"Well, well, well. Looked who the cat dragged in." The wiry man leant against the railing in the docking bay, arms crossed and a smirk on his scarred face.

Shepard felt her own smile spread across her features. She took several long strides forward and threw her arms around him. He squeezed back, hard, nearly driving the breath from her lungs.

"It's good to see you, Shepard."

"You too, Coyle."

They stepped back, both of their limit for physical affection expended, and Coyle looked her up and down critically. "You look like a bloody beach bum, Shepard."

She ran a hand through her hair and rolled her eyes. "It was for the mission."

"Yeah, sure." The older man had the wiry look of a greyhound, not an ounce of fat on him. He could run and run for days, it'd felt like.

She felt Ashley and Liara's eyes on them, waiting for an explanation. The crew was loading the last of the supplies they'd needed to pick up and making sure everyone was accounted for. "Coyle, this is Doctor Liara T'Soni, my acting science officer, and this is Lieutenant Ashley Williams, my Marine Detachment Commander. Liara, Ash, this is Master Chief Joseph Coyle, retired. We worked in the Traverse together before the bastard retired. He's now-"

"An independent shipping captain," he cut in.

"A Corsair."

"Damnit, Shepard. You're not supposed to tell people that," he cut his eyes towards Liara. One night on an operation, when they'd both been reaching the stage of hallucinating from sleep deprivation (the highlight of that week had been Sergeant Montoya shrieking contact because he'd mistaken the lights of a nearby village for enemy vehicles), she'd asked him about his opinions on aliens.

They're people just like us, Shepard. He'd come to the same conclusion Kaidan had - people were people regardless if they were blue or plated. His mistrust probably came more from the 'foreign civilian' deal than anything.

But Liara was her friend and she'd helped stop the geth encroachment on the Alliance. "I trust these two with my life." She smiled. "And yours, clearly."

He raised one bushy eyebrow. "Your ship, your rules."

"Damn straight. Not that I'm not glad to see you, but what's up? Shouldn't you be harassing slavers in the Traverse?"

His hatchet-like face turned contemplative and he crossed his arms, leaning against the railing. "Took out a slaver frigate week and a half ago, but they put a round through my port bow. Killed three of my crew."

"I'm sorry," she said sincerely.

"Thanks. They regretted it once I got my bloody hands on 'em," he said with a hint of teeth in his tight smile. "Anyway, so we put in for repairs, which should take about a month. And I was hearing some rumours, along the ol' N7 grapevine, that my old friend Shepard was hunting terrorists in the Verge."

She frowned at him. "Who told you that?"

Coyle waved a hand. "C'mon Shepard. You might not be with the Unit anymore, but you gotta know your people are keeping an eye on ya."

"Gossip mongers, the lot of you," Shepard grumbled. It was difficult to keep things hidden from the Villa.

"Yeah, yeah. Look, Shepard, my ship is in drydock, and I've let those of my crew who've still got homes go back to 'em for a bit. The rest are probably in the middle of drinking themselves into the gutter. You could use some back-up."

"She has back-up," Ashley cut in.

Coyle raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure she does. But I'm an N7."

Ashley bristled a little at that, but Shepard shrugged, patting her on the shoulder. "More help is always welcome. If you're sure, Coyle..."

"I'm sure. Else I'll end up in CSec's drunk tank, and we both know it."

"You're gonna have to slow down at some point, old man."

He chuckled at that. "C'mon, Shepard. N7s don't slow down. We end up dead or wheeled off to the nursing home still complaining about back in our day..."

"Get your shit onboard. Don't go harassing my Marines, now."

"No promises."


"Mind if I put my sleepin' bag down here with the grunts?"

Ash looked up at Coyle from the rifle she'd been disassembling, gun oil on her hands. The low hum of the Normandy's drive core underlay the laughter and conversation within the Kennel. Behind the N7, Lance Corporal Fukui was demonstrating his abilities to his fellow Marines - lifting up a pile of MRE boxes in a swirl of cobalt energy.

Fukui, the team's new biotic, was a very different type from the two biotics she'd known before him. Shepard and Alenko had both reacted to the discrimination levelled at human biotics by forming a strong control over their abilities, by in some ways trying to be above it. She doubted Shepard felt a need to prove herself to anyone.

Fukui on the other hand, Raider or not, still seemed to think the best defence was offence and delighted in showing his biotics off. She didn't see the harm so long as he was safe about it. She did have a feeling the younger man was going to be a handful.

"That's no problem at all, sir."

"Sir?" One bushy eyebrow shot up his forehead. "You know I was a MCPO?"

"Sure, but you're a ship captain now. And I can't call you Captain on the Skipper's ship."

He chuckled. "I think 'Coyle' will be enough, Lieutenant."

She shrugged. "Fine by me."

His eyes slid to the rifle under her hands. "An officer modding her own weapons? Colour me impressed."

"M-99 Saber marksman rifle," she said fondly, "not standard issue yet. Shepard got it for me - it pays knowing a Spectre, lemme tell you. No way I'm letting anyone else get their paws all over my guns."

"I can respect that. Mind if I?" He gestured at his weapons case.

"No problem." She moved over and patted the bench. "My armoury bench is your armoury bench. There's a - " She stopped. Started again. "There's a spare locker if you want to store your gear while you're embarked."

Kaidan's locker. The one she'd had to clear out after Virmire.

Thankfully, Coyle didn't comment on it. He just nodded. "Thank you, Lieutenant."

They worked in silence, Ashley continuing to fiddle with her rifle and Coyle cleaning his own assault rifle, SMG and pistol. She appreciated those who didn't feel like they had to fill the silence. It was one of the things she liked about Shepard.

"It's chow time if you want to join us," she said, lifting her rifle and carefully depositing it into the case. No racks for her new marksman rifle.

"Navy food," he contemplated, "can't be any worse than the MREs my crew and I get stuck eating sometimes."

Behind them, raised voices echoed through the Kennel and shattered the quiet - and their conversation along with it. Ash twisted, wiping her hands off on a rag.

Freddie and Fukui were chest to chest, the latter still glowing with snaps of blue energy down his arms. She knew when the Marines were fucking around - they loved wrestling and sparring and all of that crap - and this didn't look like that.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. Children. Fukui had been here all of five minutes, and she'd thought that she'd put the fear of God into Freddie last time he'd been stupid enough to take a swing at another serviceman.

"Stop being such a fuckin' ass-kisser and maybe-"

"Hey fuck you, man. Were you here, FNG?" A vein jumped in Fredricks' neck. He shoved Fukui back, fists clenched.

"The fuck did you call me?" The light around Fukui pulsed, gathered around his drawn back hand.

"Hey!" Ash took a step forward, but Draven was there first, shoving them apart and scowling. Fukui's biotics winked out.

"The fuck do you think you fucks are doin', hey? Watcha gon do, Fuckup?" she stabbed one finger into Fukui's chest. "Use a deadly weapon on your brother? Not on my watch you're not. You both forget we got terrorists to kill tomorrow?" She seized them both by the collar and dragged them over to Ash. "What d'you want me to do with these idiots?"

Ash stared at them emotionlessly. "Go find Gunny Berhard and tell him what you did. I'm sure he can find something to entertain you both."

"Aye, ma'am," they both muttered dispiritedly.

"And Fukui?" She waited for the younger Marine to look up. "Ever even think about using your biotics on a squadmate in anger again and I will have you off this ship so fast your head spins. Am I clear?"

He dropped his gaze to the deck. "Yes, ma'am."

"Young dumb grunts don't change," Coyle observed out loud as the two young men departed in sullen silence.

"Fukui is a N5," she said, frowning, "he should know better."

The N7 Corsair shrugged. "You'd think so. How about that lunch, Williams?"

The Marines trickled into the mess hall, mixing with the sailors coming off their shifts. Today's meal was hopefully-beef mush and vegetables. At least they still had fresh veggies - for now.

Shepard waved them over to where she was already seated, digging into her double rations. The way the Commander could pack away all that food was honestly impressive. When they'd stayed together, it'd felt like they had to shop every few days with how much Shepard ate. Biotics.

Ash seated herself on one side of her and Coyle sat on the other. "So Coyle, you and the Skipper here served together in the Traverse?"

"Yep, ran a team together before she got her ass promoted."

"So you gotta have some stories."

"Ash," Shepard said warily and got just a grin in response.

"Oh yeah, do I," Coyle smirked.

"C'mon then."

"I'll get you back for this," Shepard promised, low enough only she could hear, but Ash just leant around her to raise an eyebrow at the other N7. She had a feeling they'd both enjoy Shepard's 'revenge.'

"So we've been sitting in this goddamn OP for like twelve hours, unable to move too much let alone start a fire or anythin', waiting for these piece of shit slavers to turn up so we can pop 'em. One of our boys, Lancer, he's on the surveillance equipment, and he pipes up, 'bout 4am local time, that he's got a contact, so I wake up Loca here -"

"You literally kicked me awake," Shepard grumbled. "I had a bruise the size of an apple on my ribs for days afterward."

Coyle waved her off. "So she goes up and asks about the contact. And Lancer is quiet for a bit, and then he says 'ma'am, I think it's a...space cow.' 'A space cow.' 'Yes ma'am. It's got four legs and appears to be grazing.'"

"Ten million credits of equipment to find a fucking space cow," Shepard shook her head, sipping her coffee.

"So Loca turns to Lancer and just goes 'unless it's a batarian funded infiltrator space cow, I'm going back to sleep.' And so she did."

"Can't trust those space cows," Shepard said dryly as Ash laughed, their shoulders bumping together.

"I got more," Coyle said with a waggle of his bushy eyebrows.

"Oh god," she muttered. "I should've known you'd use this time to embarrass me."

"So, Commander, what are our rules of engagement for infiltrator space cows?" Ashley asked innocently.

"Shoot to kill. Maybe we'll get some steak out of it."

"Good to know."

"What about," Waaberi cut her eyes towards Jaz, grinning, "our ROE for gasbags?"

Jaz groaned, letting his forehead thump against the mess table. "Look, I think under the circumstances, being a little jumpy was understandable!"

"Do you just start shooting innocent fauna when you're 'jumpy'?"

"Do not shoot anything that would get this ship on the front page of ANN," Shepard said dryly.

"But-"


The dull green orb representing Binthu spun lazily in the centre of the briefing room, just beyond the tips of Shepard's fingers. The ground team clustered around collectively exuded eagerness. It'd been boring for most of them, stuck on the ship as it hid behind the planet's moon for two days while the CIC crew used passive sensors and drones to collate intel on the Normandy's next target.

Now, that intelligence was displayed by the holo in front of the Normandy's commander. With Coyle sitting in one of the seats, she could almost imagine this was just another N7 mission. But Liara and Tali would've stood out in those briefings, and the only authorization for this mission was hers.

Part of her reveled in the freedom and flexibility of it. She could see what needed doing and do it. Just like that. No need to soothe some colonel's ego just so you got approval to kick a door in.

Another part of her itched. There was a trap, waiting there for the arrogant or the unwary. You might start thinking you had all the answers, get involved in things that weren't yours to solve. The trap that had perhaps ensnared Saren.

Is that what she was doing here?

No. This was a human problem, and she was the human Spectre. And if it was revenge, well, Torfan had shown that revenge was Alliance official policy. And she wasn't going to leave that many bodies in her wake.

Well. Depending on how many bodies Cerberus had.

"Binthu," she said leaning her chin on her other fist, "is a shitty rock barely worthy of attention from the degenerates in the Naval Exploration Flotilla. Atmosphere of carbon dioxide, with added toxic chlorine and sulphur dioxide. And sometimes it rains acid. So we're gonna keep our helmets and seals on. It's apparently the best place for Cerberus to set up their little shop of horrors."

She zoomed in. Red markers drew themselves across the holo, detailing the image of a compound built into Binthu's surface. Another tap of her omnitool and she brought up some still images taken by the Normandy's drones, showing a border wall with defence turrets and guard posts, a surface facility that was presumably dug further into the planet's surface. A few generically painted shuttles - both Kodiaks and cargo haulers - sat on a small airfield.

"The landscape is predominantly low hills, and Cerberus has built their facility on one of the larger hills in the area, which complicates things a little. However, these ridgelines here - " she drew her fingers across the holo, leaving blue arrows to show the possibles infil routes - "should give us some cover and these hills here -" she drew two blue x marks - "can be used for firing positions or OPs.

"The Normandy will, all things going well, get us into LZ Tahoe undetected. From there, we will infil via Mako to Point Cowboy. From Cowboy, the sniper team and mortar team will move to OP Texas and set up, while the Mako moves to Hill 234. The assault element will move once fires begin - and I want them going until the last possible moment, Williams."

Ashley nodded. They'd gone over the mission a few times with Coyle, and they'd both come to the conclusion that Ash needed to be up at that OP, as much as they both preferred her to be at Shepard's six. She was the Normandy's only sniper now that Garrus was gone, and she was handy at calling in fires as well.

"Once we've cleared the upper portion of the Cerberus base, we'll regroup and then push into the underground sections. Our current estimate of enemy strength is between 20-40 enemy guard personnel and 30 or so civilian personnel. You are clear to engage anyone with a weapon and any...thing...you deem to be a threat to your life or that of one of your squadmates. Civilian personnel should be restrained and put in a safe place for later collection if possible."

Shepard looked around at her people solemnly. "I want everyone on their toes. We know these people had access to rachni specimens and they've already killed dozens of Marines. No stupid mistakes. Any questions?"

Once the inevitable questions had been answered, she rose to her feet. "Dismissed. You have your assignments."

Alex Fredricks didn't immediately leave with the outflow of people from the briefing room. Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Can I help you, Freddie?"

"It's just, ma'am," his bushy blond eyebrows drew together, "you put me on the mortar team. Ma'am."

"Yes."

"But the rest of my element is with the assault force, ma'am."

"Yes."

His mouth opened and closed a few times, his cheeks reddening before he burst out, "Is this because of what happened last night?"

"In part," she said calmly.

"You're benching me because of that?" he demanded. Stopped, coloured a bit more and added a sullen, "Ma'am."

He was only twenty. Just a boy, really. Had she been this brash at his age?

Probably, considering how often her squad leader had fantasied about dunking her in the nearest river.

"I'm 'benching' you from the initial assault because I need a mortar team, Tali and Liara aren't trained on the smart mortar, and both have skillsets I might need and yes, because your behaviour recently has been concerning."

"Ma'am," he began and then stopped. His forehead creased. She thought she could almost see the cogs of his mind working, turning over her reasoning.

"Freddie," she said gently, "I know what happened in the war has been weighing on you pretty heavily - there's no shame in that. If you need to talk, if you need help, my door is always open. And if you're not comfortable talking to me, you can talk to Draven. She's been where you've been. We might be able to help. "

"You can't bring the dead back to life, ma'am," he said, staring at his boots, abruptly deflated.

She smiled a little sadly. "No, I can't. But I have a bit of experience with loss."

"I'll think about it, ma'am."

"Good. Right now, I need you to do your job. The more accurate fire we get onto that Cerberus base before we hit it, the bigger the chance we all have of coming back in one piece. Can I count on you?"

His shoulders straightened. "Aye aye, ma'am."


The thunder of exploding mortar rounds and the Mako's 155mm cannon cracked across the rolling hills of Binthu. The ground beneath their feet was almost brittle, breaking easily under their feet as Shepard led the assault team through a gully, rifle in hand and Coyle at her side.

She didn't want to think about the damage this environment would be doing to the Mako, the mortar and all their equipment. Hopefully, they'd be in and out before that was a problem.

She'd considered a more stealthy approach to this raid, but she wanted to inflict as much damage as possible before they had to go into CQB and with the Normandy hanging around any Cerberus reinforcements would get a nasty surprise. Unless Cerberus could pull a heavy cruiser out of their collective arse or something.

She'd also thought about just dropping a mass accelerator round on top of them - but she needed to know more about what Cerberus was up to. What Ophion was, who Erebus was. They could always blow up the facility later. Guns would enjoy that.

"Lance Actual, this is Birdy. All defensive turrets are down, over."

"Roger that, Birdy. Lance Actual out." She waved a hand signal at the others, and they moved into a line formation. They were so quiet that Shepard could hear her own breathing inside her helmet. "Big Iron this is Lance Actual, cease-fire. Say again, cease-fire, over."

"Copy, Lance Actual. Ceasing fire." Freddie said calmly over the comm. He was a good kid. Just needed to screw his head on right.

The assault force bounded up the hill warily, watching for any sentries that had survived the maelstrom of fire that had been rained down upon them. "Netcall, this is Lance Actual. Lance is breaching the wire, over."

"Lance Victor copies. Shifting fire, over."

"Roger. Lance Actual out." She'd spoken to Dubyansky before they'd dropped - the Mako would switch to its machinegun and continue to fire on any Cerberus guards on the opposite side of the base to where Shepard would be breaching.

Explosives were unneeded. The perimeter wall had been breached in several places by the Mako's cannon, concrete slabs cracked and thrown aside as if by a careless hand. The Normandy's ground forces flowed into the gaps like water.

Shepard stepped over a dead guard, killed when the Mako had destroyed one of the towers. His side was peppered with shrapnel. He was far from the only body - the above ground compound resembled a charnel house, the bodies scattered and intertwined with bits of rubble like discarded puppets. Black smoke streaked the air from where the shuttles burned sullenly on the airfield, melting and twisting metal hulks. Wulandri's gunnery crews and Ashley had done well, the bomb hitting just right.

Draven's shields flickered as a crack of gunfire echoed across the compound as six surviving Cerberus guards emerging from the chaos. They sought cover behind some rubble, one of them laying down a spray of fire from a LMG.

"Liara!" Shepard called as she pressed herself behind the burnt out hulk of a vehicle. The asari didn't ask for any explanation, just popped up long enough to fling a writhing ball of energy at the enemy. The singularity caught four of them and tugged them out of cover and into the air.

Shepard stood and threw out her own field of shearing dark energy. When the opposing biotic field met, the air rang with the resulting explosion as it tore flesh and armour and bone alike. One somehow survived the detonation, crawling towards his rifle, his leg taken off at the knee. She raised her Valkyrie and put two bursts into his chest, cracking his hardsuit open.

The two surviving Cerberus guards ran for the door deeper into the facility. The Marines immediately opened fire, and they tumbled into the dirt, rounds piercing their backs.

"Area clear," Berhard announced.

Commander Shepard felt a certain dispassionate satisfaction. Even when she stepped over a white lab coat turned a sort of pink by blood.

A scientist? A scientist, just like those who had watched her people be torn apart on Akuze.

"Any contacts on the drone, Tali?"

"Negative, Commander," Tali replied, looking up from her omnitool.

"Alright. Let's regroup and then start pushing into the facility. I want to keep Cerberus off balance."


"Husks." Disgust coated Shepard's voice.

Ashley took a step over a dead Cerberus lab tech towards the shimmering containment shield. They'd ordered the base to surrender, lay down their arms, but many of them - even the civilians - had refused. She'd almost felt bad, shooting down a man in a lab coat who was trying to kill a heavily armed Marine with a peashooter.

Almost. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

There were a handful of survivors, all of them lab personnel, being ferried up to the surface and the Normandy on her orders.

The husks milled aimlessly, hands limp at their desiccated sides, like puppets with cut strings. She'd never seen them except for when they were trying to twist her head right off her body. Or when they were being made. Their stillness was profoundly unnatural.

This base was a regular house of horrors. Rachni, creepers, and now husks. Pretty clear evidence ExoGeni could have links to Cerberus. From the cold glint in Shepard's eyes, Ashley guessed ExoGeni's Spectre problem wasn't quite over.

"So those are husks." Beside her, Coyle clicked his tongue. The whipcord of a man was encased in the same dark armour Shepard wore, the same bloody stripe down the arm. Where Shepard was a maelstrom on the battlefield, Coyle was the essence of control, preferring a bevy of tech grenades, suit modifications, and a SMG for close quarters. The two N7s had dismantled the Cerberus defences methodically and without mercy.

"Ugly bastards, aren't they?" Shepard replied, before turning towards where Tali was hard at work at a terminal. "Any luck on their database? Where did they get these husks? I don't see any evidence that they have dragon's teeth."

Ashley shuddered despite herself at the thought of Cerberus deliberately turning people into husks. They'd fed Alliance Marines to thresher maws, so it didn't seem exactly out of character.

"It uh..." Tali's head tilted towards Ashley quickly and away, "seems they captured them on Eden Prime, after the battle."

She stilled. "How the fuck did we miss that?"

"Chaos after the battle," Coyle said. "All the Alliance personnel are exhausted if they're not casualties themselves. Things slip pass."

She gritted her teeth. Could some of those husks be people she'd once known? A brother in arms, a woman she'd bought coffee from, hollowed out for the Reapers' purposes? "We need to kill them, Skipper. Them and the other specimens."

Shepard's eyes were gentle searching under her visor as she looked at Ash. You okay? Without words. Ashley nodded slightly. She was here to do her job, not linger on what had happened on Eden Prime. They could debrief about it later. Maybe over a cup of coffee, just the two of them.

"You're right, Lieutenant. Light them up."

Once they'd ensured that all of Cerberus' 'specimens' were dead via grenades and sidearm fire, they trooped back up top where Dubyansky was waiting to pick them up in the Mako. The sergeant had already done one job, ferrying the surviving prisoners to the landing zone to hand them off to Rahman and his masters-at-arms.

"Get us to a safe distance, then call in the strike," Shepard ordered. "I want to see this place burn."

Ashley glanced over at her with the Mako rumbling around them, wheels grinding against the crusty early as the heavy IFV heaved itself down the incline. Shepard had her arms crossed, black ceramic against black.

Once the Mako crested a hill and came to a stop, they piled out like sightseers.

Ash called in the strike, and they watched as the Normandy flashed overhead in a blur of black. The bomb struck with a bone-shaking boom, throwing dirt and concrete and shattered rock into the air, a plume of dull grey smoke billowing above. Some of the Marines whooped, excited as young people often were by things exploding.

When it cleared the Cerberus base resembled a smashed in ant hill, collapsed in on itself.

Ashley raised her hand, triggering her comm. "Big Brother, this is Lance 5. Can we get a BDA on that strike, over?"

When it came through that reattack wasn't necessary, she nodded to Shepard.

"Satisfied?" asked Coyle, tilting his head."

Shepard was silent for a long moment. "No. It's not enough."

"So we keep going until it is?"

Her tone sharpened. "We keep going until Cerberus is no longer a threat."

"You're the boss."

"Mount up," Ashley called to the Marines before falling in step with Shepard.

"You alright?" Shepard asked softly. "That can't have been easy for you."

Shooting down a bunch of husks with that thought in the back of her head - is that someone I know? - wasn't exactly her idea of a good time.

"I'm fine." Ash smiled at the disbelieving look Shepard shot her under her visor. "It was a shock, but I'll be okay."

Shepard touched her shoulder and then stepped past to climb into the Mako. Ashley cast one last look over her shoulder at the burning Cerberus base and followed.


"Alright, talk to me."

As soon as the crew was aboard, the prisoners secured, and the Normandy's bow pointed away from Binthu, Shepard had organised a debriefing. Tali had barely had time to rack her weapons before she'd been swept into a meeting with Intelligence Specialists Baumer and Kokinos to go over the data she'd taken from Cerberus databases.

"Cerberus managed to purge some files before I was able to stop their deletion program, but we've gotten a few important pieces of intel," Tali told the Commander as the crew clustered in a loose half circle.

"This cell is focusing on 'Project Ophion,' which appears to be focused on 'organic weaponry' in their search for not only protection from the Hegemony but human supremacy."

"Human supremacy? Humanity has been a part of galactic society for mere decades," Liara said disbelievingly.

"Arrogant and stupid." Shepard crossed her arms. "So these so-called organic weapons - they were trying to control those specimens we found?"

"Yes, ma'am. While they appear to have an in-depth understanding of thresher maw behaviour - " Kokinos glanced at Shepard - "Ophion is not looking at them as weapons. Husks, creepers, rachni all have something in common. They all receive signals of some kind from a controlling force - or in the case of the rachni, from mama."

"So what, they're trying to hijack those signals?" Ash questioned, her dark eyebrows drawn together.

"That is what we believe," Kokinos confirmed.

"They had the same problem with the rachni that Binary Helix did," Tali added, bringing up some of the Cerberus experiment files. "Without the queen, their minds develop in isolation and they become maddened. After that, even a queen can't get through to them."

What had Ashley said on Noveria? Like locking a kid in a dark room.

"What about the creepers and husks?"

"The creepers they had some success mimicking the Thorian's signals, but with it destroyed they don't have a way of constructing new ones." Kokinos flipped through a few images of the creeper experimentation.

"That's something, I guess," Ash muttered.

"The husks...they were studying both the way Sovereign controlled them on Eden Prime and how they're created. They confirm what Alliance research has so far discovered - that the dragon's teeth inject nanobots of an incredible sophistication into the victim's bloodstream, causing the transformation, and that process is impossible to reverse and very difficult to slow let alone stop. So nothing really there. However, they did determine that husks can be either directly controlled by a Reaper or left in a sort of 'pre-programmed' state."

Shepard's expression was indecipherable. "Send the intel on the husks to Hackett. It might be something his taskforce wants to look at, regardless of its origins. Did we find anything linking to other Cerberus facilities or operatives?"

Tali jumped in - this was her work. "It looks like Cerberus communicates covertly by piggybacking onto the comm relays and concealing their messages in civilian traffic. I used the protocols I found in the files to trace some messages sent by the Binthu facility to the planet of Nepheron in the Colombia System."

"Nepheron," Shepard mused. A few taps on her omnitool later and she brought up the charts for the planet. "Another disregarded planet in the middle of nowhere. Balmy average surface temp of 37 degrees celsius and a few thousand volcanoes."

"So we drop into orbit, do some surveillance, and go from there?" Ashley suggested.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Shepard rose to her feet and opened the intercomm: "Commander to the bridge. Set a course for the Colombia System - I want a stealth approach on the planet of Nepheron, so IES active once we're out of FTL."

"Aye aye, ma'am. I'll plot us a course now."

"Thank you, X. Rest of you dismissed. Get some rack time before we hit Nepheron."


A/N: Now with art! The link to the full image of the new cover for this fic is in the index.