Normandy SR2, three days after Tali's leave
"What do you mean it was a distraction?" Shepard snarled angrily at the Illusive Man. Despite helping each other out, they still were enemies, not happy with the way the other person handled things.
"The information they stole wasn't in the space station. It was a decoy, to lure you away from the real copy in hopes that we all would forget about it."
"Yea yea, and now you want me to go information hunting all over again"
"I wouldn't use such a crude term. I prefer to call it a snatch and grab if you may, just that we can't have any witnesses. More importantly, I believe you should know what that information is about." He took another puff of smoke before he continued his explanation.
"Two years ago, when we started the Lazarus project, we ventured into the area of being able to revive someone, anyone, without DNA specifications. However, it proved to be difficult. The Lazarus project was built to revive you, and you only."
The Illusive Man took a datapad out from behind him and showed it to Shepard "The fruitful part of our long, hard research was that as long as someone shared a certain section of the DNA that you have, the Lazarus technology could be reused."
"So you're saying that if this random guy so happen has a similar DNA code as mine, you could bring him back?"
"Yes, it is being applied in operation EXODUS now. But back to the point, what has been stolen is your DNA code. It is possible that the separatists are trying to implant that DNA into their own men, essentially making a clone of you."
"Wait, so you're saying that Cerberus was trying to clone me?"
"Yes, but later I decided against it. However, some still insisted that having more of a good thing is good, and thus the splinter group was born."
"And what would they do with copies of me? Take over the universe?"
"That I do not know. Although there have been claims that with an army of you, no one could oppose, not even the reapers. It could be to our advantage, but being power hungry, I fear they have their own personal agenda behind it."
"Alright. I'll do you this one favour. I don't really like the idea of meeting myself on the streets anyways."
"One more thing, you should take out the cloning facility as well. According to reports, it's on the planet itself. How you are going to destroy the facility is entire up to you." The Illusive Man gave a knowing smile before he severed the connection.
Shepard walked towards the elevator as he patched in the co-ordinates to Joker.
"Copy that commander, arriving in 12 hours. Better get some sleep."
The Normandy detached from the Citadel's docking system as it accelerated into the great unknown.
Over at the Normandy armoury, Shepard was looking through the different choices of weapons. Throughout their entire journey, there had been several new additions. Shepard's personal favourite was the Tempest SMG, able to put an entire clip into some ones face within seconds.
"They're all in tip top shape commander" Jacob turned away from his work terminal.
"So I see. Is the new shotgun for Grunt completed yet? I remember hearing about it yesterday."
"Quite, still in the testing stage though. But I think it'll be done soon. Grunt can't wait to 'test' the new weapon some more. It sure packs a punch, enough recoil to dislocate your shoulder if you ain't careful."
"And that's why only Grunt uses it."
"Point taken."
"I've got some other things to check on. See you around"
"Sure thing commander"
Shepard continued his adventure of touring around the ship, talking to people, seeing how they were doing, helping out if anyone else had problems with their family, seriously. Jacob had problems with his father, Miranda had problems with her father and sister. Thane had problems with his son, Samara her daughter. Jeez. But all in a day's work for Shepard.
Shepard walked down to the front batteries. The doors opened to reveal a turian working at the controls.
"Hey, Garrus, I need you to…" Shepard frowned as he looked at the slightly short female turian "Oh, I'm sorry." Shepard looked down and sighed hard, "I forgot that."
Nala turned around and put a hand on Shepard's shoulder. "It's okay. It's good to see that you haven't forgotten him. I know I won't forget him for a long time."
"Yea… it's going to be hard without him. Anyway, I need the weapons prepped in a few hours time. I don't know what resistance we're facing but knowing the value of the info we're retrieving, there's going to be at least a few ships."
"No problems. I hope my daughter isn't causing anymore problems."
"Not that I know of. Where is she anyway?"
"I told her to stay in the room most of the time but I said that if she's bored, she can go talk to the pilot."
"Knowing Joker, I don't really think it's a good idea."
"I thought it was. Maybe one day she'll grow up to the pilot of her own ship, who know?"
"Or maybe a foul mouthed person…" Shepard raised an eyebrow.
"Mommy! Mommy! I found you" Mira ran into the room hugging Nala's legs.
"Mommy, I asked the big man flying the ship what the collectors are!"
"And what did he say?"
"I don't understand it. He said that the collectors are coark sucking bastards. What's that?"
Nala winced at what her daughter just said as Shepard let out a short laugh at the young girl's pronunciation.
"Just proved my point." And Shepard walked out just in time before Nala started scolding Mira.
Migrant Fleet
Tali sat at her desk, thinking about what she should include in the next day's lesson. Right now the trainees were equipped with basic engineering skills, but for a war, a war needed more than that. Her train of thoughts was broken by a quick series of knocks on the door.
"Come in" Tali tapped on her omnitool and the door unlocked with a click.
"Hi Tali," Kal'Reegar walked in with a assault rifle in hand. Sitting on the sofa inside her quarters, he leaned the gun against the nearby wall.
"Kal, are you okay?"
"I'm alright, just a little tired. Why did you ask?"
"You called me by my name,"
"Is that a problem? It's your name isn't it?"
"No, it just that you always call me ma'am and you won't change no matter what"
"Alright, you got me there. There's something that I wanted to tell you. Remember during the two years when Shepard was, umm, unconscious so as to speak." Tali nodded her head twice "Remember how I would always ask if you were alright, if you were hurt every time after a mission?"
"Yes, you were being a friend."
"Actually, I wanted us to be more than friends."
"I don't like where this is going" Tali shifted uncomfortable in her seat.
"Every day when neither of us were on a mission, I would come by and say hi, ask how you were coping with Shepard's death and all that. I really cared for you. To put it bluntly, I loved you"
"Kal, why now? Why tell me all this now? Is it because I'm away from the Normandy, alone?"
"I just heard about your marriage with Shepard"
Tali was getting really uncomfortable now. Here she was, alone, defenseless. Where was Shepard when you need him?
"So now you're jealous that I'm with him and not you?" Tali was more puzzled that offended. She really didn't know what he meant. He wasn't really straight to the point when it came down to these kind of things.
"No! No, don't get me wrong! I'm happy that you found someone better. I just wanted to tell you that I still care and I still love you. Not in the way that you think, but I got it clear now, I love you as a friend"
"So… you're not jealous?"
"Why would I be? If I really cared for you, I would respect your choices. To be honest, I too have moved on. That is behind me."
"Whew, for a moment I thought you were going to do something stupid."
"Like?" Kal picked up his gun and hoisted it up with one hand
"I don't know…"
"Well I'm happy he didn't do something stupid. Would have to kill him if he did" Rosa stepped out of the shadows and into the light
"Who are you?" Kal had his gun raised and his tone returned to his usual seriousness.
Taking a slight bow, Rosa explained "Rose Maria Auditore," Cut off halfway by Tali
"Another assassin that Shepard recruited."
"Considering that Tali couldn't understand your feelings for the past two years… I think you better work on your pick up lines." Rosa gave a short chuckle.
"Do I, really?"
"I was just kidding. I heard a lot about you though. Nah, it was more of a hack in to the databases and find out that you're a nice guy kind of thing. Well, I suppose I'll see you again. And I will" Rosa walked towards to door, giving Kal a wink before going out the door and blending into a group of quarians.
"She likes you"
"And you know that how?"
"It's obvious isn't it?" Tali crossed her arms in front of her chest and gave a very knowing laugh
"Not really"
"You really have to put some work into that area"
"Hey, I'm a marine, not a romance kind of guy. Anyways, see you next time" Walking out the door, Kal let the gun rest on his shoulder as he held it by the trigger handle.
Normandy SR2, 12 Hours Later
"Alright, let's recap. Kasumi, me and Thane will be team Alpha. You're coming with me to infiltrate that big cruiser over there. Jack, Grunt and Legion, you will be team Bravo, you'll take the shuttle to blow up the base on my command. Charlie consists of Mordin, doctor Chakwas and Samara. They will go with Bravo but remain in the shuttle until backup is required."
"If the people who are going planet side are taking the shuttle, how are we going to get to the cruiser?"
"Just follow my lead."
Team Alpha slowly drifted towards the rogue Cerberus cruiser, powered only by their jet packs. They brought enough oxygen to last two hours, in case things went wrong. Like this, they produced no alarming amount of heat and should remain undetected.
Preparing to hack the airlock, Kasumi made sure that nobody would see what was happening. After she was confident that there was no one in the near vicinity, she hit the button and the airlock opened. The team made their way inside before closing the airlock once again.
"Okay, where are we?"
Kasumi tapped on her omnitool to project a 3D image of the cruiser. "You see, we're here, in the engineering sector. We need to get up there, to the AI core. If there is really any data at all, it's going to be there."
"We should move up to here where a service ladder is. Then we can go up a level to the crew deck, make our way across to the main batteries, which is where another ladder which will take us up into the AI core."
"Thane, that's a good plan. Now all we have to do is get there."
The trip towards the service ladder was quite uneasy. Once they had gotten out of the airlock, they were immediately greeted by two curious engineers. They were quickly knocked out (not killed) and their bodies put in a storage room. As they walked out of the storage room, two guards had caught sight of them and they quickly had their throats slit.
"This is hard, very hard." Kasumi wiped drops of sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. The trio had stopped in a weapon storage room for a break, with the bodies of four guards chucked in a corner behind them, permanently resting. They were quite close to the service ladder already, it being two rooms down. But they needed to rest, to recharge for the upcoming challenges ahead.
Planetside
Grunt shuffled his feet on the grass. He was impatient, waiting for Shepard to give the order to attack. He was hungry for action, violence, brutal killings of those who opposed Shepard and his friends.
Nearby, the shuttle had silently landed. Being cloaked during the entire journey, they were completely unseen by the anti-air batteries. Doctor Chakwas was busy calibrating the medical equipment just in case the need for it arose. Samara was meditating on the field beside Grunt, hoping that a blizzard would not interrupt her this time.
Legion was carried away with processing data that came from the geth on Rannoch. They were able to detect some heretic geth on the planet and was working with the quarians to eradicate them. He took a look at Grunt, trying to deduce why he hungered for fights and violence. But that just proved Legion's motto correct, organics are such unusual creatures.
Rogue Cerberus cruiser
Our heroes are back in the business. There was no opposition as they walked towards the servicing area where they climbed up dozens of metal rungs to reach the floor above. There was again, no resistance in that room.
The only room they could go to next was the crew quarters.
"Are you sure about this?" Thane asked, knowing the consequences if anyone discovered them and raised the alarm.
"I'm sure. I'll open the door, throw a flash bang and then when they're dazed, we dash through as if nothing happened."
"And then after that?"
"Just as we leave, I pop the sleeping gas."
Shepard propped himself up against the wall on the left side of the door. He then spun around and kicked it open as he prepped the flash bang
"Help! Don't hurt us!"
Shepard stopped at the word help as he looked down to see a young human woman, clothes torn and tattered, bound by the legs and hands as she cowered in fear. A quick look around the room showed many others, men and women alike, all bound up and put in this dark room. There could be only one explanation, and it didn't come with its disadvantage.
Prisoners.