The nightmare began like it always did.

She was unable to move, unable to speak. An uncomfortable prickly sensation spread out over her body.

Fear welled up in her as she stared out through the transparent lid of the narrow capsule she was imprisoned within. And then four glowing eyes peered in at her as long, talon-like fingers tapped the glass in front of her face.

Paralyzed by terror, Kelly looked away from the horrible insect-like face and noticed someone in the pod next to hers. The woman was older, but very pretty. Kelly looked on as the woman was suddenly consumed by panic, her hands frantically thrashing against the interior of her own coffin-like prison.

Then the woman howled in pain and Kelly watched in horror as she began to dissolve before her eyes, disintegrating into nothingness.

The harsh rapping of a hand against her capsule brought Kelly's focus forward again. But where the Collector drone's face had been before now was a handsome, older man with glowing blue eyes. "Your sacrifice will be honored, Miss Chambers," he uttered before taking a drag of a cigarette.

And then she felt it. The tingling of her skin rapidly turned to an awful burning sensation. She raised a hand in front of her face and recoiled in agony as her fingers melted away. Kelly pounded on the lid of the pod with her remaining hand and tried to scream. But no sound would come from her dissolving vocal cords. And the man with glowing eyes just stared back, indifferent to her suffering.

Her eyes rolled back into her head and her body began to hemorrhage and seize. And then in a final thunderous shudder of pain, she exploded within the pod and blinked out of existence…

Kelly bolted awake, shouting as her heart raced uncontrollably.

The lights within the Normandy's crew quarters were dimmed and the area was vacant except for Crewman Jenny Goldstein who had been resting in the upper bunk across the way from Kelly.

Startled awake by Kelly's shouts, Goldstein peered over at the red headed woman. "Are you okay, Kelly?" she asked in an unnecessarily hushed voice.

Kelly stared back at Goldstein with wild, unfocused eyes for several seconds before she managed to rein in her racing pulse. "Yes, I'm fine," she said breathlessly. "I…. It was just a nightmare. I'm okay. Thank you, Jenny"

Goldstein continued to look over at Kelly with concern and then smiled sympathetically. "I get them too," she said and then paused, pushing the sheets of her bunk around. "I know you're the counselor and all, but if you'd like to talk, I'm here for you."

Kelly swallowed, feeling her parched throat. "That's sweet," she said, regaining her composure. "Thank you, Jenny, but I think I'll be fine."

Goldstein watched Kelly for another few moments and then smiled again before lying back down under the blankets of her bed.

Kelly swung her legs over the bunk and placed her bare feet on the cold, metal floor. Looking down at herself, she saw that she was drenched in sweat and the white cotton tank she'd slept in was sticking to her cold, clammy skin.

Sighing heavily, she stood and quickly retrieved her toiletry bag and a fresh uniform from the footlocker at the end of the bunk and then wrapped a thick, gray robe around herself.

Fleeing the crew quarters, Kelly hastily crossed the short distance to the women's head. Finding the compartment mercifully empty, she tossed her bag on the counter near one of the sinks, hung her robe on a hook along the wall and stripped off her drenched underwear. Tossing her soiled garments in the corner, she claimed the shower stall closest to the back of the room.

As the droplets of the Normandy's recycled, hot water beat down on her skin, Kelly allowed the horror of the nightmare to recede back into the dark corner of her mind where she compartmentalized the trauma.

Emerging from the shower a few minutes later, she grabbed a nearby towel, patted herself dry and wrapped the rough cotton around her body as she returned to the sink where she had left her bag.

Looking up at her reflection in the mirror, Kelly noted the bloodshot, weary appearance of her eyes. Despite the hot shower, she still felt the dull throb of pain just behind her right eye. And though she logically knew the headache had nothing physically to do with it, she couldn't help but visualize the tiny explosive charge that was surgically implanted within her eye socket, near the optic nerve, patiently waiting for the signal that would someday end her life.

Finishing getting dressed, Kelly quickly ducked back into the crew quarters and dropped off her bag, robe, and dirty sleepwear. She glanced around the compartment warily before reaching into the concealed compartment of her locker to retrieve the tiny data drive Kai Leng had given her, and then dashed out again to start her shift in the CIC.

Emerging from the lift, Kelly nervously walked out and immediately saw Miranda Lawson standing at the top of the short flight of stairs that led to the Normandy's Galaxy Map interface.

The XO was dressed in the white and black, form-fitting uniform she typically wore onboard the Normandy and intently staring into the three dimensional display. The psychologist in Kelly understood that the provocative outfit was a mechanism Lawson used to convey power and confidence. But seeing her now, Chambers could perceive the doubt and tension in Miranda's body language.

Kelly then ducked her head and hurriedly moved over to her station to the right of the Galaxy Map. Quickly glancing back up at the XO, she could see the woman's knuckles had gone white as she was grasping the railing with a death grip. Kelly knew that Miranda was distressed over the Commander's absence. Shepard still hadn't returned since he ordered the Normandy to flee through the Bahak relay and rendezvous with him here in the Sol system.

Lawson was in love with Shepard, Kelly was sure of it. The thought made her smile to herself as she reflected on the irony. Both she and Miranda had been explicitly ordered to engage the Commander romantically and attempt to draw him closer to Cerberus. But unexpectedly, Lawson's feelings for the man had become genuine. Kelly was still uncertain how she felt about that.

Looking over her left shoulder, Kelly noted that both Garrus Vakarian and the quarian, Tali, were standing near the Commander's private terminal on the other side of the Galaxy Map. The two aliens were both standing with arms folded, speaking quietly with each other as they furtively glanced up at XO Lawson, as if they were impatiently waiting for an order.

Sighing, she quickly logged on to the terminal and accessed her messages. Ignoring the half dozen emails from crewmembers requesting counseling sessions, her eyes were drawn to the message from her sister, Veronica Chambers.

Kelly briefly imagined how comforting it would feel to read a message from a close sibling, to be able to share her experiences with someone who she loved and who wouldn't judge her.

But of course, Veronica did not exist. Her sister was an elaborate fabrication, meticulously created by Cerberus to enrich the operative's cover and add nuance to her fictitious background. And above all else, Veronica was a mechanism for Cerberus to convey coded instructions to the Normandy's mole.

As she grasped the tiny data drive in her left hand, Kelly clicked on the email and learned of her new orders.


Miranda could feel their eyes drilling into her back.

Garrus and Tali had arrived in the CIC a little while earlier, waiting with the Normandy's XO for Shepard's return. But he was late. And with every passing minute, Miranda's patience eroded further and the sour feeling in her gut increased.

The Normandy was cozied up in a quiet quadrant of the Sol system, several hundred thousand kilometers from the Charon Relay, waiting for Shepard to meet them and then together make for Arcturus.

It had been just over thirty-six hours since Admiral Hackett had contacted Shepard and requested the Normandy's assistance. The Admiral's friend, Doctor Amanda Kenson, had been detained by the batarians in the Bahak system and was being held on charges of terrorism and espionage.

Miranda knew of Kenson as the renowned astrophysicist and mass relay expert. But apparently the woman was far more than that. Hackett had revealed to Shepard that Kenson was not only a very old friend of his, but also a longtime Systems Alliance Intelligence operative.

Hackett had briefed Shepard in private, over an encrypted Alliance military channel, but the Commander promptly filled Miranda and Garrus in on the mission details. Kenson had been running an operation based out of Elysium for months. She'd been studying the mass relays, trying to link the technology to the Reaper evidence the Alliance had collected after the Battle of the Citadel, when she hit on a breakthrough: The Bahak relay appeared to be oldest in the known network and discharged some unique energy characteristics that justified further research.

Alliance Intelligence engineered a cover story to allow Kenson to get a closer look. Using the pursuit of marauding pirates as their pretense, the SSV Budapest brought Kenson and her team into the Bahak system and deployed several bleeding-edge stealth probes to scan the relay and surrounding system.

Whatever it was that the Budapest found, afterward, Kenson had been authorized to enhance the nature of her mission and was granted significant funding, resources, and autonomous authority over the operation. At the same time, Hackett and all other non-Intelligence personnel were cut out of the loop.

But Kenson and Hackett went back a long way and she continued to share fragments of information with the Admiral. Just over a week ago, the doctor had contacted him and expressed her grave concern over evidence of an impending Reaper invasion that would originate in the Bahak system. Hackett had pressed her for details, understanding the gravity of the threat, but Kenson could only tell him that they were still working on developing a reliable estimate for a Reaper arrival timeline. That's when the Admiral shared with her the data EDI extracted from the Collector base.

Six days later, Kenson was in batarian custody.

Hackett's request for assistance didn't come through official channels. Affairs between the Hegemony and the Alliance were in a precarious state and Kenson's actions in Bahak threatened to destabilize the fragile relationship even further. So it came as no surprise that Alliance Intelligence had officially disavowed the doctor and denied any association with her the moment she had been apprehended. Shepard was the only one with the necessary skillset and resources the Admiral could turn to for help in saving an old friend's life.

Miranda had felt uneasy about the entire situation. But the Commander deeply respected Admiral Hackett and had promised to get Kenson out.

Shepard had recalled the remaining crew out on shore leave on Illium back to the Normandy and they got underway almost immediately. While on route, the team hastily put together an infiltration and extraction plan, using antiquated schematics of the prison facility Kenson was being held in on Aratoht, and prepared to deploy as soon as they arrived in orbit around the batarian colony world.

As soon as they emerged from the Bahak relay, the Normandy engaged their stealth systems and made for Aratoht. On approach, they took out the colony's military communication and surveillance satellites with orbital strike missiles and released both Kodiak-class shuttles for a rapid atmospheric descent to their target.

The operation was straightforward enough, but risky due to their lack of real-time intel. Shepard led the infiltration team tasked with Kenson's extraction, deploying to the prison facility with Garrus and Kasumi in one of the Normandy's shuttles. Simultaneously, Miranda departed with the support team in the other Kodiak, taking Tali, Mordin and Grunt. The XO's squad was responsible for disabling the facility's power and surveillance systems and would then fall back and wait to support Shepard's squad if they encountered trouble during the exfiltration.

Once on the ground, Miranda's team rapidly took out the facility's primary power and security subroutines and pulled back two klicks from the site while Shepard, Garrus, and Kasumi infiltrated the prison.

Their hastily planned operation had gone flawlessly until Shepard's team acquired their objective.

The Commander's group had just reported that they'd freed Dr. Kenson and were starting the exfil when what looked like an entire company of batarian soldiers descended on the prison from four drop ships. As both squads' threat scanners lit up, EDI broadcasted over the overwatch comm that three Hegemony frigates were inbound to Aratoht and on an intercept course for the Normandy. It was as if they had known they were coming all along.

Miranda was just preparing to take her team back to the prison to support the exfil when the Commander called them off. His team had encountered resistance within the prison and Shepard and Kenson had been separated from the rest of the squad. He ordered Garrus and Kasumi back to the Kodiak and then advised that he'd take Kenson off-world in a batarian shuttle they had spotted in the prison's landing bay.

Miranda and Garrus had both been adamant with their objections, but Shepard stood firm. He wanted the rest of the team off Aratoht immediately and back on the Normandy.

Garrus and Kasumi managed to slip out of the facility and back to their shuttle. Miranda's shuttle linked up with them just south of the prison and then made a big show of their ascent back up through the atmosphere, hoping to draw off any batarian air assets and clear a path for Shepard and Kenson to get clear.

Once the shuttles had escaped the planet's atmosphere, the Normandy streaked back into close orbit to collect the fleeing Kodiaks. The batarian frigates were closing rapidly and they needed to pickup Shepard's shuttle and clear out of the system as soon as possible. But then the Commander broadcast new orders. He instructed Miranda to take the Normandy and retreat back through the relay. He was going to use the batarian pursuit of the Normandy as cover to get Kenson back to an outpost her team had established within the system's massive asteroid belt. He had told Miranda that he would rendezvous with the Normandy in fourteen hours and then went radio silent.

Miranda hated the plan, but she was Shepard's XO and trusted his judgment. There had to have been a good reason for his insistence in getting Kenson back to her project base, so she reluctantly followed his orders and allowed the batarian ships to pursue the Normandy until they hit the relay and jumped from the system. It had been gut wrenching for her.

Now, Miranda's grip threatened to crush the railing that bordered the Normandy's Galaxy Map. Staring into the map interface, she was now furious with herself for allowing Shepard to take Kenson off that god forsaken planet by himself and without the Normandy's direct support. Without her support.

Right then, that's quite long enough, she decided. "Bridge, CIC," she curtly announced. "Joker, plot a course back to Bahak."

"Yes ma'am!" Joker replied over the comm.

Miranda then abruptly spun around to face Garrus and Tali, who were looking up at her expectantly. "Tali, grab Mordin and get yourselves into one of the shuttles. You're remaining here at the rendezvous coordinates in case the Commander shows."

Tali looked as if she was about to object, but Miranda quickly raised a hand to stop her. "That's an order, Tali," the XO commanded. "If Shepard makes it back here, he'll need support. I'm not leaving him alone out here or with some goddamn beacon for company. If you don't hear from either the Normandy or Shepard within two hours, break position, head straight for Hagalaz and brief Liara. If another vessel comes within half a million kilometers, leave and head for Hagalaz." Miranda crossed her arms in front of her and stared down at the quarian girl. "Is that clear?"

Tali bristled visibly, but didn't challenge the XO. "Yes, Miranda. I understand."

"Good." Miranda turned to address Garrus. "Collect Grunt and suit up. Take every weapon and munition you can carry. I'll join you in the shuttle bay as soon as we're through the relay and have located the Commander's transponder."

Garrus looked both relieved and impressed. He offered a curt nod to Miranda and promptly left the CIC with Tali.

"EDI, sound general quarters and give me ship-wide comms, please." Miranda said.

"Yes, Miss Lawson. Ship-wide comms online now." EDI responded.

Miranda drew herself up straight and issued her commands without hesitation. "All hands, this is Executive Officer Lawson. Report to combat stations and stand by for jump to hostile batarian space. I say again, all hands to combat stations. That is all."

The Normandy's interior lights dimmed and the red-toned combat lighting activated as five rapid electronic blasts of the klaxon bell reverberated throughout the ship, signaling the call to general quarters. Throughout the CIC, crewmen rushed to assume their designated combat posts as more personnel arrived via the elevator. Miranda remained upon the elevated Galaxy Map platform like a captain standing at the wheel of an ancient Man-of-war.

"Bridge. CIC." Miranda said over the intercom. "I want maximum sub-light speed for relay approach as soon as Kodiak 1 is clear."

"Aye, aye. Understood, CIC," Joker was all business for once.

The ship then banked sharply and set a rapid but steady course toward the Charon Relay.

"Stand by stealth systems and rig for silent running," Miranda said. "I want to disappear the moment we're through the relay and into the Bahak system."

"Copy that, ma'am," Joker again confirmed.

"CIC. Kokiak 1," Tali's voice came through over the comm. "Mordin and I are prepped for departure."

"Understood," Miranda said. "You're clear to launch. See you soon."

"Copy, CIC," Tali said and paused a moment with the comm open. "Good luck, Miranda."

Miranda's expression was a stony mask of unwavering determination. "Copy that," she said. "CIC out."

As the Kodiak shuttle carrying Tali and Mordin emerged from the Normandy's aft hanger bay, they fired maneuvering thrusters and rocketed away from the frigate. Joker waited another few seconds for the shuttle to reach a safe distance and then accelerated to maximum sub-light and began to line up the relay approach.

Less than two minutes later, the Normandy emerged from the Bahak relay and immediately peeled off on a course toward the system's asteroid belt, engaging the vessel's stealth drive and scanning for threats.

Miranda leaned over and studied the Galaxy Map and Combat Information displays, intently searching for any sign of Shepard. "EDI, can you raise the Commander?" she asked.

The AI's blue, spherical holographic representation popped up to Miranda's left. "I am broadcasting on all predefined emergency channels but there is no response, Miss Lawson." EDI said. "I am also unable to locate the Commander's suit transponder."

"Brilliant," Miranda said under her breath. "Scan for—Wait, what the hell is that?!" She pointed toward a massive object that had just appeared on the tactical display.

"Stand by. Performing active scans now," EDI announced before continuing a second later. "The object appears to be a rogue F-class, dense-rock asteroid with an approximate diameter of sixty-seven kilometers. The object's trajectory has been significantly altered by artificial means. I detect eight Goliath class Element Zero driven thrusters propelling the object. There is also a hardened facility present on the surface."

"That's where we'll find Shepard," Miranda said. "Heading and speed of the asteroid, EDI?"

"The asteroid is currently moving at 56,023 KPH and steadily accelerating," EDI said and paused. "Miss Lawson, it is on a direct heading to collide with the Bahak mass relay."

Miranda blanched. "My god," she said in a hushed voice. "EDI, give me an impact scenario."

"Adjusting for the object's anticipated velocity at point of impact and approximate mass, I estimate the resulting impact energy in excess of thirteen hundred megatons," EDI reported in her cool, emotionless tone. "Given what is known about mass relay resiliency and energy output, the collision will result in catastrophic failure of the relay and a detonation equivalent to that of a supernova. All life in this system will be eradicated, Miss Lawson."

Miranda stood transfixed in horror as she stared at the tactical display. "How long do we have, EDI?"

"Seventy-two minutes until impact event."

Miranda took a steeling breath and set her jaw. "Joker. Bring us to a hundred kilometers of the asteroid. We're deploying in the shuttle in ten. Once we're clear, move the Normandy to a safe distance and keep an eye out for those batarian frigates. If you don't hear from us within forty-five minutes, get the ship through the relay and out of the system."

Joker's voice was unusually tense. "Copy that, Miranda," he said. "Turning toward the asteroid now and matching speed."

"EDI, begin broadcasting evacuation warnings to Aratoht," Miranda said. "We took out most of their orbital sensor capabilities and they likely won't have any idea about what's coming their way."

"It is unlikely there is sufficient time for any significant percentage of the population to evacuate, Miss Lawson," EDI said.

"Just do it, EDI."

"Acknowledged. Broadcasting alert to batarian colony now."

Miranda turned on her heel and strode toward elevator. "Garrus, prep for departure. I'm coming to you now," she said over the comm.

The XO's determination crystalized, she never noticed the tiny data drive Kelly was nervously handling in her left hand.


Miranda was the superior pilot and took up station in the Kodiak's cockpit as Garrus and Grunt prepped for a hot arrival on the asteroid's surface. Clearing the shuttle bay, she punched the shuttle's thrusters and turned toward the massive asteroid as the Normandy peeled off and sped away to take up station a safe distance away and stand by to evacuate the doomed system.

The descent was rapid, as Miranda gunned the engines and plunged the craft toward the deck, keen to avoid the debris trailing the enormous meteor. She scanned the surface feverishly, looking for a spot to touch down as they approached the hardened facility EDI had identified earlier. She brought the Kodiak into a gentle left-hand bank, circling the base, and then spotted it. There was a large blast door at one end of facility that looked like an entrance to a hanger large enough to accommodate small shuttlecraft. A makeshift landing pad was just outside the doors.

Miranda tapped the comm to speak with her squad in the back. "Stand by for combat landing. ETA one minute." She focused on bringing the unwieldy ship down as fast as possible when the sharp warbling sound of the Kodiak's threat sensor sounded.

Miranda's eye's shot to the tactical display and she recognized two Trident class fighters right on their tail and closing fast. They must have been hiding on the opposite side of the asteroid as they approached and then swung around just above the surface, avoiding their LADAR scans. "Hang on back there," she called out over the intercom. "We've got company."

But then four disrupter torpedoes were in air, streaking toward the shuttle. Miranda thumbed the countermeasures on her stick and dozens of iridium encased plasma decoys exploded from the Kodiak's aft launchers. She then pulled the craft into a hard starboard roll and accelerated toward the deck.

Two missiles struck the countermeasures saturating the area where the shuttle had been an instant before. A third warhead tracked wide, failing to match Miranda's hard turn as she goosed the thrusters and put the Kodiak into a sharp dive. But the fourth missile kept pace and impacted the shuttle in the aft section. The port engine disintegrated and they were pitched into a violent spin, hurtling toward the surface.

Miranda was thrown hard into her safety harness and then pressed back into the pilot's seat as the mass effect field generators failed. She struggled to regain control of the crippled shuttle as they headed toward the surface at over eight hundred knots and what would undoubtable be a spectacular fireball upon the asteroid's surface. But then the shuttle's emergency systems kicked in and compensated for the loss of their port engine. She was able to stabilize their attitude but the Kodiak was trailing a thick stream of gray smoke and the acrid smell of burning electrical components was beginning to fill the cabin. The tough Kodiak had saved their lives, but she wasn't going to remain airborne much longer. Miranda scanned the surface and quickly reacquired the landing tarmac next to the facility's hanger. "Hold on!" She called out to her companions in the squad compartment. "We're coming in hard."

Leveling off the Kodiak, Miranda throttled back the power on the remaining engine and lined up the approach to the surface. Despite her best efforts to cushion the landing, they hammered into the rocky surface and skid another forty meters toward the facility, coming to a halt a short distance from the hanger doors. Miranda exhaled and felt a twinge of pain in her ribs where the harness straps had dug into her during the crash. She checked the tactical display, relieved to find it was still online, and located the two fighters. They were swinging around for another pass, coming back to finish the job.

Ignoring the pain in her side, Miranda hit the release for her safety harness and climbed out of the pilot's seat and pulled on her helmet. "Garrus! Cobra launchers! They're coming around again," she called out and made her way into the squad compartment.

Vakarian and Grunt were already shouldering the hand-held missile launchers as Miranda squeezed out of the cockpit. The bulkheads around the shuttle doors were pretty well mangled, so they were going to have to use the emergency releases to exit their dying bird. Miranda collected her Locust SMG and a combat pack from the munitions locker and nodded toward Garrus.

"Do it, Grunt!" Garrus commanded. They simultaneously yanked down on the red and yellow handles on either side of the shuttle and a rapid series of explosive bolts fired outward, tossing the two heavy armored doors several meters away from the shuttle.

With a trained efficiency of movement, Garrus and Grunt each leaned out a side of the ruined shuttle, acquired their targets and fired the hypersonic missiles. Miranda jumped out of the ship as the missiles were still in the air and sprinted toward a personnel access port just to the right of the heavy hanger doors. As she ran, she could see on her in-helmet tactical display that a missile had found its target, striking one of the fighters and sending it cartwheeling out of control and into space. His wingman had managed to avoid the second missile, firing off a shower of countermeasures as the small craft peeled away from the downed Kodiak.

Miranda reached the door and immediately set to work breaching the base's interior, knowing they likely had only seconds before the surviving fighter would swing back around for another strafing run. She activated her Omni-tool and pressed the interface against the door, initiating a bypass protocol EDI had prepped for them in advance. A few seconds later the heavy titanium bolts released and the display panel to the right of the door turned from red to green.

Garrus and Grunt arrived next to her a moment later, assault rifles drawn and at the ready. Miranda turned to Garrus and nodded as she grasped the access latch and yanked the door open. The turian then pulled a grenade off the harness on the front of his battle armor and popped the safety cap.

"Flashbang out!" Garrus yelled. He waited a moment to hear the muffled bang of the grenade's detonation and then led the team through the hatch. They entered in tight staggered formation, the auditory and visual filters in their helmets automatically shielding their senses from the disorientation effects of the stun grenade.

They found themselves in the large open space of the facility's main hanger. Grunt pulled the airlock door closed behind them as Garrus and Miranda spread out in opposite directions, methodically sweeping the area with their weapons.

"Clear," Garrus said through his helmet mike.

"Copy," Miranda confirmed and lowered the barrel of her Locust a fraction. Looking around, she saw a lone Kodiak class shuttle with the markings of the batarian Hegemony. It was an older, well-worn model, but still looked intact. She breathed a sigh of relief knowing that they at least had another option available to get off the asteroid as their own ride was a smoldering heap on the other side of the blast doors.

"Let's try the Normandy and give them a sitrep," Garrus said.

"Agreed," Miranda said. "Normandy, XO Lawson. Do you copy?" She waited a few seconds and sent the message again but the only response was harsh static over their comms. Checking her Omni-tool, she turned toward Garrus. "There's a jamming signal being broadcast from the facility. Nothing's getting through."

"Nothing's gonna be easy today, is it?" Garrus said and got underway again.

Across the hanger bay, Miranda identified the reinforced doors that appeared to be the way into the facility's interior. She dashed across the room toward the hatchway with Garrus by her side and stopped near a console. Miranda could feel the heavy footfalls of Grunt trotting up behind her as the krogan made his way to join them.

"Hold on," Miranda said. "I'll try to bring up a base schematic and internal surveillance." She scanned through the terminal's display rapidly, looking for the right sequence of inputs "There," she announced. "I've got a layout, but cameras are either offline or blocked from this node. But the base appears to be fully pressurized and has breathable atmosphere."

Garrus was at her shoulder, his Mattock assault rifle wedged in the crook of his elbow, muzzle pointed to the ceiling. "Any sign of Shepard?" he asked.

Miranda shook her head in frustration. "Negative. And I'm still unable to locate his suit transponder. But this facility isn't that large," She pointed to a spot on the screen where a cluster of compartments were labeled Operations, Med Bay, and Armory. "I say we make our way there."

Garrus looked down at the point on the screen where Miranda was indicating. "A lot of choke points along the way."

"Agreed," Miranda said. "But we don't have much choice. This place is going to be vaporized along with the rest of the system in less than an hour.

Garrus sighed, knowing they were on the clock. "Lawson, did you catch the markings on those fighters?" he asked.

Miranda shook her head as she continued to study the facility's schematics, uploading data to her Omni-tool.

"Cerberus," he said.

Startled, Miranda looked up at Garrus. "What?!" she said in dismay as the turian simply nodded back in confirmation.

It was a troubling revelation. What the hell was Cerberus doing here? Miranda's mind raced to connect the pieces—the Alliance Intelligence operative, the batarian military's unexpected arrival, their separation from Shepard on Aratoht. They were missing something, that much was obvious, but time was exceedingly short. She had to shake it off, press on, and resolve to sort it all out later. Miranda was single-minded in locating Shepard and getting everyone out of the deathtrap Bahak had become.

Miranda hit the door's access code, brought her weapon back up to the ready position and fell in just behind Grunt as the heavy doors slid open. The fearless krogan squeezed through the opening the instant the doors had parted wide enough to accommodate his massive frame and swept the next room with the barrel of his rifle. Miranda and Garrus followed immediately behind.

"Ten o'clock," Miranda said over the squad channel, indicating another door across the room.

The three methodically cleared the next several compartments as they made their way toward the base's primary operations room. Moving along a long corridor, the team passed through empty personnel quarters, a small mess and rec area, and a large research lab. They encountered no resistance and no sign of any personnel at all until coming to the junction of three intersecting corridors. Miranda again tapped into a console near the center door, this time having more success with the base's security interface, and managed to bring up a portion of the internal surveillance feeds. She gasped and then quickly motioned Garrus over to the console. "This is up ahead, just past Operations Control," she said.

Garrus peered down over Miranda's shoulder at the display. What looked like a near platoon strength group of soldiers was hurriedly pushing someone forward through a corridor ahead. The man was being hauled along by a pair of soldiers in heavy battle armor, followed by another dozen troops. The prisoner had either been heavily sedated or was injured, as his legs were dangling and dragging along the floor between his escorts and his head hung limp to the front. Even with the grainy quality of the vid imaging, it was unmistakably Shepard in his N7 armor, minus the helmet.

Miranda suppressed the panic that welled up in her and focused. "They're taking him to a secondary hanger bay," she said and pointed to the base schematic she'd pulled up on her Omni-tool. "They must have transportation waiting there. We have to hurry."

Garrus nodded his agreement then looked back toward the vid feed. "Look," he said and motioned to another shot of footage that showed the retreating soldiers. At the front of the group was a female figure, older, slight of build, and with closely cropped gray hair. "That's Kenson."

"She doesn't look like a bloody prisoner," Miranda said.

"No she does not," Garrus agreed. "Let's go!"

Miranda grabbed the turians arm to stop him. "Hold on. I think I can slow them down at the next hatch." She furiously typed away on the haptic interface of her Omni-tool, locking down the door ahead of the soldiers with a complex encryption algorithm. "There. That will buy us a minute or two."

"Well done, Lawson," Garrus said and then gazed back at the facility's schematic displayed on Miranda's Omni-tool. He pointed to a spot a little bit ahead of the group carrying Shepard. "We can intercept them there."

The team double-timed it down the next corridor and through an adjacent storage room running parallel to the route the soldiers were taking Shepard. Reaching the last hatch that separated their squad from their incapacitated Commander, Miranda and Grunt assumed positions on either side of the door as Garrus took a knee and swapped his Mattock for the M-92 Mantis sniper rifle he was so deadly accurate with.

"I'll take the one on the right," Garrus announced through their squad channel. "Grunt, pop some smoke and get ready to turtle up in front of Shepard."

"Got it!" the krogan roared.

Miranda gave a curt nod and then hit the panel beside the hatch, parting the metal doors and revealing the soldiers' flank.

With blinding speed, Garrus acquired his target and fired an armor piercing round through the helmet of the nearest man holding Shepard, killing the soldier instantly. A fraction of a second later, Miranda grasped Shepard in a powerful biotic field and pulled him from the surviving escort and toward the hatchway.

Grunt tossed a smoke grenade into the compartment and then with surprising agility, lunged over the Commander's rapidly approaching body and came back down on the floor with a thunderous boom. The krogan maneuvered his heavily armored body between Shepard and the momentarily stunned troops and began firing indiscriminately through the billowing chemical smoke.

Garrus popped off another quick round and then sprinted the few meters to where Shepard's lifeless body rested just inside the doorway. He grabbed his friend's arm and dragged him the remainder of the way into the compartment as Miranda joined Grunt in hosing down the hostiles ahead of them with full automatic fire from her SMG.

"He's clear!" Garrus shouted as he pulled Shepard away from the chaos. "Grunt, fall back."

The krogan backtracked through the door while he continued to fire his assault rifle, roaring with rage as enemy rounds plinked off his thick body armor. Miranda emptied a full magazine as Grunt made his way back into their compartment and then slammed her hand up against the control panel, bringing the doors together again, and then sealed the hatch with another quick hack.

The hail of rounds impacting the other side of the door echoed throughout the room as Miranda scurried on her hands and knees to where the Commander was lying on the floor. She flung her combat helmet off and grasped Shepard's unprotected head with two gentle hands, turning him to face her. His eyes fluttered slightly, but he didn't rouse.

Garrus kneeled down next to Shepard's body. "How is he?"

Miranda frantically looked over Shepard and glanced down at the medical scanner readout on her left arm. She could immediately see he had taken heavy damage to his battle armor. There was a jagged hole in his armor right by the joint of the chest plate and left shoulder. His left arm was bleeding from several impacts that had breached his suit and there was a nasty looking gash on his upper left thigh that looked like it was caused by a heavy blade of some kind. "Injured, but stable," she said and applied a generous dose of Medi-gel to the wounds. "He's lost a lot of blood and looks heavily sedated." Miranda reached back to the combat bag slung over her shoulder and produced a multi-use injector. "I'm going to give him a stimulant," she said and plunged the needle into his neck with care and precision.

Shepard's eye's immediately shot open and he gasped for air as the synthetic adrenaline and purifying cocktail spread through his veins. He thrashed for a moment and made a frantic move to jump up off the ground as he looked around wildly. But then Garrus placed a strong, restraining hand on his shoulder and applied enough pressure to hold Shepard still.

Miranda placed both her hands on Shepard's chest, trying to calm him. "John, John! It's okay, it's me."

The Commander's vision seemed to regain focus as he met Miranda's blue eyes. "Miranda?" he said breathlessly.

Miranda smiled reassuringly and nodded her head softly. "We're here, John. We've got you," she said, breathing a sigh of relief. She could see him relaxing, the drug-induced disorientation fading, as he registered the team's presence and looked up to see Garrus and Grunt standing nearby.

Shepard slowly propped himself up on his uninjured arm as Miranda helped him upright. His ragged breathing was beginning to even out as the Medi-gel and chemical painkillers coursed through his body. "Kenson's Cerberus," he said. "The Reaper threat's real, but the Illusive Man has been bankrolling this place. They're going to take out the relay and the whole damn system with it."

"Way ahead of you Shepard," Garrus said as the turian slapped home a fresh thermal clip into his sniper rifle. "We've got about a half hour before this place is a galactic memory."

Shepard looked slightly bewildered as he meet his friend's eyes and then turned back to face Miranda.

She nodded grimly. "Terminal velocity has already been achieved," Miranda said. "There's no way of stopping it now. We've got to get back to the hanger and get off this rock." She looked over Shepard's wounds again. "Can you walk?"

The Commander reached out and put a hand on Miranda's shoulder and the two rose to their feet together. "I can do more than walk," he said and looked over to their krogan friend, who's armor was still smoking from the beating he'd taken shielding Shepard from the soldiers' gunfire. "Grunt, you look like I feel," Shepard said. "Got something for me?"

Grunt gave Shepard a crooked grin and chuckled. "He, he. Here you are, battlemaster," he said and tossed the Commander an Avenger assault rifle.

On the other side of the door the sound of gunfire had stopped. Miranda dashed back over to the console and linked in her Omni-tool to the vid feed. "Looks like they've decided it's not worth chasing us down," she said. "I see a half dozen dead on the floor, but the rest are evacuating. No sign of Kenson."

The squad then dusted themselves off, checked weapons and ammo, and prepared to head back toward the shuttle hanger. Miranda collected her discarded helmet and then took Shepard's injured arm and placed it around her shoulders, taking some of his weight as he held the Avenger ready in his right hand. Garrus took position on point and Grunt fell in behind as the squad set out to retrace their route back to the batarian shuttle they'd spotted earlier.

They hadn't gone farther than fifteen meters before they heard a distant, muffled boom and then the floor rumbled under their feet.

"What the hell was that?" Miranda asked as she came to a halt with Shepard draped over her shoulder.

Garrus rushed over to a nearby console and interfaced his Omni-tool to access base systems. "Damn," he said. "They just took out the shuttle. We need another exit plan."

"Where's the Normandy?" Shepard asked.

"She should be close, but there's a localized jamming signal blocking communications," Miranda said.

"Alright," Shepard said, the strength returning to his voice. "Let's get to the control center, kill that jammer, and call in our ride."

The group reversed direction and ambled back down the corridor. They cut through a maintenance storage area and came to the door leading into the facility's operations center. Garrus and Grunt rushed over and took up position on either side of the hatch as Miranda and Shepard setup a short distance away and crouched behind some nearby metal crates.

Vakarian and Grunt exchanged nods as Shepard propped his Avenger atop the crate he and Miranda were taking cover behind. The turian then punched the access panel for the hatch, Grunt tossed in another flashbang, waited a second for the detonation, and then the pair swung into the room with rifles at the ready.

A few seconds later, Miranda and Shepard heard Garrus give the all-clear and the couple rose to their feet again and joined their squad in the control room.

It was a large, open space with dozens of consoles and equipment clustered around a holographic map of the system at the center of the room. As Miranda and Shepard passed though into the compartment, their gaze was drawn to the thick armored windows that lined the walls across the way. Appearing alarmingly close, the mass relay was prominently visible beyond the horizon of the asteroid.

Garrus gestured toward the view through the windows. "Disconcerting, isn't it?"

"Shit," Shepard said under his breath. "We don't have much time."

Miranda helped the Commander over to the primary bank of consoles along the wall near the windows and set him down in a chair. As she got to work accessing the facility's systems, Garrus and Grunt spread out to either side of the room, covering the two hatches that allowed entry into the compartment.

"Here, I see it," Miranda announced. "Give me sec and I can disable the signal." She furiously typed commands into the console's interface and a moment later several screens around them flickered to life. "There, it's offline. And I have access to the entire facility now."

The Commander leaned over and tapped a button on the console in front of him. "Normandy, this Shepard, do you copy?" Shepard said.

After a few seconds of static, Joker's voice came through over the comm. "We read you, Commander," he said. "It's good to hear your voice."

"Same here, Joker. You still in the neighborhood?"

"Affirmative. We're just a few minutes from the asteroid you guys are riding."

"Copy," Shepard said. "We've lost our ride and could use a pickup. Pronto."

"Copy that. We're on our way to you now, Commander. Sit tight."

Miranda gave Shepard an anxious look. "We have less than twenty-five minutes, John."

Shepard looked up at her and managed a cautious grin. "Don't worry, they'll get here in plenty of time." He reached over and grasped her wrist. "Just like you did."

She sat down in a nearby chair and scooted over to face him, checking over his injuries like a mother hen. The leg wound was still bleeding pretty badly. "I'm going to apply more Medi-gel to your leg," she said and brought out another applicator from her pouch, softly applying the compound to his wounded thigh. "I can numb the shoulder more, but I'm afraid you're going to need surgery to repair that joint." Miranda made to treat his mangled limb but Shepard seized her hand gently to stop her.

"Save it," he said. "I can manage the pain and don't want to be doped up anymore before we get off this rock."

Miranda gave him a tired smile and placed the trauma applicator back into her pack. She exhaled and met Shepard's eyes again. "Don't you ever do that to me again, you bastard," she said and then leaned over and planted a tender kiss on his lips. "Remember, I told you not to die on me."

"I didn't forget," Shepard said and smiled, still holding onto her hand.

She touched her forehead gently to his for a long moment and then pulled away to glance around the room. Scanning their surroundings, she looked back at Shepard. "We need to find you a helmet for that suit," she said, motioning out through the windows that looked out onto the asteroid's surface and the cold vacuum of space beyond. About seventy meters directly in front of the facility's control center, across a rocky but predominately unobstructed landscape was an elevated landing platform large enough to accommodate a small cargo ship or frigate. There was a clear, man-made path between the base and the tarmac used to bring in supplies. They'd have to cross that distance and get to the tarmac for pickup.

She turned to the console next to her and punched in a few commands, bringing up the base schematic. "Here," she said and pointed to a location on the display. "It looks like there's an equipment locker by the secondary airlock out to the surface. We should be able to get you sorted there."

Shepard opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted as the vid screen next to them came alive and a man's familiar image appeared on the screen. "Shepard," the Illusive Man said, exhaling smoke from his cigarette. "I'm glad to see you're still breathing. I had hoped that Kenson would manage to bring you back so we could speak in person, but I suppose I'd rather see you free than vaporized with the rest of the Bahak system."

Shepard glared back at the Illusive Man's image. "Quite an operation you've had going here," he said. "But why the hell drag me into this. You knew damn well the Reapers were inbound to Bahak."

"True," the Illusive Man said. "But it was important for the galaxy to understand the lengths you would go to stop the Reapers. Kenson's arrest provided a useful opportunity to add your face to the undertaking and solidify your association with Cerberus. You'll be tied to us more than ever now, Shepard. But I'm afraid your role in exterminating the population of an entire system will not be looked on fondly by the Council. Nor will the Alliance welcome the inevitable war with the Hegemony you've instigated. But rest assured, while you're languishing in custody for your crimes against the galaxy, I will do my utmost to ensure your sacrifice to stop the Reaper invasion is not forgotten."

"You're a bloody maniac," Miranda said.

The Illusive Man's cold, glowing eyes turned to the former Cerberus operative. "Miranda, in many ways, you're more of a disappointment to me than the Commander," he said. "You understood what we were trying to accomplish. And you turned your back on a leading role in the upcoming revolution. It was a fatal error on your part."

Miranda glared back at her former employer. "I think I'll get over it."

"I'm not so sure, Miss Lawson," he said. "While Shepard's former colleagues will merely imprison him and marginalize his influence on galactic matters, your fate, I'm afraid, will be much more uncomfortable. I don't believe you'll have the opportunity to live out that life with Oriana and the Commander you've been fantasizing about." He paused and took another deliberate drag of his cigarette, relishing the knife he was twisting. "But I suppose I should take some responsibility. In retrospect, it was a mistake for me to order you to get close to Shepard. You lost perspective."

Miranda's eyes flashed with rage but then flicked over to Shepard. The Commander had narrowed his gaze as he stared back at the Illusive Man's image, but he hadn't flinched at the revelation.

"This isn't over," Shepard said coolly. "You think you've won, but I promise you I will not be down on the mat for long. I'm coming for you."

The Illusive Man shrugged. "You may not like what you find, Commander," he said. "Good luck, Shepard. I believe you'll need it." The feed then abruptly died and the console screen returned to a grainy black and white snow.

Miranda looked at Shepard apprehensively. He met her gaze with an odd look in his eyes. "Forget it," he said dismissively. "Let's just get off this rock."

Miranda winced slightly and nodded. She took Shepard's left arm and again swung it over her shoulders, helping him up from the chair and taking some weight off his injured leg. Garrus and Grunt were standing just behind the couple. She hadn't noticed their approach while the Illusive Man was speaking. "You kids ready to go?" Garrus asked.

A few minutes later, Miranda was in the lead with Shepard as the squad set out through the facility's secondary airlock and began the trek across the asteroid's harsh landscape. The two stumbled along the path leading toward the elevated platform in the distance, the Commander's injured left arm again draped over Miranda's shoulders. Shepard held the Avenger ready in his right hand and Miranda grasped the Locust with her left. Garrus and Grunt followed close behind and slightly off to the sides.

Large, modular storage containers and bulky mechanical equipment for the base intermittently bordered the path they were traveling along. They moved toward their objective as quickly as possible, but as Miranda was encumbered by Shepard's armored bulk, the team's progress felt painfully slow as the rapidly nearing relay loomed ominously ahead of them.

As the group approached the halfway point of their short journey, Miranda's in-helmet tactical display lit up with new threat vectors. About a dozen security mechs had just powered up and were targeting their little column. She quickly looked to her left and saw a LOKI Mech rising up from behind a crate, leveling its M-3 Predator heavy pistol at her and Shepard. Miranda immediately swung her Locust toward the threat and let loose a bust of fire, catching the mech in its gun arm, disintegrating the synthetic's right side and tossing it backwards into the jagged rocks. Shepard simultaneously engaged a pair of LOKIs that were ambling toward them from the right, approaching with a slow, mechanical gait. He sprayed the two mechs with full auto fire from his Avenger, taking out their legs and then finishing them off with another efficient burst while the synthetics were still splayed out on the ground.

Behind her and the Commander, Vakarian and Grunt were both opening up on a swarm of mechs that had appeared at the rear of the squad. In their haste to get to the platform, they had walked right into the ambush. Dodging and returning fire on the run, the team scurried further ahead along the path and sought out what little cover was available.

Shepard fired the Avenger from the crook of his arm, taking out another cluster of mechs ahead of them before the bolt of his rifle locked back on an expended thermal clip. "I'm out," he announced.

"Here," Miranda said and allowed her SMG to dangle muzzle down from the combat sling it was lashed to. "Toss it and take this." She reached her free hand across her body, pulled the M-6 Carnifex sidearm from her thigh holster, and thrust it into Shepard's right hand.

Shepard seized the heavy pistol and immediately sighted the next hostile mech at their two o'clock, dropping it with two precise rounds that split the robot's alloy skull in half and toppled it backward amid a shower of sparks.

Miranda caught sight of another cluster of LOKIs emerging to their left that were moving to flank the team when the sudden rumble beneath her feet caused her to stumble.

"Shit!" Garrus called out over their squad channel. "We've got a heavy."

Directly ahead of the team and blocking their route to the landing platform, a YMIR Heavy Mech erupted from within its storage container and began a lumbering advance toward them. Miranda and Shepard immediately pulled each other down and took cover behind a collection of storage crates. But the mech had already sighted them and opened up with its twin mass accelerator canons, spraying the area with super-heated projectiles.

The hail of automatic fire disintegrated the meager cover the two had hunkered down behind and began to bite into their battle armor when Miranda let go of Shepard and quickly formed a powerful biotic barrier to reinforce their protection. But the intensity of the mech's assault quickly exhausted her and the translucent blue shield began to fail.

Then Miranda caught the low bark of a high caliber weapon to her left. She looked over her shoulder and saw Grunt slowly advancing on the YMIR, firing his heavy Claymore shotgun from the hip. The krogan's arrival relieved the pressure on her and Shepard as the heavy mech turned its auto canon on the new target. Miranda heard a howl of pain from Grunt as he staggered, taking several canon rounds off his right ankle and foot.

Shepard rose back up through the fragments of mangled crates that were partially covering him and took careful aim with the Carnifex. He unloaded the remaining four rounds of his pistol's mag into the side of the mech's armored head, causing the YMIR to shift focus again. Then Miranda inhaled deeply, drew upon her remaining reserve of energy and fired the strongest Warp attack she could muster. The strike hit the mech square in center mass, causing it to lurch to one side as the shifting mass effect fields went to work at shedding its reinforced ceramic armor plating.

Shaken by Shepard's gunfire and Miranda's biotic assault, the YMIR turned its left arm toward them as the rocket launcher concealed within the limb emerged. But before the mech could square up its aim, a single powerful shot struck its recessed head and knocked it senseless, sending reverberations throughout its synthetic body. Miranda glanced back behind her and saw Garrus calmly standing atop several fallen LOKI mechs, his M-92 Mantis pressed against his shoulder. The turian then methodically chambered another round into the powerful sniper rifle and fired the kill shot.

The second round from Garrus' rifle again hit square in the center of the YMIR's armored head. The impact took out the mech's primary imaging sensors and disintegrated the casing of its cognitive array. The YMIR shook violently for several seconds as its systems failed catastrophically, fell backward onto the rocky ground, and then detonated in a huge explosion that rained fiery debris all along the pathway.

"I think that's all of them," Garrus announced and then rushed over to check on Grunt.

Miranda and Shepard, still on their knees and surrounded by the debris of a half dozen polycarbonate crates, slowly rose back to their feet and dusted themselves off. "You alright over there, Grunt?" Shepard asked.

"Argh!" Grunt roared over the squad comms. "I'm fine!" The krogan was gingerly putting weight on his right foot where his armored boot had been mangled by the YMIR's auto canon.

They were only a dozen meters from the landing platform when Miranda once again heard the warbling sound of her in-helmet threat alarm. "Oh for the love of god!" she cried. "What now?"

The team turned their heads in unison and looked behind them, identifying the latest threat. Approaching at high speed and less than two hundred feet off the deck, the surviving Cerberus fighter was bearing down on them as it lined up a strafing run.

Miranda's heart sank as she realized they were completely caught out in the open and had no heavy weapons left to contend with the aerial attack. She tried desperately to call on her biotic energy and conjure up another barrier, but she was still drained by the effort to take down the heavy mech.

But then she heard a sharp whoosh from behind and a split second later the fighter was blotted out of the sky, disintegrating spectacularly as it was struck by the unmistakable molten metal projectile of a Thanix canon. The squad reflexively ducked down as the Normandy thundered over their heads, scattering what was left of the Cerberus fighter against its reinforced shielding and began a hard portside bank to return in their direction.

Shepard exhaled deliberately. "Damn fine timing, Joker," he said over the comm.

"You're welcome," Joker said in his typical sardonic tone. "Touching down in thirty. I suggest you guys double-time it unless you're looking to do a little self-tanning."

"We're not stopping to pick you flowers," Shepard said. "Bring her in hot."

"Copy that, Commander."


Miranda resumed her position next to Shepard, throwing an arm around his torso and helping him cross the last few meters to the spot where the Normandy was beginning its final descent. The frigate's forward ramp was already lowering as Joker prepared to execute a fast combat pickup, barely allowing the skids to touch down. To her left, she caught sight of Garrus helping Grunt along. The krogan was hopping along almost comically on his good foot.

The Normandy came in at a low angle, kicking up dust and debris all around the team as they thundered up the ramp and into the forward cargo hold of the ship. "Dust off, Joker," Shepard shouted through the comm as the team cleared the hatchway. The ramp had only just begun to rise behind the team as Joker hit the throttle and pulled the mighty ship back off the surface and out into space.

As the four battle weary companions made their way aft toward the Normandy's elevator, yellow warning strobes blinked in the depressurized compartment. Then the ramp closed with a solid thump and sealed behind them. The strobes changed to a pale, solid blue signaling the restoration of the deck's atmosphere, and the squad quickly abandoned their helmets. Shaking her hair free of the tight bun it had been tied in, Miranda finally allowed herself to feel a small measure of relief. The team then piled into the lift, their armor still smoking from the punishment they received on the asteroid.

"Grunt, straight to Chakwas and get that hoof attended to," Shepard Commanded. The krogan grumbled in response, but the elevator floor was already slippery with orange fluid leaking from Grunt's foot.

Miranda gave Shepard a worried look. "You should do the same, Commander," she said. "I'm concerned about that leg."

Shepard turned to his XO and smiled weakly. "In a bit," he said. "Let's get to the CIC first."

They stopped the lift at the crew deck and were met by Chakwas and two other crewmen. Garrus helped drag Grunt out of the elevator and toward the Medical Bay as the crewman did their best to assist as the krogan irritably brushed them aside.

Seeing his wounds, the doctor gave Shepard a disapproving look that wordlessly told him to follow her to the Med Bay. But the Commander waved her off with the promise to come back down as soon as the ship was out of danger. Miranda could only shrug when she met Karin's eyes, knowing her injured partner wasn't about to consent to proper medical care until he saw the Normandy was safely out of harm's way. The doors slid closed again, leaving her and Shepard to ride up to the next level.

Miranda looked over hesitantly at Shepard who was now leaning against the side of the elevator, breathing deliberately with his eyes cast downward. "John…" she started quietly.

He looked up at her with an intensity in his eyes that made her feel a little uneasy. "Not now, Miranda," he said. "We can talk when we're out of this mess."

Miranda opened her mouth to say something else, but then the elevator doors slid open and Shepard made to exit the lift. She took a hold of his arm again and the two walked gingerly out into the CIC. As the couple emerged on deck, crewmembers turned their heads and watched in fascination as the Commander and XO, still clad in their battle scarred armor, staggered over to the primary command terminal near the Galaxy Map.

"Joker," Shepard said breathlessly "Status?"

"I'm lining up the relay now, Commander," Joker responded. "ETA forty-five seconds."

Shepard nodded approval. "EDI, anything getting off Aratoht?" Shepard asked.

"I detect nine ships of various sizes ascending from the colony," EDI said. "However, I do not anticipate that any of the vessels will reach the mass relay ahead of impact or have sufficient time to clear the impending explosion via standard FTL, Commander."

Miranda watched sympathetically as Shepard swallowed and absorbed the grim news. She was nearly overcome with the desire to comfort him. This isn't your fault, she wanted to tell him. But now was not the time.

A few moments later, the Normandy entered the relay's mass-free corridor and was instantaneously transported back to the Sol system, emerging from the Charon relay. Miranda watched Shepard limp up the short flight of stairs to the Galaxy Map and select the Bahak system's data feed. The Commander bowed his head slightly as the holographic representation of the batarian system flickered and then went out completely, severing the link from the rest of the relay network. The Alpha Relay and the Reaper's shortcut into the rest of the galaxy was gone. And with it, nearly three hundred thousand batarians had been snuffed out of existence.

Shepard remained atop the Galaxy Map platform for a long minute or two, staring down into the sea of star systems and relays. When he finally spoke again, it was with a weary tone. "EDI, anyone else make it out of the system before we lost the relay?"

"Recorded data suggests that at least one small craft departed the system ahead of the Normandy," EDI said. "The vessel likely carried the hostile forces you encountered on the surface of the asteroid. No other ships appear to have made it through the relay before it was destroyed."

Miranda glanced down at a nearby terminal and saw that telemetry was coming in from various probes and remote listening posts within the vicinity, confirming the complete destruction of the Alpha Relay and the eradication of the Bahak system.

Shepard nodded his head slowly as he absorbed the magnitude of what had just occurred. "Understood."

Behind the Commander, the elevator opened and Garrus came striding out, still cradling his Mattock assault rifle. Shepard turned at the sound of the lift doors opening and looked at the turian. "How's Grunt?"

"He'll live," Garrus said. "He's not going dancing anytime soon, but it's nothing Chakwas can't sort out." Garrus glanced over at Miranda who was standing a little off to the side, a pained expression on her face, and then looked back to Shepard. "We establish contact with Tali and Mordin yet?"

Shepard furrowed his brow as he limped back down the Galaxy Map platform stairs. "What do you mean?"

Miranda looked up and cleared her throat. "Commander," she said. "I left Tali and Mordin in a Kodiak at the original rendezvous coordinates, in case I was overreacting and you were merely late returning from Bahak."

Shepard looked over at his XO and nodded. "Got it," he said and offered her a tired smile.

The look made Miranda feel slightly better, but also a little sad. "EDI," she said. "Please patch us through to Tali's shuttle."

"I am attempting to raise the shuttle now, Miss Lawson," EDI said. "However, as of yet there has been no respons—." EDI's voice abruptly cut off and her holographic representation flickered and disappeared.

Miranda raised an eyebrow. "EDI?" Miranda said just as half the Normandy's internal lights went out and numerous haptic interface consoles died.

Shepard looked over to Miranda with an uneasy look on his face as emergency lighting flickered on around the CIC. "EDI, talk to me?" he said.

Joker's alarmed voice came over the comm a moment later. "Commander, EDI's gone completely haywire. She's totally offline along with most of our primary systems, including propulsion and weapons. We're dead in the water."

Miranda rushed over to a nearby terminal and began to frantically scan through the ship's subsystems, searching for the cause of the Normandy's sudden distress. She flinched when the first indication of the problem became evident. "We have a serious problem, Commander," she said in a tense voice. "EDI's subroutines are being attacked by a powerful virus. It's suppressing all her higher processing functions and crippling most of the automated systems." Miranda exhaled in frustration and slammed her fists down on the console. "I'm completely locked out."

Shepard walked the few feet over to Miranda and leaned over her shoulder, studying the display. "A virus?" he said incredulously. "How the hell did that happen?"

Miranda cycled through more screens of data. "Hold on. I'm trying to at least track down the infection's initial access vector." She then recoiled from the terminal and looked up to face Shepard. "Shepard, it originated from somewhere in the CIC."

Shepard, Miranda and Garrus all cast their heads around the CIC, searching for some visible sign of the attack on the Normandy's AI. Emergency strobes were flashing at multiple terminals and the absence of the steady hum of so many of the ships systems was jarring.

And then Miranda's eyes settled on Kelly, standing like a statue in front of the Yeoman's terminal, staring straight ahead and with a distant look in her eye. Chambers had gone gray and there was a solitary tear slowly making its way down her left cheek.

Miranda eyed Kelly with a cautious look. "Chambers?" she said.

Hearing Miranda, Shepard and Garrus both turned to face the Yeoman, fixing their gaze on the redhead. Kelly was a petite woman, but as she stood before the command staff of the Normandy, she seemed to shrink even further and her lower lip quivered.

Kelly slowly turned from her terminal and met Shepard's eyes, a tortured look on her face. "I'm so sorry, Shepard…" she said. "I'm so, so very sor-." The woman's head snapped back violently as a look of bewildered shock spread over her face. She locked eyes with Shepard, her expression full of desperation and fear, and then her right eye was crimson with blood and her body went limp, collapsing to the ground.

Shepard crossed the few feet to Kelly in a heartbeat, catching her in his arms just before her lifeless body struck the floor. "Doctor Chakwas to the CIC! Medical emergency," he called out and knelt down on one knee, cradling Kelly in his arms.

Miranda rushed over to Shepard's side and knelt down next to him and Kelly. She could see immediately that the woman was dead, recognizing that an ocular implanted explosive had just obliterated her frontal lobe. Still, Miranda checked for the pulse she knew she wouldn't find and then placed a gentle hand on Shepard's arm. "She's gone, John," she whispered.

Shepard looked gut-punched and there was a far off look in his eyes. Miranda looked at him with anguish, mourning for Kelly's loss but also feeling incensed at the blow that had been struck to the man she loved.

Joker's voice crackled over the overhead comm a moment later. "Commander, four Alliance frigates just dropped out of FTL eighty klicks off our bow," he said in a strained tone that was utterly devoid of his typical humor. "They're hailing us now… The captain of the lead ship is demanding we stand down and prepare to be boarded."

Shepard looked over at Miranda and stared into her eyes for what seemed like ages. Vaguely aware of Garrus standing nearby, she gazed back at the Commander with a look of helplessness. Then the turian defiantly pulled back on the action of the Mattock assault rifle he was still holding, making Miranda jump.

The sound rocked Shepard back to the present. He looked up at the turian and slowly shook his head. "Not this time, old friend," he said. The Commander then carefully lowered Kelly's head to the floor, closed her eyes with a gentle brush of his hand, and rose back to his feet. He stepped over to the nearby terminal and activated the ship-wide comm. "Normandy crew, this is Shepard. Prepare to be boarded by Systems Alliance Naval personnel. Stand down general quarters and do not resist. I say again, stand down. That is all." He then turned to Garrus with a stoic expression. "You better get back down to Medical and make sure Grunt doesn't kill anyone."

Garrus remained planted in front of Shepard for another few moments, staring back at the Commander with a stubborn look on his sharp, turian features. He then gave Shepard a curt nod and silently turned back toward the elevator.

"Joker, signal our surrender to the Alliance Captain and issue docking instructions," Shepard said.

"Aye, Commander."


Shepard and Miranda remained on the CIC as the first Alliance Navy soldiers filed through from the primary airlock at the bow, where the lead ship had secured its docking coupling.

Several minutes later, the Normandy was swarming with a full Alliance SpecOps platoon. Miranda watched scornfully as the Alliance soldiers spread out across every deck, going about securing the Normandy in an almost casual manner. She found their presence on Shepard's ship repugnant and their black battle armor kits almost sinister. And there was something about the way these soldiers carried themselves that made her think of the ambush she and John had survived on Illium only a short time ago.

Dr. Chakwas had also arrived on deck. After quickly assessing that there wasn't a thing she could do for poor Kelly, she had begun tending further to Shepard's nasty thigh and shoulder wounds.

As the Alliance soldiers moved about the CIC, Miranda remained close by Shepard when an officer in dark blue battle dress and flanked by two other soldiers in full armor came purposely walking toward them. The three men stopped before the Commander and XO and the officer briefly glanced down at where Kelly's body rested on the floor before looking back up at Shepard.

He was a smaller man than the Commander, but possessed a lean frame and deep-set eyes. His physique was unimposing, but Miranda sensed malevolence in the man that she found unsettling. His expression was severe and pitiless.

The officer silently evaluated Shepard for a long moment before speaking. "Commander Shepard, my name is Major Richter of the Systems Alliance Intelligence Service," he said.

"Major," Shepard nodded and fixed the man with contemptuous glare. "I think I ran into some of your friends on Illium a few days ago."

Richter didn't flinch at the allegation. "I haven't the slightest idea what you mean, Commander," he said in an emotionless voice. "I am here to take you into custody and impound this ship."

"On whose bloody authority?" Miranda said. "This is a Council Spectre's vessel and crew."

The Major turned his gaze toward Miranda and regarded her with vague curiosity. "As of 0930 today, Citadel standard time, the Council has revoked Commander Shepard's status as an active Spectre," he said and turned back to Shepard. "You no longer have any authority to operate this ship in Alliance space."

Another Alliance soldier then approached and saluted the Major. "Sir, all decks report secured," the man said. "The turian and krogan were a handful, but they're both prepped and ready for transport. The quarian and salarian are missing, as are the two Kodiak class shuttles on the manifest. There's also no sign of the thief, Goto."

Miranda's face remained impassive as the soldier briefed the Major, effectively masking the relief she felt. She was thrilled to learn that Kasumi had evaded these men. Garrus and Grunt had powerful friends and family within their respective governments and would no doubt be promptly returned to the turian and krogan authorities, but there was no telling what these people might do to a notorious criminal like her Japanese friend. Miranda was even thankful that she had ordered Tali to remain behind with Mordin. The quarian government held very little sway with the Alliance and a man like Richter would surely have relished the opportunity to interrogate their young engineer. As for herself, a feeling of foreboding was steadily rising in Miranda's gut.

Richter exhaled deliberately and gestured toward Shepard. "Secure him," he said.

The two burly soldiers that had been flanking the Major moved forward and placed their powerful hands on Shepard's shoulders. The Commander brushed the first man's grip aside angrily. "Get your fucking hands off me!" he said.

With blinding speed, the soldier that had briefed Richter pounced on the Commander and produced a nasty looking electronic baton. He jabbed the prod into Shepard's injured shoulder joint, buckling his knees as ten thousand volts shot through his body. Then the other two soldiers jumped on Shepard and shoved him hard into the console.

"Bastards!" Miranda shouted in fury. An aura of blue-toned energy crackled to life around her as Miranda's biotics flared. But then a cruel hand grabbed her neck and dug into her skin with terrible strength. She swung her head around to face the attacker just in time to see the butt of an assault rifle come brutally down upon her right temple.

Stunned, Miranda fell to her knees and struggled to remain conscious. She was vaguely aware of doctor Chakwas' furious shouts of protest when the second blow took her directly on the back of her head.

Miranda collapsed to the ground and her world went black.


Author's note:

Sorry for the bit of delay in getting this one out, but it was a long and fairly complex chapter for me. And I felt strongly about beginning and ending with poor Kelly's fate and didn't want to split the content into two chapters. Moving forward, I think I'll revert back to chapters of more manageable length.

This is essentially the end of the first act of my story. I had been dreading having to wade through all the plot holes and absurdities of the Arrival mission arc, so rather than get bogged down with trying to fix all those things I decided to skirt around most of the details.

I was on the fence about having Cerberus involved, but ultimately liked the concept better than the indoctrination angle of the canon sequence (not that indoctrination won't have a role to play in the future). It seemed appropriate to wrap up this stage of the story with TIM getting a little payback for Shepard blowing the Collector base, stealing the Normandy and Miranda.

I really enjoyed putting Miranda in a command position, both on the Normandy and the fire team that liberated Shepard. Her character deserves a lot more of that kind of treatment to make up for the travesty that was her role in ME3—and she's going to get it here!

Something else that's going to be a constant in this story is that none of the characters, Shepard included, are indestructible super heroes. Shepard and Miranda are still mortal and will bleed like everyone else.

There are some dark times ahead for both Miranda and Shepard now. I've primarily been writing from Miranda's perspective, but will likely mix that up a bit now that the characters are disbursed and away from the Normandy.

I hope you continue to enjoy the story as much as I am writing it. Thanks for reading!

2/11 - A little final editing after finding some errors and grammatical issues.