Alex sat up over the edge of his bed and stretched. Sticking his feet into his slippers, he shuffled out into the elevator and proceeded to yawn as the lift began to move down into the Normandy's lower levels. He really hoped that Rupert had the coffee pot on since he needed a serious pick me up. The doors opened and Alex joined in the zombie-like crowd that always shuffled towards the mess at this time of the morning. Having been on board the Normandy now for quite some time, Mess Sergeant Rupert Gardner had the mess flowing like a well-oiled machine because he knew that the ship couldn't operate without her crew being in tip-top shape. Never mind when the Normandy herself, or her robotic platform anyway, came down to pick up Joker's lunch occasionally. Spotting Alex, the crew split down the middle and allowed their Captain unfettered access to the morning sprawl of breakfast items. The choices really had improved monumentally ever since Alex started prioritising higher grade ingredients for Rupert to work with.
"Captain! Good Morning! Well every morning is a good morning now that ya won the war against those Reaper Bastards! How're ya doing?"
"Morning Gardner…" Alex really had no idea how the man always seemed to be fully charged so early in the morning. "I'll take a –"
"Earth's finest Columbian Dark Roast for you, and a Camomile for the ole XO. All ready for ya Captain!"
Alex gratefully accepted the gently steaming cups from Rupert's outstretched hands. "You're the best Gardner." Alex gave the mess sergeant a half-hearted salute with his free hand. "Oh, have these too. Baked 'em fresh not 20 minutes ago." Alex was happy to accept the fresh French pastries.
"Remind me again why we have to give Loco there first pick of the grub? I mean we're Spectres too!"
"Chain of command Major. Chain of Command." Alex laughed as James deflated in the queue. Alex stepped onto the lift once again and happily bit down onto the crispy flaky pastry. Alex struggled to reach the button as his hands were fuller than normal but then the doors shut before the lift began to ascend into the attic.
"Allow me."
"Thanks Edi."
"No problem Shepard."
"I've asked you before Edi to call me Alex. All my friends do."
"I apologise Alex. By the way, Specialist Traynor asked me to inform you that we received orders from Alliance High Command about a supposed Cerberus facility hidden deep inside a previously unflagged system. We are currently on route."
"Perfect Edi." The Elevator doors opened. "Keep me informed."
"Will do Alex. Logging you out."
Alex entered his quarters and placed the two cups on the coffee table. His bed was empty which meant that the XO was up and about, no surprises there. Following the gentle trail of her favourite perfume, Alex found himself standing in front of the bathroom. Thin wisps of steam poured out from underneath the door, and getting an idea, Alex stripped before buzzing the door open. The air was thickened with steam and Alex quickly spotted his target. Her back was turned to him and she seemed to be lost in her current task of washing last nights 'rigorous exercise' off her. Alex stepped in and she jumped when he wrapped his arms around her from behind. Alex buried his nose deep within her thick obsidian locks, getting almost heady and drunk off the smell that was so quintessentially her. Miranda turned around and slapped Alex, narrowing her eyes at him.
"I told you to stop doing that, you bastard."
"I'm sorry but I couldn't help myself. You're just too damn beautiful." Alex leaned forward and kissed Miranda, who happily returned the gesture before stepping away from him. "No repeat performance for you mister. We have work to do." Stepping around him, Miranda grabbed the nearby towel and wrapped it around herself. "Hurry up and get yourself cleaned up. We have reports to go over before we get to that base."
"How did you -?"
"Both Edi and Traynor sent us a message. It's not my fault you never read your emails…"
The door buzzed closed when Miranda left. As Alex began to lather himself up, he heard Miranda outside.
"How the hell did you get a croissant?"
Isaac kept watch while Ellie tinkered with a console. They were the only survivors left on board the station and unfortunately the entire place was overrun with the remains of both the station's crew and that of the legions of test subjects that Cerberus had kidnapped or bought from the likes of slave traders. Cerberus had managed to find a relic down on the planet below that they believed would be the key to limitless power. That's always an admirable point to work towards, right? To hell with the consequences…
"How's it going over there Ellie?"
"How about you get over here and let me wave the gun around, Isaac?!"
"Jeez… sorry I asked."
"You should be, now keep an eye out for anything moving."
"Yes dear…"
"I swear to God Isaac, I will whoop your ass!"
"No, you won't…"
Suddenly, a monkey wrench hit the back of Isaac's helmet causing him to fall forward. Swerving around, Ellie was staring at him with a smirk on her face, holding a second identical wrench. Looking concerned, her smirk told otherwise.
"What happened? Isaac, are you alright?"
Isaac's face twisted as he laughed at her mockingly. "Very funny."
"I thought so. Anyway, the beacon seems to be transmitting something but I'm not sure. It seems like Cerberus really wanted us and this station to pretty much not exist."
"Fuck! How the hell are we going to get out of here? The eastern docking bay is destroyed and the western one is full of those fucking monsters… If I see one of those Cerberus bastards again, I'm gonna kill them."
"We should have a better chance of finding someone if we can get the signal amplifier working. Without it, the beacon is only reaching the edges of this quadrant of space."
"You've flown out there Ellie, is there anything or anyone nearby?"
"Nope. There's a reason why Cerberus decided to build this little war crime machine out here in the middle of nowhere."
There was a sound above their heads and both Ellie and Isaac pressed themselves behind one of the consoles, keeping perfectly silent. Isaac gestured to a vent grate near the doorway and levelling his plasma cutter with the doorway, he waited as Ellie adopted a similar stance beside him. Just like he thought, the grate exploded outward as one of the monsters fell from the ceiling. They were the stuff of nightmares; in fact, they were the Nightmare's nightmares. An infection of sorts that turned anyone, no matter what race, breed, or gender into a twisted monster with spikes, claws, and a bloodthirsty want for destruction. Capable of rendering a person in two with a single swipe of their bone blades, Isaac had been working with his plasma cutter down in Engineering when the outbreak started. Little did he know that the handheld tool would be the one thing that saved his life. When he stumbled into Ellie some hours later, their alliance was one born from a need to survive. Before now, they had never even met each other despite both having been on the station for 3 years.
The monster looked around the dark room, searching for any victim that could have been missed before two swift shots had rendered its head and one of its blades cut off. Isaac and Ellie circled around the room as it swung its remaining claws madly to try and destroy its attackers. Thankfully, two more shots killed the beast. Ellie grabbed Isaac's hand and pulled him from the room.
"Quick! Before its friends show up too!"
"Hey Captain? Miranda? You had better get up here and see this…"
Miranda and Alex stood up from where they were sitting in the mess hall. "I really don't know how many damn times I have to tell Flight Commander Moreau to please refer to me with my title when he's using that damn intercom!"
Alex laughed. "Please Miri. You've saved the galaxy with the guy twice. He'll not refer to you as XO Lawson."
"Then why the hell does he always get your rank correct?!"
"Because he knows that it pisses me the hell off. That's the other thing you forget that he does simply for kicks."
"How about I kick him?"
"I wouldn't do that with his brittle bones and all that. Plus, I really don't think that Edi would approve of you beating up her boyfriend."
"Alex is correct, Ms. Lawson."
"Fine…"
"Thank you. I will bring the matter to Jeff's attention, nevertheless."
"I'd appreciate it Edi. Thanks."
The doors opened on the CIC and the first thing that Alex noticed was the crowds of people staring out through the flight deck windows at the sights outside. Miranda slipped into XO mode seamlessly and purposely made her way through the gathered crowd with Alex following close behind. Thankfully Traynor had the sense to tell everyone to get back to their stations before Miranda had to bark the order and possibly make someone cry.
Looking out through the window, Alex could make out a space station surrounded by vast amounts of debris, almost like an entire armada had been taken out and let rain down upon the site. There also seemed to be what almost looked like blisters or boils growing out along the exterior walls.
"My god… I think that's a Cerberus black site…"
"A black site?"
"The Illusive Man's personal projects. No paper trails, no documented studies. Local files on a single server that could be burned in the case of a breach. No one knows how many are out there or where they even are. Only the Illusive Man would know. Only the Illusive Man had access. Even I didn't know about them."
"Well, whatever it is, it looks like whatever they were doing here blew up in their face."
"There must be someone still onboard the station. Who else would have activated the beacon? Edi, any luck?"
"Negative. I cannot access any interior systems and it seems that whatever biological substance that is covering the walls is prohibiting my scanner from penetrating the walls. I have no information for you, Captain."
"Edi, tell Cortez to prep the shuttle. I'm going to head aboard."
"I'm going too."
"Miranda, I –"
"Have no knowledge of Cerberus systems or any of the possible booby traps that could be laying in wait in order to prevent anyone from accessing whatever project the Illusive man would have been studying here. Also Alex, If you seriously believe that I'm going to allow you to march over to that station without any back-up, you and I need to have a very serious chat when we get back." Miranda walked off towards the lift, heading for the armoury and shuttle bay.
Standing there for a moment, confused at what had just happened, Alex could only watch Miranda's form walk off.
"Alex. I do believe that you are what they call 'Pussy-whipped'?"
"Hey oh!" Joker screamed as he couldn't hold himself together.
Alex rubbed the bridge of his nose as Joker kept making whip noises between bouts of laughter. "Just tell Steve to get the damn shuttle prepped, would you please Edi? And you have the bridge while Miranda and I are groundside."
"Roger that Alex."
After a quick descent into the bowels of the Normandy, Alex stepped out onto the deck and quickly spotted Miranda fastening the straps of her armour.
"What's with the armour?"
"You saw that station, Alex. With whatever is causing that biological substance growth, it could be polluting the air within the station to aid its growth. At least the armour has its own independent air supply and filtration system."
Alex agreed with Miranda's reasoning and quickly got into his own suit of armour before taking his Mattock and Scimitar from his weapons locker. Miranda grabbed her Hornet and her Wraith before they stepped onto the shuttle. As Miranda sat into the Pilot's seat, the door of the shuttle sealed shut.
"Logged. Commanding Officer and XO are away. Flight Commander has the deck."
