Lazura. "Then where the hell is everyone?" asked Rico. "If we can get to the bridge, then we can look into the ships security logs and find out exactly what happened." said Sev.

The squad left the medbay and entered the elevator. The lift started up toward the top level of the station.

X

The Shadow Broker watched the vid screen infront of him showing the four man team approaching the station's control room. "I have you now." he muttered darkly.

X

When the elevator stopped, the doors opened up revealing a small hallway leading to the station's control room. Keeping vigilant, the team walked to the door and Sev started to hack it. Suddently the door sprung open making the team jump back with weapons ready to fire. "That...was fucked up." said Rico.

They entered slowly. Terminals were set up in various sections of the room depicting readouts of the station's functions. Sev got on one in particular and started to check its contents. "Anything?" asked Eric. "Its wiped clean. Dammit. Whatever happened here someone went to great lengths to ensure that there was no traces." replied Sev. "But this is the terminal that we're looking for. Just give a few minutes to see if I can salvage anything."

While he did that, the rest of the squad walked around the room looking everything over. Eric walked up to the main computer terminal. Sitting in the chair infront of it, he started to go through the files, but as Sev had said all of them were wiped clean. No data existed. "Christ. What happened here?" he wondered outloud.

An alarm suddently went off and all the terminals shut down. "What the fuck did you do Sev!" shouted Rico over the alarm. "Nothing, the damn thing just shut down!" Sev shouted back.

'You have been a thorn in my side for far too long.' spoke a dark voice over the intercoms. "Who the hell are you?" asked Eric. 'You know me well Lachance. Considering you and your team have been hunting me this whole time.' Eric's eyes widened, "The Shadow Broker." 'Correct. I have had enough of you and your band of misfits. Its time to end it.'

The station suddently shifted, 'Uh...boss. We got a problem.' said Cat. "Whats wrong?" asked Eric. 'The station's defense systems just came online, and their targeting our position!' "Eric, this station's defenses will tear the ship apart." said Sev. "Fall back to a safe distance, we'll take the defenses out." Eric said into his comm.

'Thats fucking crazy!' shouted the pilot. "I'm not letting you guys get shot down. Thats an order Cat." Eric said sternly. There was a sigh over the line, 'Alright, I'm taking the ship back out of range. Radio in when your ready for pick up.'

'You may have saved your comrads. But you will not be leaving this station alive.' spoke the Shadow Broker. Several panels opened along the control rooms walls and security mechs started to enter with weapons drawn. The squad wasted no time taking out the mechanized infantry as they backed toward the door.

They exited the room and Sev fired an overload into the holo-panel sealing it. "Safe to say we know what happened to the crew." said Rico. The squad got back into the elevator when Liara came onto the comms, 'Eric whats happening? Cathrine's pulling the ship farther away from the station.' she asked a little paniced. "It was a fucking trap. The Shadow Broker killed everyone here and set it up so that we would be drawn in." Eric said as the lift decended.

'What can we do to help?' asked Liara. "I'm afraid theres nothing you guys can do for us. We're gonna bring down the station's defenses so that we can get out of here. We got this." Eric replied. 'Alright, good luck.' she said still sounding concerned.

"So how are we gonna do this shit?" asked Rico. "The defense systems run off of four power cells. We destroy those, we bring down the defenses." said Sev. "Sounds like a plan to me." said Eric.

The elevator decended to the lower depths of the station and opened up into a wide room with several scaffoldings stretching across the room. In the four corners of the room were four large power cells. "Thats them." said Sev as they entered the room.

Going to the first power cell, Sev hacked into the terminal attatched to it. The loud hum of the power cell went quiet as it shut down. "One down." said Sev. Security mechs started to enter the room forcing the team into cover. "Sev! Get to the next power cell we'll cover you!" Eric shouted over the gunfire.

The Quarian sprinted across the large room to the next power cell while the rest of the squad gunned down the mechs that came into the room. Eric caught sight of more mechs standing on the scaffoldings above them and swapped to his sniper rifle.

Sev powered down the next power cell and shot a couple mechs with his pistol before moving onto the next. Rico mowed down mechs left and right grinning like a maniac, "Come on you robotic fucks!" Lazura launched a singularity sending a couple of mechs hurtling across the room and into the wall.

Eric ejected the thermal clip from his sniper rifle and slammed in a fresh one. On the scaffoldings above them laid roughly a dozen headless mechs. He heard the sounds of the third power cell going down, "Keep it up! We're almost there!" he shouted to the others.

Sev made his way to the last power cell when he heard a loud thud behind him. The Quarian turned with his weapon drawn to see a YIMR mech unfold itself. "Hostile aquired." it spoke before shooting. Sev took cover as the heavy rounds tore around him. "I'm pinned down! YIMR!" he shouted across the room. The team refocused fire on the large mech the YIMR turned and returned fired on the squad giving the Quarian time to get to the power cell.

The large mech's shields absorbed the rounds, its large gatling guns keeping the team in cover. Sev started to work on the terminal attacthed to the power cell when a few rounds fired by a small group of security mechs coming from the right. Sev returned fire taking a few of the mechs out...but failed to notice the YIMR saw him. "Target aquired."

"Sev get out of there!" shouted Rico. The large mech fired its rocket launcher, Sev dropped to the floor under the explosive round as it struck the power cell behind him and exploded. The large power cell started to overload from the damage, Eric lept up to call out something but couldn't get it out in time as the power source exploded in a large flash of raw energy.

The team had been thrown back from the blast and their shields had been taken out from the energy. Getting to their feet, they noticed the YIMR and all other mechs in the room were disabled from the explosion. "Sev!" Eric called out. A groan caught their attention.

Running over, they pulled a chunk of debris off the disoriented Quarian, "You good?" asked Eric. Sev sat up and clutched his abdomen, "Shit, couple of my ribs are broken and my suit's breached." Lazura knelt down and sealed Sev's exosuit with omni-gel before applying medi-gel for his injuries. "Can you walk?" she asked. Sev shook his head before letting out a loud cough. "No...and I'm starting to get sick...my suit was breached too long..." he said breathing heavily.

"Eric, his temperature just shot up to 105 degrees. He needs to get back to the ship." said Lazura. Rico picked Sev up as they headed toward the elevator. "Cat, get ready to pick us up. And have the medbay preped, Sev's wounded and his suit was breached." said Eric. 'On our way boss." replied the pilot.

"Fuck, my shields aren't recharging." said Rico as the lift started to climb. "...blast...from the...power cell...fried our shield...generators..." Sev wheezed out. "Thats not good. We gotta be more careful here on out guys." said Eric drawing his handcannon with his free hand.

The elevator doors opened and Eric and Lazura walked out first to scan the room. "Clear." said Eric as they headed to the door leading back to the cargo hold. Rico followed still carrying Sev's weakening body. "Hang on Sev, we're gonna get you help." said Rico adjusting his grip on the Quarian.

They tredded back down the way they came in and stood outside the doors to the cargo hold. Eric hit the holo switch and checked the room, before they entered. "Guess we gave the mechs the slip." said Rico. "Lets not tempt our luck." said Lazura. They reached the shuttle and popped the hatch, Rico laid Sev down on the floor and Lazura covered him with a few security blankets.

"Dammit! The bay doors won't open." said Eric from the cockpit. "Must be the security lockdown." said Lazura. "There should be a terminal around here to open the doors." Eric looked around the cargo hold and saw a flight of stairs leading up to a small room on the second floor. "Rico, stay here and protect the shuttle just in case. Lazura, with me." he said as they headed for the stairs.

Keeping their weapons ready and they eyes open, they made it across the room and headed up the metal steps to the room. Inside was a large window overlooking the cargo hold and a terminal under it. "This must be it." said Eric as he started to work on the terminal.

After a few keystrokes, the read out for the main doors switched from red to green, "They're open. We should leave quickly." said Lazura. They started to head back to the shuttle, when the door they came through before opened and security mechs started to pour into the room.

Eric and Lazura fired on the mechs as they retreated. Rico fired from the shuttle giving them cover. Mechs fell with limbs and heads missing. Eric put his Mattock away and pulled his Shuriken pistols to give a wider range of fire.

Lazura emptied her assault rifle before firing a wave of mass energy sending the advancing mechs flying back into the hallway.

"Nice work." said Eric as they kept moving back to the shuttle. They were about half way there when a shot rang out. Eric spun around and saw Lazura stagger. Another shot rang out and the Asari lurched forward before falling to the floor. Several feet back, a mech was dragging itself across the floor with a Carnifex in its hand.

Eric flared his own biotics and lifted the bot into the air and crushed it into a ball before running over to his downed team mate.

Lazura remained face down, with two large bullet holes in her back. Eric dropped down and applied medi-gel quickly before flipping her over, "Lazura!" The Asari was unresponsive. "Eric lets go!" shouted Rico as he shot at more mechs that started to crawl into the room. Picking up the Asari, Eric bolted for the shuttle and closed the hatch. Rico jumped into the pilot's seat and started the small ship up as the bay doors started to open.

Eric set Lazura down and tried to get her to wake up, "Lazura...come on stay with me!" She opened her purple-blue eyes and looked at him. "I...got careless..." she said quietly before being struck with a large coughing fit, a glob of blood shot from her mouth and splattered onto the chest of her armor.

"Just hang on. We're heading to the ship now, the medical team will be waiting." said Eric. The Asari shook her head, "Shots...hit vital points...left...lung..." she coughed again sending forth more blood. "...can't...fell my legs...medi-gel...not strong...enough..." her eyes started to glaze over and drift shut. "Stay awake! Don't close your eyes Lazura, we're almost back to the ship!" Eric shouted.

The Asari looked up at her leader with a smile, "I...have to say. It was...fun...being on your...team..." Her eyes closed and her body slumped in his arms.

Eric felt the world around him slow down. He didn't even notice that the shuttle had entered the cargo bay of the Shadowed Light, or the medical team entering the craft and taking the still figure in his arms away.

He just stared...lost in the void.

Liara ran into the shuttle and started to shake him, asking him what had happened. He didn't respond...the gravity of what had occurred hit him like a freight train.

One of his crew...was dead.

A/N:...Lazura's gone...Sev's critical...How can our Marine handle this? And will this fuel him to put an end to the Shadow Broker? Or lead to his own downfall? Stay tuned.