Freedom's Progress

With a heavy heart, I boarded the shuttle with the two Cerberus operatives and we headed out to Freedom's Progress. I had to keep focused; thousands of innocent lives were at risk from an unknown enemy. If there was anything I could do to stop them then I had to try, no matter who I was working with. When we were ten minutes out from landing at the colony, from which we had had no replies to our hails, Miranda asked me,

"Commander, what are your orders for when we arrive."

"I know chances are slim," I responded, "but we should look for survivors."

"That's unlikely Commander, but it would be nice to find something instead of another ghost town."

"Have you retrieved anything of use from any of the other colonies that have been hit?"

Jacob shook his head,

"Nothing, Sir. No survivors, no unusual genetic materials to help us find the culprits: Nothing."

"What makes you think this time will be any different?"

"Because we're going to be there first this time," Miranda said confidently, "Survey teams and other, less desirable kinds of people have always arrived first and contaminated the site, making it impossible for us to find any leads on the disappearances."

The shuttle set us down on the colony's landing pad and I stepped out into a moonlit night and an eerie atmosphere. Lights were still on in houses and a skycar was still idling nearby, but there was no sign of any life whatsoever. The colony of Freedom's Progress was a small mining colony with evidence of a quarry nearby. There was a lot of heavy machinery lying around; scattered in such a way that Miranda, Jacob and I concluded that they must have been in use when the abductors had arrived.

"There's just nothing," Miranda said, "no signs of battle or resistance."

We went from house to house, checking each pre-fab shelter for evidence of an attack or of any kind of weapon being used. Miranda thought that whoever had attacked the colony had perhaps used some sort of bio-weapon to immobilise the civilians and render them helpless, unable to resist by any measure. Searching through one of the little homes I gazed at the half-eaten meals that sat on the table, the book that appeared to have been dropped and at a child's toy lying discarded at the door leading out of the back of the shelter.

I picked up the little action figure, an Asari Commando complete with a rifle and light up hands for her biotics. I pressed the little button on her back, making her hand light up and a voice came from the figure,

"For Thessia!"

The thought of the little boy or girl playing in their world of imagination, blissfully oblivious to the stresses and strains of life, only to be snatched by a dark and evil power haunted me. The child's terror was impossible to imagine. This was not right. I knew more than most that the galaxy was an extremely dark and dangerous place, even at the best of times, but to think what these innocent people, and the child to whom the toy belonged, could be going through. That was assuming that they were even alive.

My determination to protect the Human colonists of the Terminus Systems was growing stronger with every step that I took through the deserted little town. When we came down to what appeared to be a water treatment plant, I suddenly heard the sound of mechs patrolling down the street towards us.

"Security mechs," Jacob said, "they won't be a problem; they'll recognise us as Human and leave us alone."

He went to step out and move past them, but I grabbed him and pulled him back in,

"Wait, we can't assume anything in this situation. You and Miranda grab some cover around the other side of the building and prepare your weapons. I'll reveal myself and if they start firing, you take them out."

The two Cerberus Operatives moved swiftly and quietly out of sight while I back-tracked to where we had come down onto the street. As soon as I stepped out and showed myself to the mechs bullets started whizzing past me and I ducked away again. The assault rifles of Miranda and Jacob made quick work of the mechs, the noise of the gunfire echoing in all directions around us and sounding like a thunder storm in the terrible silence of the colony. When I regrouped with my team Miranda said,

"They should have recognised us as Human like Jacob said; someone must have reprogrammed them to attack anything on sight."

"We're not alone here," I agreed.

My suspicions were very quickly proved correct when we moved into an open square with very little in the way of cover. Another two mechs appeared and I dropped them quickly and efficiently with the heavy hitting Mattock. That was when I saw a fleeting movement up above one of the large gates that would allow us through one of the quarried sections of the rock face ahead of us.

"Watch up top!" I said to my colleagues. As soon as the words had left my mouth figures appeared on every high point around us, all of them armoured and guns pointed straight at us. They were Quarians. From on high they looked down at us from behind their masks; making it impossible to judge if they were friendly or if they were about to pin us to the ground with bullets.

"Hands up Cerberus!" a male voice called out, "come quietly and we won't have to kill you."

"We're not here to fight you, Quarians," I said, hoping to reason with them, "we're here to investigate the disappearance of the colony. That is our sole reason for being here."

"You're probably behind the abductions you scum," a venomous voice sang out.

I had to make them see that we did not have to become enemies,

"My name is Commander Scott Gardner, formerly of the Human Alliance and Council Spectre. We need to find out what is happening to all the Human colonies that are going missing, and stop whoever is doing it."

I took off my helmet and held up my hands, showing that I meant no harm to them.

"What are you doing?" Miranda blurted.

"Nice try," the hateful Quarian voice spoke out again, "but Commander Gardner is dead, and from what I've heard about him he would never ally himself with the likes of you."

"Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I have; because millions of innocent lives are at stake and I need to save them."

That was when I heard a female Quarian voice speak to her soldiers, and it was the sweetest voice I had ever heard.

"Prazza; stand down!" She ordered, "Everyone; rifles down!"

I turned to look above and behind me to see a female Quarian emerge from between a couple of the Quarian Marines and look down at me.

"Tali?" I said aloud, my heart pounding in my chest. The Quarian woman took a step back, held my gaze, and then disappeared out of view again. She arrived moments later from behind one of the houses and walked slowly over to me. Everything was so familiar; though her enviro-suit was different from when I had last seen her, the elegant, flowing pattern of swirls remained. I watched the way she walked and I even recognised the shape of her eyes as they blinked out from behind the purple veil of her mask.

She really was Tali. I could not believe it. After all my fears about never being able to see or speak to her again; here she was standing right in front of me.

"Scott?" her soft voice was the sweetest music I had heard since I had first been woken up from death, "is it really you?"

Those lovely eyes that I adored now stared at me in disbelief and sadness. Worst of all; suspicion. I wanted to hold her and tell her how it felt to see her again, but I sensed that in our current predicament neither party would benefit from seeing us. I also had to remember that, for Tali, it had been over two years since she had last seen me. It had been two years since she had seen me die, watching helplessly from an escape pod as I went down in flames with the Normandy SR1.

The Quarian troops up on the rooftops still had their rifles aimed at us and many looked like they might let fly with bullets at any given moment. As I looked at Tali, I could sense the inner battle she was having deciding whether to believe me or put me down herself. She blinked her eyes rapidly for a second and shook her head as if her inner war was about to boil over. I needed to convince Tali that it really was me.

"Remember the Geth data that we found on Feros, Tali? Has it helped the Quarians?" I asked. Her eyes still searched me dubiously,

"Yes. It has. It's probably saved a lot of Quarian lives."

Tali turned to the Quarian called Prazza as he came down to join us, his pistol still held tightly in his hand,

"This is definitely Commander Gardner," Tali told him.

"Why is your old Commander working for Cerberus?" the angry marine asked.

"I don't know," she looked at me, "maybe we should ask him."

"I didn't have a choice," I started, "I died when the Normandy was destroyed Tali. Cerberus has spent billions of credits and the past two years piecing me back together and bringing me back to life. They need me to investigate the Human abductions; they think the culprits are agents of the Reapers."

Prazza snorted,

"Likely story. No one would spend so much just to bring back one soldier!"

"You haven't seen the Commander in action," Tali shut him up, "it was money well spent."

"What are you doing here?" I asked the woman that I had once been so close to.

"There is a young Quarian here on his pilgrimage; we came to find him after communications with the colony were cut. His name's Veetor."

"Why would a Quarian choose to come to such a remote colony for his pilgrimage?" my curiosity was piqued.

"He liked the idea of helping a small settlement. Veetor was always… nervous in crowds."

"What she means," Prazza cut in, "is that he's mentally unstable, combine that with damage to his suit's CO2 scrubbers and an infection from an open-air exposure and he's likely delirious."

Tali agreed with her second-in-command,

"When we landed, he ran and hid in a control hub on the far side of the colony. He reprogrammed the mechs to attack anyone that tries to get to him. Maybe," Tali's eyes met mine, "we could work together to fight through them and reach Veetor."

"Now we're working with Cerberus?" Prazza sounded enraged.

"No Prazza," Tali said with authority, "you're working for me. If you can't follow orders, go wait on the ship."

Prazza shook his head and stalked off, summoning his squad to him as he went. With Miranda and Jacob now at my side Tali said,

"Veetor isn't too far away from here. Through this gate, along the main street to the right and through another quarried section and that's where we'll find him."

"We can take multiple routes to prevent the mechs gathering in larger numbers; keep them separated," I said, "be sure to keep in radio contact."

"Will do… Scott. Whatever happens," she hesitated in the presence of the two Cerberus soldiers, "it's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back," I said with a smile as she rejoined her squad and moved off.

The problems started almost as soon as we began to make our way along the streets to the rendezvous point. Tali's voice burst over the radio,

"Scott! Prazza and his squad rushed on ahead. They want to get to Veetor and get off-world before you reach him. Veetor's reprogrammed two heavy mechs and they're tearing Prazza's squad apart."

"Everyone double time it to Prazza's location!" I said to Miranda, Jacob along with Tali's team. When we hacked open the large gate, we were greeted by the sight of the remnants of Prazza's team retreating back towards us. We laid down heavy fire, but the towering mechs had strong shielding and chain guns mounted on each arm. The torrent of bullets that came howling back at us was nothing short of brutal. The walls were chipped away and entire chunks of rock were torn away as well as the walls of shelters that some of Tali's Quarians took cover in.

A marine from Prazza's team darted out of her cover and tried to escape back to our line, but the nearest mech hit her in the legs and she collapsed to the ground. When she tried to stand back up the mech mercilessly stomped down on her with a huge steel foot and unleashed a storm of bullets into her with its chain gun at point-blank range. At such a horrible sight I had to organise the Quarians to fight back against these two mechanical beasts.

"Tali; circle around behind the mechs with half of your team and lay down all the firepower that you can," I said quickly over the radio. I motioned for Miranda and Jacob to follow me as I sprinted further around to the left flank of the two walking tanks. With the combined firepower of my group, Tali's squad and the few remainders of Prazza's team we whittled down the shields of the first mech and a concussive shot from one of the marines knocked out one of its legs, sending it toppling to the ground.

"Prazza's squad; Draw the second mech's fire," I ordered, "keep it occupied. Miranda come with me. Have an overload shot ready."

Together with the Cerberus Officer I ran towards the downed mech and shoved a live grenade into the exposed neck section and continued to fire at the second enemy. Miranda ran straight towards its hide and used her Omni tool to overload the machine, disabling it for a moment. That moment was all we needed. When the first mech's head exploded from my grenade every gun turned on the second and unleashed everything they had on it. The mech's systems were overwhelmed and when it tried to take a final step forward its leg fell off below the knee and it crumpled in a heap with a loud metallic clang. I remained on my knee with my rifle trained on the mechs for a few more seconds, making sure that they were finished, before I gathered Miranda and Jacob to me,

"Check the Quarians for wounded and do what you can. We'll find Veetor after."

"Why bother? We should get Veetor and slip away while the Quarians are occupied. They betrayed us anyway," Miranda argued.

"I'm sure Cerberus can spare a few packs of medi-gel," I retorted, "check. The. Wounded."

We helped gather the wounded Quarians into one of the prefab houses and while we were able to stabilise a couple of them with medigel, another three had died while we moved them. Prazza's body was recovered, his suit filled with bullet holes and his mask shattered. Jacob could not help but try and see what a Quarian looked like, but Prazza's face was little more than a red, pulpy mess. Tali came over and knelt down beside me as I treated a marine who, fortunately, had only sustained a minor leg injury,

"Thank you for your help, Scott," her soft voice was full of sadness, "I doubt many more of us would have survived that without you."

"This isn't your fault Tali. We'll go and get Veetor and see if he can help us."

"I trust you Scott," she said as we gazed at each other, but when she glanced at Miranda she said, "but I heard her say that she wanted to "slip away" with him. Veetor is one of my people."

"Don't worry," I placed a hand on her shoulder but she recoiled a little, "I won't let Cerberus have him. We just need to see if he has any information on what happened to the colonists; who took them and how."

Tali, Miranda, Jacob and I entered the small security hub where Veetor had shut himself in and found the young Quarian staring obsessively at a series of screens arrayed around the room.

"Veetor?" I asked.

"No," a hysterical voice answered, "no Veetor here! The monsters will come back. I have to be ready. Can't find me. No no no no no no!"

"Veetor," Tali said quietly, hoping to avoid spooking him even further, "we need to ask you what happened here, and then we're going to take you back to the Migrant Fleet; back home."

Veetor showed no indication that he heard her and his head continued to shoot left and right as he checked security feeds and the status of the mechs that he had turned against us. From the feeds I could tell that the majority of the mechs were now "deactivated".

"I don't think he can hear us, Commander," Jacob said dryly.

I flicked on my Omni tool and bypassed the security of the computer that Veetor was glued to. One by one the monitors flashed and went blank as I shut down the systems, leaving Veetor taken aback in confusion. The young, terrified Quarian turned around to look at us as if this was the first of him realising that he was not alone,

"You're… you're Human. How did the monsters not find you?"

"We weren't here during the attack, Veetor. We've just arrived," I said in as calming and reassuring tone that I could manage, "can you tell us what happened here? Please?"

"They came; the swarms of seekers," his voice quaked as he relived the horror of the experience, "swarms of tiny machines like bugs. They went after the colonists; stung them, froze them. Then the monsters came and loaded them onto their ship, then they left."

"Sounds like these seekers use some sort of nerve toxin or stasis field to immobilise their victims," Miranda said.

"I studied them with my Omni tool," Veetor continued timidly, "lots of energy readings; dark energy." He turned back to the computer and switched the monitors over to show security footage of the attack. The bodies of the colonists lay strewn everywhere; it appeared that they had been fleeing from their attackers. I could see the little machines that Veetor was calling seekers still buzzing around, searching for more victims.

"Did you piece this together Veetor?" Tali asked. The visibly shaking Quarian nodded quickly, but stayed silent. From the near end of the street a group of figures emerged, human sized and heavily armed. I leaned in closer, trying to make out what kind of aliens they were, but they were like nothing that I had ever seen before. Four eyes and strange, sinewy bodies that looked almost artificial, or heavily altered. The backs of their heads extended out and down almost halfway down their backs; they were very queer looking indeed.

"Oh my God," Miranda exclaimed, "I think they're Collectors."

I had heard of Collectors only once before in my life, and they had never struck me as being a threat; and definitely not capable of such atrocities as mass abductions of thousands of innocent civilians.

"I thought the Collectors kept to themselves," I said to the others.

"They've been known to meet with pirates and slavers in the Terminus Systems to barter trades; usually prisoners in exchange for their technology," Jacob said, "but the numbers of specimens have always been in the region of ten or twenty; so this is just… insane."

"But it does explain how the colonies are disappearing so suddenly with no evidence being left behind," Miranda thought out loud, "with their advanced technology they can cut all communications before the seeker swarms come in and disable the population. The Collectors come in to no resistance and clean up. No bodies, no blood… nothing."

"No blood," Veetor repeated, "just the screams as they ran away from the swarms, and silence when the monsters arrived."

"You've been very helpful Veetor," I placed a hand carefully on his shoulder, "thank you. Tali will get you safely home now."

Miranda seemed displeased,

"Commander, he may know more. We should take him back to Cerberus and question him."

"What?" Tali was outraged, "he needs to get out of here and back to our people; not subjected to an interrogation by Human extremists!"

I agreed,

"He's traumatised and needs medical care. Veetor goes with Tali back to the Migrant Fleet. He needs to be with his people right now. That's an order, Miranda."

"Very well Commander," the Cerberus operative said flatly.

"Thank you, Scott," Tali said, "I'm glad you're still the one giving the orders. Feel free to have Veetor's Omni tool data. If I find anything that can help you, I'll let you know."

Some of Tali's marines arrived and they escorted Veetor out of the comm hub while Miranda and Jacob went outside and spoke between themselves out of earshot of both myself and the Quarians. When we were alone, Tali stared long and hard at me, finding it difficult not to stare at the deep scars that traced my face, looking for the right words,

"I thought I'd lost you forever."

"I'm still trying to get my head around all this," I said earnestly, "but if the Collectors are in league with the Reapers, you know I have to stop them. No matter who I have to work with."

"I trust you Scott," her soft voice warmed my very heart, "but Cerberus? Just… be careful."

"I noticed your marines were ready to tear me and my colleagues apart; something happen while I was gone?"

"They attacked one of our ships; the Idenna. A lot of Quarians were killed," her eyes seemed to flash with fire, "they are now a hated enemy of the Quarian people. Almost as much as the Geth."

"Wow. That's saying a lot."

A moment of silence followed as each of us tried to fathom out what to do next. I finally said,

"I don't suppose I could convince you to come with me? It would be good to have someone that I trust with me; especially you Tali."

She stepped backwards as if I had physically pushed her,

"You can't just turn up after all this time and say things like that. For two years I have thought about you every time I opened my eyes, every time I closed them again at night, every time I saw a couple walking together holding hands. What I shared with you… I didn't think I would ever have that with anyone else! I didn't want that with anyone else. Only you. Then you… then you were taken from me."

"I'm sorry Tali. I…" I knew that what I was about to say could have very bad consequences, "it's only been two days since I… came back to life. I still feel as strongly about you as I did when we were together. It's only been two days since I tried to tell you…?"

Thankfully, Tali stepped back towards me, her hand touching my arm,

"I know what you wanted to say. And it haunted me that I never got the chance to say it back. You're still the only man I've ever been with, and I want that to never change. But things are different right now…" it almost seemed to hurt her to say that, "I have duties, my people, responsibilities and a mission of my own now. I want to come with you, but I can't."

I could not hide my disappointment,

"I understand. I need to go," I said sadly, but I still managed a smile, "it was great to see you again."

Much to my relief, Tali closed in and hugged me, and I embraced her as I always had done before.

"I'm worried I'll wake up and seeing you again will have been a weird dream, or a nightmare. But I'm glad you're back Scott. Maybe one day…we could try…" she began, but faltered. After gathering herself she said,

"I need to say thank you."

"What for?"

"Saving my life. You sacrificed yourself to save me and Joker on the Normandy; I will never forget that. Maybe if I complete my mission… and survive; I could join you."

"Good luck with your mission and be safe!" I stroked my hand down the side of her hood, "hopefully… we'll see each other again."

"Definitely," she said as she took my hand and held it for a moment.

Before she left with Veetor and the remaining Quarian soldiers, Tali gifted me the Omni blade weapons for both of my weapons and my own Omni tool; they had belonged to Prazza. Parting ways with Tali was hard, but with the knowledge that we had acquired on Freedom's Progress about the Collectors there was no way that I could turn my back on this mission now. The shuttle whisked Miranda, Jacob and I back out of orbit and jumped back to the Cerberus station again. We discussed what we had found and Miranda forwarded reports to the Illusive Man, and though she was evasive about it I was sure that she had voiced her irritation at my working so closely with the Quarians. I wondered if the Illusive Man knew that Tali and I had been in love; I had to be wary of him trying to use it against me. Jacob was simply relieved to have not come out empty-handed on the investigation,

"We know who to go for now," he said enthusiastically.

The Illusive Man, however, almost seemed unimpressed as he sat in thought after I had reported to him.

"I get the feeling you already knew that the Collectors were behind the attacks," I finally said, daring him to even try to cover it up.

"I had suspicions," he said after downing a glass of bourbon, "but nothing to back it up. Now, needless to say, we know for sure."

"I saw footage of the Collectors loading the colonists into… pods of some kind," I said, "the Quarian saw them load them onto their ship and leave as quickly as they had arrived."

"That was an unusual turn of events; working with the Quarians. It's a surprising turn of events given our history with the Migrant Fleet."

"Having friends helps; maybe you should consider that."

"Diplomacy is great when it works," the Illusive Man stated, as if he had heard this argument many times before, "but impossible when everyone already perceives you as a threat."

The suited man stood up and began pacing again,

"So, have you decided whether or not you'll fight with us Commander?"

"As far as the Collectors go; I'll work with you. I won't sit back while thousands of colonists' lives are in danger. I'm doing it for them; not for Cerberus."

"Hundreds of thousands of lives, Commander," he corrected me, "maybe millions. I don't need you to be loyal to me; I need you to fight for Humanity as you always have. However, Cerberus gave you your life back, a second chance. Perhaps in time you could do the same for us."

"I'll do my best," I muttered.

"So, what's the next step?" I asked the Cerberus leader.

"We find a way to stop the Collectors. Take the fight to them and destroy them. This will require you to pass through the unmapped Omega 4 Relay. No ship has ever survived or returned from any attempts to pass through it; except for the Collectors. We can assume that it's the only way to reach their homeworld. But before we even think about that, there's other work to be done. I'm not planning on sending you against the Collectors alone; you'll need a team. I have compiled a list of soldiers, scientists and mercenaries for you. You'll need the best at your side for this battle."

"I already had a team; I already had the best at my side," I told him.

"You've been gone for over two years, Gardner, a lot has changed. Your old squad members have gone their separate ways."

"What about Tali? She already helped us on Freedom's Progress."

"That was unexpected, I'll need more Intel before I'll commit to that. Though…" he took a draw of his cigarette, "I am aware that you two were close. I'll admit her technical genius would be of great value to the mission, but I don't want your mind wandering from the mission because of certain other… pursuits."

"First of all," I stated hotly, "Tali and I are professionals. And second of all; that's none of your damn business."

"Everything is my business Commander."

"Fine," I reigned myself in, "what about the rest of them?"

"Urdnot Wrex returned to Tuchanka after Sovereign was destroyed, as you know, and he has not left the planet since. He is trying to unite the Krogan clans into a single, strong people; he has his hands full. Garrus Vakarian disappeared a few months after he escaped the Normandy. Even I haven't been able to find him. Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams is still with the Alliance, promoted I believe, but her file is surprisingly well classified. My sources tell me that Dr Liara T'Soni is on Illium and that she is working for the Shadow Broker. If so, she can't be trusted."

I hated to admit it; but the Illusive Man was right and I conceded to him,

"Ok, I get it; they're not available."

"You're one of the greatest leaders this galaxy has ever seen. You'll find the best. You have the lead on this operation Gardner, but two things before you start: Firstly; I suggest that you track down and find Mordin Solus," the Illusive Man said.

"Who is he and where do I find him?"

"He's a brilliant Salarian scientist. We know that the Collectors use their seeker swarms to hunt and paralyse the colonists. If you were to come into contact with them then who's to say that you would not end up the same way. You'll need him to develop a countermeasure before you can engage the Collectors head on. He runs a small clinic on Omega, trying to combat a plague that's been ravaging the alien populations in one of the residential districts."

"Omega?" I laughed, "You've got to be joking. I guess I'm not getting to go anywhere nice. What's the second thing?"

"I'm providing you with a ship for this mission Commander, you'll need a pilot. I have one for you. I've heard he's one of the best; someone you can trust."

When the communicator was turned off and I turned around, there Joker was; hobbling on his weak legs,

"Good to see you Commander!"

"I can't believe it's you Joker," I said as I shook his hand.

"Are you kidding me? I saw you get spaced."

"I got lucky, with a lot of strings attached. So how did you end up with Cerberus?"

"It all fell apart without you Sir," Joker sounded sad, "the Council tried to cover up all the evidence about the Reapers and wanted it gone. Our team was broken up, records were sealed and I was grounded. The Alliance took away the one thing that mattered to me… hell yeah I joined Cerberus."

"You really trust the Illusive Man?"

"I don't trust anyone who makes more than I do," Joker said back, "but they're not all bad. They brought you back, let me fly."

He led me over to a viewing port and stood gazing out the glass, his eyes full of excitement,

"And there's this. They only told me last night."

The hanger before us suddenly had its lights turned on and I almost dropped to my knees in disbelief. The shock of my amazement was enough to render completely and utterly speechless. The ship in the hanger; it was the Normandy. This Normandy was at least twice the size of the original ship that I had known and loved and was thicker in body. I read and re-read the bold black letters that spelled out the ship's name several times, fully expecting myself to snap out of a dream or something.

"It's good to be home, huh Commander," Joker said lovingly as he took in every detail of his sleek new ship.

Stepping aboard the Normandy SR2, as its official designation named it, with Miranda and Jacob at my side was surreal. Though it was not a direct copy and the whole interior, right down to the crew, looked completely different; there was something familiar and reassuring about being there. Even Miranda was impressed by what she saw. A quick chat with Joker as he sat at the helm in a luxurious leather seat was certainly amusing; he was like a child on Christmas morning. That was when I was introduced to the Enhanced Defence Intelligence, the artificial intelligence installed on the ship,

"The crew refer to me as EDI for convenience," the AI told me. "I was installed to provide the Normandy with advanced cybernetic and viral defensive and offensive capabilities," a synthesised yet very feminine voice said over the ship intercom, "I also provide technical, tactical and strategic assistance when necessary."

"Nice to meet you, EDI," I said courteously, "anyone else I should meet?"

"The Normandy has a full crew," Miranda explained, "but I think we should head to Omega as quickly as possible and start recruiting our team. I've sent a number of dossiers to your private terminal in your cabin, but Mordin is a definite in my opinion."

"Agreed," I said, "if we run into the Collectors without any kind of defence then the seekers will make short work of us. Joker, set a course for Omega."

I took a brief tour around the Normandy's four lower decks before heading up to my own private cabin, which looked more like a suite in a 7-star hotel. It even had a fish tank along one of the walls with a multitude of brightly coloured, exotic fish from different planets swimming around aimlessly: A very calming sight. A plush double bed and comfortable corner sofa awaited me as well as a personal workspace complete with Sitrep monitors, security camera screens from all over the ship which I promptly turned off; I had no interest in spying on my own crew.

As a further testament as to how much Cerberus must have known about me, there was also a brand-new guitar and amplifier sitting in the corner of the room. I could still smell the polish off of it. Needless to say, I was impressed and blown away by all of this, but I had to remind myself that there was always an angle with Cerberus. All of this, right down to bringing Joker back as my pilot, was the Illusive Man's way of trying to condition me into believing that Cerberus was not as bad as I thought they were. I was not going to be fooled. I remembered the Cerberus lab that my old team and I had hit; experiments involving creating Rachni shock troops for their own twisted gains. That was the real Cerberus.

When Joker brought the Normandy out of dock and sent it into FTL travel, I looked out of the window of my cabin and suddenly felt alive again. I was back,

"Welcome back to your life," I said to myself quietly. I piled the dossiers on my desk ready for reading, but I had one more bit of personal business to discuss with Miranda. I went down to 3 Deck and into her office where the Australian sat analysing reports and statistics while drafting up messages to the Illusive Man. When I entered she looked up,

"Commander, how can I help you?"

"How're you liking the SR2?"

She laughed,

"It's more than I ever expected. I knew that Cerberus was building a new Normandy for when you were up and running again; but I thought it would just be a recreation of the original. Did you know that the drive core is three times more powerful than the SR1's? The engineers assigned to it are almost as excited as Joker is."

It surprised me to hear her talking away like this, she was always business,

"I have a few personal things on my mind and I was wondering if you could help?"

"Of course," she said.

"The Illusive Man's already told me about my old friends, but I was wondering if you could tell me how my family is?"

Miranda typed away on her computer and brought up a file which she quickly scanned,

"Your mother and father are still on Earth; no changes really. Your death hit the family hard, Commander. Your mother went through a very bad time; it's lucky your father's such a strong man. All your extended family was there for your parents as well, as was the Alliance. Councillor Anderson and Admiral Hackett in particular. The entire town arranged and paid for a memorial statue of you overlooking the Forth estuary."

"A statue? Seriously?"

"You're a galactic hero Commander, from a small fishing village in rural Scotland. The people revere you. And from what I'm reading, your mother spends a lot of time there reading and writing."

I felt terrible for my mum, but I was glad to hear that the family had all pulled together to help her,

"And what about Sophie?"

Miranda looked at me, a curious glint in her eye,

"After seeing you in action and seeing how dangerous the galaxy is; she joined the Alliance. Sophie is now a Private in the Alliance Marine Corps."

I was shocked. No matter how hard I tried there was no way that I could even imagine my sister in a marine uniform,

"You're kidding," I blurted out, "my sister, girly-as-you-can-get, Sophie, is a marine?"

Miranda seemed amused by my bemusement,

"She enlisted the day after your funeral."

"Where is she stationed?"

"Unknown. While her record itself is not classified; her current deployment is. We do have reason to believe, however, that Sophie and Chief Williams could possibly have crossed paths and have been sent to the same unit."

"That's… good," I decided, "hopefully that'll keep her safe enough. I should contact them."

"That might not be a great idea, Commander; revealing that you're back from the dead might not have the effects you're hoping for. That goes for your old team members as well."

"Tali was happy to see that I was back. Confused, but happy."

"That's… different. I think it's safe to say that your relationship with the Quarian is stronger than what you had with the others. She was glad to see you; but it hurt her as well."

"Yeah," I said reluctantly, "I felt that too. Thanks Miranda, I'd better go and do some studying; see who we're bringing along with us."

Settled back into my cabin on the top deck of the ship, a mug of hot coffee steaming gently next to the computer; I started trawling through the dozen or more dossiers that Miranda and the Illusive Man had both approved. I started with the apparently brilliant Mordin Solus and quickly found that he more than deserved his exceptional reputation. He had served with the Salarian Special Tasks Group for a number of years, all projects classified of course. He was a scientist of rare genius who had managed entire divisions of the STG's scientific wing for a number of years. However, he was also a combat-capable soldier with a keen knowledge of tech systems. He was a problem solver and never gave up when confronted with an obstacle, no matter how enormous. That mentality was precisely what I was searching for among the potential recruits for Cerberus' war against the Collectors.

It had already been decided that we required Mordin's aid and so I moved on to the other dossiers. There were a couple of mercenaries, a Turian and an Asari, but I drew the impression that they were perhaps more loyal to money than anything else; and there was always the chance that they could not care less about the disappearances of the Human colonies. However, when I looked into the profile of one Zaeed Massani, a Human mercenary of considerable reputation and not all of it good, I became interested. He was a merciless gun-for-hire; but among the gruesome details of many of his contracts I saw the qualities of a natural born soldier and I imagined that he would be a lethal man to have fighting on our side. Latest Intel indicated that he too was currently on Omega; his dossier was added to the "yes" pile.

Scanning through a few other unsuccessful candidates I discovered a thief by the name of Kasumi Goto; an adept infiltrator with unmatched skills for hacking and bypassing systems, sneaking into restricted places that others would never dream of trying to even get close to. She was said to be on the Citadel, but even Cerberus had had a difficult time tracking her down. There was not much said about any combat capabilities, but then Liara was no soldier when I had first rescued her on Therum; and by the time we came to face Saren she had found a solid place among my squad on the battlefield. I figured Kasumi's talents would be extremely useful at some point or another and so she was also added to the yes pile.

A Krogan by the name of Okeer, a veteran of the Rachni Wars and Krogan Rebellions, grabbed my attention. His experience in war was unequalled by any of the other specialists in the dossiers, and I sure did not know of anyone that could come close. Even Wrex was too young to have fought in the Rachni War. Interestingly, Okeer had had dealings with the Collectors in the past; trading prisoners and slaves for technology. I could not agree with these actions, but his limited knowledge of the Collectors and any advanced technology could prove very useful.

When I saw the name "Subject Zero" at the top of the next dossier I could not help but inspect further. So little information was available on Zero except for the fact that she was an extremely powerful Human biotic and a very dangerous criminal. She was wanted across the galaxy for a huge number of crimes; everything from drunk driving to mass murders, arson and being a member of several blood-thirsty gangs. Normally I would not even consider such a person; but there was always a need for biotic power and this Zero was apparently one of the most powerful Human biotics that had ever been discovered. However, underneath the seemingly unending list of crimes and less than admirable activities, I became aware that she always seemed to be on the run, never staying in one place for a long time. There was nothing in the dossier saying that she was being hunted by anyone, but I began to find that I was looking at the qualities of a true survivor in Zero. The yes pile had one more dossier added to it.

Archangel was the name on the last dossier. When I read through the file of this mysterious vigilante, I felt like I had sat down to read an action story or graphic novel. He was on Omega and had turned up there only a few months previously. In that time, he had begun an all-out war on the mercenary and criminal gangs on Omega; fighting back on behalf of the helpless. Small scale raids on shipments and assassinations of high-profile targets only covered but a few of the impressive operations that he had undertaken; the most astounding being the sabotage and destruction of a freighter that the Eclipse mercenary group were using to move tainted element zero into Council Space.

According to the dossier, Archangel had walked straight onto the ship as if he was one of the Eclipse's own men and performed the sabotage completely undetected. He then found the Eclipse captain, shot him through the head at point-blank range to make sure he killed him and escaped from the ship before he was overwhelmed, and before the engine exploded and ripped the ship to shreds. Out of the 16 dossiers that I had been given I had chosen 5 for selection and sent my choices back to Miranda so that she could begin gathering more information on the people in question.

After I had completed my work, I went for my first sleep in three days. I noticed that I had not actually felt all that tired and put my increased endurance down to my new cybernetic implants. Looking at my semi-disfigured face and luminescent red eyes in the mirror again, I had to stop myself plunging my fist into it. It was a testament to Tali that she had been able to see past what I seemed to have become; I almost felt like I was half machine. What if my family saw me like this? I was sure that they would not care, but it could still give them a scare.

I looked down my arms and took my top off only to see that the scarring continued all down my body; the red cybernetics glowing just under my skin as they followed many of my blood vessels and bone structure; the ones that could not have been repaired in the condition that my body had been in when obtained by Cerberus. I shut my eyes and forced myself away from the mirror and went on to my computer, researching what had been happening in the galaxy while I had been dead.