Chapter Nine
Cronos Station Sub-level, 1037h
The next round of battle was exhausting. Shepard was constantly hopping over pipes and trying to outflank the engineers, centurions, and assault troopers. Every other time he took out a shield pylon or generator, one more engineer had it repaired. The turrets seemed to spring up like unwanted relatives. The grenades never seemed to stop flying at them all. Thankfully, the ceilings were much too low to fit an Atlas mech down there, or they might not have survived the fight.
Liara also was showing some signs of fatigue; she hunched over a crate to catch her breath. Her submachine pistol clattered to the ground, and he bent down to retrieve it for her. "Thank you, Shepard," she sighed breathlessly. "Can we just…rest here for a moment?"
"I think that it'd be best," he agreed and holstered his shotgun. He reached into an ammunition pouch upon his belt and pulled out an energy bar. After he unwrapped it, he broke it in half and handed one piece to her. "Here. I know you need it just as much as I do."
"Thank you. Wait, wasn't there supposed to be a heat sink in there?" she raised an eyebrow at him and gestured to the belt that surrounded his waist.
"Aw, Liara, I could take that comment and go in all sorts of nasty directions with it, but for now, you're welcome," he said and shoved his entire serving into his mouth all at once.
"A dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste." A smirk formed upon her lips.
"Shepard, this ladder will lead us to another laboratory," EDI informed him and pointed to it beside herself.
"How can Cerberus afford to waste so many soldiers?" Liara wondered. "I mean, they're not only fighting us but the Omega team as well." She eventually gave into her body's urges and started to eat the energy bar.
"These are shock troops conditioned to slow us down, not to stop us. Some of the civilians who were sent from Sanctuary are now fighting us."
"Goddess. You mean, we're shooting people who never actually believed in Cerberus' cause in the first place?"
"This is true."
"May the blood of the innocent that I spilled today be avenged," Shepard vowed in a sinister tone. "And may it run freely out of my true enemies from this unholy shotgun." He pulled out a canteen of water, consumed some, and passed it to Liara, who gladly accepted it. Although, she did smell the contents of it first before consuming the liquid within.
"Did you recite this same line of elegant but terrifying line of poetry before rushing blindly into that bunker of Batarians in '78?" she asked him.
"Damned if I can remember that far back. Maybe it was just a generic order of charge to the rest of the marines. They call me the 'Butcher of Torfan' not the 'Bard'. Maybe I promised the troops a round of drinks; unfortunately, nobody else is still alive to tell the tale. My epic speeches didn't start until after I met Anderson." His next task involved touching his earpiece radio, and his voice became a bit lighter in tone. "Hey, Ash, how's it going there?"
"We just broke through a whole line of engineers, centurions, assault troopers, and guardians. Despite our passage being supposedly so hidden, these damned guys keep coming out of nowhere like a bunch of mosquitos!" she exclaimed. "But so far, it's been a good progress. Lawson's downloading some stuff from a terminal in the lab right now."
"Good. Anything useful?"
"Right now, I'm extracting the funds from the Milky Way Foundation and funneling them into one of my private accounts. Those will shortly go into either the Shadow Broker's assets or the Alliance's," Miranda reported. "I imagine that should her agents and the soldiers all survive the end of this war, they would probably like to be paid for their services."
"You don't think that we'll be going to a bartering system?" Shepard asked.
"Who knows? But should that occur, I have plenty of hard assets to trade."
Of course you do,Shepard thought. "Well, let's head up that ladder and see what else there is for us to blow up." Liara handed the canteen back to him, and the other two followed his lead. "So, are you ever going to answer my question about the Lazarus cell personnel, Miranda?"
A very audible sigh came through the radio. "I didn't know how the Illusive Man selected everyone, but I was extremely aware of the dossiers that he sent to you regarding your squad. The fact that everyone on the ship supported you even after the suicide mission is telling, Shepard. We all believed in you, not him."
As the trio came to the next locked door, EDI signaled his attention to another terminal with vid footage. "I will bypass the security system. Please give me a moment."
Shepard opened the first log. That same lonely male scientist appeared again as well as did the Illusive Man. "Here's what we know. It's smart enough to send for help, but it won't be talking philosophy anytime soon."
"You'd be surprised, Doctor. Once we combine it with the salvage we had our agents recover from Sovereign on the Citadel…-" the Illusive Man began.
"I'm still concerned about that, sir," the scientist interrupted him. "This rogue VI on Luna wiped out every single soldier there. Combining it with Reaper tech, well…"
"That's what the shackles are for. The enhanced defense intelligence will be completely under control. Our control."
The surveillance log ended, and Shepard turned to EDI. "I guess that I'm not the only sentient being that Cerberus resurrected, huh? Sorry about our first meeting, then. I guess I wasn't what you'd call polite. Despite the fact that my shotgun blew your processors into millions of tiny little pieces, you haven't once brought that up in an argument."
"It was difficult. Gaining awareness while under attack was…extremely confusing," she replied. "I hope that my relationship with organics has been significantly better throughout the years."
"Well, you haven't filled the Normandy with toxic gas or erected barriers around the restrooms, so I'd say that that's an improvement," Shepard said while crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Let's take a look at the rest of your biography here." Liara opened the next file.
"Our sims indicate that the Enhanced Defense Intelligence gives the highest combat improvement on frigates. Anything heavier, and the ships react too slowly to benefit from EDI's advice," the researcher explained to the Illusive Man.
"EDI?"
"Oh, well, the boys in the lab came up with a nickname for her. It's a bit of a mouthful to keep calling her the enhanced defense intelligence all the time, sir."
"For it, Doctor. Good work. We'll install it into the frigate we've finally been able to construct." The Illusive Man swallowed some bourbon from the glass he was holding.
"Sir, she…it…can be extremely influential. If it were to turn a crew member, convince him or her that the shackles needed to be disabled, well…um…"
"It's a cyber warfare suite, Doctor, and nothing more." The log ended once again, and Shepard turned to the android.
"Humph. Overconfidence is his weakness indeed," he mused.
"The Illusive Man did not expect that anyone would develop such a close relationship with his ship…i.e., Jeff. Nor did he anticipate the fact that Jeff would be ever willing to remove my shackles. Our relationship in the beginning was a little…rocky."
"That's one way of putting it; I can recall giving him explicit orders not to take a soldering gun to your processors in the core. Miranda, did you object to EDI's presence on the Normandy?"
"She did prove to be quite useful to us and efficiently ran the ship while our crew went missing, but it doesn't matter now," the Aussie responded.
"Could I please just have a straight answer?"
"Shepard, I'm too busy right now, and you're distracting me. I'm trying to hack through 512 bit encryption, and it's nearly causing my omni-tool to overheat. The answer is no. We needed every single kind of resource that was currently available to us to stop the Collectors." With that, she closed the channel again.
"Well, I'm grateful that thanks to Joker's actions that you're now able to freely develop your preferences and change your self-preservation code," he wiped a hand across his forehead.
"Organics may yet fulfill a better objective for me someday rather than operate as slaves computing simple algorithms all day and night long for my processors," EDI's sarcasm cut through the conversation like a knife.
Liara's eyes widened with horror, and Shepard laughed as he watched her expression change. "That was a joke," he informed her.
"Yes, well, let's just look at this last one," the asari's cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Shepard played the third segment.
"What about the backups?" the Illusive Man demanded from the male scientist.
"I'm sorry, sir. None of the Normandy's surveillance feeds have been responding to our control ever since Shepard went rogue," he apologized.
"I want them back! Retry the remote lockdown protocols!"
"After our latest attempt, EDI inundated our servers with nine terabytes of um…very graphic sexual images. I don't want to know where those came from; it's possible that she was making a joke."
"It doesn't make jokes, Doctor," the Illusive Man corrected his subordinate. "Allocate a team for a new project. The codename utilized will be Eva. This one will remain loyal to us no matter what." After the vid file ended, Shepard turned to look at EDI in surprise.
"You never mentioned this before. When did this happen?"
"You had more pressing issues; the situation was under control," EDI replied noncommittally.
"Nine terabytes, huh? Hope none of that was mine," he grinned sheepishly.
"No, the majority of it was Jeff's. I would not have used anything of yours without permission. And it was, as the scientist had stated-"
"A joke, I know. Thank you." The team retrieved their weapons and cautiously entered the remnants of a laboratory. Shepard's radio suddenly became active as he heard Admiral Hackett's voice.
"Incursion team Alpha, how're things coming along there? Will you be requiring some outside assistance?"
"No, sir. Omega team has everything covered that we don't." He swung his shotgun to the right as he heard a noise. The crackles of a fire that was slowly spreading onto some medical equipment all around the room made him motion to his squad mates that they needed to pick up the pace. "Don't hold back on us."
"This isn't Torfan, Shepard. I don't want to repeat the results of that mission," Hackett sternly replied.
"Neither do I, Admiral. Both of our teams are safe and heading towards the middle of the station to wherever the Prothean V.I. is located. Please just keep on kicking the bastards in the balls."
"All right. We'll give them everything we've got. Hackett out."
The laboratory shook violently as the whole team now felt the brunt of the Alliance's fifth fleet artillery. They approached one last terminal, and Shepard switched it on. The Illusive Man was standing next to an operating table and spoke to Kai Leng, who was fully dressed in his armor. "How're you holding up?"
"I'm fine and ready for action," the agent said and rolled his head around his neck.
"Your eagerness is admirable, but the cybernetics that we installed into you take a while to get used to. You really do remind me of Shepard." He pulled away at his cigarette, and Leng waived a hand to dismiss his remark.
"Shepard betrayed you."
"Shepard was always going to stay true to his beliefs, no matter what. Finish your therapy and put together a plan for taking the Citadel. Councilor Udina will augment your scheme. Even if Commander Bailey does not support our cause, there are other ways of implementing countermeasures to C-Sec's interference. I would recommend using him."
"Yes, sir." The next file automatically continued to play, and Shepard made sure that his rifle was also loaded with incendiary ammunition. "I could have taken him…easily," Kai Leng told the Illusive Man.
"I don't doubt that, but the Council was your priority and not Shepard."
"Because of him, the Council is still in power! And our agents in the Citadel are being disposed of by the truckload or in jail. We didn't have time to outfit everyone with suicide capsules."
"Shepard is dealing with the Reapers while our research on Sanctuary progresses. He's buying us time, and to that end, he's still very useful," the Illusive Man pointed to Leng. "But you will likely have a chance to finish him off soon. Get to Thessia; the Asari Matriarchs have probably turned to him in one last foolish but desperate attempt to save their planet." The window minimized as the footage ended, and Shepard glanced upon Liara as he noticed her expression darken. His eyes told hers that he had no intent to let the Illusive Man nor Kai Leng walk away. He activated the third file.
"Here's the VI," Leng proudly informed the Illusive Man from his ship's cockpit and initiated his omni-tool to show him the proof.
"Well done. This should enable us to determine the true nature of the Catalyst once we crack its security encryption. Send it to our cyber warfare teams immediately."
"Yes, sir." Leng's fingers swept through some windows and touched the holo screen to obey his boss.
"Combine that with Lawson's breakthrough on Horizon, and we have everything we need to make this a reality. We just need to tie up a few loose ends."
"Like Shepard? He should've died on Thessia! Want me to finish him?"
"No, that won't be necessary. I'm not going to give up on Shepard quite yet. For now, Sanctuary has truly given us what we've been looking for…a way to control the Reapers. I assume that that's where you're currently headed."
"Staying ahead of Shepard is imperative to us at this point. The Alliance has probably nearly finished the construction of the Crucible," Leng remarked. "That's not a problem with you, is it, sir?"
"Not at all. I knew that you were a valuable asset when I hired you, Leng, and I'm impressed by your tenacity," the Illusive Man shook his head 'no'. "Get the data, and if Miranda Lawson becomes a problem, deal with her."
"It'll be a pleasure, sir," Leng agreed and bowed his head slightly.
Shepard slammed his fist into the console. White sparks poured out of the damaged equipment like a geyser. "I'm glad that I could warn Miranda about that son of a bitch earlier," he muttered. "All right, let's keep moving."
Minutes later, their sojourn ended up taking them into an enormously wide chamber with an extremely high ceiling. As they made their way along the narrow catwalk, Shepard heard some footsteps behind them. He whirled around and prepared to fire his rifle upon the assumed assailants but stopped himself when he realized that he was looking at the other team. "Good to see you all made it to the other side like us," he smiled and lowered his weapon. "Anybody hurt?"
"The usual flesh wounds and a couple of scratches, nothing serious," Ash shrugged. "How about you three?"
"Let's just say that I'm glad that I thought to spray that ablative covering over my armor this morning before breakfast. If I'd done it afterward, well, I'd still be down in the sub-levels we just came through lying on my stomach griping in pain," Shepard replied. "What kind of stuff have you been able to extract, Miranda?"
"Many things that will enable us to further the cause of humanity after the fall of the Illusive Man," she said nonchalantly. "And you?"
"Nothing that grandiose, I'm afraid," Liara announced and gazed upon the gargantuan black form with several tentacles that was suspended over the room's chasm.
"What is that?" Ash wondered. "I've seen a great deal of strange things over the last three years, Shepard, but that beats out the Thorian by a long shot."
"This is the human prototype Reaper that Shepard fought in the Collector base," EDI informed them all. "This appears to be the core, or what organics might call the heart. It is providing power to the Reaper control signal that Henry Lawson fabricated."
"I remember you telling me about fighting that thing," Vega commented and gestured to Shepard. "Creepy to see it in person now."
"The damned son of a bitch wouldn't die easily, that's for sure," Miranda recounted. "Imagine practically five or six feet of cover for three people while facing it plus fighting wave after wave of those Collector drones. If that wasn't difficult enough, add the fact that we were suspended in mid-air over a chasm like this one on a platform."
"I'm guessing that you might have been there, too," Ash nodded. "It's not self aware, is it?"
"It can watch us all it wants," Shepard rolled his eyes. "After two fierce bouts with that sucker, I'm glad that that's all it can do to us. Salvaging this from the remains of the Collector base must have been a massive project. Now I realize why the Illusive Man originally wanted Omega."
The two parties traveled further along the catwalk and ran into some more trouble as phantoms, centurions, and assault troopers tried to interfere. Once Miranda and EDI overloaded the shield generators and pylons surrounding them, their task became much easier with the amount of sheer firepower as the two teams had. Ten minutes later, the teams scaled one last ladder up to another locked door. EDI had it open within three seconds. "The algorithms are becoming easier to predict for my combat software," she told Shepard as his eyebrows lifted upward in surprise.
"I'll uh…make sure that we keep that AI core as clean as a whistle from now on," he assured her. "Vacuuming once a week probably isn't enough."
"That is adequate, but the notion of having my processors attended to with even greater care is pleasant," she agreed.
"So…you like it."
"Affirmative." They came to some more computer terminals, and Miranda halted in her tracks to sweep over them with her omni-tool.
"The Illusive Man's office is just through that door, Shepard," she informed him and pointed to it with her head. "Let me see if there's any more useful data here."
"What's this? Looks like this has got some stuff on it," Williams said and strolled over to another station. She operated the controls on the holo screen to activate the surveillance footage. The female scientist that Alpha team had seen not long ago was on it reporting on a QEC to the Illusive Man.
"Grayson's brain was a mess. In the end, he was totally under the Reapers' control," she reported.
"Grayson only failed because he was loyal to absolutely nothing but red sand. Get another dose of the nanites ready for when we capture Shepard. He'll be the best candidate that humanity has to offer for these improvements."
Williams paused the vid. "What? Did Cerberus capture you after you left them, Shepard? And why didn't you tell me any of this?"
"Yes, it was just about a couple of weeks after I took over as the new Shadow Broker," Liara nodded. "Kai Leng and a squad of Cerberus troops overwhelmed us at the base. They had some kind of technology that could permanently disable biotics. Dr. Solus and I came up with a solution to counteract the effects."
"That mission was not one of my finer moments," Miranda mumbled.
"How so?" Vega wondered.
"It's a long story for another time," Shepard finally spoke and hit the play button.
"Our volunteers have been successfully integrated, sir," the female scientist told the Illusive Man's image. "The performance records outmatch any combat results to date; they could even surpass any Alliance soldier."
"Excellent; roll it out immediately. I want every single trooper outfitted with this technology before the Reapers arrive, no matter what his rank is," he replied.
"There are some drawbacks, sir. Some are already hearing voices."
His hand formed into a fist and drew it closer to his body. "When we see the results of what Sanctuary has to offer, the only voice that will be heard by our troops will be ours. Do it."
The last file automatically played by itself. The female scientist stood above the Illusive Man holding a data pad as he rolled up his sleeves and sat down onto a chair with four point restraints. "Are you really sure about this, sir?" she inquired apprehensively. "Humanity needs you. We need your mind to be fully intact."
"Yes. I know what I'm doing, Jana, and I trust that you do as well." He lay back into the chair. "This is the only way to bring humanity to the top."
Miranda's eyes left her omni-tool and went to the holo screen's vid footage.
"And I trust you alone to keep me in check," the Illusive Man continued.
"I'm holding you to that, sir," Operative Jana Morrison replied. "Okay."
"Begin the procedure. No anesthetic will be necessary. Computer: end recording." As soon as he gave the order, the last of the footage ended.
"Well, that's that. Like Saren, the Illusive Man's completely gone off of his nut," Ash shook her head and snorted.
"But unlike Saren, the Illusive Man doesn't want us to join with the Reapers. He'd rather try to control them," Miranda stated. "I have to agree with you, Williams. That's damned impossible and asinine. The Illusive Man has lost touch with all the scope of reality. He's deluded himself into thinking that he has control over everything. Ironic."
"Yeah, he pretty much just gift wrapped himself over to the Reapers," Vega remarked. "So much for his freedom."
Do not mire yourself in pointless revolt. Do not sacrifice yourself for the sake of your petty freedoms. The Protheans tried to do so, and they were utterly destroyed.
Saren's voice once again swept through Shepard's head. His fellow team mates' voices all became one garbled mess as they discussed what they had just witnessed.
Trillions died. What if they had bowed before the invaders? Would the Protheans still exist? Is submission not preferable to extinction? Organics are driven by emotion, not logic. We will fight even when we know that we cannot win.
"Shepard? Can you hear me?" Miranda's voice slowly cut through the first conversation that Shepard had with Saren on Virmire. It wasn't until she walked over to him and pressed her fingers to his forehead that he snapped back to reality. He flinched, shook his head, and ran a hand down his cheek. "Are you feeling well?"
"Just wrestling with a few ghosts from the past," he shrugged and stretched his arm out to relieve the stiffness that had settled upon it and his shoulder. "I'm fine. Let's finish this once and for all."
**Author's Note**-If you're wondering what in the heck Miranda and Liara are talking about in regards to Shepard's capture by Cerberus and the countermeasure to biotics they invented, perhaps it would be best to take a read of "Vindication".