Joker sighed in boredom as he guided the Normandy through the void. He and the rest of the vessel's crew had been tasked with hunting down remnants of Geth forces in the Traverse, and Shepard never stopped telling everyone that this was a massive waste of their time.

Not that the politicians and other idiots in charge ever listened. Just as he let out a yawn, a ping on a console in front of him snapped him out of his boredom. The sensors detected the arrival of a new ship. Navigator Pressly spoke up from behind Joker as he looked at the sensor display. "What is that?"

An ensign behind Pressly peered at her screen in disbelief. "Whatever it is, it's following us!"

"How the hell is that possible? The Normandy is running silent, the Geth couldn't-"

Joker cut Pressly off as he received a visual of the newcomer's silhouette. "It's not Geth! Hold on I'm going to-" Joker growled as the sensors detected an energy spike from the enigmatic ship, a split second later, it fired.

The round punched straight through the Normandy's kinetic barriers and armor, sending a shudder through the Normandy as it impacted.

The ensign immediately reported the damage assessment. "Decks four through seven sustained heavy damage, we need to-" She was cut off as an explosion in the bridge sent shrapnel through Pressly's body, ripping bloody holes through him, and throwing him to the ground. "Pressly!" She shouted, rising from her chair. A second detonation behind her gutted her, and she collapsed near Pressly's lifeless body. A silent, pained whimper escaped her lips before the world turned dark.

Joker cast a split second glance behind him. "Oh shit…"


Shepard's head snapped up as she felt the Normandy ripple, and the alarms sounded an instant later. Another ripple, and Shepard lurched backwards as the hull in front of her exploded as another shot punctured the Normandy, killing a crewman who was standing in the way. She growled, and activated her COM as she donned her helmet. "Shepard to crew, get to the escape pods, I repeat, get to the escape pods! The Normandy is going down!"

Lt. Alenko ran into view behind her as her HUD confirmed a seal. "Commander, Joker's still on the bridge!"

Figures. Shepard thought to herself, Joker loved the Normandy more than most people loved their spouse. She turned to face Alenko. "You get the rest of the crew out safely, I'll get Joker!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

Shepard sprinted through the Normandy, the normally calm blue lighting inside the ship had been replaced by angry red, the sound of klaxons warning everyone aboard of the ship's doom. She passed Ashley Williams, who was carrying a wounded ensign into an escape pod, the Gunnery Chief nodded to Shepard, and shut the hatch.

Shepard took the steps to the Command deck three at a time, and slammed her fist into the door controls. There was a hiss, and the rush of air as Shepard entered the vacuum. She began to float briefly, before her mag boots kicked in, pulling her back to the deck. Shepard made her way to the bridge, sparing a brief glance through the massive hole that had been torn in the Normandy's hull. She saw large and small chunks of debris endlessly spiraling in the void… as well as several bodies.

Shepard ignored the growing pit in her stomach, and turned her gaze back to her objective. She gently pushed a floating chair out of her way as she approached Joker. He'd activated an emergency seal on the bridge, which kept him relatively safe.

She slammed her fist down next to Joker's. "What the hell are you doing?" She barked. "The Normandy's dead in the water, we need to get out of here!"

Joker looked back up at her, his eyes a mixture of pain and determination. "No I can still save her, I just need to-" Another explosion shuddered through the Normandy beneath their feet and Shepard turned just in time to see another chunk of the Normandy be blown off into space. She growled and turned back to Joker. She snatched his arm as he reached towards another console. "Ow! Watch the arm!" He yelled as Shepard pulled him out of his seat and towards the escape pod on the bridge.

She set Joker down, and was about to take her own seat, when another explosion occurred mere meters from her. The force sent her careening through the vacuum, and she crashed into a nearby wall. She spotted Joker, still in the escape pod. Shepard saw another round fired from their attackers punch through the Normandy, and made a split second decision.

She turned her head, eyeing the emergency launch release next to her. She activated the release, and watched as Joker's pod was launched to safety.

Shepard didn't have time to celebrate her minor victory. Another detonation sent her spiraling into another piece of debris, and she flew helplessly off into space, the world around her dancing in a sickening twirl. As she spun, unable to control her movement, what remained of the Normandy would briefly flash in front of her, before disappearing just as quickly. She managed to catch a brief glimpse of the Normandy explode. Her home for the last year, gone.

Shepard shut her eyes, fighting to gain some measure of control over herself, the only sound she could hear was her racing heart and near panicked breathing. Another sound interrupted her thoughts, and her eyes snapped open.

Her HUD was flashing red. Suit puncture detected. Shepard cast her eyes over her armor, looking for the breach, when she felt something strike the back of her head. Shit shit shit, the tube that connected her oxygen supply to her helmet had been knocked loose, she was losing air. She reached behind her head, trying to grasp the flailing tube, but failed, she could feel the air in her helmet growing thinner. She twisted and contorted her body, trying again and again and again to snatch the tube, which danced tauntingly close to her fingers. Shepard felt the last of the air in her helmet vent, and she began to gasp like a fish out of water, her body trying desperately to get just one last gulp of air.

Her struggling ceased as her vision faded and she slowly lost consciousness, her lifeless body falling through space to the planet below.


Miranda stared in frustration at the datapad in front of her. The Lazarus project was progressing better than Cerberus had predicted, but not as much as they'd hoped. The effort to revive Shepard had already cost an astronomical sum, and all they'd managed to accomplish thus far was eliciting a few errant twitches from Shepard's corpse. But, Miranda Lawson was put in charge of the project, and she'd be damned if she failed. She grasped the coffee mug on the table next to her and lifted it to her nose, giving its contents a cursory sniff, before carefully downing the steaming liquid, the vaguely bitter drink tickling her innards with its warmth. She sighed in satisfaction, and heard the door to her office slide open. Her eyes snapped to assess the interloper. Dr. Wilson, the Chief Medical Officer on Project Lazarus.

She scowled as he approached. "What?" She said coldly. She detested the man, he didn't seem to grasp the importance of the work they were doing from the moment they started. And he never stopped complaining.

"I want to report on the progress we've made so far." He said, not bothering to hide the fact he was as bothered by Miranda as she was by him.

She brandished the datapad. "I have your report right here Wilson. Why are you here?"

He visibly twitched. "I wanted to file a complaint regarding the payment the Lazarus team is receiving."

Oh really? Wilson wants to whine some more? She thought to herself. "You have made your dissatisfaction known, Dr. Wilson, repeatedly. And as I have told you, repeatedly, the allocation of funds regarding the Lazarus Project is controlled by the Illusive Man. Whining to me is a waste of both our time. Now if that is all, get back to work." She snarled.

Wilson scoffed, and acquiesced, turning to leave. "Bitch." She heard him mutter under his breath as he walked through the door.

"Idiot." She said, rubbing her temple, before downing another gulp of her coffee.


Nearly a year had passed since Shepard's body had been recovered, and they had started to make significant breakthroughs. Scans detected lower level brain functions in Shepard's body, and the cybernetic implants had helped with the regeneration of her damaged organs and tissues.

But even so, it would be some time before Shepard recovered fully. Wilson's hand trembled as he took another drag from his cigarette, he couldn't stand working for Miranda. The stuck up bitch had no idea how hard the rest of the project team was working. She'd just show up, scold them for not making any progress, and disappear back to her office. What the hell did she expect? They were trying to bring a corpse back to life. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temple, and expelled the smoke from his lungs with a cough.

He was on shore leave, he'd taken three random jumps from Lazarus station per protocol, and had arrived on the nearby station of Omega. He sighed again, and was about to open his eyes when he slammed into somebody. His eyes snapped open, and he scowled. "Hey! Watch where you're…" He trailed off as he realized what he'd just walked into. He felt claws wrap around his skull, and he didn't even have the time to scream before he was dragged into one of Omega's many neglected alley's.


The assortment of aliens and humans aboard Omega paid Kara no mind. The people here had learned not to look too long at someone who looked dangerous, and she was dangerous. Nearly three meters in height, covered in obsidian fur that hid rippling muscle, her fingers capped with six inch claws, her aura radiated that of a predator that dominated their surroundings. And she moved like someone with a purpose, which only further served to ensure the station's denizens gave her a wide berth. All save a few.

A group of four armed and armored Batarians and Turians approached her. "Aria wants to see you." The lead Batarian growled. Kara analyzed the people before her. They clearly weren't the kind of people others would mess with.

Kara looked down at the Batarian. "Who?"

A few of the aliens chuckled. "Aria wants to see you. Now." The Batarian repeated.

Kara snorted derisively. "I don't have time for this." She moved to step forward. They raised their weapons.

"What are you-" The Batarian began to say as Kara suddenly lunged forward. She snatched the rifle out of the Batarian's hands, and with a growl, shoved the weapon through his abdomen, impaling him. Blood sprayed the Turian behind him, and the Batarian collapsed.

Kara advanced, lashing out with her left hand, her claws ripping the jaw off a Turian. The blow threw the man to the ground, clearing the way for Kara's intended target. Her right hand lanced forward, and she wrapped her claws around the Batarian's skull, and she crushed it like a blood filled balloon. Kara lashed out with her right hand, smashing the weapon in the remaining Turian's hand. He fell backward, terror in his eyes. In the time it had taken Kara to tear through them, not a single one of them had gotten a shot off. Kara looked over her shoulder at the Turian she'd wounded, and saw the man stop struggling, blood loss claiming him.

She turned back to the cowering Turian. "I don't know who Aria is, and I don't care right now. Just be sure to tell her that my kind can't be intimidated"

The Turian scurried off, and Kara turned her attention back to the task at hand. Her AI, Serina, hadn't been able to find out much about Project Lazarus. Cerberus was doing a remarkable job of covering their tracks, all Serina had managed to pull was a list of cell members.

But that was more than enough. They had started shadowing the Cerberus operatives, looking for a way in, and that was when they came across Dr. Wilson. He was practically gift wrapped to her. Being unsatisfied with the way he was treated, as well as his compensation, made him an easy target.

And Serina had tracked him to Omega, which was what brought Kara to this… charming station. As she moved to intercept Wilson, she passed too many starving and desperate people. There were plenty of beggars, all of whom looked away in fear as Kara passed. Her heart broke for these people. Truly, it did. Nobody would live in a place like this by choice, circumstances beyond their control forced them here, where they became prey to true monsters. People who would take advantage of their destitution and desperation, force them into inescapable spirals of crime until their inevitable death.

The rest of Fireteam Artemis was growing restless. Kara had previously assigned them to investigate the disappearing colonies. Any time a world went dark, they'd show up shortly thereafter, only to find empty homes.

But here… here they might be able to do some good. Kara watched as another pair of beggars, a woman and her young son waved a sign, trying to catch the attention of anyone who'd help.

Kara winced. If there was one thing you didn't want in a place like this, it was attention. A Batarian approached the two, and slapped the sign out of the woman's hand. The boy immediately hid behind his mother.

Kara snarled, and approached. She could hear him spewing racial remarks at the two of them.

"Hey!" Kara roared as she approached. The Batarian turned, and immediately shrunk back as he saw the blood stained beast in front of him. Kara knelt down, shoving her face into his, her fangs bared. "Don't you have somewhere else to be?" She asked.

The Batarian didn't respond, apparently frozen in fear. Kara growled in annoyance, and pushed the Batarian aside, his shoulder slamming into a nearby bulkhead. He seemed to regain his senses enough to run then.

Kara watched the coward flee, and turned back to the two humans. She saw the terror in their eyes. She looked down, and realized she had forgotten to wash the blood off of herself, not that it would have made her appear any less threatening to a human. Kara pulled out a credit chit, and held it in front of the woman's face for a moment, before placing it on the ground in front of her, and walking away.

It didn't take her much longer to find Wilson. He was smoking one of those disgusting cancer sticks so many humans were inexplicably fond of, even from dozens of meters away the rancid stench assaulted her senses. She waited patiently, he was moving towards her, completely unaware of her presence. He put a hand against his temple, and took several more steps before bumping into her.

"Watch where you're…" He began to say. Kara snarled down at him, and quickly yanked out the cigarette and wrapped her hands around his head, covering his mouth as she dragged him away.

She pulled him to a nearby alleyway, and after making sure they were alone, and weren't being watched, she slowly released Wilson.

To his credit, the man didn't scream. "So, you're the good Doctor Wilson. I have a proposition for you." Kara paused, allowing him time to catch his breath, and to come to the realization that she wasn't going to kill him.

"What-what do you want from me?" He asked, his heart beating so quickly Kara could feel it.

"I want information. I know you're part of the Lazarus Cerberus cell, tasked with bringing Commander Shepard back to life. I want you to provide me with status reports regarding the progress you are making."

The man shook his head, confused. "Wait. You know who I am, and what my cell is trying to do, but you have no idea how much progress we've made?"

I believe I just said that. Kara thought to herself. "I also know you are… dissatisfied with your compensation, so let me make you an offer. For every update you give me on your progress, I'll pay you half a million credits." The man's breath hitched slightly. "Tempting, isn't it?" If there was one thing Capitalism was good for, Kara thought, it was the production of greedy people willing to sell anything for shiny things.

Wilson looked as he was about to agree, but his eyes narrowed. "Where are you going to get that kind of money?"

Kara shrugged. "Oh, there are plenty of people in this galaxy who can afford such a loss."

"Okay, but how do I get the information to you? Miranda's watching everyone closely."

"Just do what you normally do. And next time you're off for shore leave, leave a dead drop somewhere. We'll find it, and you'll be half a million richer."

Kara saw the greedy glint in his eyes. "Alright, you've got a deal."

Wilson turned to leave, but halted as he felt claws on his shoulder. "Status updates, starting now." Kara said.


Shepard felt a stabbing, throbbing pain in her head as her eyes fluttered open. She could hear panicked voices around her. "-Waking up-"

"-Won't be able to-"

She heard the words, but she was having trouble understanding them. She saw a middle aged man with a shaved head, a young looking woman with raven colored hair, who stopped briefly to gaze down at Shepard.

Shepard struggled to speak, when a sudden exhaustion overwhelmed her, and she fell back into darkness.


Shepard's eyes groggily opened again, and this time, she swore she could hear the dull thumps of… gunfire. A sudden spike of adrenaline spiked through her body, and she bolted upright, feeling a sharp pain lance through her, but nothing that would slow her down. She heard the voice of a woman over an intercom. "Shepard? Thank god you're awake. There's a locker behind you. Put on the armor and grab the weapon, you'll need them." Shepard analyzed the room. It was sparse, looking like a med-clinic.

The sounds of more gunfire echoed through Shepard's surroundings, and she decided against questioning the voice over the radio. Shepard swung open the locker, and found a suit of N7 armor, a predator heavy pistol, and a handful of grenades. She donned the armor and readied the weapon in less than a minute. Not a moment too soon, as the voice over the intercom spoke again. "Shepard, you need to proceed to the hangar bay. I'm going to open the door on the other side of the room. Be careful, there are mechs on the other side, so you'll need to take cover.

Shepard nodded to herself, and moved towards a nearby cupboard, and leveled her pistol at the door. A split second later, the door opened, revealing three machines. Unlike the Geth, these things moved like robots, their steps mechanical and janky, and most importantly, slow.

Shepard fired three shots, the first two struck their targets in the head, which exploded in a satisfying shower of machinery, while the third struck the target in the neck, unbalancing it. Shepard finished it off with a fourth round, then pushed forward. The door led to an L-shaped corridor, the walls on Shepard's left and in front of her were reinforced glass, and Shepard could see the bodies of several humans behind them.

As Shepard advanced into the corridor, she saw an unarmed woman trapped on the other side of the glass. The woman's eyes flashed with recognition as she spotted Shepard. Before she could say anything, Shepard looked behind her as a massive lumbering machine approached from behind her. The woman turned, following Shepard's gaze, and screamed as the machine leveled one of its "hands" at her. A missile fired, and impacted the woman in the torso. Her body exploded from the waist up, spraying blood all over the window.

Shepard winced, and continued on. She opened another door, and ran down the staircase behind it, leading into what looked like a recreation room. Shepard heard the hiss of doors opening on the other side of the room open, and she readied her pistol.

Four more machines appeared, and fired on Shepard, who only had enough time to fire off a few haphazard shots at the encroaching hostiles before ducking behind cover. Shepard growled as she heard the bullets whizzing by mere inches from her head. She plucked one of the grenades from her waist, and leaned out slightly, and bounced the grenade off the ground in front of the machines. The detonation scattered them, throwing them to the ground. Shepard fired a shot into each of their heads, just to be safe, and pushed onward.

She ignored the door the machines had come out of, and moved straight for the door at the top of the staircase on the other end of the room.

The doors opened, revealing a somewhat large room. To her left, was a dark skinned man, who was not only alive, but fighting back against a group of the machines on the other side of a walkway. The air around the man warped, and he lashed out at the machines across from him. A singularity phased into existence, pulling the hapless mechs towards it.

The man finished them off by tossing a grenade into the singularity, blowing them to pieces. He turned, and spotted Shepard. He waved her over.

"Shepard." He nodded in greeting. "Man, things must be bad if Miranda has you up and moving."

Shepard spotted the insignia on the man's uniform, and she leveled her pistol at his head. He immediately threw up his arms. "Who are you?"

"Jacob. And as you've probably noticed, I'm Cerberus, and you're on a Cerberus station. Look, I get you're probably really confused, but we need to get out of here. I can answer all of your questions later."

Shepard's grip on the pistol tightened, and for a moment, she thought she was going to shoot. But something about Jacob changed her mind. She lowered her weapon. "Alright Jacob. Lead the way." Jacob nodded, and turned to move through the door in front of him, Shepard following behind from a safe distance.

Shepard and Jacob made short work of the mechs they encountered as they made their way to the hangar bay. As they reached the room to the hangar, they saw another man already there. He was middle aged, with a clean shaven head. He twitched once he saw Shepard. Her eyes narrowed as she vaguely remembered him.

Jacob also seemed to recognize him. "Wilson? How'd you get through all those mechs?"

The man shrugged. "I got lucky. Now do we want to play twenty questions or do we want to get out of here?" Wilson turned, and opened the door to the hangar bay, and came face to face with the woman Shepard saw earlier before she lost consciousness.

"Miranda?" Wilson said, audibly confused. "I thought you were-" He was cut off as Miranda leveled a pistol, and fired a round through his head.

"Dead?" She finished, as Wilson's lifeless corpse collapsed. Shepard immediately drew her weapon, and Jacob took a step backwards in surprise.

"Miranda? What the hell'd you do that for?" Jacob asked.

"Wilson was the one who wired all these mechs to kill everyone on the station. He was hoping to kill you, Shepard." Miranda said.

Shepard lowered her weapon slowly. "If that was true, why not capture him, find out why he did it?"

Miranda shrugged. "Couldn't risk it. Now, let's get out of here."

Jacob looked behind him, past Shepard. "What about the other people on the station?"

Miranda didn't bother turning around, she simply spoke as she continued towards the shuttle. "They're either dead, or they'll be dead by the time we find them. We can't waste anymore time here."

Jacob sighed, and followed. Shepard hesitated, casting a glance at Wilson's lifeless corpse, before moving to join them.


They entered the shuttle, Jacob and Miranda sat on one side, Shepard on the other. The two Cerberus agents took note of the fact that Shepard's weapon was pointed at them. "Okay Jacob, you promised some answers."

Miranda looked at the man seated next to her. "You did?"

"We need the Commander to trust us. That's not going to happen if we play the cloak and dagger card."

"Fair enough." Miranda sighed. "Ask away Commander."

"Why did I wake up on a Cerberus station?"

"You were killed in action two years ago when the original Normandy was destroyed. To make a long story short, Cerberus recovered your body, and spent the last two years bringing you back to life." Miranda said.

Memories of her suffocating in space as the Normandy was destroyed flashed through Shepard's mind. She shook the thoughts from her mind. "Why?"

"Nobody wants to admit it, but Humanity is under attack. Entire colonies have gone dark, millions of people have gone missing Shepard, and nobodies doing a damn thing about it. We need you Commander." Jacob responded.

Shepard shifted in her seat. Figures. "Alright. Where are we headed?"

Miranda cleared her throat. "We're on our way to a secure Cerberus facility. The Illusive man wants to speak to you."


The shuttle landed gently, and Miranda stepped out, gesturing for Shepard to follow her. They weaved their way through groups of Cerberus personnel as Shepard followed Miranda. They moved through a room that looked like a picture of an old airline waiting room, and Miranda gestured for Shepard to proceed down the staircase.

Shepard walked through the door at the bottom, and found herself in a nearly empty room. In the center was a large circle with a platform in the middle. She sighed, and stepped onto the platform, and a semi-translucent cylinder rose around Shepard. The cylinder shimmered, and the light dimmed, and Shepard found herself surrounded by blackness, and sitting in front of her, was a well dressed man smoking a cigar.

"Shepard. I'm glad we could finally meet."

"Let's skip the pleasantries. Why am I here?"

"Straight to the point. Good. We're under attack, and we need you Shepard. The Council and the Alliance had you hunting down Geth, who we both know were just agents of the real threat."

"The Reapers."

"The Reapers. Human colonies have begun to disappear by the dozens. Entire cities empty. No bodies, no signs of battle. Nothing to suggest anything at all happened." The Illusive Man took a drag of his cigar, and exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Freedom's Progress is the most recent colony to go dark. I know the reputation Cerberus has, and I know you'll have… reservations, about working with us Commander. But considering what we're up against, I hope we can put those differences aside in the name of protecting Humanity."

Shepard sighed. She really didn't trust Cerberus, for good reason. But it wasn't like she had a lot of options. "Alright. I'll help."


Shepard, Miranda, and Jacob surveyed the colony of Freedom's progress as the Kodiak shuttle came in for a landing. They couldn't see much from the air, so they were going in blind.

Shepard ordered Miranda and Jacob out of the shuttle, and she followed close behind them. The Shuttle took off, and maintained a holding pattern over the colony. No sooner had the shuttle disappeared in the sky, than Shepard felt the weight of something gargantuan land behind her. Before she could turn around, something hit her square in the back, hard. It sent her careening into the wall of a prefab building in front of her, and in spite of the lining on the inside of her helmet, Shepard's head was still swimming as she tried to regain her senses. She struggled to get her feet under her, and she stood uneasily, then turned her gaze back to Miranda and Jacob.

Jacob was suspended nearly ten feet in the air. He reached for his sidearm, only for the woman holding him to intercept his arm, and nearly crush it in her steel grip.

Resting on Miranda's head, was a 3'1" raccoon, with a knife pressed against her throat, hard enough to draw blood. Shepard stared in disbelief. "Kara?"

"Hello Commander. You're looking good for a two year old corpse."