The inside of the new Normandy was like no ship Shepard had ever been on in her life. Parts of it were familiar: the bridge and the command control center were largely the same, if not cleaned up, but so much had been restructured, the space repurposed to better suit the needs of what could turn out to be a very difficult mission. On the left-hand side of the ship, a space for a tech lab had been installed, and on the right side, a weapons maintenance and upgrading station. Connecting the two sections was a new comm room, with a conference table and a large hologram pad like the one in the Ceberus facility.
Joker spent an excessive amount of time waxing poetic about his new chair and the comfort it provided. Shepard was glad to see him happy, even if she was still apprehensive despite, or perhaps because of, all Cerberus was providing her.
A central elevator, which operated much more quickly than the old Normandy's elevator, led down to the floor below, where a new crew deck had been built. Miranda had a private cabin in the same location as Shepard's former cabin, a forward battery with new guns had been installed at the front end of the ship, and two observation decks and a life support room had been added in the back. The med bay was there, newly upgraded as well, but with the important addition of one more familiar face.
Karin Chakwas had been hired on by Cerberus as well, it seemed, drawn to the project for similar reasons to Joker's, and committed to stay now that Shepard was helming it. It made Shepard less apprehensive to know she had two people she could trust on board. It would make up for building a new squad without anyone she knew on it.
A new engineering deck with a new drive core had also been built one floor down, and a small shuttle bay below that housed a brand-new transport shuttle for missions. The crew was entirely made up of Cerberus employees, but many of them seemed like decent people. Shepard was having a hard time meshing her previous knowledge of Cerberus with what she was seeing here.
The most chipper and enthusiastic member of the crew was Shepard's new personally appointed yeoman, Kelly Chambers, who stood by in the new CIC ready to take orders and provide any information Shepard could need. She was a sweet young girl, not older than her early twenties, eager and enthusiastic about almost everything, it seemed. Talking to her gave Shepard whiplash, but she seemed nice, and that was important.
Perhaps the one feature Shepard disliked about the ship was the new interface that had been built into it. It was an AI, an actual honest-to-God AI, with a feminine voice, calling itself EDI, that helped man the battle controls and could provide information on the ground, but could not directly access the ship's controls. Joker referred to her as 'ship cancer', not fond of his new co-pilot. Several EDI terminals were located around the ship. Shepard was distrustful; the quarians had taught the galaxy that building and utilizing AIs was a slippery slope. And even with shackles, the AI was still a tool by which the Illusive Man could spy on her. EDI insisted she was not designed to spy, but the abundance of her access terminals on the ship suggested otherwise to Shepard.
The one place of solace she had on the ship was her new cabin. Where the observation deck had been, they had instead built an enormous cabin, complete with a wall-length fish tank, a massive and comfortable new bed, a recessed sofa, a minibar, a desk and private terminal, and a bathroom the size of her old cabin. There was no EDI terminal in the room, one place she could have complete privacy.
It was there that she read through the dossiers the Illusive Man had provided for her. He hadn't been lying when he said there were a lot of options, all with unique skill-sets. She wasn't sure how to decide where to go first. None of the dossiers had names attached, only code names. Some of them, Shepard thought, were ridiculously stupid. She hoped the Illusive Man had come up with the names and not the recruits themselves. For instance, what kind of sniper called himself 'Archangel'?
Still, a sniper was what Shepard wanted first and foremost. Someone to replace Garrus' much needed skill set. Someone to cover her six, though it wouldn't be the same.
The sniper, codenamed Archangel, was located on Omega, a horrible backwater space station in the Terminus system that was crawling with criminals. Shepard had only heard about the place second hand, but what she'd heard had been enough. As it happened, there were two other dossiers for potential squad members on Omega, so it seemed like the logical first step.
After reporting to Miranda and Joker that Omega would be their first stop, Shepard let herself get some much-deserved rest in her new, incredibly comfortable bed. She recognized that the luxuries she was being afforded on this new ship were part of the Illusive Man's bid to win her over, but she couldn't be bothered to worry herself with that for the moment. Why not take advantage of the comfort while it lasted? She would keep the upper hand on the Illusive Man, one way or another.
"This place is such a shit heap," Miranda said as they disembarked on Omega.
Shepard was inclined to agree. The first sight they were greeted to was a batarian, crawling along on all fours, vomiting onto the walkway. The smell of garbage and other filth was an immediate assault on the senses. As far as Shepard was concerned, the sooner they got off of the station, the better, but they had three potential pickups to make in the area.
She was still reconciling herself with the idea that she would have to build up a squad of strangers, some of whom had been paid off by Cerberus. It was going to be hard to inspire confidence in her team if she didn't trust half of them. She'd spent some of the nearly week-long trip to Omega trying to get to know Miranda and Jacob a little better, but Miranda was a closed book, uninterested in opening up. Jacob only made small talk. Neither situation eased her concerns.
Halfway up the walkway from the docks, a batarian stopped them, arms crossed, stern look on all four of his eyes.
"Aria T'Loak wants to see you, commander Shepard," he greeted them.
"You know who I am?" Shepard asked.
"We had you tagged the moment you entered the Terminus systems. Aria wants to know what a dead Spectre is doing on her station. I suggest you follow me to Afterlife and explain yourself."
Shepard sighed. It was going to be an interesting stay on the station, to say the least. She, Miranda, and Jacob, followed the batarian away from the docks and into the central part of the station.
The interior of Omega had its own internal skyline of sorts, buildings that looked like they'd been built pieces at a time, by different architects, ramshackle and close to falling over. The smell in the air was pervasive no matter where they went. At the heart of the main level where they stood was an enormous nightclub, surrounded by flashing lights and a line of people desperate to get in.
A vorcha tried to pilfer something from Shepard's pocket as they went and she grabbed his arm, twisting it so sharply it almost broke.
"You want to think again?" Shepard asked.
The vorcha howled. "Let go! No steal!"
She dropped his arm and continued following the batarian.
"Best not to make a scene in a place like this, Shepard," Miranda warned.
"It's not making scene to show everyone around here that they had better not fuck with me," Shepard replied harshly. She realized she'd been on edge since they'd brought her back, a normal side effect of being an effective prisoner of a completely mysterious and unknown enemy turned ally while trying to realize she'd been dead for two years, or so she guessed.
The batarian led them past the line of people outside of the club, Afterlife, and into the antechamber, a wall of virtual fire lining the way to the main door. The people already inside barely took notice of them. Even with their armor and weapons, they didn't look out of place in the nightclub. On Omega, few people walked around without some form of protection. In fact, half of the occupants inside the club appeared to be mercs.
Miranda and Jacob were stopped at the foot of a set of stairs leading to a balcony that overlooked the entire club.
"Only Shepard goes further. You wait for her down here," the batarian warned.
Miranda was clearly uneasy about this. Shepard was a personal investment in Miranda's eyes; it was clear she didn't want her to be put in danger without any backup, but Shepard wasn't concerned. She had dealt with thugs before, and that was what Omega specialized in.
Shepard had read up on Aria T'Loak, in the process of investigating Omega for their mission. She was an asari with a reputation for violence, an asari that ruled Omega with an iron fist. No one crossed her and got away with it. If she would be willing to talk, she could give useful intel on potentially all three of the targets from Shepard's dossiers.
Two batarians led Shepard up to the balcony, where Aria stood looking over the club, her silhouette outlined against the backdrop of neon lighting.
"Surrender your weapons, Spectre," one of the batarians said.
"I'll be keeping them, if it's all the same to you. If I wanted your boss dead, she'd already be dead."
"Such confidence," Aria spoke. "But you can never be too careful with a dead Spectre. It could be anyone wearing your face. Let her through."
The batarians moved aside reluctantly and Aria beckoned Shepard to have a seat across from her on the couch that stretched along the balcony. Shepard sat, tense, observing Aria and waiting for her to speak. She was a purple-skinned asari, with unusual facial tattoos above her eyes and down her chin. She looked Shepard up and down, but whatever she was thinking was well masked by her muted expression.
"What business do you have on my station?" she finally asked.
"I'm looking for someone that goes by the name Archangel," Shepard explained.
Aria laughed, "Get in line. Half of Omega wants that bastard dead. He's done something even I couldn't manage, he brought together the Blue Suns, the Blood Pack, and Eclipse. All united in their hatred for him."
Shepard had read about these groups as well, major merc groups in the Terminus systems.
"Do you know who he is? Or where I can find him?" She asked.
"What do you want with him?"
"I want to recruit him. The rest of the details are my business."
Aria smiled, but there was cruelness behind it. "I like you, Shepard. You're nothing at all like I would have imagined a good Alliance soldier to be."
Surrounded by unknown variables and unknown partners, Shepard didn't have the time or energy to be a "good Alliance soldier", especially in a cesspool like Omega. She would do what she had to, get what she needed. She couldn't be kind without some sort of trust behind her, and outside of the Normandy's pilot and medic, she had none.
"Dying has a way of changing people," Shepard replied coolly.
"Well, I'm happy just to let the merc groups and Archangel kill each other, but if you want him, you can take him. He's been smart enough to steer clear of me, but anyone else who makes their own rules, which is…everyone on Omega, tends to find themselves on the wrong end of his gun. The merc groups have him cornered down in some warehouse, but they're having trouble taking him out. They've been recruiting anyone with a gun to help them. They're basically using the hired help as cannon fodder, but I'd assume you're a bit more resilient than that. You came back from the dead, after all," Aria laughed.
"Do you know where they're recruiting?" Shepard asked.
If the merc groups had Archangel cornered, it might be too late to recruit him, and there weren't any other snipers on the list of dossiers she'd been given. Of course, if they failed to get to him in time, she might be able to convince Cerberus to let her search for Garrus instead.
"They're right downstairs. They rented out one of the rooms here to recruit. Go and talk to them, I'm sure they'd love to sign you up." Aria shrugged.
Shepard stood up. "Thanks for your help."
"How sweet," Aria said. "Still a bit of good girl in you yet, hm, Shepard? I could change that for you if you like."
Shepard shook her head. "You couldn't handle me."
She heard Aria laugh as she headed back down the stairs and reunited with Miranda and Jacob.
"So?" Jacob asked. "What's the plan?"
"Well, I don't think you're going to like it," She told them.
"We do what we have to do. The people on these dossiers are the best of the best. If you want a sniper, we need to go after Archangel," Miranda told her.
"We have to sign up with one of the local merc groups. They're planning an attack on the guy. That will get us an in, but they have to think we're on their side. Once we get in and get to Archangel, we can turn. They have him cornered, so we can help him get out and back to the docks," Shepard explained.
Miranda looked skeptical, but they headed into the room where the recruiter was located anyway. The recruiter was a batarian, wearing the white and blue armor of the Blue Suns group. When they approached him about joining the cause, he began to read of a spiel he had clearly read before: they would receive five hundred credits if they managed to take Archangel down, but if any of them died, the others couldn't claim the credits; they were signing on as freelancers, not as members of the merc groups; they waived all liability to the merc groups; they must provide their own weapons and armor.
When all of the contract stipulations were agreed to, the three of them were ushered out with a group of about twenty other 'freelancers' and crammed into a shuttle that would take them to Archangel's base of operations, where the merc groups had set up bases as well, throwing every hired gun they could find at the sniper.
Shepard was surprised to see them throwing so much firepower at one man, but if he had been holding off hordes of incoming mercs, for days it sounded like, he must have been one hell of a sniper, and that made him worth having on the team. Even if he wasn't Garrus.