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The Iera system was home to only one significant location: Sanctuary, built on Horizon. As the shuttle approached the planet, the radio was oddly silent. Cortez shook his head. "I don't like it. There should be chatter. There should be someone on entry letting us know it's okay to land."
"EDI, what do we know about Sanctuary?" Shepard asked.
The AI's voice came through the comms. "The Sanctuary facility was devoted to aiding refugees from Reaper-controlled systems. The facility appears to have gone offline recently, and no communications have come or gone since."
"So all those refugees are just … cut off from the world?" Garrus shook his head. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"But what would Kai Leng or Cerbrerus want with a refugee facility?" Kaidan asked.
"Unclear," EDI answered.
"If there's a clue to Cerberus here, we find it." Shepard wasn't letting Kai Leng slip through her fingers. Not again.
From the cockpit, Cortez called, "I'm picking up a signal from the facility. It's weak, but I'll try to boost it."
A woman's voice came through the comm system, sounding distressed. "This is Oriana Lawson. Stay away from Sanctuary. It's not what it seems."
Garrus and Shepard exchanged glances. "Oriana? That's Miranda's sister. What's she doing here?"
"If she's here, Miranda can't be far away."
Shepard nodded. "So that's our link to Cerberus."
Cortez set the shuttle down outside the facility, and they all piled out. More shuttles and ships were scattered around, all empty. There was no sign of life anywhere. "I really don't like this, Shepard," Garrus muttered.
"Let's get inside. I bet you'll like that even less."
"I bet you're right."
Shepard led the way through the unmanned and open gates and into some kind of central processing hall, which must have been where they checked the refugees into the facility. It, too, was empty, but showed evidence of some kind of disturbance—cracked datapads on the floor, broken glass, overturned chairs.
Farther in, a monitor in the corner spat static out into the room, with bits and pieces of a woman's voice mixed into the static. "That's Miranda!" Shepard exclaimed.
Garrus fiddled with the monitor and was able to clear up the screen.
Miranda appeared, speaking earnestly. "This is Miranda Lawson. If you've gotten this far, you must be desperate—or stupid. Listen to me: This is not a refugee camp. This is a Cerberus facility run by my father, Henry Lawson. Turn back now. There is no help to be found here. All communication is being blocked from the central tower. Sanctuary is a lie. Stay away."
The video ended, and Shepard blew out a deep breath. "Okay. So we've got Cerberus, Reapers, and Miranda's crazy father. Any ideas how this all fits?"
"I'm not sure if I wish I had any—or I wish I didn't have to find out."
Kaidan led the way through the lower level of the intake facility. Down here, it was clear there had been a fight. Dead Cerberus soldiers and dead Reaper forces lay where they had fallen.
The doors at the end of the hall led out into a courtyard, where a pool of water shone silver in the sun. The three of them turned around, looking everywhere, but it seemed to be a dead end. There was no evidence of how to get further into Sanctuary.
"Where did all those people go?" Kaidan asked. "And why go to all the trouble of concealing it, this far into the facility?"
Garrus found some kind of control box and began to study it. As he worked on it, suddenly the lake began swirling, the water level dropping, until the pool had drained away entirely. A ladder led down into the depths.
The three of them climbed down, making their way through the courtyard and inside. The facility was a lab. There was no housing to be seen. Shepard shared Garrus's bad feeling—something very wrong had happened here.
"Shepard, look at this." Kaidan was standing over a pile of cables. "I know Reaper tech when I see it, and this is some kind of hybrid with Reaper tech."
"Nothing good ever came out of Reaper tech," Garrus agreed grimly.
In the next room, a monitor was playing, and finally they had the answer to what had happened to the refugees. They had been killed. Worse, they had been rounded up and closed into pods … and what came out of the pods were husks. Even worse than that, many of those husks appeared to be free and wandering the interior of the facility. The place was crawling with them.
"All these people," Kaidan whispered in anguish.
"I don't get it, though. Why go through all this just to make husks?" Garrus asked. "What does the Illusive Man gain?"
"I guess we know why the Reapers came here, though. This place is some kind of a threat."
"Only way to find out why is to fight our way through those things," Shepard said. She wished they didn't have to. She wished they could leave these husks alone here in possession of what remained of the facility, and not have to kill what remained of the people who had come here for safety. But like so many of her wishes, this one was in vain. "Let's go."
Inside the next door, another monitor burbled away. This one took less work to clear the picture. Miranda again, shutting down power to the processing pods, hoping to buy herself some time. Unfortunately, the tape revealed how little time she had: Shadowing her progress through the facility was the very person Shepard had been looking for. Kai Leng.
This time, she was going to kill him. For Thessia. For Thane. For herself.