His alarm was going off. An alarm was... Alarms? "Wake up, Commander." Something shook. A woman's voice, unknown and familiar. "Shepard, do you hear me? Get out of that bed now - this facility is under attack."
Michael's eyes snapped open. The facility shook again. They were under fire. And he hurt like hell. Parts of him just felt weird. He rubbed his jaw, and felt a cut sting beneath his fingers. "Your scars aren't healed, but I need you to get moving. This facility is under attack."
He sat up, ribs aching, and caught sight of a window. Beyond it he could see weapon fire. He was in a hospital. Michael swung around and put his feet on the floor. Alright, he was in a hospital. That was under attack. Now he just needed... The woman's voice again. "There's a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room. Hurry."
A moment later he was moving. The weird feeling seemed only to increase as he moved, and he pushed it aside. Something to be dealt with later. When there was less screaming and running occurring. He retrieved the pistol and armor, dressing quickly as his eyes scanned the room. This was not an Alliance hospital. So where the hell was he? Was the voice even real? He spoke aloud. "This pistol doesn't have a thermal clip."
"It's a med bay. We'll get you a clip from..." Her voice trailed off. "Damn it. Those canisters by the door are going to blow. Get behind cover."
Some kind of medical equipment shielded him from the blast that conveniently blew the doors open. He'd woken before, and there'd been a woman. Miranda? He rose and headed out of the infirmary. "Someone's hacking security trying to kill you. Look for a thermal clip for your pistol."
A mysterious voice on the comm, helpfully stating the obvious. His crew must be here somewhere, probably in the thick of the fighting. He kept moving, grabbing a thermal clip as he went. He moved through a barricade. "Looks like they set up a barricade to try holding the mechs off." Okay, now the possibly imagined voice was getting a little annoying. What the hell kind of drugs had they given him? "Shepard. Security mechs are closing in on your position. Take cover."
Not a hallucination then. He dove behind a low wall as the mechs came in. Armor and a pistol, but little else. Fortunately, that should be enough. Except the pistol took three shots to put each mech down. Well, two the time he got both shots into the control unit. This should be... He paused at the doors, staring at the symbol painted on them. Cerberus? Michael shook his head, and kept moving. Someone better explain something soon.
#
The crew of the station was fighting and dying, and there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't even get to them. For a moment, he considered trying to shoot through the window. "Don't waste time. I can't keep the mechs distracted for long."
Time. Even if the pistol could get through the window, it was already too late to save the people on the other side. The dead wore the same marking as the door. No familiar faces. No Alliance uniforms. If there had been... Who the hell was fighting who, and what side was he on, anyway?
Ah, a grenade launcher. Well, that could solve a lot of problems. He applied rule seven to a group of mechs. "Take the elevator down one floor."
He kept moving, following the instructions of the voice. "You're doing..." Static interrupted the transmission. " - Shepard. Head to the..." More static. "Meet you..." The tone of the voice changed slightly as the message continued breaking up. "Read me? I've got... - closing in... - position."
Great. Now his hallucinations were under fire.
#
An office, with computer logs. He played a few, and saw the voice connect to the woman. She spoke of reconstruction and bio-synthetic fusion and promising results. Michael felt a slight chill as he realized she was talking about him. He shook his head, and caught sight of his reflection in a shiny surface. Well, no shit his scars weren't healed.
Another log, this one a male voice complaining about budgets. Enough credits to buy a frigate or two.
#
A civilian called for help. There was no way to get to the man in time, and Michael saw the heavy mech close in. He was no closer to figuring out what the conflict was. Another log, and the male voice spoke of Miranda. She was the project director. And it seemed he was the project. Michael sighed. He needed to find somebody he could beat an answer out of, and soon.
#
There was someone. Under fire from the mechs, of course. Michael moved in, giving the man some backup fire. The man gave him a startled look when Michael moved into cover next to him. "What are you doing here? I thought you were still a work in progress."
Michael narrowed his eyes. "Look, pal, I don't know where I am or how I got here. Plus my head feels like an overripe melon ready to split open. How 'bout you fill me in a little?" He didn't add 'before I shoot you'. Some things were better left to subtext.
"Damn..." The man nodded. "Yeah, I forgot this is all new to you. Sorry about that. I'm Jacob Taylor..." He paused to shoot a mech. "I've been stationed here for -"
"Hostiles detected." More mechs came in through the door on the opposite side of the opening.
"Damn it." Jacob shot another mech. "Things must be worse than I thought if Miranda's got you running around. I"ll fill you in, but we better get you to the shuttle first."
He was getting really tired of taking orders from people he didn't know. "What's with the mechs?"
"Usually they fight for us..." Jacob shook his head. "Somebody must've hacked 'em. That should be impossible, unless you've got access." He reloaded. "We've gotta get you outta here, Shepard."
A shit show. No wonder it all felt familiar. "It's your station, Jacob." Michael put a shot into one of the mechs. "Lead the way."
"First step..." Jacob fired a shot of his own. "Let's finish off these metal bastards. We're low on thermal clips, but I'm a biotic. Just give the order when you want me to hit them with the good stuff."
#
"Ready to get the hell off this station?" Jacob put his pistol back into the holster.
He needed answers. There was just nobody on this station he trusted to provide them. Michael nodded. "What's the quickest way to those shuttles?"
"Depends where the mechs are thickest. It's probably best if we -" Jacob was cut off by his comm unit crackling into life.
"Check. Check. Anyone on this frequency? Anybody still alive out there? Hello?"
"Wilson? This is Jacob. I'm here with Commander Shepard. Just took out a wave of mechs over in D Wing."
"Shepard's alive? How the hell..." Wilson's voice trailed off. "Never mind. You need to get him out of there. Get to the service tunnels and head for the network control room."
"Roger that, Wilson. Stay on this frequency." Jacob turned towards him.
Something about this all was off. "I think I remember a Wilson checking on me one time when I woke up..." Michael frowned.
"That's him. He's the chief medical tech. Answers directly to Miranda. C'mon." Jacob gestured. "The service tunnels are this way."
He asked Jacob a few more questions as they moved, but carefully.
#
Another log. Wilson's voice, saying something about... Michael shook his head. Two years? How the hell could that be? What was going on here?
Their new guide led them right into a group of mechs. Michael finished off the last one as Jacob got back on the comm unit. "Wilson? Find us another route out of here. Preferably one that doesn't lead into an enemy squad."
A moment later, their 'guide' was calling for help. Michael checked his ammo supply before nodding to Jacob.
#
Jacob led them to server room B and a wounded man on the floor. Michael looked him over. It was the man with the needle, from the time he'd woken before. And the man had been shot. In the leg. Away from any vital areas or major blood vessels. Either he was the luckiest man in the station, or... This was definitely reading like a rule nine situation.
Michael got med gel from a nearby emergency kit and applied it. For a moment, his thoughts turned to Kaidan. If his crew was on this station, they'd have made their way to him by now. That they hadn't meant... No. They'd made it to the escape pods. If he'd survived, they must have as well.
Wilson got back to his feet. "Thanks, Shepard. Never thought you'd save my life. Guess that makes us even now." He looked around. "I thought maybe I could shut down the security mechs. But whoever did this fried the whole system. Completely irreversible."
"We didn't ask what you were doing." Jacob narrowed his eyes. "Why do you even have security mech clearance? You were in the bio wing."
"Weren't you listening? I came here to try to fix this. Besides, I was shot. How do you explain that?" Wilson set his jaw defensively.
"I don't care who set up who..." It was already pretty obvious Wilson was up to no good. Michael shrugged. "Those mechs are shooting at all of us. We'll sort it out later." And possibly shoot Wilson some more.
"We need to find Miranda first." Jacob turned towards him. "We can't just leave her behind."
"Forget about Miranda." Wilson shook his head. "She was over in D wing. The mechs were all over that sector. There's no way she survived."
"A bunch of mechs won't drop Miranda. She's alive."
"Then where is she? Why haven't we heard from her?" Wilson raised an eyebrow. "There are only two possible explanations: she's either dead..." Wilson waved a hand. "Or she's a traitor."
"Haven't known her long enough to trust her." Michael shrugged. Though if she was a traitor, all she'd have had to do was keep her mouth shut and he'd be dead.
"This project was Miranda's baby. She'd never sabotage it." Jacob gestured.
"Okay, maybe she's not a traitor. But that doesn't change the facts. We're here, she's not. We need to save ourselves." Wilson nodded before turning to point. "The shuttle bay is only a few -" He was cut off by more mechs entering.
#
"Ok. We took'em down, but this is getting tense." Jacob put his pistol away again. "Shepard, if I tell you who we work for, will you trust me?"
"This isn't really the time, Jacob." Wilson immediately protested.
"We won't make it if he's expecting a shot in the back."
"If you want to piss off the boss, it's your ass, Jacob."
Jacob turned towards him. "The Lazurus Project, the program that rebuilt you..." Jacob took a deep breath. "It's funded and controlled by Cerberus."
Which explained the Cerberus logo every fucking where. Michael gave Jacob an annoyed look. "You told me you were with the Alliance. I don't like being played for a sucker."
"I didn't lie to you, Commander. I was with the Alliance." Jacob hesitated a moment. "Before I joined Cerberus. The Alliance declared you dead. They gave up. Cerberus spent a fortune to bring you back." He took a couple steps towards Michael. "Look, I'd be suspicious too. But right now, we have to work together. I thought you deserved to know what's what. Once we're off the station, I'll take you to the Illusive Man. He'll explain everything. I promise."
The good cop was going to take him to meet the bad cop. Yay. "Illusive Man? Is he in charge of all this?"
"Yeah." Wilson nodded. "That's not his real name, of course. Nobody knows who he really is."
"It's a code name the Alliance used for him. It kinda stuck."
"I don't care what his name is, he just needs to answer my questions." Michael shook his head. "All of them." He turned and started heading towards the shuttle bay.
Jacob hurried to catch up. "He spent a lot of money and time bringing you back, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to tell you whatever you want to know."
An optimist. How adorable. Michael rolled his eyes and kept walking.
#
Another log went over how much damage he'd sustained. He may not have been a full medic, but he had gone through N7 training. From the sound of things, he belonged in a coffin, not fighting his way through a station. Michael shook his head. Maybe Kaidan or Dr. Chakwas could explain it to him.
#
Wilson rushed forward to the shuttle bay door and started tapping the controls to get it open. "C'mon, through here. We're almost at the..." He blinked when he saw the woman waiting on the other side of the door. "Miranda? But, you were..."
Miranda shot him in the throat. "Dead?"
Michael aimed his pistol at her as Jacob rushed over to Wilson's body. "What the hell are you doing?" Jacob asked.
"My job. Wilson betrayed us all."
"You should have taken him alive." Michael kept his pistol trained on her. "See what he knew."
"Too risky." Miranda shook her head. "I've put too much time and effort into bringing you back to life to let you get killed now."
"You really think Wilson's capable of that?" Jacob turned towards her.
Miranda gave the corpse a pointed look. "Not anymore."
She made a good point. He lowered the pistol. "I had a feeling Wilson was just looking for a chance to shoot me in the back."
"Good instincts." Miranda nodded to him. "Some people are far too trusting to ever see that coming." She gestured. "Come on. Let's grab this shuttle and get out of here. My boss wants to speak to you."
"You mean the Illusive Man? I know you work for Cerberus."
"Ah, Jacob. I should've known your conscience would get the better of you."
"Lying to the commander isn't the way to get him to join our cause."
"Well, since we're getting everything out in the open, is there anything else you want to ask before we go, Commander?"
"Three questions." Michael met her eyes. "One. Is any of my crew on this station?"
"No." Miranda shook her head.
"Two. Where are we going?"
"Another Cerberus facility. The Illusive man is waiting for you there."
"Alright." Michael started walking towards the shuttle. "Three. Why does a secret organization slap its logo everywhere?" He frowned. "Come to think of it, why does a secret organization even have a logo?"