"Are you sure?" Shepard asked shocked.
"I have a friend who used to work in Espionage Commander; I contacted him asking him to confirm my suspicions and he said that if they are a forgery than the forger's a damn good one." Jacob replied.
"Where did you find the Alliance bugs?" Shepard asked.
"First set was found when Mordin double checked your quarters, another three sets where found at the Forward Batteries, Engineering and the tech lab." Jacob said and Shepard frowned.
"Those areas where upgraded when we visited the Citadel and second time, that must've been when the bugs where planted." Shepard theorized.
"Makes sense, but why would they spy on you?" Jacob asked.
"That's what I intend to find out, patch me through to Joker." Shepard said.
"You got it Commander." Jacob said.
"Hey Commander, what's up?" Joker asked.
"When we're done here plot a course for the Citadel, I want a word with Anderson." Shepard ordered.
"Got it Commander, you want me to take you there as soon as you come back from your third trip to Tuchanka?" Joker asked.
"Exactly, I want to get to the bottom of this." Shepard said.
"I'll contact my old Commanding officer Commander; see if he knows anything about this." Jacob added.
"Ask Marcus to look into it as well, with his experience he probably has some friends in the Alliance brass that owe him a favour." Drakus suggested.
"Good call Drakus; I'll ask him about it." Jacob said before hanging up.
"So what's on the agenda now?" Paul asked.
"We'll pick up the dead new born Krogan on the way out, we still have other rooms to search and keep an eye out for the Turret Cameras." Shepard said.
"Got it Commander." Drakus said moving on to the next cell. "More Krogan but they are much older, at estimate I'd say they're about a year from the right."
"You mean the Right of Passage?" Shepard asked.
"Yeah, how do you know about that?" Drakus asked.
"The favour I did for Grunt was his Right of Passage." Shepard explained.
"Ah yeah, I remember hearing about how a tank born with a human and a Turian as his Krant killed the Thrasher Maw, thanks." Drakus said.
"Thanks, for what exactly?" Shepard asked.
"For the events that led to me having the Best Thrasher Steaks I've ever had." Drakus chuckled before he opened the door and the Krogan, six in total, looked up.
"Battlemaster?" The Krogan nearest the group looked up, Drakus narrowed his eyes.
"Is there something wrong?" Shepard asked.
"I recognise some of these whelps, the others on the other hand I don't." Drakus explained.
"You mean they're from a different clan?" Shepard asked and Drakus shook his head.
"Not sure, for all I know they could be Tankbred." Drakus said before turning to the Krogan. "What clan do you belong too whelp?"
"Not clan member, I was bred and rose by glass mother four night cycles ago." The Krogan nearest the group said.
"Night cycles? These Krogan are only days old?" Paul said.
"Explains the broken English but not their size, for four day old Krogan they're almost as big as I am." Drakus said.
"Weird buzzing noise compels me to attack." The Krogan nearest them said drawing his shotgun but Drakus was quicker on the draw and took the Krogan's head off with his shotgun; Paul and Shepard put the others down just as quickly.
"Tankbred Krogan apparently indoctrinated, what the hell is Cerberus up too?" Drakus said holstering his weapon.
"This must be part of the Human Galaxy Cell's operation." Shepard reasoned. "My guess is that they were to be dropped off on Tuchanka once they were ready and wipe out the Krogan population should the plague fail."
"They were nowhere near ready enough." Drakus said.
"I think that was the point, I think they are recreating Dr. Okeer's experiments." Shepard said.
"They same experiments that gave us Grunt?" Drakus asked and Shepard nodded.
"These Krogan must've been failures, however Okeer had Collector technology at his disposal and Cerberus doesn't." Shepard elaborated.
"Are you certain?" Drakus asked.
"By destroying the Collector base I destroyed Cerberus's one chance at getting their hands on Collector Technology." Shepard replied. "Come on, we've got one more room to check before we explore the rest of the ship." Shepard said and they followed him out.
"Shepard, it's Ashley, we've just cleared our ship, no sign of Gillian and we've got the evidence." Ashley's voice rang out over the earpiece.
"Good, when you return to the Normandy assist the others in the search for bugs." Shepard ordered.
"Got it Commander, I'll see you when you get back." Ashley said before hanging up.
"Looks like I was right." Drakus commented.
"We'll have to wait and see before confirming that." Shepard said approaching the last door where a young blonde woman was being held captive, Drakus opened the door and the woman looked up.
"What do you want?" The woman asked.
"I want to save your sorry ass!" Drakus said.
"Kahlee?" Paul recognised her.
"Paul, what are you doing here?" The young woman said recognising him.
"You two know each other?" Drakus asked.
"We met in the past." Kahlee said folding her arms.
"As Drakus said so gentlemanly, we're here to save you." Shepard said.
"Finally, you'd think with the connections my father has in the Alliance I would've been rescued sooner." Kahlee said.
"You're father? Who's he?" Drakus asked.
"He's none other than John Grissom." She replied.
"You mean the war hero?" Drakus asked.
"That's right, how do you know about him?" Kahlee asked the Krogan.
"I make a habit out of keeping myself informed on Galactic events." Drakus said with a shrug. "I even know about the events that the general public aren't supposed to know."
"Then you're a security risk." Kahlee said.
"That habit is the main reason I've been alive as long as I have." Drakus said defensively.
"That's enough, both of you." Shepard said getting between the two soldiers. "Do you have any idea what they want with you Kahlee?"
"Not a clue, one minute I'm relaxing in my apartment on the Citadel the next minute some Cerberus operatives gas the room and before I get the chance to defend myself I'm out cold." Kahlee explained.
"We're getting you out of here." Shepard said.
"Not going to be easy." Kahlee said pointing towards the area above the doorway, Drakus looked up and saw another Turret camera, he got his shotgun out and turned on Incendiary rounds and fired twice destroying the Turret camera. "Not exactly the most graceful solution but it works." Kahlee shrugged.
"The day that Krogans are known for being graceful is the day that Balak gets accepted into the Council Specters." Drakus shrugged.
"Touché." Kahlee admitted.
"I'll admit that you're not the reason that we came here Kahlee but any rescued hostage is better than none." Shepard said.
"True, wait there's other hostages on the ship?" Kahlee asked.
"They kidnapped Gillian and tried using her as a bargaining chip." Paul said.
"Those bastards." Kahlee said angrily.
"We're here to rescue her and cure the plague that's infecting my people." Drakus elaborated.
"Then maybe I can help." Kahlee said walking out of the room.
"Look lady, we have no idea what they have in store for us, we don't need a civilian dragging us down." Drakus said.
"Really? Paul why don't you tell them about how I made it too Fire Lieutenant before quitting the Alliance." Kahlee said.
"Because of your daddy's influence." Drakus said and Kahlee glared at him.
"I made it clear to my father that I wanted to earn my position in the Alliance thank you very much." Kahlee snapped.
"So you got to that position on your own skills, so why did you quit?" Shepard asked.
"That's a long, touchy story that's none of your business." Kahlee said calmly.
"Okay, do you know where the bridge is?" Shepard asked.
"Yes, I was dragged there when I arrived, follow me," Kahlee said leading them down the hall; they reached a large door with two Cerberus operatives standing guard.
"Freeze, not another step!" The Cerberus operatives ordered but where put down for their troubles by simultaneous gunshots by Shepard and Drakus.
"What the hell was that? A voice that Shepard recognised as the scarred man who contacted the Normandy asked from the other side of the door.
"Drakus, show him." Shepard said and Drakus grinned before opening the door and the four soldiers pointed their guns at the Cerberus operatives.
"We meet at last Banes." Shepard said catching the scarred man's attention.
"How did you know that?" He demanded.
"Being a former Cerberus operative that still has access to Cerberus Databases helps." Shepard said.
"You have a lot to answer for, experimenting on New Born Krogan, Tankbreeding and indoctrinating Krogan, kidnapping an innocent girl..." Drakus started.
"All towards building humanities future!" Banes cut him off.
"You make me sick!" Drakus growled.
"Good, something you and I have in common." Banes said calmly. "Open fire men!"
Drakus, Paul, Kahlee and Shepard took cover as the men opened fire, Drakus fired a shockwave when the men had to reload their weapons leaving them open to gunfire from Shepard, Kahlee and Paul to gun them down, with the other operatives down they approached Banes with their guns drawn.
"Tell us where Gillian is and we'll let you live long enough to stand trial for your crimes." Shepard said.
"Why should I tell you?" Banes asked spitting on Drakus who pulled him to his feet.
"Don't piss me off any more than you already have." Drakus warned.
"Or what?" Banes asked.
"Or I'll use every torture technique I know off to make your life hell, and I know a lot of torture techniques." Drakus said.
"And don't think we won't join in." Shepard was quick to add before Banes could use his xenophobia to attack Drakus.
"Fine, you see that control panel over there?" Banes said motioning to the panel. "Gillian is being held in an invisible cell in this room, one button will set her free, the other will blow this ship to smithereens."
"Why the hell do you have such a button?" Drakus asked.
"Backup plan for events such as this." Banes replied.
"Let me make things clear to you, you push the button that releases Gillian or I'll cut your balls of and give them to Drakus!" Paul said pointing his gun at Banes' head.
"Fine, if you insist, I didn't that brat anymore anyway." Banes muttered as he went to the control panel Shepard and his squad keeping an eye on him, Banes pressed a button and a cell appeared in place of one of the walls and it opened and Gillian ran to Paul, it was then that Banes hit the other button.
"What did you just do?" Shepard asked.
"Sealed your fates. In ten minutes this ship will be blown to smithereens, hope you've enjoyed your little reunion." Banes said and Drakus took his head off with the shotgun, they noticed an airlock nearby.
"JOKER! Bring the Normandy to our location on the double, the ships about to self destruct, EDI, download any data you can before the ship blows up." Shepard ordered running to the Airlock with the others.
"Got it Commander, we'll be ASAP!" Joker said.
"Of course Commander." EDI replied to her order, with two minute to spare they got on the Normandy and fled away from the ship just in time as the ship exploded.
"Had us worried there Commander." Joker admitted. "Who's the blonde?"
"Kahlee Sanders, she was another hostage on the Cerberus ship." Shepard said. "EDI, what data where you able to retrieve."
"Over a hundred files but they were all using advanced encryption; it'll take some time to decrypt it." EDI said.
"Have the files decrypted by the time we reach the Migrant Fleet at the latest." Shepard ordered.
"Of course Commander." EDI said before logging him out.
"Shepard, excellent timing, ship clear of bugs and plague cured, just need to distribute it around Tuchanka." Mordin said running up.
"Excellent, what's the quickest way you can get the cure around Tuchanka?" Shepard asked.
"I can have the Chief Scot distribute the cure via his scouts, given how many he has under his command he'll have it done in 24 hours." Mealon said.
"Right, Mealon go down to Tuchanka and distribute the plague cure and contact us when you're done." Shepard ordered.
"Will do Commander." Mealon said.
"I'll escort him down to Tuchanka with the cure Commander." Jacob said.
"You sure Jenny doesn't want to come down with you?" Joker joked only to get a death glare from Jenny. "Shutting up now."
"See you when we get back Commander, I'll also let you know whether or not we get the Krogan's alliance in the Reaper war." Jacob said before walking off.