"Starting up systems. All suit functions undergoing diagnostics. Raptor moving to optimal position for tracking. T-minus ten seconds. Stand-by."
The controller expanded the hologram of the planet and its orbiting starship until it could be easily manipulated by the movements of his hands. The wire mesh holographic model of the ship slowly matched up with it's intended location as it overlapped a dotted outline. A small blue dot rose from ground elevation to meet up with the orbiting orange one.
"Bird has returned to the coop. Raptor in position. Bringing sensors online. Stand-by."
The controller's leftmost holopad warmed to life as it wavered for a minute before its orange, green, and blue lines weaved and organized themselves into visual data.
The man reached for a pair of force-feedback gloves that lay on the surface of the console and slipped them over his hands, pulling them at the bottom to make sure they were tight. Haptic interfaces in this era had become so common that most individuals underwent cybernetic enhancement surgery to have the accelerometers implanted in their fingertips, but he didn't bother. To the controller, any technology would eventually be rendered obsolete.
Sensors filled the expanded landscape with layers upon layers of data, each layer gathered from a different lens. The controller twisted his wrist and cycled through the lens' till a soldier's image burned red-hot beneath a canopy of cool foliage. He grabbed the shimmering light with his gloved hands and pulled his hands apart until the image expanded enough to outline a distinctly human figure. Tapping the moving form, a real-time streaming connection was established and authenticated; the soldier's suit passing data to a feed directly to his base of operations. He grasped the thread of data and pulled it to its own dedicated holopad. From the flow of information, live biometric stats gathered from the suit expanded to fill its new home.
Turning back to the leftmost holo, the man expanded and assessed the immediate environment, twisting his arms this way and that, peeling back layers of sensor data from every possible angle. The primary scans revealed no foreign presences or notable anomalies.
"Green lights across the board. Sensors online. Stealth engaged. Shields at full capacity. Weapons ready. All suit functions tested and transmitting. Mission ready."
The controller turned back to the planet model and twisted it with his fingers, cycling with the sensor data. Clouds covered most of its atmosphere. Cold, overcast, and heavy liquid precipitation.
"So," The man said, adjusting the light-weight headset in his ear, "how's the weather down there?"
"Really?" The voice on the other end replied, sounding annoyed. "Are you trying to rub it in?"
The controller grinned. "Just checking. I want to make sure the Normandy's scanners are working properly."
"To think I was almost impressed with the way you were handling this." Shepard said, with a sigh. "I'm going to assume you referred to the Normandy as 'Raptor'?"
"Fitting isn't it?" The Wanderer asserted, tweaking the spectrum of the inlay image. "The term "raptor" is derived from the Latin word rapere meaning to seize or take by force. Quick and silent, this bird of prey possesses keen vision that allows them to detect prey during flight and strike with it's powerful talons and beak. Does the Normandy not fulfil all of these attributes?"
As much as Shepard wanted to drown out his entirely time-inappropriate observations, he was spot on.
"Yes," Shepard admitted, "yes she does. Now that you mention it, she does look the part too."
"She?"
"The Normandy is my ship, remember? And in case you forgot, when dealing with birds of prey: the females are more often larger than the males."
The Wanderer nodded in agreement on the Normandy. "Correct on all counts, Shepard. Just curious is all."
"You're always curious. It can be dangerous if you're not careful. It killed the cat, you know."
"Then you must also know that a cat has nine lives. Maybe that's why I'm still alive."
A blip appeared in the Wanderer's monitor, interrupting their banter. EDI had ran a scan of the complex to place an entrance and came up with a hit.
"EDI found an entrance to the complex on the side closest to you. One-hundred meters north-east your position. Setting up a way-point now. Do you see it on your HUD?"
Nearing the edge of the dense brush, a marker popped into existence in her helmet, hovering in place. "Crystal clear."
"Good. Starting now I'll keep comm chatter to a minimum. You'll be entering the clearing soon."
The Wanderer muted his mic and watched one of the holo's track Shepard's movement. Stepping out into the clearing, she tactically looked around and slowly made her way to the entrance. He noticed something.
Freezing a frame and zooming in, he could see that on her back was the mass effect hammer. Why in the world did she bring that weapon? She rarely used it because the immense splash damage made it an extremely dangerous weapon to use in enclosed spaces. Was it because there were batarians involved?
He wanted to ask why, but decided against it. Her conversation had clearly stated that there was a time and place for everything.
He intensified his watch.
.
The interior of the complex was utter ruin. Her combat boots crunched over cracked rock and broken tiles wherever she stepped. Leaks of all manners stemmed from old and rusted pipes that extended themselves on every wall. Small lights flickered and barely held onto power. Massive gaping holes in the floor resulted when the damaged sandwich of metal and stone gave in to the pull of gravity and collapsed on one another. If she didn't know better, she would have thought this place had been abandoned a hundred years ago. Maybe that was the plan - Make it look uninhabited.
In front of her loomed one such hole. She could see that a metal grating could be extended from under the floor, bridging the gap. She spotted a passage way that led below.
"One heat signature detected within twenty meters one level below you." Notified the Wanderer. "It's alone, so I'm predicting it's an animal that has taken up residence here. A batarian would not live in this hole alone."
When she rounded the corner, a beast lunged toward her. Three shots from her pistol fixed that problem.
"Varren." Declared Shepard, but they were well-fed, not like the malnourished scavengers she encountered on the prothean ruins on Feros. This was someones pet.
Peering over the broken edge to the next floor below, she discovered it's bountiful food: Dark, pooled blood and half-chewed human corpses. Luckily, none proved to have any semblance to the Doctor. Still, the sight was gruesome. Batarians... Her blood ran hot.
"The batarians must send their prisoners down here to die. I have to find Doctor Kenson before she ends up as food."
Shepard hurriedly found the switch to the bridge and activated it.
.
Much to his delight, Shepard moved out from the sub-terran layer to somewhere higher in the building away from the dense rock. His power of sight had increased seven-fold.
The Normandy had secured enough data to generate a three-dimensional layout of the structure that extended above the surface. He placed one hand on the surface of the holo pad and raised it, popping out the buildings floors into the air. He twisted the structure, bringing one particular floor closer.
"Multiple batarian contacts in the building, all on the floors above you... And from the way they're moving, two more varren on your floor. The infrastructure is also shot on this level. Be careful, I can see run-away gas emissions and uncontrolled power outputs. You may need to close a few valves and cut a few relays to traverse safely."
"This place is run down... even for a prison." was her response, followed the sound of her gun discharging into another hungry varren.
The Wanderer tapped the buildings critical systems and traced the paths of the discharging power. The lines were so run down and uninsulated that he could trace their path around the building. This sort of pattern she was encountering suggested this was planned. He guessed the key points of the breakdowns existed to deter or maim someone who wanted to gain further access. When he watched her approach their first locked door, he observed that the way was obstructed by broken discharging beams of power.
"Do you hear that?" she asked him suddenly, through the connection.
He adjusted the controls of the suits feed from his console to amplify the audio signal. Voices could be heard.
"Get the human into questioning." said a voice that was distinctly batarian.
"Get your hands off me!", followed immediately. Sounded human, female. It was the doctor's.
"Sounds like Kenson is still alive. Inpatient but cautious, she picked up a strip of metal grating from the floor and passed it through the discharging power lines to test how serious it was. It glowed red-hot and melted in her hands. Her suit would not fare much better.
"Shit." she blurted. "I gotta get a move on and don't have much time. What's the shortest way?"
"Not through those lines." The Wanderer remarked. "You'll need to find a way around or find a relay to cut. There's a passage behind you that leads around and up. I'll have it marked. It's your best bet."
He traced a line around the corridors and eventually reached a door on the level above that led to an outer courtyard. The systems on that level were running cleanly; possessing a heated air exchange system, stable power, and multiple contacts; He found the entrance to the actual prison. While he sent the updated way-point to Shepard's suit, an alert on her suits temperature gauge blinked amber on his holopad. Concerned, he opened the channel again.
"Your suit just registered a jump in temperature. Please tell you didn't do what I thought you did."
"I'm not that stupid. Blasted valve started spewing burning gas everywhere when I switched the line..." she fumed. "But nothing I can't handle. I take it you found another entrance to the prison?"
"Yes. Follow the way-point I just set up. It's a bit of a ways off but its the only way I can find through."
"Anything is better than those lasers." she replied, heading into the dark corridor.
.
After turning corner after corner, she made her way deeper into the maze. Every wall looked the same, and every corner revealed another just like it. The distance-remaining gauge on her route was the only thing that proved she wasn't going around in circles.
"Does this remind you of anything?" she asked him, breaking the radio silence.
"Yes," he answered her, "The Shadow Broker's base. Is that what you were referring to?"
"Yes," she said, as she ran along the broken floor. "I was thinking about it after we got back to the ship. The entire situation played an uncanny parallel to the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur."
Far, far above her, orbiting the planet, the Wanderer's eyebrow shot farther up still. He did not expect to hear those words from the hardened soldier who was now barrelling through a secret prison to rescue a doctor in captivity.
"Theseus and the Minotaur?" he repeated to himself, recalling the ancient human Greek myth. Although quite intricate and open to all sorts of interpretations, the simplest translation of the story told of the Minotaur: A half-man, half-bull who was conceived when Queen Pasiphae slept with a bull sent by one of the gods. King Minos was embarrassed, but did not want to kill the Minotaur, so he hid the monster in a Labyrinth constructed by a legendary craftsman by the name of Daedalus. According to the myth, Minos was imprisoning his enemies in the Labyrinth so that the Minotaur could eat them. The labyrinth was such a complicated construction that no one could ever find the way out alive.
Now, whether because of the threat of a losing war to Crete or perhaps another event that involved the death of King Minos' son Androgeus – Aegeus, the king of Athens, was ordered to send seven men and women every certain number of years to the Minotaur in retribution or tribute. Eventually, Theseus - son of Aegeus, decided to be one of the seven young men that would go to Crete, in order to kill the Minotaur and end the human sacrifices to the monster. Theseus announced to King Minos that he was going to kill the Monster, but Minos knew that even if he did manage to kill the Minotaur, Theseus would never be able to exit the Labyrinth.
Theseus met Princess Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, who fell madly in love with him and decided to help Theseus. She gave him a thread and told him to unravel it as he would penetrate deeper and deeper into the Labyrinth, so that he knows the way out when he kills the monster. Theseus followed her suggestion and entered the labyrinth with the thread. Theseus managed to kill the Minotaur and save the Athenians, and with Ariadne's thread - managed to retrace his way out.
That was the myth in a nutshell, although the very natures of myths leave them as a narrative, stretching from a traditional story to allegory. They sometimes operated on numerous symbols and archetypes, and one could twist the story to fit a wide arrangement of scenarios. If he thought about it though, it really did make sense. The first Shadow Broker could be considered as King Minos - upbringing the monster of the story, both sparing its life and eventually attempting to lock it away forever. The 'Minotaur' was undoubtedly the yahg – both physically and metaphorically - who hid in its information network, residing deep within the bowels of his ship. The ship was the labyrinth, with its twisted hallways and dark corners, at the center of which was the monster. Captives who walked into his 'office', didn't come back out.
Shepard would then be Theseus, the brave and strong hero of the story. He could apply as well. Liara was Princess Ariadne. She led their passage in – and back out again.
"You're absolutely right!" he finally exclaimed with zest.
"You sound unnaturally surprised."
The Wanderer shook his head. "You're full of surprises, Shepard."
.
"Voices again." Shepard noticed, "Listen."
"They wanted to slam an asteroid into the mass relay." one said.
"Can they even do that?" another questioned.
"What difference does it make? We caught 'em."
Both sounded batarian.
From his screen, he saw Shepard creep out of the building and into the courtyard. She was within a dozen feet of a pair of batarians.
"They've still got her down in the prison."
"I'd just kill her, Interrogating a human's a waste of time."
Too busy to catch up on the freshest batarian gossip, Shepard slipped between the barriers, cut a relay and disappeared into the pre-fab building at the center of the court yard. She slicked around the passages, silent and hidden, appearing on the other side. Climbing over a container, she found the next door and continued her search. More voices. She paused.
"No way it would have worked. Relays can't be damaged, much less destroyed."
"Those humans will do anything to destroy us, I swear."
He glanced to the bio-stats. At the last comment, Shepard's pulse and rate of breath rose.
"We have to make this one an example to the others. We can't respond kindly to terrorists."
Her heart pounded loudly on his console, her form remaining still on his monitor. Oh no.
He did a scan. The room she passed was occupied by two batarians who were occupying themselves with looking out from the window that spanned one of the walls while they spoke. A very easy kill.
He saw in his mind's eye - her hand reaching for the hammer. "Don't." he whispered.
To his relief, her form move right past.
"Don't what?"she replied, sounding rough.
He sighed. "Don't stop moving."
.
"There's a shuttle incoming. Clear the hangar bay." yelled the loudspeaker.
On one side of a crate, a batarian moved past. On the other, Shepard paused.
"What they're saying," she asked the Wanderer as she waited, "about the relay: Can you actually destroy one? I thought those things were indestructible, they shrug off supernovae."
"They are not." he informed her. "With a large enough impact... say an asteroid with enough mass, the energy and eezo contained within will go critical. The ensuring explosion will wipe out an entire system."
"An entire system? Are you serious? Why hasn't someone used it as a weapon yet?"
He laughed joylessly. "Not yet in this cycle, it hasn't. Believe me, it is not something you want to gamble on. Mass relays are the only means of long distance space travel and thus too vital to risk. Even with the Prothean schematics, the resources required to replicate one are immense."
Shepard waited till the batarian passed and she continued down toward the loading docks.
"I heard an artifact was found in that asteroid belt. Think the humans got it?"
"If they did, they'd have swarmed it and put flags all over it."
When she tried for the door in her way it was, of course, locked.
"Which way now?"
The Wanderer dissected the building. Passing his hand through horizontally, he cut through the schematics and revealed a cross section of the building. EDI's processing power really came in handy.
He saw a way but shook his head and looked for another. There was none.
"You're not going to like this." he said. "Down."
"Down?" she repeated.
"Down. You've played the crane game before, right?"
"The crane game?" Confused, she looked around. "The game where you get a prize..." Shepard looked across at the dock. Items were stacked upon one another, the way point disappearing into the floor under a stack of containers.
"Yep, that one." he said, looking through her suits visual feed. "High-stakes version."
.
"I found a security log." Shepard said, relaying back a recorded log she recovered from a desk. "You listening?"
"Go ahead."
She played the message. "Our comm buoy intercepts paid off. We picked up a message to the Alliance coming from somewhere in the asteroid belt. We listened to the feed until we discovered an operation run by a human named Kenson – smuggling engine parts and guidance systems into the system from Omega. We intercepted Kenson's vessel and took her and her people into custody. Interrogation had produced nothing but frenzied rambling so far."
"Is there anything else?" the Wanderer asked.
"No." She gave it a look over. "It stops there. I'll continue to keep an eyes out, but the priority is the doctor. She'll be able to tell us what's going on."
"This one's apparently the mastermind."
"If she doesn't talk, kill her."
He hurriedly spoke to distract her from the two lone batarians that stood alone in the passing room.
"You're close, Shepard. Last room at the end of the hall."
"Good." She passed.
When she entered the long-sought after room, she was greeted with the sight of Doctor Amada Kenson being held in a prison restraint, a suited batarian powering up an interrogation device and lining it up with the doctors head. Swift justice would be the order of the day.
She tapped the batarian's shoulder.
"Huh?"
When he turned around to face her, her fist buried itself so far into his face it may have hit grey matter. The body crashed to the floor.
Bewildered, the doctor cried out,"Who are you? What are you doing?"
Commander Jane Shepard stepped forward into the light.
"Doctor Kenson? I'm Commander Shepard. I'm here to get you out."
