It didn't take long for Shepard to get a response from Councilor Hackett about where the research facility that was producing the biotic cure was located. To Shepard's surprise, Hackett told him the facility was located on Oliveira, the moon of the planet Silva in the Euler System of the Arcturus Stream cluster. The reason for Shepard's surprise was last he heard there were no infrastructure's left on Oliveria since Silva stopped serving as a source for helium-3. Hackett explained that it was because Oliveria was thought by the galaxy to be abandoned that it was chosen as the site for the facility. Until Shepard had told him about the mystery backer having blueprints for the facility, Hackett thought that facility was still a closely guarded secret. Hackett ordered Shepard and his squad to get to the facility as soon as possible and stop whatever the backer was planning. Though they both knew Shepard was planning on going even if Hackett didn't give the order.

That was how Ashley had now found herself sitting on the Kodiak shuttle heading towards the facility. Garrus and Liara, who had boarded the Normandy just before Shepard got the location from Hackett, were with her in the passenger compartment doing a final weapons check. Shepard was up front in the co-pilot's chair with shuttle pilot Lt. Steve Cortez next to him. For the better part of the trip, no one said a word until Shepard started trying to establish contact with the facility. From the urgency that was slowly building in Shepard's tone, Ashley was getting a bad feeling that Shepard wasn't having any luck. She got up from her seat and moved towards the pilot's compartment just in time to hear Shepard curse.

"No luck reaching the facility skipper?" she asked.

Shepard shook his head and kept his eyes focused on the controls while he spoke to Ashley, "it's like there's no one there. From what Hackett told me, the facility is supposed to have protocols in place to prevent communications blackouts. There's no reason our calls shouldn't be answered unless…"

"…unless the backer's forces have already begun their attack and killed everyone. If the enemy is already there then someone has probably heard our hails and knows we're coming."

"They wouldn't have needed to hear our hails to know that. The backer practically dared me to find this place. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a timetable predicting that we would be arriving at this very time."

"I have the facility on sensors Captain," said Cortez, "we'll be there in a few minutes."

"Copy that Lieutenant. Williams make sure everyone is ready back there. We don't know what's waiting for us so we should expect the worst."

Ashley was about to acknowledge Shepard's instructions when she suddenly was overtaken by a familiar sense of nausea. She quickly placed a hand on her mouth and made a small sound as she attempted to keep herself from throwing up. The noise was loud enough that it caused Shepard and Cortez to turn around. She was barely able to drop her hand from her mouth before they faced her. From the way they looked at her, Ashley figured that she must have looked as bad as she felt.

"You okay Commander?" Cortez asked.

Trying to hide her discomfort, Ashley did her best to smile.

"Yeah Lieutenant," she replied, "just thinking about the mission. We'll be ready to go as soon as we land skipper."

Shepard and Cortez smiled back and then turned their attention back to the controls. Once they had completely looked away, Ashley moved quickly towards the back of the shuttle attracting the attention of Garrus and Liara. She took a seat across from them and began taking slow, deep breaths in an attempt to settle the nausea. To her relief, the nauseous feeling passed. It was at that point she noticed Garrus and Liara looking at her with concern.

"Are you all right Ashley?" Liara asked. "You don't look well."

"I'm fine," Ashley replied trying to convince herself that she was as well, "just had a brief attack of the jitters. That's all."

"Happens even to the best of us," said Garrus, "even though we've defeated the Reapers, which were probably the worst enemies I will ever have to face, I still get a little bit tense before a fight. As long as you don't let it overtake you too much, you'll be fine."

"Thanks Garrus, I'll keep that in mind. Anyway, Shepard wanted me to tell you to be ready for anything. The facility is not responding so the enemy has more than likely begun their attack and they will be expecting us. Until we know for sure who we're up against, we need to expect the worst."

Garrus nodded his acknowledgement and went back to work on his rifle. Liara nodded too but she didn't take her eyes off Ashley right away. From the look on her face, Ashley felt that Liara was not as easily convinced as Garrus was that she was fine. It was like Liara was feeling the asari equivalent of female intuition that something was wrong. Eventually Liara decided to let the matter be and went back to work on her own weapons.

The shuttle remained silent for the remainder of the trip. All the while, Ashley sat trying to figure out if she really was fine. The nauseous feelings were coming more frequently and each time they came was stronger than the last. If it happened again she doubted she would be able to stop herself from finally throwing up. She silently cursed to herself as she wondered why this had to be happening to her now and if she had made the wrong decision by not having Dr. Chakwas take a look at her before they left. It was her original plan to get a physical as soon as her shore leave was over and she was back on the Normandy. Despite coming back to the ship sooner than expected, Ashley decided to put off the visit. The recent developments with the mystery backer caused her to convince herself that she would be fine without the visit a while longer. She wanted to be with Shepard to support him when he found the backer and she didn't want to be medically forbidden from doing so. After what just happened though, she wondered if her stubbornness was finally getting the better of her.

When the shuttle had gone and Shepard and his squad were left on the roof of the facility, the first thing that got his attention was the lack of battle sounds. There was no gunfire, explosions or the sound of someone giving orders. Did they miss the battle? That was what it sounded like but he couldn't imagine that the backer's forces could have taken an Alliance facility that quickly. But Shepard knew that even if there wasn't a battle going on at the moment, there was a good chance there would be one shortly after they entered. He ordered his squad to ready weapons as they made their way towards the roof's stairwell access.

With the access codes Hackett had given them, getting into the facility was easy. The first room they entered after exiting the stairwell reminded Shepard of a security checkpoint at a civilian spaceport. There were several walk-through scanners and x-ray machines to scan luggage. Considering the secret nature of the experiments conducted in the facility, it made sense to Shepard that they would have this tight of security even for visitors who came in from the roof. No doubt there was a similar setup down on ground level.

Aside from the security equipment, the room was also filled with something that they were sort of expecting. The room was littered with bodies of the Alliance security staff that manned the checkpoint. They were expecting to find bodies since the attack had likely happened before they arrived. What they did not expect was to find bodies here in this room. There was no evidence that the backer's troops had entered from the roof. If an attack was launched from below, the guards on the roof would've had to join in the attack on the lower levels. Yet the bodies scattered around the room told Shepard that they never had a chance to leave their posts.

The other strange thing was there was no evidence a battle had taken place in the room. There was no blood on any of the bodies or walls and no bullet holes. It was almost like every guard had just dropped where they stood. Shepard ordered Garrus and Liara to check the bodies while he and Ashley ran to the door on the opposite end of the room to check the adjacent hallway for hostiles. A few chirps came from Garrus and Liara's omni-tools as they began gathering readings.

"Shepard," said Garrus as the results of his scan began coming in, "I'm picking up residue from some kind of gas in their lungs."

"So they were poisoned?" Shepard asked.

"No," Liara gasped in surprise, "the gas knocked them out but they're still alive."

Both Shepard and Ashley turned to Liara surprised at her reply. Ashley quickly knelt down to the closet body and felt for a pulse. Sure enough, though it was weak, she could feel a steady pulse. She nodded to Shepard to confirm Liara's finding.

To Shepard, the fact that the soldiers were still alive didn't make sense. Strategically it would have been smarter for the backer's troops to kill every soldier they came across. That way there was no chance of someone waking up and shooting them in the back. True Shepard would prefer being able to complete a mission with no casualties as he was not someone who took pleasure in killing. But the truth was it was too risky to do that on most missions. Even if you could use a knockout gas that worked for a long period of time, there was always a chance someone might wake up sooner. What little he knew about the backer told him they should have been smart enough to know that as well. Yet it seemed that the backer's troops went to extreme lengths to keep the soldiers alive.

On the other hand, it did explain why there weren't any battle sounds when they arrived. If the backer's troops had released the gas in every room in the facility, the opposition would have been taken out quickly and they wouldn't have lost any people. It also explained why the guards never had the chance to leave their posts. The part that troubled Shepard the most was the fact it would be easier for the backer's troops to knock everyone out if there was an inside man with access to the ventilation systems. Considering the backer's influence, it wouldn't have surprised Shepard if the backer had bought someone off. That aside, the only question remaining was if the backer's troops didn't have a lot of resistance, were they able to complete their mission and leave before Shepard and his squad arrived?

"All right people," he said, "according to the blueprints we got from the picture frame, the floor we're on right now is used as office space for the top researchers. The bottom two floors are where the labs are. We don't know for sure what the backer's forces are looking for here so we'll work our way from room-to-room and move down to the lower levels. Watch your fire as there may still be some conscious friendlies hiding somewhere otherwise anyone who attacks us is to be treated as hostiles."

"Got it," Ashley, Garrus and Liara said in unison.

Once everyone was ready, Shepard led them out the door and into the hallway. Just like the blueprints indicated, the hallway had rows of doors that went clear down to the other end. Each door had a sign on it to indicate the title of the person who occupied the office on the other side. The group made their way down the hallway in a diamond shaped formation. Shepard took point watching for any action from the front. Garrus watched the back for the unlikely event that they might have missed someone who would try to surprise them from the back. Liara and Ashley walked side by side in the middle and had the job of securing each office. Every time the group reached a door, Shepard and Garrus would hold position while Ashley and Liara quickly peeked inside the offices looking for any hostiles or any indication that the room had been searched.

The majority of offices they checked were for the most part all clear. A few of them did have the unconscious body of the person who the office belonged to but it wasn't a surprise that they were inside when the gas knocked them out. It was when they got to the second to last set of doors that they found something unusual. The office Ashley checked was fine but the one Liara checked was different. The sign on the door said that the office belonged to the facility's chief security officer. Unlike the other offices, this one had clearly been ransacked. Drawers were emptied, books were thrown off shelves and anything that was sitting on the desk had been knocked onto the floor.

Shepard silently signaled for Garrus and Liara to stay in the hall and keep watch while he and Ashley stepped inside the office. He wasn't optimistic that they would find anything but it was possible whoever ransacked the office left behind a clue. For the most part he was right. Most of the items they examined didn't help them. Not that Shepard was surprised because he felt that if the stuff in the office was important to the backer's forces, they would have taken them. The key was to figure out what items were missing. That would prove to be difficult as Shepard and Ashley didn't know what was in the office to begin with.

"Ash, I found something," said Shepard.

He was standing in front of a large steel cabinet. Though from what Shepard saw inside it seemed to mostly serve as a wardrobe. There were several changes of clothes inside. They were mostly formal items but there were some casual wear as well. The item in particular that caught his attention was an Alliance dress uniform. The nameplate outside the office didn't give the name of the security officer but the uniform told Shepard two things about them.

"Based on the insignia," Shepard continued, "the chief security officer is a lieutenant. Based on the uniform itself, I can also tell that she is a woman."

"What makes you say that?" Ashley asked.

Shepard pulled out the uniform and held it in front of him to show it was a few sizes smaller than he was, "let's just say I think this would fit you better than me."

Ashley giggled at Shepard's joke and proceeded to search the security officer's desk. While there was nothing in the desk's drawers, Ashley's inspection of the desktop turned up an important clue. The desktop for the most part had been cleared of every item that had been on top as evidenced by the terminal and office supplies sitting on the floor next to it. Upon closer examination however, Ashley noticed a few strands of long brown hair.

"Do you think these have been here long?" Ashley asked Shepard.

"I doubt it," he replied, "this place probably has a cleaning service that comes in once a week and tidies up the offices. These hairs were left here sometime in the last week, maybe even today. If that's the case then we have a serious problem."

"What's that?"

"I think the chief security officer was in here sitting at her desk when the gas was released. She was knocked out and her head landed on the desktop and the hairs were left behind then. Yet her body is nowhere to be seen. If she was knocked out, she wouldn't have walked out on her own. The backer's forces didn't come in here to take something but someone. This mess was deliberately made in an attempt to keep us from figuring out they actually came for her."

"Being the security officer, she would have unlimited access to the entire facility. If the security systems rely on biometrics rather than passwords and codes, then it would make sense for them to take the security officer with them. They'd have no trouble getting into the lab where the biotic cure research is located."

"Assuming that's even what they're after. I'm still not convinced that's why they're here. Right now the only thing we know for sure is our enemy has a hostage that we need to rescue. Come on, we should keep moving."

They rejoined Garrus and Liara in the hallway and proceeded to stairwell door at the end of the hall. The group hugged the wall next to the doorway with Shepard in front. He opened the door and quickly stepped back and listened. When he didn't hear any sounds on the other side, Shepard signaled for everyone to follow him down the stairs. They kept the pace slow so as not to make noises with their footsteps. When they made it down to the next floor, Shepard ordered everyone to hold before they exited the stairwell. It was then that they got their first signs of life.

A pair of voices could be heard on the other side of the door. From what Shepard could hear, he could tell the voices were both male but the tones told him that they were different races. If he had to guess, one was human and the other was a krogan. The krogan voice was talking about some of his fellow operatives patrol patterns and a package that was on its way to his squad leader somewhere else in the facility. Then the krogan said something that got Shepard's blood to boil. He was telling the human, whom he addressed as Chief, how much his boss appreciated his help releasing the knockout gas into the facility's ventilation system. The human replied that he didn't do it for his boss but because he owed the squad leader and was promised that there would be no casualties. It was at the point Shepard realized his theory was right. The backer's forces had inside help.

Shepard turned to the others and formed a plan. As soon as they opened the door, Garrus and Ashley would capture the human for questioning. Meanwhile he and Liara would be in charge of taking out the krogan. It was agreed by everyone that trying to capture the krogan would be too risky and that it was safer to kill him quickly. Besides that, Shepard doubted they would have been able to get anything useful out of the krogan. The last time he tried to interrogate one of the backer's people they committed suicide rather than give anything up. The human on the other hand sounded like he was a reluctant participant. If anyone would be willing to talk it would be him, not that it would be easy though. Shepard held up his hand to give everyone the final countdown before he opened the door.

3….2….1….GO!

The next few seconds seemed to move in slow motion. As soon as the door was open, the krogan and human on the other side turned to see Shepard and his squad. They reached for their weapons but there was no time to draw them. Liara unleashed a warp attack on the krogan to take out his armor. Shepard followed with a concussive shot to knock the krogan off his feet. He then proceeded to fire his assault rifle on him. He was also using incendiary modified rounds to nullify the krogan's regenerative abilities. It still required him to fire every possible round he could before the thermal clip needed to be replaced but finally the krogan was dead.

At the same time, Garrus used his omni-tool to overload the human's shields. Ashley then fired a concussive round of her own. When the human hit the ground, Garrus sprang on top of him and put a gag in the man's mouth to keep him from alerting any enemies who may be nearby. He then quickly cuffed the man's hands behind his back and brought him back into the stairwell where Shepard and the others were waiting. Once everyone was back in the stairwell, they listened for any reaction in the hall or from the floor below. Only silence was heard.

Convinced they were clear, Shepard took the man from Garrus and threw him up against the wall. He then ordered Ashley to watch the door to the hall and Garrus to watch the stairs to ensure no one came from below. Liara stayed with Shepard to question the man in case her scientific expertise was needed. Shepard looked the man over and sure enough he was wearing Alliance battle armor. The markings on his uniform indicated he was an operations chief. Alliance or not, this man was a traitor and traitors were among the criminals Shepard hated the most.

"Listen carefully," Shepard whispered sternly to the man, "I'm going to take the gag out of your mouth so I can ask you a few questions. If you make any attempts to call for help, I will hurt you. Nod if you understand."

The chief didn't show any signs of being afraid of Shepard but Shepard didn't expect him to. All Alliance military personal were trained on how to deal with interrogation. The only chance Shepard had of getting the chief to talk was going to be to convince him that it was in his best interests to talk. The fact that the chief seemed to be reluctant to help the backer's forces would make it easier for him to be convinced to turn on them. The chief finally nodded that he understood Shepard's instructions and Shepard took the gag out of his mouth.

"I know who you are," said the chief, "you're Captain Shepard. They said you might be coming. If you think you can scare me with your empty threats, you're wrong."

"What makes you think my threats are empty?"

"I've heard the stories about you. You don't kill people without a good reason and especially not an unarmed prisoner. So why don't you just knock me out because I'm not going to betray my friend."

Liara chuckled, "that's funny considering the fact that you were willing to betray your fellow soldiers here in the facility."

"WATCH YOUR MOUTH ASARI!" the chief shouted, "I haven't betrayed anyone! I did what I could to ensure that no one was killed when my friend and his people arrived."

"It doesn't matter Chief," said Shepard, "the Alliance stationed you here to guard this place and the secrets it contains. Instead you allowed armed intruders to breech this facility. That is treason and for that alone I could legally execute you right here and now thanks to my Spectre status. But I'm willing to give you ONE chance to do the right thing. If you want to live, all you have to do is tell me who these intruders are and what they're after."

To emphasize his point, Shepard pulled out his pistol and pointed it right at the chief's head. The chief didn't flinch but Shepard could see drops of sweat starting to appear on his face. The plan was working. He decided to try a simpler question. If he could get the chief to answer it maybe he would become more open to talk about other things.

"At least tell me this Chief, why did they take your security officer?"

The tension on the chief's face turned to confusion, "what are you talking about?"

"We passed by her office on the way here," said Liara, "she wasn't there but we know she was when the gas was released. She couldn't have left the office on her own so the only explanation is that they took her."

The chief shook his head, "you're wrong. They wouldn't have needed to take her. None of our security requires biometrics. They were only going into her office to get the codes to the main laboratory. If Lieutenant Lawson wasn't in her office than she must have been somewhere else."

Shepard's eyes opened wide with terror when he heard the security officer's name. Liara's reaction was the same. Even Ashley and Garrus had briefly taken their eyes away from their lookout spots when they heard the name. Shepard's mind started racing. He kept telling himself it couldn't be….her?

"What's….what's the lieutenant's first name?" he asked.

"What?"

Shepard placed the barrel of his pistol right on the chiefs' forehead, "WHAT IS HER FIRST NAME?!"

For the first time since Shepard started questioning him, the chief was shaking with fear. The sudden aggressiveness in Shepard's tone had also caused the others to jump. The fear in the chief made him unable to speak. Then Shepard primed his pistol and shouted the question again. Finally the chief spoke and so fast that Shepard barely caught what he said."

"Miranda, her name is Lieutenant Miranda Lawson! Please don't kill me! Look I promise you she will be fine. Toombs said that all he wanted was her codes to access the labs."