"The Father has great plans for you. Accept his offer of the implant will only serve to improve you… If you turn down his generosity he will not be so happy."
The head researcher's threat still rang in Shepard's mind. It was clear that Shepard had only one decision now: he needed to escape immediately.
Shepard had been cooking up an escape plan for a while. It went like this: once he had broken out of his restraints, he would don a disguise and free Kasumi. Then together they would access their databanks and steal as much information as they could so they had something to strike back with when they got out of the place. The labs were emptied every 12 hours and filled with a new wave of scientists. Every time the first wave left, it would take a few minutes for the next wave to start coming in. Shepard knew that if there were a time to break out, it would have to be then.
Calmly Shepard mentally prepared himself for the painful shock that would come when he would try to escape. The restraints that were around his wrists and ankles would shock him if he applied any type of force onto the restraint other than a gravitational force. If he were to break out, he would have to be quick, efficient, and strong to break out. Shepard was confident that he had all three.
Soon the scientists left their stations as their shift came to a close. Shepard started to get butterflies in his stomach; he always did when he was waiting to enact some plan. He silently wished Liara were there to ease the pain. When the last scientist left their station and disappeared from view, Shepard sprang into action.
Holding up his weight with his arms, with great strength Shepard swung his legs up in front of him, breaking the restraints and making contact with the glass enclosure, making large cracks. Immediately Shepard's wrist restraints began to apply their shock and Shepard fought to stay in control of his body. The pain began to become unbearable in his wrists, and Shepard fought to stay in control.
"I beat the effing reapers!" He yelled to add some motivation. It paid off and he broke on arm free of its restraint. Quickly he broke off the other and dropped to the floor. Shepard could see large burns on his wrists, but he didn't focus on them. He had to escape. A single punch finished the job and broke the glass.
Shepard realized that his cell had been soundproofed and it was rather loud outside the cell in the lab. An alarm blared, presumably signaling Shepard's escape from the restraints. It would only be a little longer before they realize that he had escaped his glass enclosure as well.
Unsure of where to run Shepard chose a direction and ran. He went to a short sterile white hallway with large double doors at the end. The hallway had one other door in it to Shepard's right. Quickly he debated which door to take. Shepard could hear the sound of multiple feet coming to the large door. Prompting him to take the side door in desperation. As he ran inside he could hear shouts come from the lab.
Shepard found himself in a locker room. To his left a guard stood next to the door. Shepard took him out before the man could react. The guard slumped against the wall.
"What was that? You hear that?"
Another guard called the incapacitated guard from somewhere else in the locker room. Shepard left the guard where he was and waited for the second guard to come around. He hid against a wall of lockers and prayed he wouldn't be spotted before the guard saw his friend.
Momentarily the guard found his friend. "Oh my god." The guard checked his colleague's pulse, then guard reached for his comm device to alert the other guards.
Shepard couldn't allow that. He came up from behind and put the guard in a choke hold and waited until the man was rendered unconscious.
Shepard inspected the guard's uniform. He wore all black armor with an identification badge attached to the chest. There was no head protection, only a hat. A guard's uniform could get him into many areas, but it didn't conceal his face. He would have to find a better uniform if he was going to get around the place for a prolonged amount of time.
Shepard swapped clothes with the man and explored the locker room for the other access point that the other guard must have been guarding. Without any trouble he found it and slipped through the door.
Outside the locker room the hallways were chaotic as soldiers and scientists rushed about in a mad search for Shepard. To avoid any suspicion, Shepard brought the brim of his hat down to hide his face better. Several soldiers ran past him into the locker room that the incapacitated guards occupied. Hurriedly Shepard made his way down one of the hallways to search for Kasumi.
It was done. Liara had prepared her shadow broker forces to assault the reaper labs. She would have to wait for her forces to get set up, and she decided that she should get some sleep.
The captain's quarters were mostly quiet save for some fussing from Shiala. Liara flopped onto the bed and curled up alone under the blankets. The fussing annoyed Liara, not because of the actual sounds of it, but because her conscience could not let the baby be alone like that. Liara laid in bed terribly conflicted.
"Goddess, why is this so hard." Liara groaned into the pillows. The child loved Liara like a mother. Liara's thoughts drifted to her own mother, Matriarch Benezia. Her mother was gone a long time ago, and Liara had felt the effects. In her nightmares Benezia would die over and over again, telling Liara how proud she was of her. Liara could not let a child experience the same grief as she had. Shepard's words formed in her head: the baby needed a mother.
Despite the warmth of the bed, Liara got out and picked the child up out of her cradle. Then she returned to the warmth of the blankets with the child. Without prompting, the child cuddled up against Liara's chest and gave a content smile.
Liara couldn't help but smile at the little bundle against her chest. Sleep and good dreams quietly claimed her shortly after.
"The prisoner is being kept in the old sub-basement. That's all I know I swear!" The guard spat out in full panic. Shepard held him against the wall, his hands on the man's armor.
Shepard loosened his grip on the man. "I believe you, but I can't have you running around telling people where I am."
The man's eyes widened as his imagination explored the possibilities of Shepard's statement. "What are you going to do to me?!" He cried.
"Nothing much." Shepard smashed his face into the other. The unconscious body of the man relaxed in Shepard's grip. He let the body drop to the floor. He shook his head at what he had done. This man was weak; he didn't deserve the violence that had come to him. But if Shepard had let him go, who would have known what the man would have done. Shepard didn't even have a weapon yet, so it was better to be safe than sorry.
Shepard left the body in the otherwise empty hallway. Signs directed him to the basement access stairwell. No one was around in that part of the base; everyone else was probably trying to comb the lab for clues of where Shepard had gone.
The stairs flowed into a brick-walled hallway. A lone soldier patrolled the hallway, his back to Shepard. The soldier wore the exact same armor as the soldier that had originally captured Shepard.
Quickly and quietly Shepard crept up behind the soldier and snapped his neck. This individual was dangerous and could possibly be the clone that Shepard had been knocked out by. He felt no remorse for this enemy. Shepard dragged the body underneath the stairwell and swapped his guard disguise for the soldier's armor.
The armor fit Shepard soldier had a modified Mattock assault rifle which was colored black and smaller. Shepard could not shake the feeling of a Cerberus type influence in the weapon and armor. What was stranger was that the helmets had no HUDs or even any type of communications device. Shepard wondered how the soldiers were able to organize and communicate at all, but it was obvious that they did it somehow.
Once he was all set, Shepard moved down the hallway. At the end of it was a single door. Shepard entered to find a small guard station that was connected to several prisoner stations. Three soldiers were in the room as well.
All three just stared at Shepard. Without speaking to Shepard, each soldier raised their gun at the new arrival. Shepard didn't know what was up. His disguise was perfect.
Shepard froze in place and waited for the other three to act. It was a tense moment as the three soldiers stood silently, their guns ready to fire at the slightest movement from Shepard.. Shepard surveyed his surroundings. Shepard stood on one side of a console in the center of the room. The soldiers were on the other side. Nothing else could really provide cover, so it was the only thing that he could use.
With his lightning fast reflexes, Shepard popped a shot into one of their heads. Then he dove forward and took cover against the console. Shepard didn't wait to see what the soldiers would do, and instead peeked over his cover. One of the soldiers was right on the other side. Shepard took initiative and grabbed the man. Since he didn't have his omnitool, Shepard instead dazed the soldier with a punch to the helmet. Then he grabbed the soldier's pistol and shot him.
That took out two of the soldiers, which meant that there was one other to worry about. Before Shepard could check the room, the final soldier tackled him and pressed him against the ground. The soldier lifted up his fist, and Shepard saw an Omni blade start to form.
"Oh no you don't." Shepard muttered, driving his knee into the soldier's groin. Shepard was able turn the tables and roll over so that the soldier was on bottom. Shepard wrestled with the soldier as he tried to get back the advantage. Shepard knew he could not go on forever and had to end it soon. He grabbed his opponent's shoulders, picked him up and slammed the soldier's head into the console. The force was enough to take the soldier out. Shepard collapsed on the ground as he panted from exhaustion.
After he had caught his breath Shepard viewed the corpse the lay next to. He moved away in disgust and went right to another one of the corpses, the one that he had shot in the head. Shepard could see that the bullet had gone right through his head due to the strength of the Mattock rifle he wielded. Typically Shepard would have looked away and pressed on, but Shepard saw something that caught his eye. It was something that should not have been there. In the soldier's head was an implant, similar to what Cerberus had done to their troops.
"Oh my gosh." Shepard exclaimed. Seeing the implants allowed Shepard to piece together the lack of HUD or comms in the soldiers. The implants must make some sort of connection between the soldiers. That's how they were able to tell that Shepard wasn't a soldier right away. Shepard quietly cursed himself for getting rid of his guard disguise.
Shepard got up and determined which cell was Kasumi's from the console. He collected his rifle and claimed a pistol from one of the corpses, holstered both weapons and walked into the room. The room was empty.
He heard a pistol engaged itself behind him. "You know, you must be some stupid guard not to listen to your colleauges when they tell you not to go in." Kasumi spoke behind him. Shepard felt the barrel of a weapon tap against his helmet. Shepard checked his pistol; Kasumi had taken it.
"Kasumi, it's me!" Shepard spoke. He took off his helmet and turned around to face her.
Kasumi lowered her weapon and eyed him curiously. Without any warning, she punched him in the face.
"OW! What was that for?!" His nose was bleeding, and Shepard grabbed the bridge of it to stop the flow.
"It IS you!" Kasumi exclaimed. "Sorry about that, they have a clone of you walking about and I had to check. If you were the other one you would have attacked me for sure."
"Apology accepted." Shepard grumbled, still holding his nose.
"Now what's the plan?"
"Well, we are staying here a little longer to steal some data, something I'm sure you'd love to do."
"And how are we going to do that?"
"Good question." Shepard chuckled. "I have no idea."
