This here was another Cerberus facility, but contrary to the last one they'd cleaned out, the purpose of this one was painfully clear. It was set up as a small but well equipped biological research facility, and from what she'd been able to tell they were looking into developing a particularly nasty sort of microparasite that targeted a broad variety of organisms. The idea, of course, was to have something that went for the aliens but left the humans alone.
The original parasite had come from some forsaken planet near the 'Veil, probably chosen because of its natural adaptability to many different host species, but by now it had been engineered for maximum efficiency - meaning in this case that it was hard to detect in its dormant state, highly infectious when it went active and slow but so far unstoppable in killing its host. It was a weapon, not one to quickly kill lots of aliens but to cripple a large number of them over time and bind their resources.
They had stumbled over this whole mess by accident, mostly, detecting a small but too-new, high tech base and a decent security satellite network on a mostly undeveloped planet with no clue as to who the base belonged to, and no records of its existence in the first place. It hadn't looked like a normal crime-affiliated or even secret military setup, and that was what raised Saren's interest. The Spectre had managed to land his small ship some distance away undetected by the satellites and the facility's sensor range as they had simply observed from afar for a few days. After that time they agreed that they needed to get a better look at what they were dealing with, and that was why Shepard had gone out alone to infiltrate the facility.
Shepard was certain that with regards to pure stealth, she was the better of the two of them, and in this instance he wouldn't have been able to even take the same route as she had done. The maintenance tunnels she'd crawled through were a tight fit for a human in light armor as it was, and impossible to navigate for a turian in heavy combat suit.
They'd agreed on a 20 hour time frame for her to get in and find out what the whole setup was about; after that, provided she didn't send a message to the contrary, Saren'd come in himself.
Shepard had made it into the facility with no real problems, but once there she realised she was in over her head. Staying undetected had been easier than expected, as the base was bigger than she'd expected from the outside, extending several levels into the ground, and sparsely staffed. For security they relied mostly on the remote location and a camera network controlled by the facility's central VI. There were security guards, of course, but once she'd hacked her way into the VI, evading them was easy enough.
She scouted the place, staying away from the living quarters and control center higher up, had a quick peek at the hangar which held just one ship the size of a smaller passenger liner, and the labs - and the containment area of the test subjects. Turning her back on the latter had been one of the hardest things she'd had to do lately, but there was nothing she could do for them at the moment. She wasn't even certain that there was anything to be done, really, but she was determined to ensure that at least an attempt would be made.
From the change in activity and some log messages she'd caught on unattended terminals she could at least deduce that the staff was already in the process of packing up and moving out. Shepard didn't know whether they judged their weapon as deployment-ready yet, or whether they were simply relocating somewhere else to do more in-depth field testing, but in the end that didn't matter much. Her task was to make sure they didn't get away with this, simply enough, and she had made use of the time she had as her own deadline went up.
She had taken the risk of sending out a very short crypted message for Saren, to give him at least a rough overview of the situation, and then retreated to the lowest level of the facility.
An explosion shook the building, and Shepard started to curse under her breath as cracks appeared in the ceiling above, raining fine dust downwards. She paused her work on the terminal for a few seconds, then resumed activity as soon as she was certain that the room she was wasn't in immediate danger of collapsing.
Still, it appeared the need for stealth had just diminished greatly.
"I know you have a thing for explosions, but that's ridiculous" she growled into the comm.
"That wasn't me." Saren sounded slightly out of breath.
"Damnit. Then they are already pulling out, and that's the cleanup starting." she stated. A few quick taps at the terminal confirmed her theory.
"That was the main server room and data storage."
She pushed away from the terminal, shutting down the VI interface.
"There are two more charges on your level. If I upload you the locations, can you do something about them?"
"I could, but I won't. It would take me too much time. I will not allow them to escape." She knew that tone. And she knew there wasn't much argument she could make for trying to evacuate the captives that still might be saved.
"Trust me, they won't, not for long." she just said, all the detail she dared to voice over an insecure channel.
Of course she couldn't see him, but she could almost hear him growing very still. Something changed in his voice, too.
"You are aware of the consequences if you're wrong?" he asked.
She was, both for herself and for whatever citizens the group had targeted as test subjects next, if they weren't planning their real coup already. And if she got this wrong in any way, she was finished, career-wise, at least. Maybe even literally, she wasn't sure what he'd do to her in case of failure. He might overlook failure because of bad luck, but bad judgement wasn't something he'd tolerate. "I am." she replied, keeping her voice steady.
There was nothing for a few beats, then Saren's voice was back, emotionless as ever. "Give me the locations, then."
She sent the coordinates directly to his omnitool, then cut the transmission for the moment. She didn't spare another thought whether he'd be able to defuse the remaining charges, she knew better than that.
Instead, she made her way back to the control center and spent a few minutes rerouting elements until the main terminal came online again. Shepard called up the hangar's cameras and was just in time to catch a glimpse of the starting ship. She changed the view to the feed of one of the spy satellites and watched the progress of the small craft.
The sound of the door made her half-turn, but her attention was back at the display as Saren came to stand at her side.
He didn't comment as he regarded the representation of the escaping ship, but he was growling slightly. She had gotten very accustomed to him over the last few months, up to the point that she sometimes was faintly surprised to look at him and find that he was of a different species. And then, just like now, there was no way to see him as anything familiar. Turians were evolved from predators, and the instincts were still there. And right now his prey was escaping, and he didn't like that one bit.
Shepard didn't hold her breath as she counted down silently, but it was an effort.
About now.
On the display, the ship had just about cleared the atmosphere as a silent explosion took out its drives. A second explosion a few seconds later tore it into several pieces that parted ways violently in a satisfying display of fireworks.
Shepard felt her lips stretch into a feral smile. "Oops." she said, dead-pan.
The pieces would come down eventually, but burn up in the atmosphere. Not that she thought it likely that anyone aboard had made it through the second explosion, but she found she didn't dislike the thought of a slower fiery end for them.
Saren's expression was mirroring her own, only with more teeth and spikes. "How?" he asked.
"I did some repacking of their cargo." she said. "I didn't have time to switch all the charges for decoys, but they had a couple of them aboard. One of them linked to the drive."
"Risky." he commented, as ever challenging her.
"There is - or, rather, was - a slow decay virus in the ship's computer as well, as a fallback. They wouldn't have made it far." she parried.
"Hmm." He nodded slightly, a mere inclination of his head. "You certainly were busy."
Shepard shrugged. "There's a lot one can so with a 20 hour head start and a bit of creativity." she said with a slight quirk of lips.
Saren neither agreed nor disagreed, but changed topics. "I will make my report to the Council and request to have this mess cleaned up. Then we can be on our way."
Shepard hesitated. She knew very well that there was little she could do for the victims of those experiments, but she was reluctant to just leave them behind. If it had been her call she'd at least have waited until help for them was on its way and in range. Then again, having Saren change his original plan was more than she'd expected. At least they had a chance now. She would have to be content with this.
She just nodded, fatigue setting in as the adrenaline faded out.
Saren threw her a sharp look, then waved a hand dismissively. "Get some rest. The state you're in now you're useless for any investigative work. They were cautious, but there might still some clue be left in the computers down here."
She nodded again, feeling that she didn't have enough energy left to try and make sense of his plans. That would have to wait for later. As she left the command center, his voice followed her, in his usual sour tone. "You didn't do too bad, here."
It was only after she'd located an empty room in the crew quarters and settled in for some rest that she realised that this time, he hadn't added 'for a human.'.