31 July 2185, Sowilo System Space
Normandy dropped into normal geometry in the outer reaches of the Sowilo system.
We lacked any real intelligence about the Shadow Broker's location. We could guess that his headquarters was located on the single marginally habitable world in the system – Hagalaz – but we couldn't be certain. For all we knew, the Broker lurked somewhere else, but had posted sensor probes around Hagalaz in order to watch for intruders. Shepard advised caution, and I had to agree. So we lurked about two light-hours out from the system's G8V primary, well above the local ecliptic plane, so our passive sensors could drink in data from as much of the system as possible.
The primary star roared endlessly across the spectrum. We found one gas giant planet with a very active magnetic field, pouring out microwave and radio noise. Of deliberate, organized transmission we heard almost nothing, only a beacon marking an automated helium-3 refinery station at the gas giant.
Our analysis team consisted of Shepard, Miranda, Garrus, Mordin and me. We spent hours in the Combat Information Center, parsing through sensor data, looking for evidence that anyone lived in the system. Finally Shepard came back from consulting with Joker on the bridge, his face sober.
"Liara, this is not looking good." He stood next to me, watching the holographic windows I had open. "How certain are you about Sekat's work?"
"The Shadow Broker was quite certain of it," I pointed out. "Certain enough to have him killed."
"True. But this looks like a wilderness system."
I smiled at him. "You need to think more like an information broker. Look for the patterns buried in the data."
He cocked an eyebrow at me but said nothing.
"Here." I called up a series of historical records, laid out as a timeline. "This system wasn't always unoccupied. A salarian expedition surveyed the place about two centuries ago, and built mining outposts on three planets. They never made very much profit. Sowilo is located so far off the main trade routes, so far from the main mass relay for this cluster, and none of the planets here make very pleasant places to live. The support costs always rendered operations here marginal at best. So the settlements on Kenaz and Hagalaz were abandoned, in 2076 and 2080 by your calendar."
"What about the third outpost?" Shepard asked.
"That's the interesting case." I touched the relevant icon, expanding it to reveal a cascade of data. "The star system is old and most of its worlds are metal-poor, but Ansuz has large deposits of palladium and other platinum-group metals. A whole consortium of mining interests developed the place . . . but then they suffered a wave of industrial accidents and incidents of sabotage. The consortium collapsed in mutual recrimination. By the time litigation worked its way through the courts, all parties had abandoned Ansuz permanently."
His eyes narrowed as he scanned my data. "You think someone else wanted the miners off Ansuz?"
"It's circumstantial, but yes. Look at the dates. The last miners left Ansuz in 2093, a little over ninety years ago. The first appearance of the Shadow Broker in Citadel records is in 2097, only four years later."
"He cleared the decks, so he could have a nice abandoned star system to fort up in."
"It's as good a hypothesis as any. Once the system stood empty, of course, the Broker could use his influence to discourage anyone from returning."
He stood, head down and arms folded, for several minutes. Then he nodded to himself. "I have an idea."
"What is it?"
"Now that I've had some practice thinking like an information broker, T'Soni, you need to think more like a military commander." He raised his voice. "Joker, I want an FTL microjump over to the gas giant, and then a fast ballistic pass by the helium-3 station there, all stealth systems engaged."
"Aye-aye, Commander," came Joker's voice, sounding a little puzzled.
"EDI, when we're at closest approach, I want a low-power probe to query the station's records. How much fuel does that station bring up from the gas giant, and how much does it dispense out to passing ships?"
"Acknowledged, Commander."
I saw what he suspected. "If this system is truly abandoned, almost no one will have any reason to come to refuel."
"On the other hand, if the Shadow Broker hangs out here, then his agents will sometimes show up with dry tanks. So they'll stop at the gas giant and refuel."
"Why would a military commander think that way?"
"Hmm. Amateurs study strategy and tactics. Professionals study logistics."
Sure enough, EDI's query of the old salarian station revealed substantial throughput of helium-3 fuel. Decades after the miners had abandoned the system, someone still came on occasion to visit. It wasn't proof of the Shadow Broker's presence, but it convinced Shepard to continue the search.
1 August 2185, Hagalaz Orbit
For the sake of thoroughness, Normandy made slow passes by the planets Ansuz and Kenaz. It seemed plausible that the Shadow Broker had moved into some of the abandoned mining works . . . but both planets turned up cold and empty. Finally Normandy went into a high-inclination orbit around Hagalaz, stealth mode engaged, cameras and passive sensors combing the surface, looking for signs of occupation. Our analysis team gathered once more in the CIC, an enormous holographic globe of the planet projected in place of the galaxy map.
All our data collection turned up very little evidence. We could – just barely – pick out the ruins of the salarian mining outposts on the surface. We found no sign of radio activity, no sign of power generation, and no sign that anyone had actually occupied the outposts in decades. We saw no evidence of any newer construction anywhere. Hagalaz appeared to be another abandoned planet.
"We're missing something," I said after several hours of work. I stepped back from my console and stretched the stiffness out of my shoulders and back.
Garrus shook his head. "Hmm. I don't know, Liara. We've combed every square meter of the planet's land surface by now. Our sensors should be able to spot structures as small as a one-man shelter. Maybe there's nothing there to miss."
"Suppose the Shadow Broker built underground?" suggested Shepard.
"No," said Miranda. "Even if most of his facility is underground, there would have to be something visible on the surface. He would need a landing pad – or maybe a hatch – big enough for a ship to enter or leave. Unless that's superbly well-camouflaged . . ."
"Underwater?" Garrus mused. "Most of the planet's surface is ocean, after all."
"I hope not," said Shepard. "We could search for weeks and never see something like that. Unless a ship arrives or leaves while we happen to be watching."
I shook my head. "You can't stay idle against the Collectors that long. We have to find the Broker quickly, if he's here, and that means we have to apply logic. Other than at the bottom of an ocean, where could a large facility hide on this planet?"
"Nowhere," said Garrus flatly.
"Wait," said Miranda, staring at the holographic globe of Hagalaz, deep in thought. Suddenly she made a decisive nod, stepped up to her console and entered a complex series of commands. The globe became highlighted to indicate the day and night sides of the planet, and it began slowly rotating so we could see how surface features moved into and out of the sunlight. Finally Miranda highlighted two narrow bands, one on either side of the planet. The terminator zones, the transitions between night and day, where the sun stood just above or just below the horizon. "He could hide here."
Mordin had been unusually silent for some time. Now he nodded. "Yes. Very slow planetary rotation. Unusually massive atmosphere for the planet's size. Very steep temperature, pressure gradients at sunrise, sunset lines. Permanent thunderstorm zones. Dense cloud banks, torrential rain, high winds, constant lightning." Sniff. "Broker could use airship to hide in storm zone."
"For over eighty years?" demanded Garrus.
"Very good engineering."
"It would have to be," said Shepard.
"It does fit the Broker's methodology as we've seen it elsewhere," I pointed out. "On Alingon he uses the planet's intense magnetic field to hide his facility from observation. Here, any intruder would have a hard time picking out an energy signature in the middle of all that lightning."
"There's only one way to find out. Let's do a plane change and put the ship in a polar orbit, closer to the surface and right over the terminator."
We missed it on the first orbit, and even on the second. On the third, the dense clouds of the sunrise zone opened up for a few minutes just as Normandy passed overhead. Our cameras spotted a vast structure hovering about ten kilometers above the planet's surface, placed precisely where the permanent thunderstorm would provide the most cover.
"Interesting," said Mordin, highlighting sections of the schematic diagram we built in the CIC. "Observe, here at the rear, very dark surfaces, almost zero albedo. Enormous solar panel array. Here and here about the hull, long objects, apparently tapered to points. Lightning rods. Ship designed to collect solar, electrical energy from environment. Reduces need for large nuclear reactor. Decreased power generation signature."
Miranda nodded. "They would still need an eezo core to maintain altitude and attitude, and to damp out turbulence. Even that could be kept in low-power mode most of the time, reducing the ship's gravitic signature."
"Quite a hiding place the Broker has," said Shepard.
"There could be thousands of people aboard something that size," said Garrus.
"No, that there could not." I glanced at Shepard with a smile. "Think about the logistics of the situation. How would the Broker feed thousands of people?"
"No sign of agriculture on surface of planet," said Mordin. "Environment not very conducive anyway. Food shipped in from out of system? No, haven't seen any ships arrive or leave. Doesn't fit Broker methodology anyway. Hiding place must be self-contained as possible. Limited physical contact with outside."
"Food synthesis," Garrus realized. "Maybe augmented by hydroponics or aeroponics."
Mordin nodded. "Estimate no more than two hundred on board. Maybe two hundred fifty, if exclusively using food synthesis. Probably not. Bland diet. Bad for morale."
Shepard shook his head in wonder. "Liara, the Shadow Broker might have fewer people aboard that ship than you have in your offices on Illium."
I nodded in agreement. "His strength is in his network, out in the galaxy. For that matter, I could get by with fewer employees in my central office if I had better analytic integration, or I felt willing to give up more control over routine activities."
"So how do you want to play this?"
"Quietly," I said. "A frontal assault would be a terrible idea. That ship has energy to burn, and I'm sure it has extensive weapons systems. Normandy would almost certainly be outgunned."
"What are your objectives?"
"At a minimum, locate Feron and get him out. If we can sabotage the Broker's systems, crippling his ability to assist the Collectors, that would be ideal."
"Then I recommend a small infiltration team, no more than five." He thought through his options for a moment. "Miranda, this one is too dangerous for both of us to be at risk. You have Normandy until we get back."
I could tell Miranda felt unhappy about this, but she nodded in agreement.
"Garrus, you're with Liara and me," Shepard continued. "EDI, I want Samara and Thane for this one as well. Have them report to the armory for mission prep."
I nodded to myself. Shepard had selected a squad with stealth, plenty of combat experience, a great deal of biotic power, and sufficient technical skill to get through any obstacles we might encounter.
Also, none of us were Cerberus. I felt quite certain that was not an accident.
1 August 2185, Shadow Broker Vessel/Hagalaz
The shuttle brought us in from the night side of Hagalaz, hovering for a few moments over a flat spot on the great ship's hull, just long enough for the five of us to disembark. The jump to the hull felt slower than I expected. Hagalaz was a small and metal-poor planet, with surface gravity less than two-thirds that of Illium. All of us used magnetic boots to maintain sound footing on the hull.
Shepard and Garrus had sealed hardsuits. The rest of us wore heated cold-weather gear over our usual light armor, with helmets and breather masks. The ambient temperature fell far below freezing, and the thin air would not support life for more than a few moments. Inside the ship's mass-effect field, we could move easily through calm air . . . but only a few meters away, the winds gusted as high as two hundred kilometers per hour. Anyone who lost her footing – or was lifted away from the hull by a biotic attack – would almost immediately be snatched away for the long fall to the surface.
At least we had an absolutely magnificent view. Behind us reared storm-filled night, occasionally lit by gigantic lightning bolts. All around us, the cumulonimbus clouds piled up for kilometers, the sun up ahead painting them in a thousand shades of white and gold. As we moved, several times I had to restrain the urge to stop and get caught up in an aesthetic trance.
We picked our way across the hull, moving with extreme care, looking for an entrance hatch of substantial size that we had spotted during our approach. Shepard and Thane led, comparing the "terrain" to our schematics, planning our route and watching for signs of hostile activity. Samara and I followed, keeping a lookout to the sides. Garrus played rear-guard, his beloved sniper rifle out and ready to respond to any attack.
At first we faced no significant resistance. We occasionally saw maintenance drones or LOKI mechs, operating in twos and threes, but these were easy to deal with. Shepard and Thane usually spotted them well in advance, and we could either avoid or destroy them without raising the alarm.
The worst point came when our only path forward involved a catwalk suspended over the side of the ship. We found a guard rail . . . but under our feet lay nothing but a flimsy-looking metal mesh, and through it one could see the long drop.
"Okay, looking down was clearly a mistake," I muttered to myself.
Samara gave me a serene glance, and for a moment I hated the justicar for her perfect calm.
Then the catwalk moved insidethe ship for a few moments, cutting through an engineering compartment. All of us had to stop for a moment in sheer awe. The engines were immense machines, long arrays of capacitor plates that lifted and fell, absorbing and discharging electrical energy in a never-ending cycle.
"Incredible," I said at last. "The perfection of the engineering . . . if the engines ever stopped for even a moment, the ship would fall."
"I wonder how the Broker's crew maintains the engines," said Garrus. "Big moving parts, with lots of electrical discharges for added flavor. Not easy to fix if you can't ever let it stop."
Shepard looked around. "I think the scale is fooling our eyes. This compartment isn't big enough to take up the full width of the hull at this point. There must be several engines, so the Broker can take one down for maintenance without losing all power."
"I wonder what happened to the contractors who built all this?" mused Thane.
"I think we can guess," I said grimly.
"Interesting that we haven't seen any live crew, just mechs," said Garrus. "Liara, your estimates for crew size must have been on the money."
I nodded in agreement. "Of course, I would be willing to bet most of the live crew has combat training. If we raise the alarm . . ."
"We'll be ready," Shepard stated. "Come on. This catwalk seems to head for another access port, back out onto the hull, forty or fifty meters further along."
We followed Shepard and Thane once more. When we emerged, we seemed visibly closer to the solar arrays at the rear of the ship.
At that point we encountered our first real opposition. I don't think that first squad of the Broker's men came out specifically to attack us. They had most likely been deployed for a routine patrol of the hull, but as soon as they spotted us, they moved in for the kill.
"Armed mercenaries, to the left and above," said Thane calmly. Gunfire followed his announcement. Samara spun around as a burst caught her in center-of-mass, deliberately spreading the kinetic energy around her body shield so that it would not penetrate. My own shields flared for a moment as a stray round skimmed past my left hip.
I suppressed the urge to dive for cover. Let my magnetic boots leave contact with the hull, let my Illium-trained reflexes take hold, and I might find myself flying out of control toward the abyss. Instead I took two very deliberate steps, crouched behind a thick metal pipe, and then looked around for the enemy.
I remember your lessons in basic tactics, Shepard. Always take cover first.
We found a great deal of cover, for all of us and for our enemies, attachments and projections behind which one could hide. Shepard looked frustrated for a moment, unable to find a target for his shotgun, unwilling to risk flash-charging across the ship. Then I saw his eyes narrow as he saw something of interest in the direction of the enemy.
He stowed his shotgun on its hardpoint in the small of his back, then drew his sidearm. He popped up, aimed and fired . . . high and to the left of the nearest enemy.
What are you doing?
His burst struck a long, tapering projection just behind the enemy squad. A lightning rod.
It erupted with powerful discharges of static electricity, lashing out and striking some of the Broker's men. They lost control, some of them falling out of cover, others snapped erect by an overload of their armor's systems.
Three of them fell exposed, positioned too close together. I shouted and hurled a singularity into their midst.
Shepard, Thane, and Samara opened fire on the exposed troopers. Enemies fell, skimming the ship's hull until they flew past the edge and vanished. Behind me I heard the bark of Garrus's sniper rifle, and saw one of the Broker's men thrown back. The resulting gout of blood hung in the air for a long moment, suspended in the low gravity. Then Thane sent a biotic warp to detonate my singularity, and three armored figures flew up and into the sky. One after the other, they soared in graceful arcs past the edge of the mass effect field, hurled into infinity.
It was horrifying and strangely beautiful.
"Lessons learned," said Shepard flatly as we advanced. "Don't get caught near one of those lightning rods, and keep your feet on the hull."
Samara shook her head. "That may prove difficult if the Broker has biotic specialists."
"Yeah. Top priority, people, take out any adepts or vanguards."
The first squad may not have known we were coming, but the second and third squads certainly did. They had rocket troopers with them, salarian engineers, asari biotic specialists.
We faced difficult fights, dominated by the need to be very sure of our footing at every moment. Shepard's new tactic – charge into the enemy's teeth – would have been folly, but he didn't have the weapons or the practiced reflexes to revert back to his old sniper-rifle style. Instead he concentrated on keeping all of us in cover, popping out for short moments to fire a burst, or to fling a biotic warp or shockwave at the enemy.
As Shepard had ordered, enemy biotics became the focus of our efforts. Once we hit our stride, a slim blue figure could hardly show her head above cover without being pummeled by a barrage of warps. As soon as an enemy's shields or biotic barriers wore down, one of our biotics pulled her off her feet and into the air. On a planet's surface that would have been inconvenient and dangerous for the victim. On the hull of the Shadow Broker's ship, it was usually fatal.
Meanwhile, Garrus quickly taught the Broker's men not to expose themselves to a sniper's shot. Once they learned that lesson, he began using his rifle to disrupt the ubiquitous lightning rods. Over and over, he threw the Broker's men into confusion by causing wild electrical discharges in their ranks.
Shepard took minor gunshot wounds to his left shoulder and right side, Thane suffered burns from an engineer's incineration charge, and I took a deep cut on my face from shrapnel. We had medi-gel and plenty of determination. We won through.
The hatch we sought stood almost three meters tall, and wide enough for all of us to enter abreast. We found it securely locked. While Shepard and Samara watched for more of the Broker's troops, Thane and Garrus both tried to hack it without success.
"Let me try," I said, stepping up to the hatch and activating my omni-tool. "I have an experimental shunt program that Arin gave me back on Illium. It should be able to hack through just about any lock."
"How long will it take?" asked Shepard.
"I don't know. I've never broken into the Shadow Broker's base before." I glanced over my shoulder at him. "Well, not this one anyway."
The shunt program engaged. A five-lobed holographic display appeared on the hatch doors.
"The Broker will not wait patiently for us to break in," said Samara.
"Right," said Shepard. "Take cover and defend the hatchway."
Just in time. Two squads of the Broker's men crested the hull and began to rain fire down on our position.
ZZZZZT.
"They really don't get that they shouldn't take up positions close to those lightning rods," said Garrus.
"Your life is mine," said Samara, utterly calm, as she struck an approaching mercenary with a biotic effect I had never seen before. The man fell, curling into a ball, and I could hear his bloodcurdling shrieks even in the thin atmosphere. I stared at her for a moment in wide-eyed shock.
"Heads up, Liara!" shouted Shepard.
I snapped out of it and reached cover just in time to avoid a burst of gunfire.
"What assurance do we have that Dr. T'Soni's program will work?" asked Thane calmly. He whirled out of cover, firing three times with his sidearm. Three of the Broker's men went down in rapid succession.
"Liara? You did test it, right?" demanded Shepard.
"It's illegal even on Illium," I said breathlessly. "There hasn't been any chance to test it."
"Wonderful."
I spared a glance for the hatch. One out of five lobes of the holograph had gone green. "It's making progress. Keep it up!"
We fought. The Broker's men hit us from one side, then the other. Shepard took yet another minor wound and slapped the medi-gel tab on his hardsuit. A telekinetic strike knocked Thane loose from the hull, but he kept firing calmly from midair while I reached out with my mind and pulled him back down. At one point the enemy seemed about to break into our position, but Shepard risked a flash-charge across the field and scattered them like potsherds. My heart leapt into my throat, but then I saw him slam both booted feet down on the hull once more.
"Heads up!" shouted Garrus. "Rocket drones!"
Goddess, not again.
I was very careful to take cover this time.
CRASH. CRASH. CRASH.
I felt dazed and half-blind, but I had apparently survived the explosion. Again. I popped my head out and fired a long burst at one of the drones, tearing down its shields and destroying it.
"The enemy keeps coming at us in waves," I observed. "They would be more effective if they hit us all at once."
"Please don't give the mercs ideas," growled Shepard.
"Well, she's right," muttered Garrus.
We barely had time to pivot away from the last of the drones to the next wave of soldiers. Slow on my feet, I found myself exposed to three enemy troopers at once. I had only an instant to curse silently before a hail of gunfire hammered me to the hull.
"Liara!"
Then a red-clad figure stood over me, blazing with white light, hurling biotic force against the enemy line.
"I'm here, child." Samara bent down to examine me, activating the medi-gel tab on my armor. Pain receded. I could sit up, and then rise to a crouch.
"I'm all right." I took a cautious breath, felt nothing shift around or stab at me internally. "The armor took it. I'll probably hurt for a week, that's all."
"Another wave coming," said Garrus flatly. "It's a big one."
"You just had to give them tactical advice," said Shepard in mock-anger.
"Look at it this way," I said as I took cover once more. "There won't be as many inside."
The Broker's men attacked.
"Yeah, keep dreaming, T'Soni."
This wave was the hardest. All of us had to face it and lay down an intense field of fire. To take cover and rest, even for a moment, would have left open a gap for the enemy to exploit. My barriers went down, then my shields, and then I barely deflected a vicious telekinetic pull that would have flung me into space. Garrus saved me then, sighting in the enemy biotic and dropping her with a perfect headshot.
A chime sounded from my omni-tool. "The hatch is open!"
"Fighting retreat!" Shepard commanded. "Liara, Thane, you first."
The drell assassin and I broke into a run, dashing through the hatch the moment it stood fully open. Then we took up positions to either side and lay down covering fire. Samara followed us, then Garrus, then Shepard last of all. One of the Broker's men burst from cover with a rocket launcher just as Shepard crossed into the ship. Just a moment too late. The hatch slammed down and we heard an explosion on the outside.
I tapped commands into my omni-tool. "There. The hatch is locked shut again behind us, and I've reset the controls. They'll be hours trying to get through my codelocks."
"They'll probably just post a guard on the hatch to box us in, then come back inside somewhere else and move ahead of us." Shepard shrugged. "Well, the Shadow Broker certainly knows we're here, and we've been banged up a bit, but we're still all on our feet and effective. Let's move on."
We turned and moved down the corridor. Into the Shadow Broker's lair.
