2 Months Later, Unidentified Cerberus Station

Thomas Fulton

The last few months were a slog. Sometimes it was easy to fall into the familiar military lifestyle that reminded me so much of the time in the Alliance, but then again I'd rather be enacting my own plans my way, than slaving away for Cerberus. But that's what you get when you fuck up, just have to grit my teeth and make the best of it. Many times now I have regretted not risking T'Soni, and instead going after this Garrus character. Maybe I wouldn't be in this mess if I'd done that.

Well, doesn't matter now I guess.

On the other hand there was a familiar face around too. It was nice to talk to Eline every now and then, it reminded me of a better time, before all this shit. Speaking of, that woman has some kind of an unhealthy obsession with me. Every time we see she seems to be in some kind of seventh heaven or some shit like that, stumbling over her words and looking at me longingly when she thinks I can't notice. Not that it bothers me, I just hope she wont get hurt when she realizes what kind of a man I really am and where my priorities lie. Wouldn't want to do that to her.

My quarters were a rather utilitarian style, which suited me just fine. A bed, table with a terminal, some chairs and a couch all stylized in the clinical white and orange accents that Cerberus was so very fond of. I was on the floor doing my daily exercise routine, crunches, pull-ups... You know the whole lot, except leg exercise didn't need that anymore. It was less about keeping in shape these days as it was almost therapeutic to me, the repeating movements and stress on my body allowed me to think back on things that happened and plan ahead with a clear head.

Suddenly a knock came from my door. I briefly wondered who it would be as I arose, swiping most excessive of the sweating on a small towel. Maybe Leng or some Cerberus officer here to inform me about a mission?

I opened the door half way and peeked out to see who was bothering me, only to come face to face with Eline wearing a bright smile on her face. She was standing rather close to the door and I almost accidentally headbutted her when I stepped into the doorway. She didn't seem to notice my near knockout of her.

Well I mean, probably should have expected it to be her. I hadn't made many other friends. Well, any to be real.

"Good morning Tom! How are you doing?" Jess' chipper voice asked me. She was holding her hands behind her back and swaying slightly back and forth on her feet. I wondered what had gotten her in such a good mood.

"I'm well I suppose Jess. Something up?" I replied sounding slightly suspicious because of her overtly chipper attitude.

"You don't remember what day it is today?" Her smile widened to reveal her teeth. I honestly had no idea what kind of day this was. Same as usual? Or had I maybe forgotten something important? Hopefully not, I'd like to think that I'm not yet going senile. "No. Enlighten me?" I implored her.

She stopped swaying on her feet and pulled her hands in front, presenting me with a... Present? Well it sure looked like one, a small box wrapped in a book page with a neatly tied red bow on top of it. "It's your birthday! Happy 40th Tom, you're a big boy now!" She giggled a little when I made a sour face when she called me a 'big boy'. "Now I admit that I found out about it by bribing someone in HR to tell me with a pastry, but I will also admit to regretting nothing." She pushed the little box into my hands and muscled her way past me into my room, plopping down on the couch. I looked at the little box a little perplexed for a while, I hadn't realized it indeed was my birthday. Hadn't really kept track since my 18th when I joined the Alliance. I didn't know what think of this little surprise, it was... Nice, I guess?

"Well come on, open it!" Jess was certainly more excited about this than me, but I decided to humor her, sitting beside her on the small couch I started to open it. The wrapping was done with precision and I carefully removed the tape that kept it together. Under the paper was a small black box, Jess looked at me and nodded at me to open it.

The lid of the box opened smoothly and underneath was revealed a necklace; a small bird on a chain made of silver, that I recognized as a magpie. The callsign of my unit when I was in the Alliance. I took it into my hands and just stared at it for a while.

"Do you like it? I thought about what to get you and saw this for sale during one of my assignments, I felt it would be appropriate." Jess was wringing her hands together nervously, she must have noticed that I didn't really know what to think about it. I mean, it was thoughtful and nobody had given me anything like it, well ever really, but at the same time I resented the reminder of my old unit, especially of the mission where it all went to shit. All those people I failed to drag through the hell we were swimming in and all the crap that came afterwards. But I did manage to get her out alive at least. Barely, but still...

I looked at her in the eyes and smiled earnestly for the first time in what felt like forever: "Thank you, Jess. It is... Wonderful." I turned the necklace around and slid it onto my neck. The gleaming little bird seemed out of place amidst my dark and sweaty clothing. Yeah, I refused to wear the Cerberus issue white with orange, I saw enough of that already to make me sick.

The worry in Jess' appearance seemed to melt away as quickly as it came when I put it on. She jumped up from the couch with a wide smile and held a hand out for me: "I'm so glad you like it, now up! Were gonna go have a coffee to celebrate your big day!" I took her hand and let her pull me up. Before we left I took my old trusty jacket and pulled it over my training clothes to look somewhat presentable. Jess was practically skipping ahead of me, leading towards the small on station cafeteria. It brought a small smile to my face despite my generally melancholic and pessimistic disposition.

She was a good woman.

Some time later.

The scent of my coffee was good, despite it being some kind of powdered, pour only water and ta-daa kinda instant coffee. I inhaled deep, enjoying the sense of normalcy that came with having a cup in the morning. I used to enjoy this kind of stuff way back when. I mean we used to go and find a coffee place on every planet we happened to be at the time with Nora...

Well I seem to have worsened my slightly good mood back to normal already. Good job me...

Opposite of me Jess was digging greedily into a piece of cake that she bought at a ludicrous price, she would have bought me one too but I insisted that she not spend any more of her hard earned credits on me. Besides, I don't really like cakes. She was in the middle of explaining something about a new model of a omni-tool or another, tech stuff that flew right over my head, when a ping came from her aforementioned tool.

"Sorry Tom, got to check this. Came straight from the top." She shrugged apologetically. I was rather relieved of the respite from incessant tech talk and was about to return to enjoying my coffee when my omni-tool gave a ping aswell.

"Goddamnit, can't a man drink his coffee in peace?"

I decided that whatever it was, it could wait for now and took a big sip of coffee. After I lowered the mug back to the table I noticed Jess looking at me expectantly. I raised a questioning eyebrow towards her.

"Read the message Tom." She said, also lifting an eyebrow as to say that 'really, you aren't reading your mail' to me. I sighed deeply and turned my hand so that my omni-tool activated. It read one received message from... The Illusive Man? Well that was highly unusual. I hadn't been in any contact with the man since we made our arrangement.

The message was marked as very urgent, and after scanning it over quickly I came to the conclusion that it was some kind of infiltration mission. An infiltration mission with Jess no less. No wonder she looked at me like that. Apparently we had to report to the hangar as soon as possible for a transport to Earth. New York to be more precise, some tech firm there had a blueprint that was extremely time sensitive to obtain for Cerberus.

I lift my head up from the orange screen of the omni-tool to find Jess looking at me: "This is it, our first mission together at Cerberus. We should go and get our kit immediately and head for the docking bay. I'll see you there Tom." She quickly drained her mug and stuffed rest of the cake into her mouth and left, nearly knocking over a chair in her hurry. She had always gotten a bit nervous before a mission, even in the Alliance, but she seemed to be even more unsettled this time. Maybe because the mission was directly from the boss himself she didn't want to dally around.

I myself took a few minutes to calmly finish my drink. If there were no bullets flying around no power in the world could make me hurry my coffee time. Eventually I took both our dishes and put them on the conveyor that sent them to be cleaned and calmly started off towards the armory.

Next Day, New York - Earth

Thomas Fulton

It was weird being back on Earth. The air had a distinct and familiar smell to it, maybe it was the pollution or the trees, I didn't really know. I hadn't been here at the cradle of humanity in what must have been going on nearly twenty years. I didn't particularly miss it, my childhood here hadn't been a happy one and training with the Alliance on some Earth sites had been rough, but still in the end, it was home. Even if I didn't like it.

The city around me was bustling with activity, I had never before been to New York but I had gotten a pretty good idea from the vid flicks that we used to watch. People and some aliens were walking around seemingly with a purpose and hovercars were whizzing around between the tall imposing skyscrapers that seemed to block the sun on the street level. Eline was off buying some last minute equipment from a small tech store on a nearby street corner and I was waiting for her return on a small bench next to the sidewalk. My duffel bag was taking the rest of the space so that nobody would sit next to me, I didn't want anyone trying to make acquaintances with me. The target building was a few miles away from us in a middle floor of a skyscraper. Quite a tough place to infiltrate as it happened, but we had figured a way in on our ride to Earth. There was an office next door to the place, we would enter it pretending to be maintenance, block off a toilet with some repair holo's and gain entrance to the target via a vent network.

It was a good plan, Jess' technical skills would become very handy on this mission. I was here mostly in case if the shit hit the proverbial fan as it usually does and to make sure we'd make it out with the blueprint. I still had no idea what this blueprint was about, but we would probably figure that out soon enough. Not that I cared too much, it was a job like any other but still, it was nice to know what one was stealing for a nefarious shadow organization.

Finally Jess stepped out of the store carrying a large case of some sort. She seemed to be struggling with it's weight so I took my duffel bag on my shoulder and went to help her.

"Ah, thanks Tom. That's one heavy bastard." She shook her hand that had been carrying the case after I relieved her. It indeed was quite heavy, I wondered what she had bought: "What is this thing, and explain it to me like I'm an idiot please." I said before she could start on another tech tirade.

"Well in a nutshell, it is a device that will allow me to penetrate the storage where the blueprints are stored." She explained distractedly as she ordered a cab from her omni-tool. So some kind of safecracker then I suppose.

"We couldn't just bust it with force or hack it or something? This thing is going to be hard to sneak in." I wondered aloud, more to myself than in doubt of Jess' expertise.

"If you remember, we want to be quiet in there. And no there is no omni-tool that has enough juice in it to allow hacking on a scale we need it." She replied to my musings. A yellow hovercar was lowering itself from the sky towards our position.

Our cab most likely.

I was soon proven correct when it stopped in front of us and opened it's doors. Jess stepped in with her pack while I stored the heavy equipment into the trunk of the vehicle, joining her inside after I was done. Jess typed in the address where our contact was waiting for us and scanned the burner credit chip that we had been provided, leading the cab to lurch into motion. After we were on our way she sighed audibly and leaned into the bench.

"So, ready for this?" She asked me after a while of silence. "I'm always ready Jess." I replied to her neutrally.

"Yeah, yeah. No change there then. I'm a bit nervous to be honest. I really don't want to fuck this up." Jess licked her lips, a small nervous tick that she had had ever since I knew her. "It'll go fine, and if it doesn't I'm here to make sure we get out." I tried to reassure her. Buildings and other cars were whizzing around us at a blinding speed as I looked out the window.

"Yeah I know, it's just that I really can't afford more fuck ups now. My bosses are not too happy with me after that Citadel stuff." Well fuck me, I hadn't even thought about thinking about how that affected her career. She seemed to care quite a bit about doing well in her work, I now felt somewhat guilty about having dragged her into that.

"Yeah, sorry about that Jess. I shouldn't have tangled you in that mess of mine, I should have found another way to get out." I said to her seriously, trying to get eye contact with her, which was quite difficult since she had closed her eyes at some point.

She swatted at my arm softly and opened her eyes: "Oh shut up! Don't apologize, I had no obligation to help you. And besides I'd do it again in a heartbeat." I turned my head back to look out out of the window, mostly to escape her piercing gaze. It was starting to rain a bit. A true New York experience.

"Thanks." I said sincerely to her after a moment of silence. We were starting to land to our destination I noted.

"Anytime."

Some time later.

Our contact had a van of some sort where we changed into our disguises and packed our equipment so that it would not raise any alarm among the office workers. The guy, Harry or Barry or something stupid like that said that he would be waiting for us around the corner and to inform him when we needed an exfil. I adjusted the bag on my shoulder and prepared to not look as intimidating as usual during our walk towards the entrance. The van behind us sped off into the distance as we stepped inside. We took an elevator to the floor we needed to be in and found ourselves in a off white corridor with a few blurred glass doors. Eline led us to the one that read Van Heel's Administration Services, nodding to me before entering.

The office was a clean and nicely decorated place, dark wood floors and soft grey walls with some tasteful paintings. A pretty, young dark skinned woman was manning the front desk: "Hello there, welcome to Van Heel's Administration Services, I am Karoline may I be of some assistance?" She inquired with a pleasant voice.

Jess took the lead in speaking to people as agreed, I didn't have much stage charisma so it was certainly better that way, I was better used in action. "Yeah hello, we're from Piecemeal Plumbing and we were called here about some problems with the toilets?" She had changed her voice to a more deep and accented compared to her usual clear and quite punctuated tone.

"Ah yes indeed. We are grateful that you could come so soon, It just started to flood water all over the bathroom area out of the blue. Please follow me." The secretary begun to lead us to the place where the 'accident' had happened. In reality Jess had hacked their pipe network a few hours ago and made sure that their call was redirected to her. Quite useful for us all this technology, even the goddamn pipes were using wifi or some shit like that. Incredible.

The receptionist, Karoline pointed us to the right place and wished us good luck before presumably returning to her place of work. We looked at each other and immediately started to act like a well oiled machine. Jess removed her hack that blocked the toilet and I quickly set up a 'Maintenance In Progress' holo at the door, after which we got out of the overalls, revealing infiltration suits underneath and started to dress on rest of our kit. I took the heavy device that Jess bought on my back and attached my guns to their places. After we were both done and checked each other's gear for any problems we switched on our hologram visor's that would mask our faces from the cameras and potential witnesses.

"Go for it." I said to Eline and she begun to unscrew the vent cover where we were to enter. It was a good thing that neither of us was scared of tight spaces as the vents were full of dust and you could just about move around in them with nearly no excess space. I followed Jess as she led us with the help of a maintenance map towards the company's area. Eventually I felt her stop: "We're here, pass me the tool." I did as told and she quickly used it to unseal the blocking cover. Before the cover had a chance to drop to the floor and cause a noise, Jess grabbed a hold of it and awkwardly shimmied out of the vents holding it.

I quickly followed suit and after landing took up defensive position at the door with my weapon. The room we had entered was a storage area of some sort, filled messily with metal, circuitry and all sorts of other stuff. After reattaching the vent cover Jess stacked in behind me and knocked me on the shoulder to signal that she was ready to advance. A relic from our time in the Alliance.

I slowly opened the door into a dark corridor, scanning it well with my weapon. The company was closed but there apparently were a few guards still in the premises, so we had to be careful. I led us off to the left where I remembered our planned route to go. We moved swiftly through a couple of dark and silent corridors until I spotted a light approaching from behind a corner ahead of us. I quickly waved for Jess to duck into a room behind and followed after her, closing the door. We crouched under windows that ran throughout this part of the room and soon enough we saw a roaming light pass over our heads and heard footsteps. We stayed silent for a few moments after they passed to make sure the guard was gone and then continued on our way.

After a while we reached the head office where the blueprints were supposed to be in, it was finely decorated and you could recognize the furniture was expensive just from their silhouettes in the dark. Jess quickly went on and investigated the heavily reinforced safe in the corner that was our target, meanwhile I removed the device from my back, setting it down next to her.

"Ah fuck, this is gonna take ages even with the cracker... Unless..." She whispered quietly seemingly to herself and suddenly whipped her head towards me: "Tom, go to the electrical center and divert more power to this room. It'll go much quicker then."

I looked at her incredulously: "Me? You know I know as much about technology as an ass knows about architecture!" I whispered back to her.

"Open your omni-tool." She walked to me as I obliged, even though I had no idea what she was planning. She quickly ran through some menus and typed in some complicated looking stuff on some even more complicated looking interfaces. When she finished a single screen with some scrolling text remained along with a button. "Now, when you get there just press this button and wait until it turns green, then return here. Ok?" I only nodded, remembering why I poached her to my unit in the Alliance. When someone can concentrate so much technical gibberish into a simple button that even an idiot like me can operate, you can't help but appreciate them.

"Be alert, I'll be right back." She only waved in response as she was already assembling the device to the safe. I ran as silently as I could to the electrical center, having to hide to avoid one guard on the way. I noted that they seemed to be quite heavily armed and armored for a simple night duty, but archived the information without pondering much more on it. The center was a mess of servers and cabinet's with wires and terminals, I took an easily defensible position and pressed the button on the omni-tool.

Large amount of numbers and text started to run through the screen as it apparently started to modify the supply of power in the area. After a minute or so of waiting the button turned bright green, illuminating me and the room around me. Satisfied that I had been of some use, and was done here I begun back towards the main office.

When I was nearly at the door I heard talking from inside and noted that somebody had turned the lights on. I slowly crept to the doorway fearing the worst and peeked inside. The guard that I had sidestepped earlier was holding an assault rifle at Jess who was standing next to the safe with her hands above her head.

"Turn off your face shield and get on the ground!" I heard the guard yell at Jess who must have noticed me in the doorway. "Yeah, sure I'll do whatever you say." She said and pulled her hand towards the switch that turned off the masking visor. I didn't wait around for her to have to reveal her face, instead I quickly and silently stepped behind the guard and took him in a suffocating stranglehold. The man gave a startled grunt before I closed his windpipe with the pressure from my forearm, Jess took the opportunity and yanked the gun from his hand. I felt consciousness leave the man after a while but I did not let go yet.

"Tom, he's out let him go or you'll kill him." Jess hissed at me, already in the progress of starting the machine. It was foolish, he might wake up before we were done here and cause trouble for us, but despite my feeling I loosened my grip and dragged him to sit in the plushy office chair.

"He might wake up." I said dryly as I took position guarding the door.

She eventually managed to get the machine working, stood up and walked to me: "Yeah, and we can handle him if he does. We're not killing innocents doing their jobs if we absolutely don't have to." Her voice was filled with determination that I was not quite used to from her. She was usually quite cheerful and indecisive.

"Yeah, sure." Came my reply, she nodded at me and went back to the machine. I didn't care either way, and if it mattered so much to her then so be it. I didn't let my attention off the door for a moment during this conversation. We already had one close call and there wouldn't be another if it was up to me. The strange hacking machine kept on ticking, it's sound reminding me of an clockmaker's shop where a hundred mechanisms were sounding off all at once. It was kind of annoying to listen to but every tick was us one step closer to being out of here and one step closer to me finding those I wanted to find.

After some time listening to the silence and quiet ticking of the machine, the guard's radio crackled on: "Jerry, where are you at? The shift change came."

Shit. That was not good, they would get suspicious real soon if he would not answer, and a shift change meant that there would be double the amount of guards in the building at the moment. I glanced at Jess who I know realized this aswell: "How long until it's ready? Should I try to impersonate the guy?"

She walked to the machine and opened her omni-tool, lighting her figure in a soft orange light. If I had been a photographer, I might have thought the setting ideal for a picture, but alas I am not, and had some more pressing matters on my mind.

"Only a minute or so left, but it wont take them even that long to reach here, or to block our exit. Go for it Tom."

I nodded my assent and took the comm from the guard. After a heavy steadying breath I replied: "Yeah, sorry I forgot. I'll be there soon, I'll just finish this round." I prayed to every holy and unholy being I could think of that my ruse would work.

"You ok Jerry? You sound a bit weird." The guy on the other end sounded a bit suspicious, which was not a good sign at all for us. I could only try and salvage the situation as best as I could: "I think I might've gotten some bug, throat's killing me right now."

"Riiight, well be here soon, I wont wait for long." With that the radio clicked off. I allowed myself a small breath of relief as it indeed seemed that the guy bought my explanation. Jess gave me a thumb's up from next to the machine. Only a few seconds after our radio conversation ended, the safe gave a click and the door snapped open. Jess voiced a silent 'Yes' and started to load the contents to a bag that had been hanging at her side. I went to the door and scanned the hall in preparation of our exit. Soon she joined me there, giving me the go ahead tap again. So off we went.

When we were half way to the storage room where we entered from, and were planning to exit from too, the lights suddenly came on in the building. I heard distant running footsteps and yells from behind us. "Shit, go go go, RUN!" I pushed Jess in front of me and she took off, I ran behind her slightly off center so I could shoot at anyone who came in front of us. And not long after from behind a corridor some ways before us a guard stepped out with his gun at the ready. "Stop and drop your weapo..." He didn't have time to finish his sentence as I gave him a burst from my SMG and ducked in another corridor Jess hot at my heels. "Plan B!" I shouted to her as we sprinted along the halls, I heard her yell for our getaway driver to get to position from behind me.

Not soon after bullets started to fly around us, I tried to give us some cover but it was nearly impossible to aim at full sprint. Jess had opted to keep her weapon holstered and just leg it, which I thought rather wise in our situation and followed suit. Our run through the hallways and some more open areas seemed almost endless, but finally we reached the wall sized window that we were gunning for. I quickly took Jess in a bear hug and yelled at her to hang on, I felt her grip me hard as I propelled us through the window and into the cold and rainy night of New York city. Shards of glass were falling around us as the ground seemed to speed towards our fragile bodies. Just before we were about to be splattered on the pavement like rotten fruit, I pressed a button on a device in my hand and suddenly we decelerated violently until we hit the dark damp ground no worse for wear.

One use Bionic Field Generator's, fucking fantastic invention.

The glass shard's floated around us like stars, still in the field as I let go of Jess. I noticed some red blobs of liquid floating among the shards as well, before they all came crashing to the ground when the field's effect ended. Blood. I turned my gaze to Jess who was leaning on a lamp post and holding her left side, her hand stained red.

"Fuck Jess, is it bad?" I asked, ready to dig out the medical supplies at a moment's notice while we waited for our ride. Some people had been walking on the street when we jumped but they had quickly scattered from under the two falling people and so we were alone for now.

Just as she answered our getaway landed next to us harshly: "Nah, I'll manage... Ugh!" I shook my head and went to help her walk to the back of the van. As we went I glanced up to see the guards looking at us and pointing. No doubt calling backup or the police or something, unlucky for them we'd be long gone when they came. I helped Jess to a sitting position in the back and slammed the doors close behind us. Not a second passed from the doors shutting to Barry or whoeverthefuck he was, gunning it sending us scrambling around in the back. I heard some grunts of pain from Eline as the movement no doubt aggravated her wound.

After I regained my footing I quickly dug out my med kit and went to kneel next to Jess. She had removed her visor and was visibly in pain, sweating profusely and squinting her eyes. I took a knife and opened up her suit around the wound after which I begun to administer basic first aid that would get her alive to a proper facility to be cared, medi-gel and such.

"Heh, we did it Tom. We got them..." She muttered quietly, she had lost quite a lot of blood, must have been running with the wound for some time, but she would make it. After I leaned away from her, hands bloody having finished whatever aid I could give her, she weakly lift up her right hand: "High Five..?" She asked with a tired voice. I gave an amused grunt and returned her celebration.

"High five."

Around The Same Time, A Cerberus Facility

Jane Shepard

Such a bright light, it burns... Where am I, what is going on? I... What happened I... Voices? Who... What are they talking about...

"...my god Miranda, I think she's waking up."

What, I've been asleep..? Who is that voice...

"...give her the sedative! Shepard don't try to move, just lie still. Try to stay calm."

Shepard? That's... That's me? How... Where... What is going on? Everything... Everything hurts!

"...it's not working!"

"Another dose, now!"

No, I can't... I can't go to sleep... I have to...

No...

"Heart rate dropping, status falling down to..."

"We almost lost her."

"I told you your estimates were..."

No...