Chapter 25

The shuttle pilot carrying Agent Neo, Urdnot Wrex, Tali' Zorah, and Chief Williams landed on the planet Tuntau. According to Wrex's lead, this was the last known location of a turian arms dealer going by the name, Tonn Actus. Actus was a rather wealthy arms dealer and because of his vast wealth, he has acquired a private army of mercenaries at his command. Also according to Wrex's information, Actus wasn't conducting any business at the moment since his last arms shipment was shipped and the money had been transferred. So most likely that he wouldn't be expecting anyone to attack his base/office.

Any good infiltration team would know that discretion is key and right now that is what the four must do. The reason for the discretion is that the base is one single prefabricated building being surrounded by a guard of sentries and four automated defense towers.

Neo ordered the shuttle pilot to land a kilometer and a half away from the base not to alarm the mercenaries. Then the group slowly crept toward the base while hiding behind some rather large boulders.

Neo pulled out a small telescope to observe the merc activity down below. When he studied the structure, he rubbed his chin in deep thought. He looks at Tali while activating his Omni-tool. "Tali. I'm going to find the frequency to those automated gun towers. What I want you to do is shut down the tower's CPU through my frequency channel. Can you shut them down?"

"I'm on it." Tali responded by activating her Omni-tool. "I found the main control board for the turrets."

"Great, now shut them down in ten… nine… eight…" Neo counted down as he pulled out his Arc Rifle and took aim. "…three… two… one… now."

The guns on the turrets lowered as Neo squeezed the trigger. A jolt of lightning came out of the barrel and the stream consumed all the mercenaries surrounding the compound. Neo would've rather not used the Arc Rifle for this manner, but the stream of lightning was quiet enough not to raise alarms for the rest of the mercenaries inside the compound.

Neo, Wrex, Tali, and Ashley stood before the front door of the compound when Wrex tapped Neo on the shoulder. "Neo. I want to lead this raid."

Neo asked. "What for?"

"Because this is personal." Wrex just plainly said. "This involves my family and our honor. It should be fitting that I take lead on this."

Neo smiled. "What a coincidence. I was just about to tell you Wrex, this is your deal so you take lead. You like to take things bluntly, but not to a point of where you lose control. Tell you what, if you can provide the lead, could you provide the distraction without getting yourself killed?"

"That'll be no problem, but what do you three plan to do?" Wrex asked.

"We can provide the cover fire." Neo said while pulling out his assault rifle. "These mercs have a bad habit of leaving a lot of volatile equipment around. Keep them distracted enough, we can cut through a lot of mercs without trying. What do you say?"

Wrex gave the agent a big grin while Wrex pulled out his hefty shotgun. "You three give me cover. I'll go in heavy and strong." Then Wrex activated the sliding door and charged in with Neo, Tali, and Ashley following.

As it turns out there was nobody in the front area of the building which could be reminiscent to a lobby, but when the group was about to enter the main hub Wrex had a quick moment to say a piece about the hell they were about to unleash. "This is the place. My armor's in there somewhere."

The door slid open and Wrex charged right inside, knocking over a couple of mercenaries with his krogan charge. Then he took cover behind a crate while firing on the large number of mercenaries on the top floor. So far the plan was working since the merc squad was focused on Wrex; Neo, Tali, and Ashley slithered along the stacks of crates stored near the entrance.

Neo popped his head around and he could clearly see the top floor when he realized that the mercenaries have unintentionally positioned themselves near a large fuel tank. Neo switched his bullet modification from rapid fire to incinerary rounds. On Neo's right, Ashley was squatting by his side with her sniper rifle in hand. "Ash, see that fuel tank?"

"Yeah." She said.

"Fire a couple of rounds into the bladder and I'll take care of the rest." He said.

"Got it." She takes aim and pumps two shoots into the tank. The tank began to bleed out a neon green liquid and Neo fired a few rounds around the holes to generate enough spark to ignite the volatile substance. The attempt was a success when flames started pouring out and then erupted into a loud fireball. The balcony holding most of the mercenaries were engulfed in the flames while some had been ejected over the balcony and on the floor below.

Tali and Ashley took care of the remaining mercenaries that came down the stairs, but Wrex pointed to someone on the floor. "There he is!"

Wrex was pointing to a turian trying to get up; probably just realizing that he had been thrown over the side from the explosion and now struggling to get up. Wrex just picked the turian up and slammed him against the back wall.

"Who the hell are you?!" The dazzled turian demanded.

"I'm Urdnot Wrex!" Wrex looked at the turian dead in his eyes. "You're Tonn Actus and you have something that I want!"

"Yeah, what is it krogan?" Actus narrowed his eyes. "You want money? You want weapons? We'll fuck you, I'm not gonna budge!"

"You have my family's armor." Wrex said. "I want it back!"

"Screw you." Actus snarled back. "It's somewhere safe and you'll need me to access the code."

Wrex looked at Tali and Neo. Then he turned his focus back on Actus. "Who said anything about needing your access codes?" Then Wrex holds Actus with his left hand and places his right hand on top of his skull. He grips the turian's head and twists it to the side, snapping his neck. Tonn Actus was dead.

The group proceeded to a storage room, after Wrex allows Actus's lifeless body slump down on the floor. The fire was still burning in some areas, so they had to hurry to avoid the smoke in the building to fill up where all oxygen was sucked from their lungs and only Tali could drag them back to the shuttle.

The four walked into a storage room which contained files on books and various types of equipment, where at the other end of the room they encountered a wall safe. Neo and Tali both synchronized their Omni-tools to access the proper code on the wall safe. When they finally got the safe open, Wrex came into the office to see what the two had done.

The safe door flew open and inside was a scarred piece of armor in the color of red with black trims. Wrex looked at the armor, but he couldn't believe his eyes. "This is it. I can't believe my ancestors wore this piece of crap, but at least I got it back."

Neo looks at the old krogan. "I'm glad I can help you get it back, I owe you for helping me out back on Feros."

"Indeed." Wrex looked at Neo. "I might be starting to like you, Neo."

"Shepard deserves some of the credit too." Neo added. "He was insisting on helping you out."

Wrex nods in agreement while he touches his grandfather's armor. He made an expression that was hard to read, but shakes his head while gripping his pistol in a sense of renewed purpose.

Neo just looked and smiled while thinking to himself. Great. I hope this is enough armor to protect us when Wrex finds out about the facility on Virmire.

According to Garrus's research data, this salarian fugitive named Dr. Saleon was continuing his operations in the Kelper Verge in the Herschel system. The ship was named MSV Fedele and the ship's registration was under an alias known as Dr. Heart.

Garrus looked out of one of the shuttle's portholes and Garrus kept mumbling to himself words like. "There you are you son of a bitch." or "End of the line for you."

What was eerily strange was that the ship was active, but the Fedele was not making any attempts to communicate with the shuttle. The sensors showed that the Fedele's life support was active and so was the ship's power. This caused alarm for Shepard, Garrus, Kaiden, and Liara.

The shuttle docked on the ship's side and the group had their guns drawn. Shepard opened the docking bay doors and her was first to enter through the threshold. It was quiet at first, but the sound of moaning came closer as they walked closer to the cargo bay.

"That's the same sound from Eden Prime and Feros." Kaiden said.

"You do not suppose the geth infiltrated this ship?" Liara suggested. "We are rather close to the Veil."

"It doesn't sound like husks." Shepard said. "They sound like creepers from the Thorian."

"It wouldn't surprise me with Saleon." Garrus remarked and pulled up his assault rifle to make ready. "There's only one way to find out and that's behind this door."

With Garrus's resolved hardened, he opened the door and carefully maneuvered his way behind some stacked cargo boxes. Shepard and Garrus came around the boxes and saw something out of a horror vid.

The almost empty cargo hold was filled with humanoid creatures, but these creatures weren't husks converted by the geth or creepers converted by the Thorian. They looked more like corpses… walking corpses. Most of the corpses looked human, but there were some turian, krogan, and some asari. They had large autopsy stitching running vertically across their naked torsos while they were walking around, stumbling without thought or comprehension to their surroundings.

"Do I have to be the ass hole to say it?" Kaiden asked. "But I think this looks like a zombie infestation?"

Then one of the zombies howled when they saw Shepard, Garrus, Kaiden, and Liara. Then the other zombies took notice and stumbled towards the group.

"Shepard!" Liara said. "I'll form a barrier! Stay inside the barrier!"

"Right!" Shepard said as Liara created a protective bubble around herself and her three companions. Then Shepard gave the next order. "Open fire!"

Shepard and Garrus opened fire and downed many of the zombies trying to approach them. Kaiden also fired upon the zombies, but when a few got too close to the barrier he knocked them back with his biotics.

What had almost felt like hours, only five minutes passed when the last of the zombies were killed… or as killed as they can be.

Liara turned off her biotics and she almost fainted, but she quickly collected her thoughts. Shepard checked to see if she was alright, but she rest assured him. "I am fine Shepard. Are you well?"

"I'm alright Liara." Shepard said. "We're all fine thanks to you."

"I am glad to hear that, Shepard." Liara said cupping her hand on his face while they both smiled.

"Uh. I don't mean to interrupt this tender moment, but there's a fugitive that needs to face justice." Garrus coyly commented. "He should be up ahead."

"We'll, we had a horror vid moment." Kaiden said. "Now we saw a romance vid moment. Now we get to see a law & order moment." Kaiden chuckled.

They searched the corridors of the ship when they came to one last door. When they opened it, they found a laboratory. Hiding in the corner was a salarian in a tech lab coat. The salarian raised his head when he realized that the people coming inside the lab weren't any of those zombies. This has to be Dr. Saleon. Shepard thought.

"Thank you." The salarian expressed relief. "Thank you for saving me from those things."

Garrus studied the salarian's face and then he made the connection. "Commander, that's him. That's Dr. Saleon."

The salarian's relief suddenly turned to disbelief when he hear Garrus mention the name Saleon. "What? My name is Heart. Dr. Heart. Please get me out of here."

Shepard looked at the salarian doctor. "Are you sure it's him?"

"Positive." Garrus said while looking at Shepard. Then he turns his attention to the fugitive salarian doctor. "There's no escape this time, Doctor. I'd harvest your organs first, but we don't have the time."

"Your crazy." Saleon looks at Shepard. "He's crazy. Please, don't let him do this to me!"

"We'll take him in." Shepard said. "Drop him off with the military."

Garrus began to protest. "But… we have him. We can't let him get away. Not again?"

"If he dies, we'll never know what he's been up to or how he did it. We'll take him in, interrogate him, and he'll serve his time." Shepard told Garrus to calm him down.

"I've…" Garrus was ready to spit fire, but he restrained himself. "Okay. You're right." Then he looks at Saleon. "You're a very lucky salarian. You owe the commander your life."

Then Saleon's tone turned sour and added a thick layer of sarcasm to his response. "Oh. Thank you so very much!"

Then Saleon ran back behind a lab table. He pulled out a pistol from underneath the table and attempted to shoot the commander and Garrus. Shepard was quicker with the draw and he managed to get one shot in Saleon's forehead. The doctor was dead.

Garrus checks the body and he looks back at Shepard in slight anger. "And so he dies anyway! What was the point of that?"

Shepard holsters his pistol and gives Garrus his answer. "You can't predict how people will act, Garrus. But you can control how you'll respond. In the end, that's what really matters."

Garrus gave himself a moment to think while looking at the dead body. Then he looks at Shepard with a sense of resolve. "Yeah. I don't think I've ever met anyone like you, Commander. They teach you well in the Matrix, don't they? We'll I guess we're done here."

They all left the blood stained lab and back towards the shuttle waiting for them to take the four back to Omega.

Saren opened the door to where his indoctrinated asari is supervising his special project. He is looking over the parts and pieces that was once a chair the podborn humans would use for entering their precious sacred ground they would call the Matrix.

One of the main researchers was a salarian wearing a uniform signifying his affiliation to the Special Tasks Group. He was responsible for dismantling the chair that was meant to access the sophisticated virtual reality program and now this salarian was trying to make the access portal accessible for their numerous geth drones.

"How goes the conversion?" Saren asked his salarian servant.

"I've managed to splice the wires from the main access terminal, but it will take the power of Sovereign to fully access the Matrix. The geth alone cannot access such a powerful A.I. program. The way the Matrix works to match this program I'm making would be like trying to catch a bullet when it has been fired."

Saren just stood there looking at the STG technician. "Sovereign is capable of handling such a challenge, but your responsibility is just trying to get the geth infiltration unit through. I just need you to be ready when Shepard is ready to come to my home on Virmire." Then Saren turned his back and walked out of the room.