Just as expected, Jorge did chew Six out for utilizing the armor systems so aggressively without Dot's aid though it wouldn't take much to recalibrate them to proper order. The sight was like a father scolding his daughter for misbehaving. She didn't seem upset about it, giving him the platitude of saying she'll try not to push her suit so hard again. As expected, Shepard stuck around the star system to help fund a few operations while gaining a few new upgrades to utilize. The Normandy soon got a bit quieter as more of its crew soon departed.
Garrus said he had to face his most difficult opponent yet and see what could be done to help prepare Palaven for the war heading toward them. Vaht planned to escort Tali back to the Migrant Fleet before returning to the Covenant to intensify his training for the real battle to come. Vaht did promise that once the quarians entered the fray he would resume his task of protecting his charge once more.
During their time waiting on these operations, Liara was invited to take a tour of the Normandy at some point while also gifting Shepard her lost dog tags. Liara found them when she searched the old Normandy's crash site, among other memorabilia she saved.
One night Six had a horrible nightmare, a premonition perhaps, of the Reapers swarming the galaxy faster than anyone could mobilize against. It wasn't an invasion, it was an overwhelming swarm. She went up to Shepard's personal cabin to give herself some privacy and a cold shower to shake these images from her mind. If she was lucky enough to cross paths, she planned to also ask the Commander to try getting the Alliance or Council to do more about their lackluster preparation efforts thus far.
Just as she was about to leave, she overheard Shepard speaking to someone, "I thought the Alliance denies the Reaper threat. That must be some proof she found."
"Kenson's team found an artifact out in batarian space. She believes it's a Reaper device, proof that the Reapers are indeed planning to invade." It sounded like Admiral Hackett; from the few times Six actually remembers hearing the man talking over comms. "I've known her a long time. If she says she has proof, it's worth checking out."
"I have a hell of a squad with me. I'm sure they'd help out." What's left of the squad, but if it's only batarians, then what they have should be more than enough.
"Kenson is my friend. If the batarians see a squad of armed soldiers, they'll kill her. This is serious commander. Go in with discretion, or don't go at all."
"Then I'm sorry, but I have to say that I can't complete this mission alone. I implore you to allow me to take this one person with me on this mission."
"Commander, I'll entertain this train of thought, but I doubt it'll go anywhere. Who exactly are you referring to and why are you so insistent on bringing this person with you?"
"First, I understand your concern. You put a friend in danger for a mission of this importance and you want to bring her back safely. Seeing as how Cerberus built this Normandy, improved her drive core, we would be like the Corsairs to give the Alliance full plausible deniability in the event things go south hard for us. But this is exactly why I want one specific person with me. Her skills and expertise are everything you'd want for a mission like this. In fact, that was her job for most of her military career."
"What military was she attached to? STG? An asari huntress?"
"An alternate Earth." Six already figured out she was being recruited for this mission. Not that she'd have refused if Shepard had asked her. Though getting the proper clearance might be a safer route when dealing with the Alliance. "She is a highly skilled operative who specializes in infiltration…" Six was good at wiping out entire bases, and sometimes they never knew but that was mostly thanks to ONI intel supplying her with structural layouts and estimates on hostile forces.
The operations she participated against insurgents and the Covenant were as obviously impressive, even if this galaxy hasn't felt the devastating might of the Covenant firsthand. Though when Shepard started to mention a few of her Cerberus ops that left many in the galaxy uncertain who wiped out mercenary companies or sneaking behind various opposition must sound more impressive for Hackett, assuming he ever got any of those reports. She was only hoping that the mission would be so simple given the added detail of a Reaper artifact that could be active and affecting the Alliance team.
Six's mind focused back on the conversation between Shepard and Hackett again, calming her previous thoughts. "I'll concede your points, Commander. You have authorization to bring her. Assuming she follows your orders."
"No worries, sir, she'll follow orders. We'll make this our priority."
"The prison is hidden underground at a batarian outpost on Aratoht. I'll upload the coordinates now. Once she is secured, confirm her discovery. We'll debrief you when you're back."
"Got it."
"Hackett out."
Shepard finally turned toward the bathroom, "You going to stay in there forever?"
Six stepped out, "You volunteered us for this off the record rescue mission for undercover Alliance operatives?"
"This shouldn't be too hard."
Six was rubbing her neck, "The hard part is getting out undetected with that Kenson person. Is she going to be helping fight if things get problematic or will she be an asset needing to be safeguarded? How well guarded or monitored is she and what are the patrol shifts near her…these could very easily turn into a nasty skirmish fast."
Shepard jabbed Six with her elbow, "Come on, you've never run a rescue op before?"
"Normally they end up dead long before I get called in, so it turns into cleanup, or so I'm told. In truth, ONI probably just wanted those positions wiped out. But that doesn't mean I don't know how to sneak into a guarded facility."
"Then its settled. You and I will sneak into the batarian prison compound, find Dr. Kenson and confirm her Reaper proof." Six felt unusually uneasy about everything, something about this mission perhaps. Or maybe it was something beyond…
In preparation for the mission, Shepard changed her armor to mitigate any association to the Alliance and to benefit their infiltration mission. It was a rather odd mishmash of armor; donning a recon hood to hide her face, Kestrel torso, amplifier plates, stabilization gauntlets and stimulator conduits.
Six also managed to get most of their weapons fitted with silencers, excluding the M45 tactical shotgun and the heavy Arch Projector they were bringing as a precaution for the worst-case scenario. Both Cortez and O'Brien were obviously upset that they were not consider for the mission, though given the sensitivity of the mission they weren't going to try and add themselves onto the roster. Jorge just wished them luck knowing he's stature and personal weapon would only impede the mission.
After a careful scan of the facility, Dot and EDI were able to location an isolated entry point for the shuttle to drop them off undetected. Six had Dot loaded into her suit to provided extra tactical assistance as they were going radio silent with the Normandy for extra precautions of any monitoring that may be happening within the system. With boots on the ground, their first task was getting in. Thankfully shotty design made cutting the power to the doors a simple task and it shouldn't be noticed for some time given its odd placement.
They followed the path to find it abruptly ending to a malfunctioning bridge and several live wires sprawled around the area. There was an obvious button on the ground, probably as a cruel joke to make an attempted escapee believe they could extend the bridge easily before being discovered.
Six proceeded down a side passage, cautiously so as her motion tracker identified an unknown presence nearby. Sure enough, another button was underneath a varren gnawing on some bones. Six silently took aim with her DMR and put it down with a single shot. She kicked it aside to press the button it apparently was guarding that extended the bridge. Just as assessed, this poor soul was left in this maze in an attempt to break free only to end at the jaws of a varren.
The next stretch of this coordinated maze had even more varrens and burning gas lines they had to be redirect to get through the area. After altering a few more pipelines they reached a door finally led them into the facility proper. Shepard found an open log on a table, linking it to her omni-tool as she listened to the recording. Six had moved to the next door, watching her motion tracker to locate the guards on the other side.
Six moved through the storage room until she heard some guards gossiping, stopping Shepard when she joined her. "They wanted to slam an asteroid into the mass relay."
"Can they even do that?"
"What difference does it make. We caught 'em."
Six had her weapon at the ready, aiming for the door where the voices came from. She was a calm and still as a statue, waiting a good three minutes to ensure that they weren't going to leave unexpectedly. The next door upstairs finally led them outside where Six stopped again. Off to the distance was a guard overlooking the open area.
Fortunately, due to how deep in batarian space this prison was located the guards were lax with their stations and not as attentive as they probably should be as the guard Six was watching turned back inside and closed the door behind him.
Quickly creeping ahead, they spotted a pair of guards talking about the prisoner, "They've still got her down in the prison."
"I'd just kill her. Interrogating a human's a waste of time."
There was a door behind duo, even if Six approached it invisibly the activation would definitely draw their attention. They could simultaneously shoot the pair and proceed and seeing how the two are just slaking off in the rain chatting away they don't appear to have any command significance. Judging by how casual the two appear to be it was a safe bet that this was their barracks or rec area.
Before Six could suggest that plan Shepard found another way through. She found the power junction for a nearby laser security grid to allow them access to the walkway leading further into the facility. After checking the other buildings for anything useful, the two quietly moved toward the door the first guard entered.
Another pair of guards were chatting as they looked over an indoor hangar, "No way it would have worked. Relays can't be damaged, much less destroyed."
"Those humans will do anything to destroy us, I swear."
"We have to make this one an example for the others. We can't respond kindly to terrorists." A rather ironic statement given the number of batarian raids on human colonies in the past or more recently the attempted asteroid strike on Terra Nova.
Just around the corner was a walkway overlooking the hangar with a guard on it. The guard soon walked toward a door that they'd probably head towards, assuming they were going to let these two guards live.
"There's a shuttle incoming. Clear the hangar bay." They watched the batarian shuttle enter, a potential escape if they were in a rush.
They quietly followed the guard from the walkway and into a new room. The next room was clear, what appeared to be a vehicle repair bay with a hover truck already there. The next door was locked with more guards talking, "I heard an artifact was found in that asteroid belt. Think the humans got it?"
"If they did, they'd have swarmed in and put flags all over it."
After moving a few crates aside they rode the truck down to the lower level, then raising it to avoid notice. This new section led them back underground to an unmanned security checkpoint. There were some credits and an audio log next to the power for the next set of security lasers.
"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 has produced nothing but frenzied rambling so far." It was clever of Kenson's team to get supplies from Omega, it was just unfortunate that the batarians were monitoring comms so carefully.
Not even two feet past the checkpoint they found out why it was empty, "This one's apparently the mastermind."
"If she doesn't talk, kill her."
Two guards were watching as a third was with, presumedly, Dr Kenson. Kenson was strapped to restrains very similar to Jack's back on that Blue Suns prison ship. Cross the way was a holding cell with a corpse, human judging by their remains, and they used their own blood to draw the image of a Reaper onto the wall.
Six signaled to Shepard to rescue Kenson while she took care of the two guards monitoring the interrogation to hopefully avoid alerting the base. They quickly and silently moved into positions. On Shepard's lead, she moved in and knocked the interrogator out as Six rushed the room and swiftly put two bullets into the guards before they could respond.
Six quickly confirmed her kills before moving to rejoin Shepard in securing Kenson while Shepard was freeing Kenson from the restraints and torture device sitting above her face. Kenson, obviously confused, given the lack of facial recognition had to ask, "Who are you? What are you doing?"
"Doctor Kenson? I'm Commander Shepard. I'm here to get you out."
"Commander Shepard? I heard you were alive. Hackett must have received my message."
Shepard managed to hack the restraints and torture device, shutting them down, "We're not safe here. Can you walk?"
After the restraints popped open and a moment to steady herself, Kenson rubbed her neck and wrists, "I'm fine. Just give me a moment…"
"We have to go. Now."
Kenson picked up the weapon from the downed guard, "If we can find a console, I can hack security…make us an escape path."
The alarms started to blare, Six swiftly examined the room where she spotted a camera hiding in the shadows of the corners above. She swiftly shot it, "I was hoping they weren't monitoring this room beyond the observation room." Six moved to the opened door, using her helmet's secondary camera to spot the guard moving toward them.
"Then we'll find one. Go!"
Kenson took a bit of revenge, stomping the neck of the guard who was interrogating her, though Six was far from caring if she killed him or not. "Ready."
"The ringleader has escaped! Get your asses out there and stop them!"
Six took the loudspeaker announcement as her opening to put a bullet through one of the guard's 4 eye lenses and drop him before he could report them. Just the same their path back was block as the hallway going down had been opened. Six turned back to Kenson, "Any terminal will work, correct?"
Kenson hesitated for a moment, uncertain of Six as she had never seen that kind of armor before. "It should, though there's a security terminal not far from here," as she turned back toward the opened path, "Though I'm not sure I understand your question." Six put her rifle back as she moved to the bars blocking their way back. "What are you doing?"
"Reopening the path." Without another word, Six gripped the bars and started to pull down. She didn't want to go all out with her strength, so she slowly implemented her power to see how much she needed to open the gate.
Kenson still looked confused, "You can't be serious."
Shepard stepped back, "She's serious."
Six remembered having to do something like this one during a mission, though her muscles were sore for a few days after. Not that Ackerson really gave her much down time between assignments anyway. Fortunately for her the bars were set horizontally so she had an easier time to leverage against the bar with all of her might. At first it appeared to be in vain, but slowly and surely the gate was being lowered, much to Kenson's surprise.
Six lowered the gate down to ankle level, waiting for Shepard and Kenson to get over before she joined them. After releasing the gate Six then started bending the bars to resemble crankshafts in alternating patterns to prevent anyone from lowering the gate or cutting through too quickly. Shepard was working on locking down the observation chamber by leaving a few surprises if they broke through the one-way window.
That just left one way for the batarians could reach them, and it was going to be filled with traps very soon. With Shepard and Six both covering the final hallway Kenson got to work using the terminal. "Alright, I'm going to start confusing the guards with false sightings and alerts. I don't know how long it'll be before they realize the source of these fake reports, but it should help clear the hangar."
The batarians weren't complete fools, from prior experience against insurrectionists, Six estimated they'd have about five to ten minutes before the entire base heads toward the hangar. Maybe faster thanks to the omni-tools.
They quickly moved back to the garage, lowering the truck to give them an opening and the doors to the garage opened. Six quickly checked the shuttle, seeing that it hasn't been locked down or disabled to prevent them from leaving. The only real obstacle was the locks holding the main shuttle bay doors closed. Shepard and Six both planted a small charge onto the lock mechanisms with a timer so Six could get the shuttle prepared.
While the shuttle was warming up, Six's motion sensors picked up some movement approaching. Six looked around, knocking down some fuel and flammable liquids down toward the door. With that she quickly got to the shuttle's cockpit just as the charges detonated sending the doors flying. The batarian guards rushed into the hangar, only for the shuttle's engines to light Six's trap setting the squad ablaze as they escaped. Thanks to Dot's assistance, they were able to disable any tracking in the shuttle and the batarian IFF. Now she just needed the coordinates from Kenson so they could confirm this Reaper proof and that intel the batarians had extracted about Kenson's team wanting to destroy the system's mass relay.
