ME2 Jacob

Shepard stepped off of the elevator and looked around the combat level of the ship. The galaxy map snapped on, though she ignored it. She didn't need the Normandy to go anywhere right now. It just always turned on when she was near. A woman standing to the side of the steps up to the map looked toward Shepard. "No new messages, Commander."

Shepard nodded to Kelly Chambers, her yeoman. Chambers always told her when she had new missions or when the Illusive man wanted to talk to her. It was helpful to have someone who could alert her. There wasn't any real indicator on her private terminal so she would probably forget if Chambers didn't alert her.

Shepard turned to her left and moved to the door to the armory. She stepped in, looking around. She could see a weapons locker, and tables all around where her weapons were set out. She moved over to her heavy weapon table and smiled at the collection of weapons. She frowned slightly at the sort of pinecone looking gun that was the Collector Beam. It was a damn useful weapon, but every time she held it the thing just didn't seem to fit her hands right. Then again, maybe that was the point. It wasn't made for a human.

She turned her attention away from the weapons and spotted her teammate who was in the room. She walked over and leaned against the table in the room behind him. "Hey there, Jacob. How are things going?"

Jacob turned around to face her smiling a bit as he leaned back against the work bench he'd been working on. Jacob was a good looking man. His skin was a perfect shade of brown that would have been what people had in mind when African Americans had been nicknamed chocolate. He was well built, having been Alliance before he joined Cerberus. Shepard could see why Kasumi liked the man, or at least was attracted to him. If she didn't have a good hearted Turian a deck below she might fall to the temptation of the man before her.

Jacob smiled at her in that friendly way. Jacob was like having a proper soldier on board. He sort of reminded her of Ashley, in more than one way. "Things are going well, Commander. I was just upgrading a few of the weapons with a new mod we were given."

"Good to hear. One good thing about having wealthy backers is that they can get you the nicest equipment." Shepard really didn't mind that. State of the art lab, top of the line weapons, and she need only ask for things and she'd get them.

"Yeah, the money's good to have coming in, but I'm guessing you still don't like Cerberus." Jacob wasn't defensive about it. He knew what Cerberus had done, and he wasn't completely loyal to them. He'd just taken the position because he'd felt the Alliance was too restrained by regulations. Shepard got that, it was the same thing Garrus had found a problem. The thing was they all looked at her as though she was breaking rules and regulations, as though she weren't held back by the orders of others or laws, but they just really didn't have to worry about that. They only followed her orders, not realizing that she was their red tape now. Not that she didn't have a habit of finding things she could do that made a difference that the regulations just didn't cover. She still had to deal with the council on the Citadel. Even under Cerberus she was supposed to be doing as the Illusive man asked, not that she really cared. They had the same goal in general, and she was just using him.

"No, I still don't like them. I see what they do to soldiers like you." Shepard shook her head a bit.

"And what do they do to soldiers like me?" Jacob crossed his arms over his chest. She couldn't tell if he was joking with her or seriously wanted her answer. She decided to go with the latter.

"They take good, honest soldiers, and put them into positions where they think they're doing good. Then those soldiers find out years later that what they were guarding was torture or cruel experiments." Shepard thought of the Private, shaking with a pistol to a scientist's head, talking about how Cerberus had tortured him.

"But what I've been guarding hasn't been bad. Unless you're trying to tell me something. I joined up and was put on security to protect you while they were brining you back. I think that's a noble thing to have done, and I'm not ashamed of it. Right now, the argument could be made I'm not working for Cerberus, just standing on the back of Cerberus with my Commander while they carry us to the Collectors so we can kick their former Prothean now insect butts." Jacob smiled and relaxed a bit, uncrossing his arms. "I was head of security, which meant that I got access into all the labs."

"So then you went to look what they were doing there?" Shepard was surprised. He hadn't really told her much more about his time with the Lazarus project.

"Yeah, went into all the labs, made sure there weren't any humans being worked on. The only thing I really found out was that you were our only project. That entire station was just to make sure you survived, were brought back. I was proud to be a part of it." Jacob looked away from her. "May seem stupid, but I wanted to be remembered as someone that helped. Someone that was part of the team that brought back the great Commander Shepard, first human Specter."

"Jacob, you're going to be remembered for a lot more than that. You're going to be remembered as Jacob Taylor, the man who was a part of the team that destroyed the Collector base. That will be something to remember." Shepard smiled back at him. She knew he was trying so hard to do something great because of the past, and not really all that distant of a past. "I meant to tell you, I got a message from one of the women of your father's crew." A frown spread on Jacob's face. She knew he didn't like remembering what was happened. "She wrote me a message, the one that gave us the datapad with all the information. She said she's doing better. She was writing to thank us."

"You mean they might recover? I'm still worried that what my father did to them will never really go away, and they'll always be like that. No one deserved that, and I can't believe he would do that to his own crew." Jacob's voice was thickening with anger. Shepard didn't blame him. His father had fed his crew food from a planet that was poisoning them, destroying their minds, and had used the women as he saw fit. Shepard was just proud of Jacob from walking away from all of that, for being able to see he was a better man.

"I know that you're still mad about what happened, but take some joy, Jacob, in the fact that those people are finally free from all of that," Shepard reasoned.

Jacob thought it over for a second and then nodded. "I guess you're right. We did some good for them, and maybe they'll be able to find a way to help them, to cure whatever that food did to them. Thanks again, Shepard, for letting us go down there. You know I've never had a CO that was a personal as you."

Shepard shrugged a bit. "What can I say, I'm a hands on kind of woman. Reports can only tell you so much. In person you can find out a whole lot more." At least that was what she'd always thought.

"Well, I should get back to these mods. Have to have them ready for the next fight." Jacob stood up tall and saluted. "Ma'am."

Shepard saluted back though not as formally. She was used to being saluted, but it was still a bit formal to her. She knew this crew so well, it felt like she was just friends with them when not in combat, and then they would go and salute and it would sort of ruin it. Shepard turned and walked out the side door, heading to the lab and the last member of her team.