The Kepler Verge:
The Battle of Solcrum had ended in victory for the Republic. The Geth presence was gone and it was unlikely that they would be stronger enough to mount a full offensive against the Republic again. Saren had lost the majority of his army and now the Republic could put more resources to locating the Rogue Spectre. The Republic had taken some losses including a few cruisers and frigates but there were no major losses. Shepard had gone back to the Chimera to say goodbye to Thrawn and to give a copy of the data they recovered from the Geth station for analysis. It might have information on where Saren was. It was during this visit that Luke learnt from his friends that his old friend, Rake, was one of those who had died during the battle; Shepard gave Luke some time to mourn his friend.
With their mission complete, Shepard had gone back to the Normandy but with no orders, Shepard had gone down to the hold to speak with some of her friends there.
She soon came across Garrus "Commander." He greeted "It is good to see you. I saw that your co-pilot, Luke, seemed a little sad."
"He is." Shepard replied "We may have won the fight against the Geth at Solcrum but one of his old friends, Rake, was among the dead. He got shot down during the fight."
"Losing a friend can be hard especially the first time you lose a friend." Garrus replied "I've lost a few friends I've made in C-Sec but the first time is the hardest. It is also hard that I couldn't get justice for them sometimes because of the Red Tape."
"Speaking of C-Sec, you've been with them a while" Shepard stated "Have you seen much action?"
"I was only a police officer; I don't see as much action as you have." Garrus stated "But there were some cases that I've worked on that were interesting."
"Is there any particular case that stands out?" Shepard asked
"There is one that I remember well." Garrus stated "It was years ago but Chellick and I were tasked with tracking black market trade on the Citadel. Most of it was harmless and not worth pursuing. But during the investigating we discovered an increase in the trade of body parts. Organs mostly. Rogue doctors who would sell organs who are desperate for an organ transplant. We have had a few of those but not in the numbers that we were seeing, we didn't know if there was a black market lab or if a freak was harvesting organs from citizens."
"Do things like that happen often?" Shepard asked
"Not really." Garrus replied "Every so often we get a lab that sells unwanted parts through the black market but we do get psychos who kill for organs. In fact during my first year on the job, we caught an Elcor diplomat that was hacking people up and selling their organs. That had the station in a bit of a panic. This case however was much more complicated."
"How was it complicated?" Shepard questioned
"It got complicated after we did the test purchase." Garrus stated "It was normal to do that to see where the organ came from. It could have been from a murder like that Elcor diplomat. We got a sample and did a DNA test, however the match led us to a Turian who was still alive and was pretty sure he never lost his liver. After some questioning, Chellick and I found out he worked for a Salarian Geneticist named Dr Saleon. We got a warrant to check out Saleon's lab to find evidence of cloned organ development. But when we checked it out, we found nothing, no Salarian hearts, no Turian livers, not even one Krogan testicles."
"Wait, you're kidding right?" Shepard questioned "Who would want Krogan testicles?"
Wrex had overheard them answered that question "Some Krogan believe that testicle transplants can increase their virility. Counteract the effects of the genophage."
"Wrex is correct." Garrus added "It doesn't work but it never stops people from trying."
"Aye, I've heard Krogan can pay 10,000 credits for one testicle." Wrex added "That's 40,000 for a full set."
"Someone is making a killing by doing that." Garrus added "Anyway, back to Dr Saleon, Chellick and I were convinced something was wrong so we got some of his employees to try and get some information. They wouldn't talk at first so we knew something was going on but then during the interrogations, one of them started bleeding profusely. We offered to patch him up and he got frantic and freaked out. I ordered a full exam to find out what was going on and our medics found a number of incisions all over his body, some of them fresh. That was our big breakthrough and we realised what was going on, these employees were just employees, they were test tubes. Walking living test tubes."
Shepard realised what Garrus was talking about "You mean that Dr Saleon was growing organs inside of people? That's sick!"
Garrus nodded "He would clone the body parts inside the bodies. Then he would harvest them and sold them off. Most of the victims were poor, he would give the people a portion of the profits but only if the Organ was good, sometimes an organ wouldn't develop properly and it would be left inside. The victims were a mess but only on the inside and no one would ever be able to tell from the outside just how bad shape they were."
Shepard was disgusted by this "I hope Dr Saleon got what he deserved!"
Garrus sighed "That's where the worst part comes in, we never caught him."
"Why?" Shepard gasped
"Once again it was because of red tape." Garrus stated "Dr Saleon was alerted by someone that we were on to him and he took some of his employees' hostage and fled. He stole a ship and we were unable to get him because of the hostages and he got away. In fact, I have a request for you."
"You want to find Dr Saleon?" Shepard questioned
"I do." Garrus stated "He needs to pay for what he did. I later learnt that he changed ships and changed his name to Dr Heart, his idea of a joke. I informed the military but they weren't convinced it was him. Earlier I got the code for his new ship; it's located in the Kepler Verge. I'm hoping we can take a look."
"Well I haven't got anything better to do so I guess we can go and check it out now." Shepard replied
"Thank you Shepard." Garrus stated "But I want to be there when we go. I want to confront this man myself."
"I'll tell Joker to set a course." Shepard stated and then she left to ask Joker to set the course.
...
The Kepler Verge lay in a region between official Republic and Citadel space. The Region was controlled by the Republic but was not a major place of importance. There were some colonial, mining and Terraforming claims by the Republic but some of these ventures were too cost-inefficient for the time being. The Verge was home to two systems, Newton and Herschel. The Kepler verge itself was named after famous German astronomer and mathematician, Johannes Kepler.
The system where Dr Saleon's ship was located was the Herschel system, named after the astronomer, William Herschel, the man who discovered the planet Uranus and the system was home to an energetic blue star and the system had four planets and an Asteroid belt. The first planet, Tungel was a large terrestrial planet twice the size of earth and had a dense atmosphere of nitrogen and ethane. The surface was scorching hot and was made mostly of iron and other heavy metals so it was a planet that mining corporations were competing for mining rights and could be home to a future mining colony in the future.
Matol was the second planet but little was known about it as no surveys had been successful. Matol was seen as a baron rock with earth like weather such as fog and rain so it was a world that could be terraformed but due to the planet's low mass and high radiation from the star, it was not the most ideal planet. The planet Clugon was a strange planet, it looked like a large hydrogen-helium gas giant but in truth, it was a terrestrial planet with thick cloud cover and had an emerald tint due to chlorine and ionized gasses and had over 100 moons. The final planet in the system was a moderate size terrestrial world called Clobaka and had a hydrocarbon atmosphere and a surface composed of chlorides with deposits of solid and liquid form hydrocarbons.
But none of these planets were of any interest to Shepard and the Normandy. Instead it was an old YG-4210 Freighter called the Fedele. These freighters were built by the Republic but were sometimes sold to the Citadel species to transport goods. This freighter had stopped moving and seemed to be drifting in space, a sign that something was wrong. This was also the ship the Garrus said Dr Saleon owned and now Shepard was preparing a team to head on board while Joker prepared the Normandy to dock.
Shepard didn't know what to expect so she took Liara and Ashley along as well as Bakira and Tali. Garrus would also be coming with them as he wanted to confront Dr Saleon.
On board the ship, it was clear something had happened, the power was down and there were no lights at all so Shepard had to rely on their lights to see what was going on. They soon arrived in what looked like a large storage room. Now it was like being in a haunted House and they began to hear monstrous like growls and shrieks. Then something appeared, it was a person but it didn't look human anymore. It charged at Ashley who opened fire and killed the creature.
"What was that thing?" Liara questioned
"That was once a person." Garrus stated as he examined the body "It seems Dr Saleon has changed his experiments. I'm no scientist but this person looks like he was tortured. It seems he was a test subject for some kind of drugs."
"The experiments must have backfired." Shepard stated "These test subjects must have escaped and killed the crew of this ship. Dr Saleon may already be dead."
"If he is then good riddance." Garrus stated "But I must see the body to know for certain."
The crew carried on making their way through the cargo hold, killing more test subjects and they weren't all human, some Asari, Salarian and Turians were also seen and they had all been mutilated and seemed feral. They were all killed and hopefully, Shepard could destroy this research so it didn't fall into the wrong hands.
They soon came into a laboratory where a male Salarian was standing in. "Oh thank you." The Salarian stated "Thank you for saving me from those things."
"That's him Shepard." Garrus stated "That's Dr Saleon."
"What?" the Salarian stated "I don't know a Dr Saleon, my name is Heart."
"Are you sure that's him?" Shepard questioned
"Absolutely!" Garrus hissed "Look at these experiments, he's been torturing people, there is no way he isn't involved in the creation of those test subjects we saw."
"Even if he isn't Dr Saleon, he still needs to answer for what's been going on here." Liara added "This cannot go unpunished."
"Agreed." Ashley added "What's going on here is inhumane."
"Alright!" Shepard stated "You're under arrest Dr Saleon or Dr Heart or whatever you real name is!"
"No!" Saleon growled "You'll never take me alive!" he pulled out a pistol but never fired a shot as Garrus quickly fired his own gun and shot the Salarian in the head, he was dead before he even hit the floor."
"So what do we do now?" Bakira asked
"We need to find out what was going on here and then we'll destroy the ship." Shepard stated "Prevent this from falling into the wrong hands."
"I'll set the reactor to explode." Bakira stated and went to the bridge while Tali found and hacked a nearby computer.
"Hey Shepard." Tali called "Take a look at this, it seems Dr Saleon was doing this research at the request of someone we know."
"Who?" Shepard asked
"Our Rogue Spectre Saren." Tali answered "It says here that Saren has been exposing people to an artefact that causes them to go insane. Saren was trying to find a way to take control of them, make a private army of feral creatures. Dr Saleon was doing research for him."
"Does it say where Saren may be now?" Shepard asked
"No." Tali replied "It does say that Saren has a number of science bases, each one doing it's own research but it sounds like Saren is not alone. He may have other backers supporting him."
"Saren must be part of a group but we don't know what group." Shepard stated "Copy that data, I'll send a copy to Colonel Yularen."
"Already done it." Tali stated
"Then let's get out of here." Shepard stated and the crew left the old freighter after Bakira set the ship to explode.
...
They soon made it back to the Normandy and watched as the Freighter exploded into a small debris field.
With the ship now destroyed, Shepard went to the communication centre to make contact with Colonel Yularen, only to be told by Communication Officer Doka that Colonel Yularen already wanted to speak with her.
"Put him through." Shepard ordered and soon, Yularen appeared on the hologram
"Commander Shepard." He greeted
"Colonel Yularen." Shepard replied "I was just about to contact you about some information I received on my last mission."
"Tell me this information and then I will tell you about an issue I need your help with." Yularen stated
"We've just recovered some data from a rogue scientist who was working with Saren." Shepard replied "He was trying to help create an army of mindless minions, but Saren may have other labs doing the same experiments."
"Pass me this information and I'll try and find out where Saren's base it." Yularen stated "This new information may help find out where Saren is going. Our team is working on the data recovered from the Geth and it seems Saren sent a Geth force to deal with someone he has no further use for. We're still trying to find out where."
"I'll have Doka sent the data to you." Shepard stated "Now what was it you wanted to tell me?"
"RSB has received some troubling information." Yularen stated "Someone is killing former Republic scientists, we have four deaths in the past month and they all have something in common. They were all working on the same classified project on Akuze before the colony vanished."
"I remember the story of Akuze" Shepard stated "The whole colony was slaughtered and then an experienced team was killed by Thresher Maws. We left Akuze alone after that."
"This attack may have something in common with these murders." Yularen stated "There is one more scientist left, his name is Dr Wayne. He was operating on a base on Ontarom in the Newton System."
"The Newton system?" Shepard questioned "That's not far from where I am right now. I'll get there right away."
"Thank you Commander." Yularen replied "Yularen out." Yularen then vanished from the hologram and Shepard went to the bridge to set a course to the Newton system.
...
The Newton system was the second system in the Kepler Verge and was named after the famous polymath astronomer, Sir Isaac Newton. This system was small and only had four planets, Ontarom, Klencory, Juncro and Sesmose.
Ontarom was actually the home of a small Republic colony, a colony which many in the Citadel believed would have collapsed since the planet's moon, Thonal had been slowly declaying affecting the tidal current of the planet and any attempts by the Citadel to mend the orbit had failed but the Republic had been able to fix the moon's orbit and soon Ontarom had developed several settlements and was on the way to having a seat of the Senate. Artists sometimes came to Ontarom as Sesmose, the fourth planet in the system, could be seen from Ontarom and the planet was a beautiful ice dwarf with ice rings.
Klencory was a small rock planet that was claimed by the Volus billionaire, Kumum Shol who had set up his own private army on the planet and claimed to have been granted a vision of 'the lost crypts of lights' on the toxic planet. No one valued the planet and so he had been left alone but the small Republic fleet at Ontarom were prepared if Kumum got any bright ideas. While travelling past the planet, scans found a small volus trading vessel that had been abandoned and a quick search had found a set of Matriarch Dilinaga's writings. The final planet of Juncro was a hydrogen-helium gas giant with traces of chlorine and sodium in the atmosphere and was of little interest to anyone.
After arriving in the Newton system, Doka made contact with Ontarom's colony and they were informed that Dr Wayne was currently at a research outpost a distance from the main city and so the Normandy flew close to the base and dropped Shepard and her team in the Mako. The Mako landed north west of the base and Pekue quickly began driving towards the base. Along the way, they came across the wreckage of a Turian fighter, it was unknown where this wreckage had come from or where the Turian pilot came from but in his hands, he clutched a book that had the Bostra Outpost insignia printed on the cover. As the Mako arrived at the base, they came under fire from a group of small mercenaries. It seemed that someone else had arrived at the base as these mercenaries were not soldiers from the colony.
That was shown when Shepard and her team went inside and saw that the mercenaries had taken some prisoners including the other staff members who were stationed at the base. Garrus got his sniper rifle out and took out one of the guards while Ashley fired on another. Soon the mercenaries were all dead and Shepard began untying the prisoners.
"Oh thank you for coming." One of the prisoners stated "These men were insane, I thought they were going to kill us."
"Is Dr Wayne here?" Shepard asked
The prisoner shook his head "No, the leader had him taken to another room. It seemed these mercenaries were here only for him. I don't understand, what did they want with Wayne and the leader seemed to know who Wayne was. He didn't even ask which of us was Wayne, he quickly identified him. And Wayne seemed to know this man as well."
"I was informed that Dr Wayne was involved in a classified project years ago on Akuze and recently, four other scientists involved in the same project have been murdered."
"We have to hurry Shepard." Ashley stated "How long will it be before Wayne is killed as well."
"But why is this leader hunting these scientists?" Shepard questioned "We'll need to find out when we find him."
"Wayne was taken to the main office." The prisoner stated "You best hurry before he is killed."
Shepard didn't need to be told twice and she and the others quickly ran to the main office and when they opened the door, they saw a man is a lab coat kneeling on the floor with his hands on his head and a man holding a pistol to his head. Shepard and the others pointed their weapons at the man who looked at them.
"Stay back!" he growled "All I want is this bastard!"
"Put the gun down now!" Shepard shouted
Dr Wayne looked at the gunman with pleading eyes "Please, Mr. Toombs, you're insane, you need help!"
"It's corporal! Corporal Toombs!" The gunman yelled "You don't get to lie! Not today! Today the truth comes out!" the man sounded insane like he believed that what he was doing was just.
Ashley noticed something, the name sounded familiar. She remembered someone named Toombs from her days in training and then she remembered the name "Wait, Adrian Toombs? Is that you?"
The man seemed to calm down and looked at Ashley "Ash, Ashley William?" he questioned
Ashley gasped "My god, it is you? What are you doing here Toombs, I heard you died on Akuze!"
"I nearly was!" Toombs snapped "Every night I remember what happened. I want to go to sleep without screaming in my dreams! I want the people who sent me to Akuze to be brought to justice."
"How is killing this man going to bring justice?" Shepard demanded
"He sent me!" Toombs snapped "He sent my whole squad to die, to see how we would do against Thresher Maws! I was the only survivor, I woke up in a cell, the scientists were delighted I had survived. Now they had someone they could run tests on! They were trying to create some kind of super soldier. The scientists were part of some group known as Cerberus, they used me as a lab animal!"
"Cerberus again!" Ashley spat "You know the more I hear about them, the more I hate them!"
Shepard narrowed her eyes at Dr Wayne "Is what he saying true?"
"You can't believe him, he's insane!" Wayne snapped "He has no proof, I demand a fair trial!"
"Is what he saying true?" Shepard demanded again.
"Alright yes!" Wayne snapped "It is true. I was part of Cerberus, I had no choice, when you live in Cerberus controlled territory, you don't say no!"
"Wait, Cerberus controls colonies?" Ashley questioned
"Not in the Republic, they've built some colonies in the Terminus systems, they run them they way they like. They kept them secret from the Senate, you don't mess around with Cerberus, say anything against them and they take you away. When our tests found no results, the project was shut down but we all fled."
"Does Cerberus have agents in the Senate?" Shepard questioned
"They probably do" Wayne replied "But I don't know who they are, not that it matters anyway."
Toombs fired a shot into the air "Are you going to shoot me or are you going to let me kill him?" he demanded "He deserved to die."
"No Toombs, you are better than this" Shepard stated "What you went through was horrible but killing him won't solve anything. If you kill him now, you'll be nothing but a murderer, besides; he may have information that will be useful."
"But if I tell you about Cerberus, they'll kill me!" Dr Wayne pleaded
"We can protect you." Shepard stated "The Republic can keep you at a secure location, but you'll have to tell them what you know. These inhumane experiments cannot go on and they may be a threat to the Republic."
Dr Wayne eventually sighed "Alright." He stated "I'll come quietly."
Toombs then lowered his gun and dropped it before collapsing onto the floor. Ashley who had been an old friend of Toombs helped the man who seemed to be suffered from PTSD.
"He needs to see a doctor Shepard." Ashley stated "He needs to be taken to an Republic hospital, in his state, he could be a danger to others as well as himself."
"For now, we'll take them both back to the colony." Shepard stated "I'll contact Colonel Yularen and request that he sends someone to pick the two of them up and take them back to Arcturus. I can't put the safety of our crew at risk."
"A good idea." Garrus stated "PTSD can cause problems for local law enforcement. Best he secured."
Toombs eventually stood up and walked out of the base with Shepard and her team while Garrus kept a close eye on him.
...
Later, Shepard was back in the Normandy's communication room. After being picked up in the Mako, Shepard ordered Luke to take the shuttle to deliver Toombs and Wayne to the colony's law enforcement headquarters where the two would be secured until the Republic sent someone to pick the two of them up.
Now Shepard was speaking to Colonel Yularen again "So Commander?" he asked "What happened down there?"
"We found out who was killing these former scientists." Shepard replied "It seemed that these scientists were involved in the squad getting killed on Akuze all those years ago. The man behind this was Corporal Toombs."
"Wait, my report says that Corporal Toombs was killed on Akuze with the rest of his team." Yularen stated
"It seems he was held prisoner by this Cerberus group." Shepard replied "Dr Wayne was apparently involved in what happened, Toombs wanted revenge for what was done to him. We were able to talk him down, both he and Toombs are waiting at Ontarum. Toombs is suffering for PTSD, he needs help and Dr Wayne may have some information on Cerberus."
"This Cerberus is being mentioned more and more." Yularen stated "I'm starting to get worried that they may have members in the Republic."
"Dr Wayne did say that they have their own territory that they run." Shepard stated
"We'll find out more when they get here." Yularen stated "I'll send someone to pick them up. As for now Shepard, I have a lead on where Saren is going but I need to run a few checks. I'll call you when I have more information. Yularen out."
Chapter End:
Notes: Well another chapter complete, I did change a few things so I made Saleon working for Saren since the test subjects are like the husks found before so I tried to explain that a bit more. I also hinted that Cerberus controls some territory which will be explained in Mass Effect 2's storyline. I hope you like this chapter and the next part will be Feros although like Noveria, that chapter may be split across several chapters and we'll have a significant change from the game in the Feros part of this story. The next chapter I'll be working on will be Dragon X.
