Previously...

The Reapers destroy the heretic geth station, but Retribution survived. Shepard suspects Traynor or Vega is a mole for Cerberus.

.


Shepard wouldn't say she was dawdling on Omega. There was always more than enough to keep busy. The ships in the combined fleet that were not out on duty were here, either for R&R for their crews or practicing maneuvers, although by this point, the surviving ships had become fairly adroit at working together and avoiding the worst of the Reaper attacks. Surprisingly, the majority of the ships outside Omega were rachni, although most of them were small fighters. Admiral Valerianus preferred to keep his ships here rather than at the Citadel. There was much more space here, and he had more freedom to plan his operations.

No, between meeting with the military forces, coordinating with Liara, and trying to figure out what to do with Traynor and Vega and Kolyat and Hama, she had more than enough on her mind. She preferred it that way. She wanted to be too busy to worry about her personal life.

She had just been catching up with Endo and Savickas. They were both leading successful strike teams and were currently in a competition for who had killed the most Reapers. Rina was in the lead with her team claiming an even twenty. Endo had cried foul, claiming she had an unfair head start, but he was headed to Palaven next, and there were more Reapers on the ground there than any other homeworld.

Palaven was taking a major beating. Since every single turian had military experience, every city on Palaven was fighting back hard against the Reapers. In turn, the Reapers had been landing more and more ships on Palaven every week. It was a grim situation, much worse than Earth.

Finally her companions had left her to head back to their work, leaving her alone and with nothing to do for the first time in nearly five days. She absently drew patterns in the condensation rings on the table, letting her mind wander.

Inevitably her thoughts went straight to Thane, as they did almost any time something else wasn't occupying her attention. It was like a missing tooth that you couldn't stop poking at with your tongue. Like all the other homeworlds, the Reapers had taken out the comm buoys first. Now any communication from Sur'Kesh came only through couriers and drones, and then only if they survived running the Reaper gauntlet in orbit. She kept sending messages back to Thane on the return ships, but she had no idea if any of them were actually making it through to the local net.

Before she had a chance to get too wound up in her worries, someone pulled out the chair and sat next to her. She looked over and blinked twice in surprise. "Miranda!"

"Hello, Shepard," came the tired but genuinely happy response.

"I was betting you'd find me if I stayed put in one place long enough, which is harder that it sounds like right now."

The brunette nodded as she relaxed cat-like in the hard chair. "I was expecting to catch up with you on the Citadel. Took me a couple of days to catch a ship to Omega."

Shepard smiled. "I've missed you. More than you can imagine," she told her.

"Believe me, I would have much rather been with you than where I was," Miranda said emphatically.

"Which was?" Shepard prodded.

"Cerberus' main headquarters, courtesy of the Illusive Man." She grimaced, and it took Shepard a moment to realize the unusual expression on Miranda's face was embarrassment. "I underestimated him, Shepard."

"What happened, Miranda?"

"We were making good progress on the Collector's Base, and the contingent of geth and quarians were actually cooperating. You know that Cerberus sent their own team as soon as you gave them a copy of the IFF. They must have copied it, because right after Tali and Legion left, Cerberus landed with troops. Lots of them. There was nothing I could do. They killed our research team, down to the last person. I've spent the time ever since in custody at Cerberus' headquarters. I only managed to escape a couple weeks ago." There was a weariness in her eyes that told more than the bare bones of the words she spoke.

Shepard thought furiously as she took it all in. "I suspected something was wrong, Miranda. I'm sorry I didn't follow up on it as soon as possible."

"There was nothing you could have done, Shepard. They took me away immediately, but I know the Illusive Man kept sending troops. If you had gone back to the Collector Base, it would be like our last battle there all over again, except we'd be facing Cerberus troops instead of Collectors."

"I've fought Cerberus before," Shepard started but Miranda cut her off.

"Not like this, Shepard. The Illusive Man has been experimenting with Reaper tech on humans, looking for a way to augment them. Like the Collectors, but without the genetic modifications. I saw things while I was being held at Cerberus headquarters." She shuddered, and Shepard wondered what the unflappable agent could possibly have seen that disturbed her so much. She took a deep breath, like she was steeling herself for what to say next. "I need your help, Shepard."

"What for?"

"Oriana is missing. It took me a while, but I finally hacked Cerberus' database and found out that the Illusive Man sent her to my father on Horizon. Shepard, you have no idea what my father is capable of. He could be doing anything to Oriana. I need to rescue her, and I need your help. Please, Shepard. I can't do it on my own."

She could see the naked desperation in Miranda's eyes as the proud woman begged for her help. It was the same look she'd seen what Miranda had first broken down and asked her to help save her sister from her father's grasp back on Illium. This time, however, Shepard didn't have the luxury of time. She had to balance Miranda's personal request against the fate of a galactic war.

"Miranda, you're asking me to divert resources just to rescue one person?"

Before she could go on, Miranda interrupted. "It's not just Oriana, Shepard. I know my father. He's brilliant. If he's working with the Illusive Man, it's to further Cerberus' goals."

"Cerberus' goal is to save humanity, Miranda. At least, that's what you and the Illusive Man kept telling me all last year. Has that changed?" Her words were sharp and bitter, reminding the operative of all their arguments about Cerberus' goals and methods.

Miranda looked down at the plastic table, unwilling to meet her gaze. "I'm...not sure, Shepard. He's changed. He's always been egotistical, but when I talked to him...there was something not normal."

Shepard snorted in agreement. "The man's ego has always been supernova sized. It's just too bad that he actually had the ability to back it up. So what are you trying to tell me, Miranda? That your father is building an army of super soldiers to fight the Reapers? Because to be honest, we could use something like that. It's not looking good for us."

Miranda looked affronted, as Shepard knew she would at any suggestion that didn't have her immediately agreeing to help rescue Oriana. "Shepard, he's actively fighting against the Alliance. I don't know exactly what he's planning, but he thinks that he doesn't need the rest of the galaxy. Whatever he's up to, he's not planning on helping us. He's building an army to further his goals, not to help the combined forces beat the Reapers."

Shepard thought back to her trip to London. "Why would he order an attack on Alliance HQ to grab military hardware that's supposed to be impossible to crack?"

The look on her face said she wouldn't like the answer. "He salvaged the proto-Reaper you fought on the Collector's Base, Shepard. If he can get it working and decipher it, he'll have an unbelievably powerful computer, faster and smarter than anything else in the galaxy. It's an important part of his plans, whatever they are."

"Mother fucker!" Shepard pounded her fist on the table, ignoring the startled looks from patrons at her outburst. "That's how he did it!" She was galled at how completely she had been duped by the Illusive Man. "The Reapers took out the heretic geth station, and I couldn't figure out how they knew. He told them. Goddamnit!" Foolishly, she had thought he would make saving humanity his highest priority. Instead, it seemed he had a more grandiose goal in mind - one that would see him in charge of the galaxy with humanity as his personal plaything.

"Told them?" Miranda asked in puzzlement.

"We theorized that the only way the Reapers could have known the location of the heretic station is if someone from the Normandy sent it to them, but we couldn't figure out how. But if the Illusive Man has figured out how to communicate with the human Reaper, he could have told them where the station was. Goddamn mother fucking..." She grabbed her beer bottle and threw it across the room as hard as she could, causing an outcry among the customers. The bartender started toward her, then changed his mind when he saw the murderous look on her face. Still, she forced herself to take a deep breath and calm down.

Miranda ignored her outburst. "It's possible. I know Cerberus, along with my father, has been putting tremendous effort into understanding Reaper technology. It's possible they, and the Illusive Man, have figured out how to communicate with the Reapers."

Shepard's fists were clenched so tightly that the skin over her knuckles was pure white, and when she spoke, it was with a snarl on her lips. "Now I just have to figure out which rat bastard leaked the coordinates to Cerberus."

"What?"

Shepard quickly outlined her suspicions about Traynor and Vega. Miranda leaned back in her chair as she thought out loud. "I seriously doubt it would be Lieutenant Vega. The Illusive Man always considered the military special forces not worth the effort of subverting, not when he could make more gains for less effort elsewhere. You are the highest ranking Alliance officer to ever work for Cerberus."

"That you know of," she couldn't resist pointing out.

Miranda gave her a quelling look. "I know quite a bit, Shepard. I can't say conclusively, but I would say there's a good chance that Traynor is your leak. The Illusive Man was quite incensed that the original Normandy crew that returned to you after the Collector Base seemed to all be more loyal to you than to him. He was looking for another way to control your actions."

Shepard was still furious as she nodded to the brunette. "You've got your rescue mission, Miranda. I need to get to your father and find out just how much Cerberus knows about Reaper technology. We lift as soon as I get Traynor off my ship."

Predictably, Samantha Traynor did not take well to being turned over to Omega security. It was a measure of how much Omega was changing under the influence of the combined fleets that Aria had actually allowed the creation of a security force that wasn't under her dictatorial control. It wasn't perfect, but it was modeled on C-sec and run by the local fleet authority.

Ironically, Omega was now one of the safer places in the galaxy to live and work. Zaeed and the Blue Suns were providing additional security in the lower reaches of Omega, past where O-sec could yet secure. There were still plenty of places where you took your chances on Omega, but the merc activity had dropped considerably, and every week, more and more merchants and refugees were flocking to Omega. There were rumors that Aria was considering instituting a tax on merchants and actually turning Omega into a legitimate city. Shepard scoffed at the rumors. She'd believe that when she saw it.

Back on the Normandy, she found Vega practicing his pull ups. "I take it the doc cleared you?"

He dropped to the deck breathing heavily and grinned at her. "Ready for duty, Admiral. And thanks for believing me."

"Don't thank me. Thank Miranda Lawson, one of Cerberus' finest."

He scowled, not having heard that part yet. "Another Cerberus operative, Admiral?"

Still in a foul temper from earlier, she was in no mood to deal with Vega's attitude. "Yes," she answered sharply. "The one who literally brought me back from the dead, kept the Normandy running smoothly for a year, and has a sister she loves more than life and that we're going to rescue from her self-aggrandizing father who's unravelling Reaper tech for the Illusive Man. Good enough qualifications for you, Lieutenant?" she asked with heavy sarcasm.

Vega was smart enough to know better than to answer anything other than, "Yes, ma'am!" so she let it slide.

"Good, because you're going with me and Miranda when we hit Horizon. You might want to get to know your fellow squaddie before we hit dirt."

This time, his "Yes, ma'am," was tinged with resignation as he trudged toward the lift.

She watched him go and eyed the pull up bar speculatively. It had been a long time since she'd done any, and she hated the thought of getting shown up. Besides, it would be a good stress reliever. Jumping up, she started counting. "One. Two. Three..."


As the Normandy's shuttle dropped out of orbit on Horizon, Shepard listened to the automated message that proclaimed Horizon was a safe place for refugees from the Reaper war. "Well, he certainly makes a good case," Shepard said as she turned to enter the shuttle with Miranda and James.

"My father always did know how to make a compelling speech," Miranda said. "But I'm through listening to him. He's selling nothing but lies. I only hope we're in time to save Oriana." She turned her heavy pistol over and over in her hands as she settled onto a shuttle seat.

"Just another smooth talking salesman, looking to make a buck off someone else's fear," James added scornfully. "We can handle his kind."

"Just remember, there are going to be lots of confused and scared civilians down there. We don't know what we're walking into," Shepard warned them. "This has a lot of potential for things to go sideways." She gave James a careful glance. He had been through some tough decisions in the past, and he still wasn't comfortable with the fallout from them. She knew his call about saving Dr. Treeya at the expense of the colonists on Fehl Prime still haunted him.

He firmed his lips and gave her a sharp nod, telling her he would be focused on the mission today.

She took a deep breath as the shuttle doors opened and they jumped out. Just like the last time she'd been on Horizon, there were no settlers to greet them as they set foot on the colony. "How long did you say Cerberus has been proclaiming Horizon a refugee facility, Miranda?"

"Several weeks, Shepard. Maybe longer. I wasn't looking for specifics on Horizon when I hacked their database looking for Oriana."

They headed into the main bunker. Announcements for new arrivals boomed out into the empty spaces that were divided into various seating areas. Miranda headed toward the main reception area and flicked through the information screens. "According to this, over seventy ships have landed here. There are thousands of names on the intake forms."

The hairs on the back of Shepard's neck were standing up. James looked similarly uneasy. "Then where is everyone?" The empty spaces provided no answers.

They headed through the first door they could find that said 'No Admittance' and found themselves in a sparse utility hallway. Making their way toward the back of the complex, the hallway soon dumped them out into an open bay with several strange machines pushed up against the walls.

Shepard took one step out and stopped with her squad behind her. "Something's wrong. We're where we shouldn't be, and we haven't seen one person so far."

"I feel you, Lola. Something's screwy here." James tightened his grip on his SMG and glared at the far door as if waiting for it to burst open.

In a fine example of the universe's twisted attempt at humor, the door did exactly that. Troops in black and yellow poured through. They didn't even extend the courtesy of ordering Shepard and her team to surrender; they simply started firing.

Shepard was worried for a second that she would have problems with her team. Miranda had been locked up in prison for months, and this was her first time with James in the field. Turned out her worries were unfounded. Miranda had lost none of her edge, and James was steady as a rock behind her. It was a tough fight, but in the end her team prevailed.

While James covered them in case of any further attacks, Miranda knelt by one of the downed troopers. "Something's not right," she frowned as she looked at the body with the helmet partially knocked off.

"Nothing has been right with this place since we landed," Shepard muttered as she split her attention between the door and the trooper. When Miranda completely removed his helmet, she gasped and knelt beside Miranda. "What the hell?" she breathed in shock.

Behind her, she heard James curse softly as he took in the trooper's appearance. He was human, but the skin on his face was heavily covered in cybernetic lines that grossly disfigured his features. Miranda opened one eye to reveal they had been replaced with cybernetics as well.

Shepard turned to yank the helmet off a second Cerberus trooper, revealing the same cybernetic lines on his face and down his neck. She pulled off his glove and saw that the enhancements extended at least down that far. She sat back on her heels and looked up at Miranda. "What is this?"

"I knew that the Illusive Man was extremely interested in Reaper technology and thought it had tremendous untapped potential. My guess is that among all the tech that he found on the Collector's Base, my father found something that he could use to enhance Cerberus' troops."

Shepard felt a shudder of revulsion go through her entire body as she thought again of her own forced resurrection and reconstruction at the hands of Cerberus. "Enhance? So like me?"

Miranda frowned as she bent down to get a closer look. "No, not like you. We used conventional, albeit state of the art cybernetics when we rebuilt you. These look much more like the technology found in husks. I didn't have access to any Reaper technology when I worked on you."

Shepard didn't find Miranda's turn of phrase very reassuring and briefly wondered if the operative would have used it had it been available. She decided for her own peace of mind that she wouldn't ask. "What else has your father been working on?" she asked.

Miranda stood and brushed her hands off. "That's what I intend to find out."

Shepard grimaced and took point again as they continued moving forward. They crept through the habitat modules more carefully now, watching and expecting more resistance. Every time they went through a door and found another empty room, Shepard's nerves stretched a little tighter. "This is too easy," she muttered.

"Admiral, over here," James called out softly. He was standing in front of an observation window, and his hands were clenched tightly around his weapon.

She peered around his broad shoulders and saw what had disturbed him. Hundreds of people were standing in the room. They all looked like refugees. Her shoulder blades drew together in recognition of something very wrong. The people in there were standing almost completely still, and every one of them showed signs of extensive cyberization. They weren't talking or doing much of anything, but she could see little movements here and there that suggested they were still alive. "Miranda?"

The brunette sounded shaken as she answered. "I don't know, Shepard. It looks the same as the troops, but I don't know what the purpose is."

James tapped lightly at the window. It was enough to catch the attention of the nearest person, a young woman in her early twenties. Her head swiveled to look at the observation window for a moment, then without a single warning, she threw herself at the window and started hammering at it with her fists. Behind her, the others reacted similarly and headed for the window. It spread out from her in a wave until the entire room was pressed up against the window with everyone in there trying their best to attack through the thick plas-glas between them. Eventually so many were pressed up against the window that the ones in front were being crushed into immobility. Through it all, the young woman's expression never changed from impassivity. "What the fuck, man!" James fell back with his weapon up and pointed at the window out of reflex.

"They appear to be connected together, somehow, through their cybernetics. What one knows, they all know," Miranda speculated. "They're acting like a hive mind."

"That ain't right, chica," James said in disgust.

"No, it's not, James," Shepard agreed. "Come on. Let's go find Henry Lawson and Oriana."

They headed on. As Shepard looked back one last time, she saw the woman being crushed to death by the press of people behind her. Even as one of their own was dying, it didn't stop the rest of them. Somehow, it was even worse than the husks she'd faced. At least they had been dead before being altered. She didn't know what Cerberus was up to, but this was worse than anything she'd seen in her hunt for Saren.

"This is it, Shepard. The main lab is just ahead." Miranda gestured, and as she did so, the door slid open invitingly.

Shepard stepped through with her weapon at the ready. She saw an older human male holding Oriana tightly in front of him with a gun to her side. "Henry Lawson, I presume?" she asked sarcastically. Shepard noticed that he had his own cybernetic additions in the form of a custom visor that looked grafted onto his skin

"Miranda, dear, so glad you could join us. Oh stop being a bother and put that thing down," he said as the former Cerberus agent stepped forward with her pistol trained on his head. "You really ought to know better."

"You're the one who should know better. What made you think you could take Oriana for more of your experiments?" she said tightly. Shepard could see her anger simmering just below the surface.

"Since you so inconveniently made yourself unavailable, I had to go with my fallback plan," he told her. Oriana squirmed against him, and he tightened his arm around her shoulders and shoved the pistol harder into her ribs. "Quiet down," he ordered her.

"You won't kill her," Miranda said. "You value her too much. Not as a daughter, unfortunately."

"She won't die right away. The lab is right here. Once I dispose of you, there will be plenty of time to do what I need to. Of course, I'd prefer it if I didn't have to rush my work. Or you could offer to take her place," he added with a sinister smile.

Shepard nodded to James and jerked her head to the side, telling him to start flanking Dr. Lawson. She started moving slowly to the opposite side.

"What are you doing here? What did you do to those refugees?" Miranda asked.

"Hold still," Lawson snapped at Shepard and James. "Take one more step and I shoot Oriana. Shoot me and she dies."

Shepard gave a short sharp nod to James to tell him to hold in place, but they kept their weapons trained on the doctor. "Stand down, Lawson. Let Oriana go, and we'll let you live. That's the best outcome you can hope for," she told him.

He laughed. "Hardly. You think too small, Shepard. I must admit, even I didn't realize the full scope of the Illusive Man's goals at first. Once I did, though...it was astounding. Limitless power. You can't even conceive of his genius."

That drew a scornful snort from her. "I think evil and twisted pretty well covers it. Sounds like you've swallowed his propaganda hook, line and sinker."

He gave her a smug smile that she was quickly learning to hate. "Not propaganda. Truth. He plans to rule the galaxy, and I'm convinced he can do it."

"Really?" Shepard shot back. "What about the Reapers? Is he just gonna ask them nicely to go away?"

"Better than that," Lawson answered. "They'll do as he commands."

Shepard exchanged a skeptical look with Miranda before turning back to the doctor. "Yeah, right. Pull the other one."

"I don't have to. I only had to keep you talking long enough for my thralls to arrive," he gloated.

Shepard frowned in confusion for only as long as it took to hear the door slide open behind them. Whirling in place, she stared in shock at the mass of cyberized humans who tromped through the doorway. It was the same mass of humans they'd passed in the room earlier. A few of them still had bloodied fists from pounding on the window.

In a flash, everything was clear. Lawson was controlling the enthralled humans through his cybernetic implant, acting as the controller while their cybernetics eliminated their own individuality. As long as Lawson controlled them, they were mindless zombies and he would spend their lives without care to ensure his own survival. She turned back to Lawson to see him dragging Oriana back through a door, no doubt intending to seal them in with his thralls.

"You can't have her!" Miranda yelled as she tried to line up a shot. Shepard grimaced as the mob pushed through the door, cutting off any chance of her reaching it and sealing it against them. She didn't want to shoot them; they were still living humans, and even if they were mindless automatons at the moment, they could be restored if she could get away and bring back the proper resources. She clocked a large man on the jaw hard enough to knock him out, but instead of dropping to the ground, he swiveled his head back around and swung at her. She danced back out of his reach, but at the rate they were pushing into the room, they would quickly be overrun.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a violent movement. As she glanced backward, she saw Oriana drive her elbow into Lawson's soft gut, doubling him over. Using the same elbow, she slammed it up into his jaw, knocking him backward onto the floor.

A single gunshot exploded in the space, and Oriana gasped in horror at her sister. "You killed him!"

"Something I should have done a long time ago," Miranda said as she pushed her sister through the door into a dimly lit service hallway.

James was next. Shepard came through immediately after him and palmed the door shut just as the mindless mob reached it. The door immediately flickered back to green and slid open. "Go, go!" she yelled at the others. James took point and jogged quickly down the hallway. He cursed loudly then yelled for them to hurry up. "More incoming!" he said as he directed Miranda and Oriana down a different branch.

"We've got to get back to the shuttle!" Shepard glowered at the mob that had started running toward them when they spotted her team.

"That may be a problem, Shepard," Miranda yelled as she guided Oriana down a different hallway. "It appears that my father ordered every human on Horizon to attack us."

As she ran past the hallway, she saw a different group of refugees heading for them. "How are they finding us, Miranda?"

"Hive mind. Acting on the last given order." Miranda's answers were short and clipped. They were running full out now, trying to outpace the mob chasing them.

Shepard didn't like the conclusion she was drawing. "That means..."

"Aww, fuck!" James yelled as he opened the door to the outside and immediately drew back to kick a woman in the gut, sending her flying back into the crowd behind her. She fell to the ground, ignored as the rest of the mob charged forward. Glancing around him, she could see that the courtyard was filled with refugees, all of them oriented on the doorway James was trying to close and lock.

She could hear civilian footsteps rapidly approaching in the corridor behind them and cursed. There was no good way out, but to stay here would be suicide. "James, forward!" she ordered. He shot her a shocked look, knowing as well as she did that they would have to kill several of the refugees to make it through. Then his expression blanked, and he palmed the door open again.

To his credit, he aimed for their legs in an attempt to cripple without killing them. Miranda wasn't as generous. As soon as James had cleared a space, she stepped through and dropped a half dozen with chest shots.

"Fucking hell, Miranda," he yelled as he shot another in the foot. "You don't have to kill them!"

"It's us or them, Vega," she yelled back as she shot a teenage boy in the head.

Shepard tossed a flash bang grenade down the hallway to slow the mob advancing on their rear, then tossed a second one ahead of them to scatter the mob. "Enough," she ordered curtly as she shouldered past James to take the lead.

The mob was temporarily dazed and disorganized, and she took advantage of it to brutally shove her way through them to another habitat module. Behind them, the mob was rapidly recovering, and she heard both Miranda's and James' weapons fire. As she opened the door, a man was waiting to jump her. Out of reflex, she shot him point blank in the chest and watched dispassionately as he fell to the floor. She knew she would pay for this later with more nightmares.

"They're acting as a group mind, Shepard. What one sees, they all see," Miranda said as she gestured toward the back of the habitat, which opened to other modules. "They know we're here, and it won't take the rest of them long to get to us."

Shepard felt the first stirrings of panic inside her. Even if she ordered her team to kill everyone in their way, there were hundreds of refugees between them and the shuttle. They faced the very real chance of being overrun by sheer numbers. They would have to use grenades and explosions to even have a chance at getting through, and those were messy and miserable kills.

"Orders, Admiral?" James asked as an elderly woman started pounding her head on the porthole in the habitat door.

She fingered the grenades at her belt. She was out of non-lethal options, and even though her stomach churned at the thought, she didn't see any other way. Just as she drew a breath to order them to move out, EDI chirped out on her comm. "Shepard, we may have an option for you."

"Talk to me, EDI," she ordered, terse and nervous.

"Retribution has been listening to the signal traffic on Horizon. The networked humans are communicating with a simplistic version of the Reaper machine language. He thinks he can broadcast the weaponized virus and disrupt the group mind. If it works, it should prove the efficacy of the weapon while giving you time to get to the shuttle."

She grasped for the lifeline EDI offered like a woman drowning. "Do it, EDI."

"Shepard, there's a not insignificant chance it might prove dangerous for the refugees."

"EDI, my alternative is to blow hundreds of people up into bloody bits. Broadcast the fucking weapon!"

EDI's affirmative was lost in the sound of running footsteps echoing in the metal hallways as more mind-controlled refugees came for them. "Try for non-lethal shots!" Shepard ordered the others as the first wave burst into the room. She aimed for their feet and legs, trying to make them fall and hopefully block the entrance and buy more time for Retribution and EDI to broadcast the weapon signal.

For the rest of her life, she would remember the next few moments with perfect clarity. High velocity rounds penetrated unarmored flesh, tearing chunks away, shattering bones. The refugees, no longer fully human and obeying the commands of a dead man, continued to claw their way toward her and her team even as some were bleeding to death or being trampled by those coming behind them. Behind her, she heard Oriana sobbing. It struck her then that for a firefight, it was exceedingly quiet. None of the refugees made a single sound aside from the thud of bodies hitting the floor. Some part of her was horrified at her actions, even as she knew it was necessary if she wanted to live.

Just as she didn't think she could take any more, EDI communicated, "Signal incoming, Shepard."

Nothing happened for a few seconds, and Shepard and her team continued to fire. Then the refugees slowed down and lost focus. They stood staring vacantly into space as she and her squad waited tensely. Then, as suddenly as puppets who'd had their strings cut, every single one of them collapsed.

The sudden cessation of movement was as jarring as the lack of noise. Miranda cautiously advanced on the nearest refugee and knelt to check their pulse. She shook her head and checked another one. Also negative.

Shepard opened the door and jumped back as bodies tumbled through it. They had been pressed up so tightly against the door that most were still standing even though they were now lifeless.

Gingerly at first, she pushed the bodies backward, but they were packed so tightly that she couldn't budge them until she put her shoulder into it and shoved as hard as she could. Even then, she had to step on bodies that were still warm and pliable to make her way to the ground. Behind her, she heard Miranda offer soothing words to a sobbing Oriana and briefly wished someone had something comforting to say to her.

She had been so sure the weapon would work and leave the civilians alive. Confused, maybe. Scared. Unconscious even. But alive. Instead, she looked out over a field filled with corpses and realized that instead of killing hundreds, she had just ordered the death of thousands. EDI had warned her, but she hadn't listened. She had gambled and lost, and every refugee on Horizon had paid the price.

She locked down her emotions as she led them through the settlement. At the least, it appeared they had their weapon. If it worked here, she prayed it would work against the Reapers, and these deaths wouldn't be in vain. History would judge, assuming they had a future at all. "Let's get out of here."


Thanks to my beta reader, Orchidellia, for all her feedback and ideas.