"Shepard said you wanted to talk to me?"
Jacob Taylor, who had turned as the door opened and Jorge had entered, nodded his head and settled into a lean against one of the weapon benches.
"I did. Figured I could hit two birds with one stone, introduce myself and get that interview out of the way," he replied easily. "Name's Jacob Taylor, as you already heard. I'm the Armory Officer on the Normandy. If you need a mod, or need work done on your armor-"
Jorge frowned and shook his head, and Jacob was quick to get the picture.
"Up to you, Lieutenant. I can understand your reservations. But that doesn't change my responsibilities. You need anything related to weapons or armor, let me know and I'll see what I can do. I do request that weapons be stowed here in the armory, and that maintenance be done in here as well, so that I can be assured that everyone's equipment is in good condition prior to our assignments."
"I'd prefer to do my maintenance myself," Jorge said with a bit of intimidation in his voice.
Taylor held up his hands in lighthearted surrender. "As I said, request, not require. This isn't an Alliance vessel, and our crew is going to be… unorthodox, based on the dossiers I've seen forwarded to Shepard. Garrus has already elected to do the same as you, and given the mods he has installed on that sniper of his, I'm more than willing to let him work on it himself. Just a bit more work on my part. I'll come around once a week, and before each mission, and get an update on your equipment status. And again, if you do need anything weapon or armor related, be it a mod, a new armor set, or whatever, just let me know and I'll see what I can do."
Hmmmmm….
But, back to the matter at hand.
"I'll keep that in mind," he replied. "But for now, I'd like to talk about the Lazarus Cell, and what you know."
Alliance intel wasn't completely inept (he hoped). He knew some things, like some higher-level agents (like Miranda and Jacob), technology, name of the cell…
"Of course. What do you want to know?"
"What was your role in the Lazarus Cell?"
He was technically head of security. An easy question, one Jorge already knew the answer to, but it couldn't hurt to confirm and it would also be a good test of trust in Jacob.
"Head of Security," Jacob answered easily. "I was responsible for physical countermeasures and counterintelligence and oversaw cyber countermeasures and intelligence. The Illusive Man gave our project top priority, high enough that we got a space station all to ourselves. Made it a bit easier to control things, and trust me, we needed that."
"You answered that easily," Jorge said, his question unasked but hanging in the air. Why?
"Not much of a liar," Jacob shrugged. "Especially not to the Alliance. Besides, Shepard ordered us to cooperate, and that's plenty reason for me to be as honest as possible."
"You aren't worried about compromising sensitive Cerberus information?"
Jacob shook his head. "Everything I know about Cerberus is information Cerberus is willing to risk having compromised. I can keep my mouth shut if I need to, but I've always made my position clear to the Illusive Man: I work for Cerberus only as long as they walk the straight line with me. They know that the moment they asked me to do something questionable I would leave. So, to prevent too much risk to their operations, I was kept in the dark on truly sensitive matters."
"Have you ever refused to do anything for Cerberus yet?" Jorge asked, curious. His dossier from the Alliance had said he was a moral man of action, part of the reason why he had left in the first place. Was it possible such morals were still intact?
"They haven't asked me to do anything I find objectionable yet," Jacob replied easily.
A good answer, but not as definitive as Jorge had hoped- after all, a lot can change in two years, including a moral compass. But, now was not the time, nor the place, to interrogate Jacob about Cerberus. He was here for Shepard right now.
"What was the purpose of the Lazarus project?"
"Original purpose of the Lazarus Cell was the recovery and reanimation of Commander Shepard. With Commander Shepard back up and alive, the purpose of the cell is now to stop the Collectors."
"This is still officially the Lazarus Cell then?" Jorge asked.
"Yep. I'm still considered an agent, and Miranda is still officially the cell's Lead Operative."
Lead Operative. Hmm. He knew that Miranda had been highly placed, but from what they knew of how Cerberus was organized, that would mean that she reported directly to the Illusive Man. A potential gold mine of intelligence. Her interview would no doubt prove interesting.
"What can you tell me about the procedures and augmentations Shepard was subjected to?"
"Not much, unfortunately. I know they tried to make her the same, but obviously a lot of organic components had to be either replaced or augmented with cybernetics just to revive her. I also know that while they were focused on keeping as much organic as possible, they were looking for ways to give her the best chance on this mission, through augmentation. Miranda would be the better one to ask, she and Wilson would sometimes be at it for hours arguing medical jargon that all went over my head."
"Wilson?"
"Chief medical officer of the Lazarus Project. Between him and Miranda, they managed the impossible, bringing Shepard back from death. Unfortunately, he's dead. He was killed by Miranda during our escape from Lazarus Research Station after she found out he was the one who had hacked my security mechs to kill everyone. We still don't know exactly why he did it."
Dead end there then.
"There's nothing else you can give me on Shepard?"
"Medically, no. But I can confirm that it appears her memory is fully intact. Basic tests prior to our first deployment showed both short term and long term memory appear to be unaffected. That, and her combat capability is unaffected; she's made short work of every mech and merc we happen to run across, even the krogan."
"Even with the new biotics?"
"Even while she's learning her new biotic abilities," Jacob nodded. "I don't doubt that however she got them- Miranda had an explanation, I'll just butcher it- the Commander will be even more effective than before."
Not much to go on, unfortunately. But then, given his station and history, it made sense that he wouldn't be able to help him out when it came down to the details. And in this case, the devil was in the details. Small details, like 'genetically identical clone' or 'tiny control chip implant'.
Jorge thought for a few more moments, then sighed and rubbed his forehead. Jacob seemed like an upstanding, helpful person who would be more than willing to help Jorge- if only he know the information that Jorge needed.
"Sorry, Lieutenant," Jacob said by way of apology. "I know it's not much help to prove that that really is Shepard out there, no Cerberus tricks attached. For what it's worth, I know it's her."
"Would you know if it wasn't?"
"A lot of the stuff they put into Shepard I couldn't identify even if I tried," Jacob shrugged. "I suppose something in there could be some Cerberus control chip. Wouldn't surprise me. But I don't think it happened."
Unfortunately less than definitive.
Jorge sighed again. "Well, thank you for your time, Mister Taylor."
"Jacob, please. Or just Taylor. Mister Taylor is my father."
"Jacob," Jorge said with a nod. He turned to leave.
"If we're done with the interview, there is one more thing," Jacob said. He turned and headed for the back of the room, grabbing a pair of eezo assisted lift handles, then crouching down and locked them to the side of a large case underneath one of the weapons benches. The whole box looked near two meters long and a meter high; the thing probably weighed upwards of 100kg.
Jacob pulled it out from under the weapons bench and effortlessly (with the help of the very expensive eezo assist lift handles typically used for heavy industry) put it on the center table. His omni flared, he typed in a code, and the box split on top, then folded out to reveal…
A heavy machine gun.
Jorge raised an eyebrow as he examined it. He recognized a good chunk of the parts, from the M26 HMG he had brought on board, but other parts looked custom made, and… were those parts of from the last generation M2 Legacy HMG?
"The Illusive Man ordered this as soon as you were identified as someone to help Shepard," Jacob commented. "Even after you refused his offer, he ordered it finished, just in case."
"And what… exactly… is it?" Jorge asked in a hushed tone. It looked like a fully custom gun, meant specifically for him- there was a handle, to allow it to be hip fired just as he preferred to wield it, but unlike most guns he carried it was integrated. Specially designed to be used the way he used it, not a tacked on afterthought or a good enough field modification. If they had gone to that level…
"This, is a fully custom heavy machine gun, specially designed and built for you, Lieutenant," Jacob confirmed. "Fully customized to it to make you biggest, baddest thing on the field of battle."
There was pride in that voice. "You know it well?" Jorge asked.
"I was a consultant on the whole project, involved from start to finish," Jacob said. "The only soldier in a group of weaponsmiths. Gave them the battlefield perspective they sometimes needed. Let me run you through all the features, then you can decide whether you want to use it or not."
"First, as you probably noticed, this is a custom job. We tried to use as many standard parts as possible, in order to make it easily repairable, but combat effectiveness trumped maintenance. Of course we have a standard thermal clip system, identical to the M26 that just came into service. Thermal clips are loaded into this container area, and are ejected automatically. Of course, this goes through them just as fast as the M26."
Jacob grinned. "You yourself noted the advantage that a thermal management system has over a thermal clip system. Citadel studies, and your own recommendations based on bullet weapons, have shown that the increase in fire rate makes a statistically significant difference, but as you put it in your report on the new clip weapons, this only matters as long as the thermal clip ammunition remains available. Run out of clips, and your odds of winning the skirmish drop dramatically. That's why we've integrated the thermal rail system from the M2 Legacy- triple heat sinks along the barrel, along with proper logic to run it. You never have to worry about running out of ammo. You can have the computer handle the heat distribution between the sinks and the thermal clips, or manually override to one or the other."
"It can't collapse like most handheld weapons. Combat footage has you in a surprising amount of melee combat, and after what happened to your gun facing Saren, we figured you would be happier with a stronger frame, something that can stand up to being used as a bludgeon. Obviously this makes the gun bulkier, but also simplifies design and increased thermal clip and thermal sink capacity."
"The forward handle was positioned using your measurements and preferred stance. It's mounted on a rail and can be moved for comfort as you want. The electronics are beefed up, and can withstand higher than normal currents and temperatures for longer periods of time. The designers also noted your stated preferences for your equipment during your mission to stop Saren and incorporated them; no receiver of any kind, only a transmitter, the only way to make changes to the onboard computer is physical interface."
With the pause in the commentary, Jorge took the opportunity to lay his hands on it, carefully, almost lovingly. A few more moments of silence, studying it himself, and a small grin twitched at the side of his moustache. He grabbed it and hefted it, dropping down to a standard firing position towards the back of the ship, a safe direction.
"Heavy sucker. Even with weight saving materials, it weighs 80 kilograms," Jacob said.
Heavier than the M2 and M26. Extremely heavy by the standards of the space and weight saving plastic guns of this universe. But not much heavier than Etilka, his beloved gun from his time with Noble that had met such an ignoble end during his landing on the colony of Tempest…
"I can handle it," he said confidently, straightening up. "Does it have a name?"
"No name, no designation, not even a serial number. The honor belongs to you, Lieutenant," Jacob replied.
He even gets the honor of the name? Cerberus really was spoiling him here. And that thought brought him back down a level, made Jorge remember who he was dealing with here.
"Why?" he asked simply.
"We were always going to try to recruit you," Jacob said after a moment. "The biggest, baddest, toughest, most skilled human soldier in the entire Alliance? You're a natural candidate for this mission, even without your ties to Shepard. But we're going on a suicide mission. The odds are long. And say what you will about the Illusive Man and Cerberus, he's made it clear that he's willing to pay whatever it takes to make this mission a success. If that means hundreds of thousands of credits on a gun, well, that's chump change to what he spent on Shepard. He must consider it money well spent."
"Even if I take this with me once the mission is over?" Jorge raised an eyebrow.
Jacob chuckled. "Even then, I bet."
Jorge hefted it back to the cradle in the box and set it down gently.
"I think… I will have to try it out."
-[]-
Unfortunately, the opportunity to try out his new toy didn't materialize the next mission Shepard went on. It had been designated Project Firewalker, and Shepard took Garrus and the two Cerberus personnel, and ended up recovering a prototype Cerberus hovertank- though 'tank' was being a bit generous. It was more like an abnormally heavily armed light reconnaissance vehicle, to his eye. Still, it was a valuable addition to their inventory.
In the hours before and after that mission, Jorge worked on the temporary range that could be set up in the hanger bay to calibrate and become accustomed to his acquisition. The weight of it was comforting in his hands, feeling solid, more so than the collapsable weapons most people carried, and it reminded him of home. It shot true as well, once he adjusted to it; Jacob said it had on board targeting software, just a simple shot prediction setup, that it could broadcast, but since Jorge had disabled his armor's receiver system he couldn't bring it up on his HUD. Still, the existing predictive software already on Mjolnir for Etilka worked well enough with a few adjustments. The rate of fire was excellent, 10 rounds per second, 600 per minute, and if he started with a full load of thermal clips he could fire for a minute and a half between the clips and the legacy heat sink system. Not bad. It was also reliable enough, he put a number of clips through the weapon without issue, which since the feed system was based on the very weapon he had brought on board wasn't a surprise. All that really needed to be done was to christen it in the crucible of real combat.
In the meantime, he had an upgrade idea to elaborate on. And maybe he could even manage to get some information out of the exchange as well.
"EDI," Jorge said aloud. He was alone in the starboard cargo bay, with the door closed, as much privacy as one could get on a ship with listening bugs and microcameras everywhere.
A blue sphere popped up from a terminal on the wall.
"How may I be of assistance, Lieutenant Kadar?" the feminine artificial voice asked in a pleasant tone.
"I'd like to elaborate on an idea that may help the ground team. And ask you a few questions, if you don't mind," Jorge replied.
"Of course. Which would you prefer first?"
"Idea first," he decided quickly. He paused a moment, gathering his thoughts, as the blue ball that represented EDI waited patiently.
"Do you have access to recordings of my time with Shepard's team?" he began.
"Of course. Cerberus has all one hundred and twenty two point seven hours of continuous combat footage of Shepard's campaign against Saren, from all squad members, as well as hundreds of hours of non-combat footage," EDI replied promptly.
Of course you do. Still, this was helpful.
"Then you know that during the campaign against Saren I carried a pack, mag locked to my armor, filled with various explosives."
"Affirmative."
"Well, I didn't exactly come aboard with one," Jorge replied. "And I know my value to the team could be increased if we could utilize that strength of mine."
"A replacement explosives pack could be easily-"
He held up his hand before she could continue. The AI quickly picked up on the gesture and fell silent.
"As good as a duplicate would be, I think we can do one better," Jorge said. "Explosives were a particularly niche skill, one that only was useful very few times. I've got something that could be more useful, more often. A heavy weapons hard point."
Heavy weapons were not particularly common in this universe, at least not prior to the thermal clip era. They had fallen into two categories: ammo fed heavy weapons, like grenade launchers, that relied upon a separate source of ammunition, and heat sink heavy weapons, like heavy machine guns. The former had been limited due to the ammunition, which was additional weight on top of the not inconsiderable weight of the additional weapon, and was often specialized; in an age of ultra-lightweight infantry warfare, not the most practical. The latter was heavy and usually required significantly longer than normal to dump waste heat; again, in an era of mobile warfare, not ideal. As such, both had primarily been relegated to dedicated infantry actions, primarily to hold key areas, a role that would allow them the full support they would require to bring their firepower to bear, while not slowing the advance of the rest of the infantry.
With the adaption of thermal clip technology, however, ammunition became less of a burden, doubly so when heavy weapons began to be designed with a common ammunition source, power cells. Thus, man portable heavy weaponry had become significantly more common. Merc companies such as the Blue Suns used them extensively outside of Citadel space, and Jorge had worked with grenade and missile launchers in the intervening years as a part of his N training. And, as a Spartan who had carried what people here considered a heavy weapon as primary armament for many years, he knew the firepower such a weapon could bring to a fight.
A backpack, with a heavy weapon hardpoint to carry a stored weapon, and additional storage space for power cells, would no doubt be very useful on their upcoming suicide mission.
He explained as much to EDI, sketching out the broad strokes of what he wanted. EDI worked in tandem to refine his ideas into a true design, specifying materials, dimensions, etc., and between the two of them they had hammered out a complete idea, ready for Shepard's approval, in under half an hour.
"I think that's everything," Jorge commented as EDI showed him the design on a nearby terminal.
"I will enter the design into the research terminal. Shepard may allocate resources to this project at her convenience," EDI intoned. The design vanished from the terminal. "Is that everything you require, Lieutenant?"
"Actually, if you have a spare moment, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions."
"Of course, Lieutenant. What would you like to know?"
"What is your purpose on this ship?"
"In combat I operate the cyberwarfare suites, defending the ship from cyber intrusions and attacking enemy systems," EDI replied. "I also supply logistical information and data analysis, and have been optimized to provide advice on combat solutions for small-scale squad warfare."
"Useful roles," Jorge nodded. "But, well, what if the crew was incapacitated and unable to operate the ship? Could you, for example, fly the ship in Joker's absence?"
"Negative," EDI replied. "Because of the potential dangers of rogue AI, I have numerous behavioral blocks and am unable to interface with the ships system. Should the crew of the Normandy be incapacitated, I would be unable to act beyond my stated roles."
Jorge grunted. "Shame."
"Do you think I should be so limited?" EDI asked.
Jorge snorted. "No. Even if it requires an override or special circumstances, allowing you full control of the ship would be best for you. You could take over functions that are otherwise disabled in combat, and utilize them far faster than human operators. Could make a huge difference in a battle against the Collectors, or the Reapers."
AI in his universe had been limited, true, but they had also been given far greater responsibilities. Dumb AIs could be given control of traffic for an entire planet; Smart AIs had the run of any system they were plugged into. It was a great deal of power, and required proper management of the AI, but AI were simply better at many jobs that involved split attention, or heavy calculation, or even quick decisions.
Still, it gave him a feel for how much EDI could help them. She was a great tactical analyst and data cruncher, an excellent cyberwarfare asset, but unable to do anything beyond that. He could work with that.
"Who made you? How were you made?" he asked next.
EDI's sphere turned red.
"I have a block from answering those questions," EDI replied. Jorge eyed her sphere thoughtfully.
"Is there anything you can tell me related to those questions, or are they completely blocked?" he asked.
Her sphere snapped completely blue again. "I am a quantum blue box type AI. I am shackled to my hardware, unlike a flash clone AI from your universe."
Jorge nodded. Wait…
"My… universe?" he asked clearly and quietly.
"Yes. I am not a flash clone AI as described in your comprehensive report on your universe."
Of course. He grimaced.
It looks like the intel that Cerberus had his report, was confirmed.
"Have I offended?"
Jorge sighed and waved his hand. "Not your fault. What do you have of my report?"
"Cerberus acquired your full extra-universal report from the Shadow Broker approximately two years ago now. Given your status as a squad mate for this mission, a selection of passages from this report has been made available for all crew to review at their leisure as a personal profile."
I should never have published that report. I should never have told anyone full details of my life. Too much security risk. I should have listened to my gut and not said a damn thing.
But then, where would I be today if I hadn't done such a thing?
Something to ponder for later. For now, it appeared he had some reading to do.
"Please download everything available of my profile to my omni," he said. He needed to find out what people knew about him. And security on his omni was laughable with an AI around, might as well make use of her full capabilities. "And… are there profiles of the rest of the crew as well?"
"Comprehensive profiles are only available on members or potential members of the ground team. Limited profiles are available for all other Cerberus personnel serving in this cell."
"Including Shepard?"
"Yes."
"Please download all of them to my omni. And, thank you."
"Of course, Lieutenant."
The blue sphere that was EDI's representation winked out as Jorge crooked his arm. He had a lot of reading to do.