Cerberus and an old Enemy:
The Normandy exited Lightspeed in the Arcturus System outside Arcturus Station so Shepard could report to Colonel Yularen about what they found on Noveria and see if he had any more information that could help them in the Hunt for Saren.
"Arcturus Control, this if RSV Normandy requesting a landing dock." Joker called over the comm.
After a few seconds, a voice replied "Copy Normandy, you are cleared to dock."
Shepard was on the bridge with Joker and Luke "Keep most of the crew here." She stated "I'm just going to speak with Colonel Yularen and try and get some information from him. I shouldn't be here for long."
"As you say Commander." Luke stated "Hopefully Colonel Yularen will have something that will help find Saren."
...
A short while later, Shepard arrived at the Republic Security Bureau building and took the elevator to the top floor which was where Colonel Yularen's office was. But when she arrived, she found Colonel Yularen was currently in a meeting with a man that Shepard recognised as Governor Wilhuff Tarkin.
"They would not dare show themselves again." Tarkin said to Yularen "They were supposed to have been wiped out long ago."
"My agents have reported that these fanatics have begun to unite under a leader but we do not know his name." Yularen stated "They're a small threat now but it's better to deal with them when they're a small threat."
"I agree." Tarkin stated "The Republic has always been able to survive because we are united. Humanity alone cannot rule the galaxy; no species is strong enough to do that."
"Even so it does not stop being who desire that." Yularen stated and then looked behind Tarkin "Ah Commander Shepard, I see you have arrived."
"I apologize." Shepard stated "I did not know you two were meeting, I can come back later."
"No need Commander." Tarkin stated "We were just about done and you might want to hear about this."
"Have a seat Commander." Yularen stated and Shepard sat down "Do you know what we were speaking about?"
"Not really Colonel." Shepard admitted
"Well here's a question for you, have you heard of a group known as Cerberus?" Yularen asked
Shepard remembered that name, this Cerberus group have been involved in the destruction of the listening outposts "This Cerberus group are involved in something. Our listening outposts in the Styx Theta were attacked by Rachni that were bred by this Cerberus group in a base in the Argos Rho. We downloaded the data from the droid we found so you can work on it. We destroyed the base afterwards. But other than that, I don't really know what Cerberus is"
Yularen looked at Shepard "The simplest version of Cerberus is that they are a Pro Human movement. As you know, some people in the Republic view that Humans are the most supreme species in the Republic and it is our right to rule the galaxy. They believe that we should conquer the whole galaxy and rule it."
"The idea is madness." Tarkin stated "I may not be the fondest of non-human species I admit, but our Republic has managed to stay together and even we cannot rule the whole galaxy, it's too big. I don't like the Citadel but I have no desire to conquer. Cerberus likes to fund anti-Citadel human senators and they may have agents in the Senate, but I don't know who."
"The data I recovered did mention a General Pryde." Shepard stated "Does that name sound familiar?"
"It does." Yularen stated "Pryde was a leading Admiral in the Republic during the Verge War, he was a well disciplined and no nonsense man but he was also very pro-human and saw the other species as lesser races and didn't like having them in higher ranks in the military. It was only because he was a successful Admiral that he was never demoted but during the Verge War he bombarded a Batarian Colony killing thousands of civilians and disobeyed orders. The Citadel was furious and the Senate stripped him of his position but he fled before he could be arrested. I guess he must be a leading member of this Cerberus."
"I know this isn't involved with your Hunt for Saren but we need to try and get some information on Cerberus before they become a major threat." Tarkin stated
"Governor Tarkin is right." Yularen stated "RSB have been investigating Cerberus for some time. But do you remember Rear Admiral Kohoku?"
Shepard knew who Kohoku was, he was the Admiral whose Marines Shepard had found dead on the planet Edolus where they had been lured by a beacon and killed by a Thresher Maw "I helped Kohoku located some of his marines who went missing but they were dead when I found them." She replied
Yularen nodded "Kohoku tried to find out what happened to his marines and he got some information that this Cerberus group but he's gone missing."
"Missing?" Shepard questioned "People like Admiral Kohoku don't go missing for any reason."
"We believe Cerberus may be involved in this." Tarkin stated "Before he vanished Kohoku was following a lead on Cerberus in the Yangtze System."
"Then I'll head there right away." Shepard stated "Kohoku may be in danger." Then her comm beeped and after looking at Yularen who nodded, she answered the call.
"Commander, we need you back here at the Normandy." Joker called
"Joker, what's going on?" Shepard asked
"We've had an intruder on the Normandy and we need you here to sort things out." Joker replied
"Alright Joker, I was finished here anyway." Shepard replied and ended the call and looked at Yularen and Tarkin "My apologizes but something is going on at the Normandy, there's been an intruder."
"You best head back there right away." Yularen stated "We can't have someone steal our prototype technology." Shepard nodded in agreement and left the office.
...
As Shepard returned to the Normandy, he found Verbro waiting for her "Commander." He saluted "It's good to see you here?"
"So what happened?" Shepard questioned
"Supply Officer Zeplatuz and his assistance Dik were loading supplies when one started shaking. Dik was busy loading supplies so Zeplatuz investigated when a Batarian broke out." Verbro stated "He then started demanding to know where our new Batarian friend Bakira was."
"This Batarian was looking for Bakira?" Shepard gasped wondering what was going on "What happened next?"
Zeplatuz refused to answer and he was shot, thankfully not fatally, Dr Chakwas says he will recover soon." Verbro stated
"So where is this Batarian now?" Shepard asked
Verbro sighed "I'm afraid he's dead. Dik returned and grabbed him. This Batarian wasn't some common slaver or pirate, this guy was an expert, he put up a strong fight against Dik but eventually after Dik was shot in the arm, he lost control and pretty much crushed the Batarian's head."
"Damn it!" Shepard groaned "Now we won't know what's going on and why he was after Bakira?"
"We recovered his Omi-tool." Verbro stated "But the data is encrypted in a form that we don't know."
Shepard looked at the Omi-tool and saw that the data was encrypted "I'll go speak to Bakira." She stated "She might have an idea. In the meantime, prepare the crew, we're going on a rescue missing, Rear Admiral Kohoku has gone missing in the Yangtze System."
"I'll prep the team for the mission." Verbro stated "You better go and speak with Dik and Zeplatuz as well." Shepard agreed and she left while Joker had the Normandy leave Arcturus System and plotted a course for the Yangtze system.
...
Shepard entered the Medical clinic where Dr Karin Chakwas was applying a bandage to the Wookie Dik's arm and Medical droid was nearby to give Chakwas help. Dik growled out something in Wookie to Chakwas.
"Yes I know." Chakwas stated "You were very brave and don't worry, Zeplatuz will be alright."
Supply officer Zeplatuz was lying on a bed with a bandage wrapped around his waist and the medical droid helped to keep his blood flowing.
Dik growled out again and Chakwas turned around "Ah, Commander, I see you decided to pay us a visit."
"I did" Shepard stated "How are they doing?"
"Dik and Zeplatuz will be fine. They both just need a good rest." Chakwas stated "Zeplatuz was more injured but thankfully we got to him in time. If this had gone on for too long then he would have bled to death. He's been put to sleep for now to help him relax but he should be fine but I've advised them to take it easy for a while."
"Agreed." Shepard stated and the Dik growled something in Wookie and thankfully, Shepard understood Wookie "I don't know what's that was about but it has something to do with our Batarian friend Bakira. Our intruder was looking for her, why I don't know but I'm going to find out."
Shepard soon came across Bakira who had now been given her own room. This had been done to keep her away from the rest of the crew as some may take their anger out on her so it was best if she was separate.
"Commander." Bakira stated "I heard about what happened with that intruder."
"And this intruder was looking for you." Shepard stated
"For me?" Bakira gasped "I can only know of one reason for something like this, my father is trying to find me."
"Your father?" Shepard questioned
"Yes." Bakira sighed "My family are high ranking members of the Hegemony's government. They fully support Slavery and in fact, one of my brothers is a well established Slaver. I'm sorry but I don't like talking about my family, I never had a good relationship with them, they were full supporters of the government and they believed that there was only use they had for me, form alliances."
"Alliances as in marriage I guess?" Shepard asked
"Indeed." Bakira stated "My father wanted me to marry this man from another powerful Batarian clan. I was totally against it but I went along but I never intended to make it for the marriage. The marriage was to take place on my soon to be husband's planet and during the journey there, I managed join a group of former Batarian soldiers who planned to defect, I left the ship and by the time my father realised, I was long gone."
Shepard pulled out the Omi tool recovered from the Batarian "This was recovered from our intruder." She stated "But the data is encrypted and none of us can translate it, not even the Astromech droids."
Bakira opened the data and looked through it "I recognise this encryption" she stated "It's an old form of the Batarian language, one that is not used very often even when we were still part of the Citadel. I can decrypt this but it will take time, Commander, when I decrypt this, I will tell you. We have to put an end to this otherwise someone else will try to find me."
"Don't worry Bakira." Shepard stated "You are just a part of this team as everyone else is."
"Thank you Shepard." Bakira stated.
...
The Voyager Cluster was on the outer reaches of the Milky Way but was still considered Republic territory but the military had little presence in the region which was probably a reason why this Cerberus group had sent up base here. There were three systems in the cluster and all of them were named after famous rivers from Earth.
The Yangtze system was named for the Yangtze River, the longest river in Asia and the third longest river on Earth. This system have five planets, the first of them Renshato was a large gas giant that some called a hot Jupiter due to having traces of sulphur in the atmosphere and had a powerful gravity well that kept many other planets far away and prevent any moons from orbiting. Other planets included Patajiri, a planet with a long cold night that caused chlorine in the atmosphere to fall to the surface as frost, Dregir, a barren rock with a weak magnetic field and Alrumter a small rocky terrestrial planet where a weak signal was detected and an old escape pod was recovered. Inside was a long dead a Turian with a few personal belongings and a Prothean Data disk, sadly the body couldn't be identified and so the crew gave the Turian a burial in space.
But on the planet Binthu scans found a secret base and this may be where Admiral Kohoku was found. Binthu had an atmosphere of carbon dioxide with a permanent haze of toxic chlorine and clouds of sulphur dioxide that dropped acid rain on the planet. This alone made the planet unsuitable for colonisation but it would be the last place anyone would think to set up a base so it made sense for Cerberus to set up a base.
Shepard needed to take a team and try and find Admiral Kohoku or see if there was any information that could lead to his whereabouts. Pekue prepared the Mako and Shepard selected her team but scans made by Pressly revealed that there were three bases on the planet but thankfully, they were all close to each other. Shepard decided that instead of attacking all three bases one at a time, they would hit all at once. Shepard would take Ashley, Kaidan and Garrus to one base, Bau would lead the second team which included Wrex, Tali and Liara to attack base 2 while Verbro would attack the third base. Shepard's team would attack the southern base which was located in some rocky hills so they would take the Mako with Pekue while Luke would take the shuttle and drop the other teams close to their bases but scans showed that all three bases had turrets so Luke would have to be careful.
The Mako landed close to the Cerberus Base furthest to the south and not far from the base, they found an old Prothean pyramid and Shepard found a stash of objects which included an old Prothean data disk. They then drove to the base where Shepard used the Mako's cannon to destroy the two turrets outside the base.
The turrets were all that were outside the base, there were no guards outside which may have been because of the atmosphere of the planet, even the space suits wouldn't last long because of the acid rain. So this mission would have to be done quickly so Shepard left the tank along with her team and entered the base.
The base wasn't that big, it consisted of only two large rooms connected by a small corridor. The first room was nearly empty but had a few storage containers. But the second room seemed to hold the experiments that were being done here. In the middle of the room was a Ray Shield Barrier which prevented anything from getting in or out and absorbed any shots that were fired at it. The room was filled with some Cerberus troops that wore full suits of white armour and full helmets that showed no skin. These troops were not common pirates, these men were well trained and they put up a massive fight. But eventually they were defeated.
With the men down, Kaidan deactivated the ray shield but as soon as the ray shield was down, an inhumane snarl was heard and Shepard saw several husks similar to the ones they had seen back on Eden Prime charge at them but Shepard quickly shot them with her assault rifle.
When the Husks were destroyed, Shepard saw a man lying on the floor and as she approached, she gasped as she recognised the man as Admiral Kohoku. He was alive but barely. "Admiral Kohoku?" Shepard gasped "Are you alright?"
Kohoku gasped and coughed up some blood "Com... Commander Shepard, you came?"
Shepard tried to help the Admiral up but he was too weak to even move "Admiral, Colonel Yularen said you were missing, we tracked you here."
Kohoku coughed again "Cerberus, they ambushed me and took me and some other captured troops here. They injected my troops with some kind of serum and I watched as my men turned into these things." He coughed again "Commander, you've got to stop them, these people are mad. They have another base in the Columbia System. The main information is there." He coughed again.
"Just hold on Admiral." Shepard stated "We'll get you back to the Normandy; you're going to be alright."
Admiral Kohoku coughed up blood and his head fell back "No Commander, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to make it. That stuff they injected me with, it's burning me. Just stop Cerberus... they... have to... be... stopped." He gasped the last bit out and then his head fell back. Shepard felt for a pulse but found none. Admiral Kohoku was dead.
Garrus sighed "I'm sorry Commander." He stated "I didn't know him well but he was a good man who cared about his men."
"Cerberus is going to pay for this!" Ashley hissed
"They will." Shepard stated "Ash, help me bring Kohoku's body back to the Normandy, we're take him back to Arcturus once we're done here." Ashley nodded and she and Shepard carried Kohoku's body back to the Mako and they were soon picked up by the Normandy.
...
After the Mako was picked up by the Normandy, Luke arrived bringing back the other teams and Sheppard gathered them in the meeting room. "My team managed to find Admiral Kohoku but he's dead. Cerberus injected him with some kind of serum which killed him. What did your teams find at your bases?"
"We found more of those Rachni soldiers." Bau stated "It seemed that Cerberus was breeding them to create an army."
"And my team found some kind of husks similar to those you found on Eden Prime." Verbro stated
"I'm still confused on them." Ashley stated "The Geth created those by impaling their victims on spikes, how were these created?"
"It may have something to do with this serum you mentioned." Liara suggested "It might be an experimental serum which isn't perfected yet."
"Regardless, we one more stop." Shepard stated "Before he died Kohoku said there was another Cerberus base in the Columbia System. That's where we're going. Later we'll contact Republic military and they'll secure these sites so they can no longer be used again. That's all for now, dismissed." They all left the room while Shepard called for Joker to set a course of the Columbia system.
...
Just like the other systems in the Voyager Cluster, the Columbia System was named after a famous river from Earth, this system being named after the Columbia River, the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. This system had four planets and two Asteroid belts. The first planet Clojiia was a hothouse terrestrial world with a dense atmosphere of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide and had a scorching hot surface made of iron and deposits of gold and had a large amount of volcanic activity, some the size of Australia. There was also Ontaheter, a large ice giant where a Prothean ship crashed before the collapse of their empire and some believe it could be recovered for research. Then there was Gromar, a rocky terrestrial planet that had once been home to a Turian telescope used to map the Terminus Systems but had long been abandoned. This may have also once been home to a Salarian secret base as scans picked up a derelict station and Verbro managed to recover a League of One Medallion.
But it was the second planet in the system, Nepheron that was the site of the Cerberus base. Nepheron was a barren, volcanic Terrestrial world with an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and krypton and had a surface of sodium and magnesium. Although the volcanic sites were spectacular, this world was of little interest to the Republic.
Shepard went back to the Mako along with Liara, Tali, Garrus, Bakira and Ashley and soon the Mako dropped from the Normandy and landed on Nepheron. As the Normandy headed towards the Mako, they found a dead body on the ground and when they checked the body out, it seemed to have once been a Cerberus soldier but he had a Salarian dog tag that once Captain Varsinth, one of the soldiers responsible for hunting the League of One. It is unknown how he got this relic.
"I wonder what killed him." Liara stated
They got their answer when they heard a loud roar and they saw a Thresher Maw nearby, thankfully it was far away from them to attack them and it was down in a large crater where it couldn't get them. Shepard decided to leave it alone and carry on with the mission.
They soon arrived at the base but unlike the bases on Binthu, this base had several Cerberus soldiers outside the base and so the Mako was used to take them out although there were some anti-tank soldiers outside so the Mako took rocket fire and did take a hit but the damage wasn't severe. Once the men outside were taken care of, Shepard and her team entered the base.
Just like the bases on Binthu, more of those white armour troops were in this base but there were also some black armoured troops who were even better trained than the white armoured. The fight here was much more intense and Shepard and her team had to take cover behind some boxes. Bakira threw grenades over the boxes and was able to take out some troops while Liara created a biotic barrier to protect them. The fight here was very intense but eventually, the Cerberus troops were dead and they went to find any information.
They found a stash of weapons in one room which were all high quality and only the best troops could afford these. Shepard found an M-76 Revenant Light Machine Gun machine gun which she picked up. Garrus picked up a modified widow anti-material rifle to replace his sniper rifle. They also found some heavy weapons M-490 Blackstorms, M-622 Avalanche, M-920 Cains and Arc Projectors as well as a large stash of high quality guns and explosives. Shepard wondered where Cerberus got all these weapons, someone very rich and powerful had to be funding Cerberus for them to afford to buy all these weapons. Shepard would have to report this to Yularen. Shepard had Garrus, Bakira and Liara load the weapons which they would take back to the Normandy while Shepard went with Tali and Ashley to check out the other room and here they found the main computer network.
"Alright Tali" Shepard stated "This is yours since you're the best hacker."
"I'll do my best Commander." Tali stated and activated the computer. She looked through some of the files but then an alarm sounded, it seemed that Cerberus was able to detect a hacker and they began to purge the files. But Tali was quick enough to download them before they were deleted. The files were encrypted but she was sure that RSB could use this information. With the job here done, they went back to the Normandy with the data and the weapons.
...
As soon as the Mako was back on the Normandy, Communication Officer Doka Phasa contacted Shepard "Commander, you better get to the communication's room, we've got an incoming transmission from Admiral Hackett."
Shepard knew Admiral Steven Hackett, he was the Admiral of the First Fleet and the Captain is the RSD Kilimanjaro, the flagship of the Fifth Fleet and he was the commanding officer of Shepard's mother so he was a very important person to Shepard, she had to know what Admiral Hackett wanted. "Alright Doka, I'll be right there." Shepard soon made her way into the communication's room while the now healed Dik helped Bakira take out the stash of weapons from the Mako.
Shepard arrived in the Communications room where the Togruta officer was waiting for her.
"Commander." Doka stated "Admiral Hackett contacted us while you were on the surface. He said that he had an urgent mission for us while we were in the Voyager Cluster. He asked that you contact him when you got back. I've contacted him now and he's replied."
"Alright Doka, put him through." Shepard stated and the hologram activated which showed a middle aged man with a stubble beard and thin greying hair. "Commander Shepard, I was informed that you were in the Voyager Cluster and something had come up from there which really worries Republic HQ."
"What's going on Admiral?" Shepard asked "Does it have something to do with the Geth?"
Hackett shook his head on the hologram "No, but it does have something to do with someone who you were involved with a long time ago during the Verge Wars, do you remember Elanos Haliat?"
Shepard remembered the name alright, this Elanos was involved in something big for both Shepard and the Republic during the Verge War "Elanos Haliat? You mean the mercenary leader who was responsible for planning the Skyllian Blitz with Batarian support?"
"The very man." Hackett replied, Elanos Haliat may have been a human pirate but he couldn't turn down an offer from the Batarians to sack the Republic's largest colony in Skyllian Verge. Once his involvement was discovered, Elanos disappeared and has been hunted for many years but he vanished. "Admiral Thrawn has reported that Elanos ambushed one of his ships when it wandered off and has stolen a bomb from the ship that was to be used to destroy a Geth base. This bomb has a 20 kiloton tactical fusion warhead, about the same as the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima back in the 20th century. If Elanos uses that bomb on one of our colonies, well you already know what will happen. We cannot allow that to happen Shepard, you have to find Elanos and secure the bomb."
"I understand how severe this is Admiral." Shepard stated "I will go right away but how will I find Elanos?"
"Thankfully Elanos failed to deactivate the tracker on the bomb." Hackett stated "The Bomb has been tracked to the Amazon system in the Voyager Cluster. That was why I asked you since you're in the Voyager Cluster."
"It shouldn't take me long to get there." Shepard stated
"Thank you Commander." Hackett stated "But there's one more thing, after you've finished in the Voyager Cluster, the Republic military wants you to head to the Armstrong Nebula. Admiral Thrawn of the Seventh Fleet is engaging Geth there and there may be information as to where Saren is. We need you to find it."
"After I finished here in the Voyager Cluster, I'll head straight to the Armstrong Nebula." Shepard stated
"Good luck Commander." Hackett stated "Hackett out." The hologram vanished and Shepard contacted Joker and told him to head to the Amazon System.
...
Just like the Colombia and the Yangtze Systems, the Amazon System was named after a famous river from Earth, this system was named after the Amazon river, the longest river in South America and the second longest on Earth. This system was home to five planets, the furthest of them from the sun was called Tremar, a hydrogen-helium gas giant with traces of methane and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere. Next was Sybin, a small rock and ice planet with a thin atmosphere of hydrogen sulphide and ethane. The crust contained significant deposits of green serpentine, a mineral formed by volcanic activity which suggested that Sybin was once geologically active in the past. But while the Normandy was nearby, scans picked up a large mine grid and with help from Pressly, a small team led by Verbro recovered a small probe marked with the Turian Quadium outpost insignia. The next two planets, Dernecua and Sonedma were both super terrestrial worlds but were of little interest to anyone.
But the first planet in the system, Agebinium was the planet of interest as this was where the bomb signal was coming from. This small terrestrial planet once had a thicker atmosphere but every 16 years, the systems red star blasted the planet with storms which have blown the atmosphere apart. Shepard arranged her team with included Kaidan and Ashley. Bau came along as well since his sniping skills may come in handy and since there was a bomb here, Tali and Bakira came along, Tali for her hacking skills and Bakira for her explosive skills. Once the team was ready, the Mako was dropped onto the planet surface.
The landing site was a large chasm but the signal for the bomb was nearby so Pekue drove the bomb towards the signal but they soon saw that the signal was coming from an old abandoned mine.
"Wait, the signal is coming from a mine?" Tali questioned
"That defiantly is suspicious?" Bau stated
Shepard walked carefully towards the mine and looked at the others "Everyone be on your guard." He stated "This bomb has enough explosives to explode this whole mine on top of us and probably cause a rockslide. Haliat is probably going to be waiting for us in there so be on your guard."
The group then entered the mine but to their confusion, no one was waiting for them. In fact the whole mine was empty. No guards, no traps, no explosives. Something was not right here. Then they found the nuke that they were looking forward but Ashley stopped.
"I don't like this Commander." She stated "This has to be a trap of some kind. There is just no way that Haliat would make this so easy for us."
"I agree." Shepard stated "But I don't know what Haliat is doing."
Then a loud bang was heard and the mine shook knocking everyone off their feet. Bau cough as he got up "That was a detonator Commander." He stated and then he looked at the entrance which had been caved in "This was a trap, Haliat has sealed the entrance."
The group heard a few beeps and they saw an Astro droid nearby which activated a hologram and a bald human male with thick muscles appeared "Commander Shepard" he stated "We meet at last."
Shepard did not recognise the man but she already had an idea on who this was "I guess you're Elanos Haliat."
Elanos laughed "You are right in your guess. Once I was the most successful pirate in the Terminus System. I had hundreds of gangs under my control, I decided where they would strike and I had my own small empire, small colonies bowed to me, I was an Emperor of my own Empire. I had the most men out of all the other gangs, I seized the most ships, sacked the most colonies and made the most money. Your Republic made my life hard so I took the opportunity when it was given to me to send the Republic a message. I assembled the largest fleet from the Terminus Systems, thousands of skilled pirates, slavers and mercenaries, hundreds of ships and we attacked your largest colony in the Verge. The attack went off as planned since your Republic Fleet was away on tests at the time. The attack was on the verge of victory but then you came along and destroyed it. You held your position long enough which allowed reinforcements to arrive. I lost the majority of my fleet, a large amount of my men had been killed but I lost the respect of my allies. They turned against me and my own Empire crumbled. And it was all because of you!"
Shepard glared at the man "Don't act like you're a victim!" she snapped "You're kind are nothing but criminals who attack those who cannot defend themselves. Your kind has no place in the galaxy!"
Elanos laughed "You don't understand anything. I've been planning my revenge for years. If I kill the woman who ruined my career, I will regain some of my lost respect. The bomb I stole was not to be used to attack a colony, it was to lure you. I knew the Republic would send one of their best to stop me and my plan worked. Now you're trapped in the mine with a bomb that's about to go off while I escape. Oh and if you haven't noticed, these mines are laced with heavy metals so I'm afraid that you won't be able to use your radios. And thank you for the Mako; it will make a fabulous prize. So long Shepard." The hologram faded and they heard a ticking noise as the nuke activated and had a 1 minute countdown.
"Hold on Shepard." Bakira stated as she knelt in front of the bomb "I'm on it."
"I'll help" Tali added.
Tali was able to hack the bomb, she was unable to disable the countdown but she was able to open the mainframe of the bomb. This allowed Bakira to quickly defuse the bomb by using her explosives skills to cut out the detonator and cut the wires that led to the explosives.
When the bomb was disable, they let out a sigh of relief "That was too close Commander." Bau stated
"I know." Shepard stated "We need to find another way out of here."
Ashley quickly found another tunnel leading away from where the bomb was and they quickly headed up the tunnel to find a way out.
...
Thankfully, this new tunnel did lead them back to the surface and they were now on the top of the cliffs that formed the chasm. They also saw what looked like the mercenary base not far but this looked to be a temporary camp, not a proper hideout. Shepard and her team had a vantage point and they could see the camp.
"Hold on Shepard." Bau stated as he took out his sniper rifle "I'll take look." He looked through the scope on his rifle and zoomed in to see the camp "I can see Haliat as well as about 10 men. That's not a big team, he must have more men somewhere." He then saw a shuttle "That must be his shuttle, I can see them preparing to load something on board." He then gasped at what he saw next "Oh man, they've got the Mako and Pekue. I see Pekue tied up in the commander's tent."
Then Shepard's comm went off "Commander, please respond."
Shepard replied back "I copy Joker, I apologize, but we had a situation with the bomb."
"You can tell me about that latter." Joker stated "Anyway, we found a pirate frigate up here, the stealth drives are still in operation so they haven't seen us yet, do you want us to take them out?"
"Do it Joker." Shepard replied "Take that pirate ship out."
"Will do Commander." Joker replied and the call ended.
Shepard looked at the team "Alright, I have a plan, Bau will remain here to provide cover fire, Ashley and I will sneak into the camp to free Pekue. And Bakira, set some explosives on that shuttle, make sure they can't take off."
"Will do Commander." Bakira stated and they all went to do their missions. Bakira was an expert at sneaking as well as explosives and was able to sneak past the lookouts and make it to the shuttle where she planted some thermal detonators to the shuttle's engines and then she sneaked away behind a rock where Shepard and Ashley were waiting for her. Then Bakira activated the detonator and the explosives detonated and blew the shuttle apart and created a distraction to allow Shepard and Ashley to charge into the camp while Bau sniped some of the pirates from his vantage point. These pirates were not well trained and were quickly dealt with. Shepard saw Haliat groaning on the floor clutching a wound.
"You little bitch!" he snarled at Shepard "Why do you have to ruin everything?"
Shepard glared at the man "You've ruined the lives of so many people!" she snarled back "Now your crimes have come back to bite you." There was a massive explosion in the sky and Shepard looked up to see the end of a space battle.
Then Joker called over the radio "Shepard, the pirate ship is destroyed."
"Good job." Shepard replied "Prepare to pick us up Joker, we're done here."
"Will do Commander." Joker replied and ended the call.
Haliat glared at Shepard "One of these days, you will pay for this."
"Not by you." Shepard responded "Unlike you, I don't commit crimes." Haliat managed to push himself up and charge at Shepard only to be shot in the back by Ashley and Haliat crumbled to the ground.
"That's for all the people on Elysium!" she snarled.
Shepard didn't care about Haliat's death but felt that she had finished what had been started a long time ago. She had ended a story from her past and brought justice for a crime that had been committed long ago. Bau quickly ran down the hill with Tali and Bakira helped Pekue from the tent.
"Thank you Commander." Pekue stated "These pirates ambushed me as soon as you entered the mine. They were watching us since we landed. They were going to take the Mako and sell me into slavery. I'm glad that you're not dead like they told me."
"It will take a lot more than a bomb to kill me or my team." Shepard stated
"Thank you again Commander." Pekue stated "And here, one of the pirates brought these drawings from a scavenger nearby. The drawings look Turian and you've been collecting these insignias."
Shepard looked at the drawing which was of the Syglar Outpost and thanked Pekue. Then they all went back into the Normandy and were picked up by the Mako.
Chapter End:
Notes: Well another chapter has been finished. I did hope to have this finished before the end of June but I was unable to finish it in time. I used this chapter to bring some of the new Normandy officers to have a bigger role than just named and one Officer will play a role in the next chapter which will be the Armstrong Nebula which will be a main quest in this story. I will be able to have what some fans want which will be a proper space battle and I will try and write it as best as I can. I was going to have this chapter include the personal quest for Bakira but it turned out that Cerberus quests were not in the Hades Gamma like I originally thought as it's been a while since I played Mass Effect so I changed it. Bakira and Kaidan's personal quests will replace some of the side missions in the Hades Gamma and I will write them soon. But until then, enjoy this chapter and look forward to seeing some popular star wars characters in the next chapter. But I will be working on other stories as well.
