Book II - Chapter 8: Alison Gunn
Miranda didn't bother to look up from her workstation when she heard the soft chime at the door; she knew exactly who it was. Everyone on the station knew not to bother her with frivolous nonsense when she was working in the privacy of her own office. The only person with a standing appointment with her was Jacob, who was due back from his assignment more than two hours ago.
"You're late." She said, not really expecting a reply from the ex-Alliance.
"I'm lucky I made it back at all."
That got her attention. Miranda paused and looked up over the edge of her monitor to regard her visitor for the first time since he arrived. Her jaw dropped once she took in the sorry state he was in. Jacob smelt of smoke and sweat. There were scorch marks, spiderweb cracks, and dark splotches of blood staining his torn hardsuit. His face was swollen with overlapping bruises, and the lines between his brows were set in a deep scowl. He walked gingerly with an obvious limp while his right arm was secured in a sling. The patch job was no doubt the work of a field medic. It seemed Jacob had come straight to her office before he visited the station's medical bay to receive proper treatment.
Miranda felt a flash of concern for her friend as well as a stab of frustration at the unexpected sight. Failure was unacceptable, but it seemed it was all she had managed lately. "Subject Zero?" She asked, holding out a sliver of hope that he had at least completed his mission.
No such luck.
Jacob stared blankly at her, most likely inwardly cursing her out for asking the obvious. "What do you think?"
Slowly letting out a sigh, Miranda took a moment to restrain herself from snapping at him. What was done, was done. It would be pointless to raise her voice. "Are you going to brief me, or are we going to play twenty questions?"
"It was a complete shit show." Jacob sighed tiredly as he sank into the armchair in the corner of her office.
Miranda pretended not to be bothered by his presumptuous behaviour. That was her reading chair, damn it. If she had wanted to invite him to sit in it, she would have already done so. But since he looked like he was ready to keel over, she would overlook it just this once. "Spare me the dramatic re-enactment. Get to the point, Jacob."
"I get it. To put it simply, we were out-played. We came in with a solid plan and an excessive amount of firepower. Hell, enough to sink a cruiser if it had come down to that route. But then a Spectre showed up in the middle of the negotiation and wrecked everything."
Why would the Council get involved in the Terminus systems? Miranda raised a finger to interrupt him. "A Spectre? Which one?"
Jacob shook his head, grimacing a little as this simple movement caused added discomfort to his much abused body. "No idea. We were locked in the conference room the whole time, along with the Broker's agents. After the Warden came back from his meeting with the Spectre, the Broker agents made some excuses about not wanting to get on the Council's bad side and left as soon as they could. I should've known something was wrong right then." His lips curled in disgust at this part of the story. "I can't tell you who wielded the proverbial knife, be it the Broker agents, the Warden, or the Spectre, because the strike came at our back. I didn't see it coming at all. Here is the sequence of event; I'll let you be the judge."
Miranda leaned forward, frowning at him impatiently.
"The Warden was clearly unhappy that the bidding war was cut short since the Broker side pulled out of the negotiation, but he conceded that our offer was attractive enough that he was willing to complete the transaction. We were told to sit tight while they prepped the prisoner transfer. It was an unusually long wait, and that's when I started to suspect foul play. When the Warden finally came back, he came with at least a dozen armed guards. I didn't get the chance to ask what we had done to piss them off before they started shooting. We were captured in short order. He called us thieves. I had no idea what he was talking about. The Warden didn't like my answer, so he tried to beat a different one out of me. The only reason why I made it back was because General Petrovsky showed up with the Malta and threatened to blow a hole in their hull before they get the chance to launch their fighters.."
At this point, Miranda's lips were pressed so thin together, they might as well disappear entirely. "This is... unacceptable. Where the hell is Rasa?"
"She's at the med bay. They roughed her up real bad. I don't think she's waking up anytime soon."
"Damn it." Miranda cursed. After a pause, she asked, "the credits?"
Jacob half smirked, half cringed at the question. It was an unusual expression for him to wear, but Miranda didn't mind the look on his face. "We still have it. Rasa locked the datapad before they got her. They made her pay for it though. Savages."
Curious. Miranda silently chewed over the details in her mind. Even though the Warden was the one who attacked them, it would be premature to assume that the Blue Suns were solely responsible for this mess. For all she knew, they could have been under the Spectre's influence, or they could have reached a separate deal with the Broker and were acting on their behalf. The Warden's accusation of theft could be genuine, but it also had an equal chance of being completely fabricated. Jacob was right. They were out-played.
"You should go to the med bay, Jacob."
Jacob nodded and slowly rose from the seat with a pained grunt. "For what's worth, I'm sorry I let you down."
Miranda didn't say a word as she watched the ex-Alliance limped out of her office.
It really shouldn't have surprised her, Miranda reflected. Cerberus had many enemies. One could argue that it had always been Cerberus vs the whole galaxy. As humanity's champion, Cerberus bore the brunt of backlash against all the other species who thought they alone had the right to rule. It didn't matter if it was the greed of mercenaries, the hubris of the Council, or the machination of the Shadow Broker. They were all but another hurdle to overcome in order to complete her life's work. Commander Shepard needed Miranda to bring her back to life, and the world needed Commander Shepard to continue its fragile existence.
Failure was not an option.
Without Subject Zero on hand to provide samples, it would take more fiddling to calibrate the Commander's biotic output to its optimal level. Miranda would have to dedicate more time and resources to biotic research. Money was not an issue; the Illusive Man had basically drawn her a blank cheque in exchange for their pet Hero of Elysium. Perhaps she could accelerate their process by stealing from the Alliance's own biotic initiative in Grissom Academy. Cerberus already had a few informants in place, after all.
One thing Miranda still couldn't get over was letting Subject Zero slip by her when they met on Omega. With the unlimited resources the Illusive Man had pledged, time became the major limiting factor to the success of the project since no one was privy to the exact time table the Reapers operated on. If the machines invaded in force before Miranda could revive humanity's greatest weapon, then all her hard work would be for nought.
The Lazarus Project was still in its infancy, although it had already shown some promising results. The successful reinvigoration of withered muscle tissues was one such example. Already, forty percent of Shepard's heart was functional. Other organs were at about twelve percent mark, the brain was at less than five, but Miranda was optimistic of the progress so far. Top of the line cybernetic implants and synthetic materials would be installed to enhance what evolution and genetic engineering could not accomplish on their own. When her work was complete, the newly resurrected Commander Shepard would be a flawless amalgamation of inorganic efficiency and organic adaptability - the best of both worlds.
And when the new and improved Commander Shepard finally opened her eyes to embark on her second life, it would be the moment Miranda had truly surpassed her own father by accomplishing what he had failed to do - create perfection.
x-x-x
Going back to Omega was not an option after Jack's jailbreak, so Shepard had to switch to a different hideout for the next phase of the operation. This move scrambled her original schedule, and it also forced her to think on her feet. Eventually she would need to revisit the ancient space station once she had more squadmates who did not have a bounty on their heads.
Shepard didn't know how Cerberus had pried control out of Aria's hands the last time around since the Pirate Queen had been far too cagey to ask for her help. Instead, she decided to leave it to the new Shadow Broker to keep watch of the situation. From what she could see, Liara had taken her new role as spymaster like a fish to water. In her opinion, there really wasn't anyone else she trusted more for this job.
From what she remembered, Cerberus had eventually located the Shadow Broker ship sometime during the long 6 months Shepard had been incarcerated on terrorism charges. To evade capture, Liara had crashed the giant hunk of metal into the pursuing Cerberus cruiser as a mean to escape. Nevertheless, since Cerberus hadn't found the ship yet this time around, it would do for now, as a temporary measure.
"Here, take this." Shepard handed a datapad to Jack, who had been napping in Enigma's cargo bay on a thin blanket underneath a canopy of netting and ropes. The escape convict had been doing nothing but eating and sleeping in her cozy self-made nest for the last two days since she got out. It didn't take a genius to imagine what kind of living conditions Jack had been subjected to during her stint in the galaxy's most infamous maximum security prison.
"What's this?" Jack rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she flicked on the data pad. A brief minute went by before she sat up from her previous slouching position. "Where did you get this?!"
"Liara stole it straight from Cerberus, of course. That's everything she could find regarding Subject Zero. I thought you might be interested."
"Shit. Blue's got balls, stealing from Cerberus."
Shepard smiled under her recon hood and walked toward the elevator.
"Wait."
"Yes?"
Jack gave her a slow nod. "... thanks."
"I didn't do much, but you're welcome."
"Hey." Jack stopped her again just when she was about to walk away. Shepard waited patiently, knowing how difficult it was for the anti-social biotics to verbalize her feelings. "Really. Thanks."
The conflicted look on Jack's face told her the younger woman still had more to say, so she stayed a little longer.
Eventually Jack cracked. "Can you… can you take off your mask?"
"You want to see my face? I thought you said you didn't care what I look like."
"I still don't care, but I want to. Fuck, I'm not making sense." Jack scowled like she was disgusted with herself.
"No, I understand what you mean." Shepard didn't mind. She had been waiting for Jack to make the request for a while. Their friendship had always hinged on Jack's trust in her. Only when Jack considered her a true friend would she want to see her face, to really get to know her. By then, Jack wouldn't care if she had three eyes and four nostrils. It wouldn't matter the least.
Shepard took off her recon hood with one smooth tug. Her choppy red hair was a little unruly from sitting under the hood for so long, so she combed the short strands back with a hand to get them out of her eyes.
Jack stared.
After a long moment, she finally found her voice again. "Damn, I had my money on you being a blonde. You know, 'cause you wear that mask all the time. I thought you were just ugly and vain and didn't want people to look at your mug and be all judgemental and shit."
Shepard couldn't help but smile. "Ouch."
Jack smirked at her, the initial shock seeming to have worn off. "So, the legendary Commander Shepard, not dead."
"Still breathing."
"And Blue is totally in on it."
Shepard nodded. "So are a select few, yes. You're the first new blood I've brought on board. The others are old friends. After all we've been through, I figure you deserve the truth. So there. Not dead, and most definitely, not blonde. I won't apologize for the deception. My survival has to be kept secret, otherwise we'd be dodging Collectors until I'm really dead."
"Ah." Jack made a small noise, but she didn't react much to her reasoning. At least it looked like the younger woman understood though, which was a huge weight off Shepard's shoulders. She didn't want Jack to freak out.
It helped that neither of them were drama queens, unlike a certain asari Spectre who had to sock her in the jaw after the very reasonable explanation.
"So the body Blue gave to Cerberus…"
"I wonder how much credit Cerberus is going to waste bringing a dead clone back to life. Miss Lawson is going to be spitting mad when she finds out." Shepard said, grinning evilly at Jack.
At the gleeful but slightly confused expression on Jack's face, Shepard added helpfully, "Miranda Lawson, the Cerberus operative we've met on Omega."
"Oh, the porny cheerleader who looked like a blow-up doll. Gotcha."
Shepard couldn't help but wince at the description. Miranda would warp Jack through a wall if she ever hear that in person. What does porny even mean? In fact, she distinctly remembered having to stop the two from ripping each other's throats out before they jumped through the Omega-4 relay the last time around. "Your words, not mine."
"Come one, you'd have to be blind to not see those perfect tits and ass when they're exploding out of her clothes."
"It's not polite to stare. And I don't think you can criticize other people when you're practically topless all the time. Let's also not forget you have indecent exposure on your criminal record. May I suggest a wardrobe update? What's wrong with the commando leather I got you?"
Jack scowled. "Yeah? News flash, I got no boobs. There's nothing interesting to see here. And the leather is too hot. I got all sweaty wearing that thing last time. The cheerleader's catsuit is so tight she might as well be naked. Don't tell me you didn't notice her rack." She said, while miming exaggeratingly to show the bounce.
Shepard chuckled at the vulgar gesture. "I did. But I'm happily married, so I try not to pay attention." Some attention, maybe, because it was physically impossible not to. Though not too much attention. Honest.
Jack gave her a strange look. "Right, you and Blue are married. Huh."
"It's been rough, as you can imagine, but she puts up with me." The familiar warmth (and ache) in her chest when she thought of Liara brought a rueful smile to her lips. "And speaking of which, I got some intel from her just now. Kasumi and I have a mission lined up. We'll be gone for a while."
The sour expression on Jack's face made it obvious that she was not happy to be left behind. "What about me?"
"I need you to watch our back. Liara and Tali are too distracted from their work to spare the attention. Remember, technically we're in the middle of burglary. Just because nobody noticed, doesn't mean we should let our guards down."
It didn't take much to convince Liara to gut all Broker assets from the ship and relocate them to Enigma. Cerberus might be able to locate a ship orbiting a ruined planet, they would have a much harder time locating a phantom ship that zipped around the galaxy while under cloak. Besides, the Broker ship could now serve as a perfect decoy.
Shepard didn't want to admit it, but one of the major reasons for the location change was because she was not doing well without Liara for long stretches of time. In a literal sense, she was incomplete without her; her mental health demanded that she take refuge inside her bondmate's mind on a regular basis. No matter how strong her will was, her brain had been scrambled multiple times by alien technologies that no one fully understood. On top of that, she had fought through a losing war before being sent back in time only to do it all over again. It was miracle enough that she was functional after such ordeals. Shepard was not proud to have to use Liara as a crutch, nonetheless she also could not afford to be too prideful to deny help when she needed it.
This stopgap measure was far from ideal, she knew that, Liara knew that, too. But it was not like Shepard could stroll in a psychiatrist's office to seek treatment while pretending to not be herself.
"I can play bodyguard." Jack said, smiling a little with her chin held high.
Shepard blinked at the almost puppy like, eager-to-please look on her face. It was a bit startling to see such open expression.
Jack looked happy.
"I'll leave them to you. We'll be back in a week or two."
x-x-x
"You know, you should tell me what Liara likes. I need to get her something nice from Donovan Hock's vault to show my appreciation." Kasumi sighed happily with one hand over her heart and another on the steering wheel of a luxury skycar she had somehow procured.
Shepard chuckled at the comment. "I think after taking over the Broker's empire, Liara is not lacking of anything material. The daily tribute she gets from doing absolutely nothing is already staggering."
As it turned out, the previous few Shadow Brokers were all hoarders of information, credits, and material goods. Not only did they regularly demand gifts from people they extort, they had set up a complicated network of drones to deliver the goods to be stored in giant warehouses across the galaxy. A portion of it was even sent to the Broker ship every day, of which Shepard had no idea why the yahg would need all that stuff for. Liara had been beefing up communication hubs and tweaking the network in preparation for the coming war with Shepard's help. In the event of an all out invasion, defense only lasted as long as supply. The reverse was true as well. Which was why there were currently hundreds of Broker agents establishing foxholes filled with supply cache for space-age trench warfare in all major populated worlds. It probably raised a few eyebrows to see a sudden rise of doomsday preppers, but in light of the recent geth attack on the Citadel, this strange trend also didn't raise much alarm.
"It's the thought that counts, silly." Kasumi teased, grinning winningly at her. "You have no idea how much it helps to have the blueprint of the mansion. I've been trying to get my hands on it for ages."
"I would think getting a spot in the Eclipse's rank is more useful." Shepard said, rapping the white circular logo painted on the chestplate of her black hardsuit with two knuckles. The thick waterproof makeup to disguise her features was a bit itchy under the helmet, unfortunately. But at least she didn't have to wear a wig. Temporary hair dye was enough to cover up her signature bright red hair. Better yet, she only needed to fiddle with the setting in her Omni-tool and turn up the red to change her eye colour from green to a dark yellow. No contacts required.
The end result was a sullen pale woman with no freckles, a head of short jet black hair, and a pair of unnerving sharp amber eyes like that of a bird of prey - Alison Gunn, ex-Alliance Staff Sergeant who had gotten herself Cat6'd because of a history of insubordination and disorderly conducts brought on by unstable L2 implants. She looked nothing like Commander Shepard now.
Kasumi really had done a great job forging this identity. Even Liara had to stare at her disguise for a solid minute before she recognized her. To say her bondmate was perturbed by the change was an understatement. Shepard had to promise to change her eyes back to normal as soon as possible. The cold amber eyes had really rattled Liara for some reason. She wondered if that was why Liara had avoided looking into her glowing red eyes the last time around until Dr. Chakwas fixed her. Waking up from the dead while resembling a half-melted Terminator did terrible things to her self-image.
"For you, sure. It's not my style though. Regardless, it makes the job so much easier. You get to walk around like you belong."
"And do so while armed." Shepard added. "Yeah, I'll help you pick out something from the vault."
The plan was simple. Shepard would walk around the mansion and mark out all the important locations during her scheduled patrol as an Eclipse mercenary hired to guard this place, while Kasumi would direct her to gather pieces required to unlock the vault.
"You the new guy from Illium?" Roe, the chief security officer of Hock's mansion, stopped Shepard when she entered the guard's quarter and gave her a slow once over as if trying to find fault in her impeccably maintained hardsuit and service pistol. Unlike most guards, Roe's hardsuit was a distinct white with black markings to show her status as the leader of the gang.
"Yes, ma'am. Alison Gunn reporting from Nos Astra chapter. Captain Enyala sent me." Shepard replied smoothly.
Roe's already thin lips turned downward in a displeased frown. "Took her long enough. I've been waiting for days. And I don't care who sent you. You report to me now, maggot. Your ass is mine if you fuck up."
Shepard straightened up in a show of acknowledgement. "Understood, ma'am."
And that was the end of scrutiny from within the Eclipse ranks. She was then assigned a shift and given a password for the day that could bypass most doors.
They picked a good day for the heist. In addition to being a ruthless criminal and an ardent art collector, Hock was also an unrepentant social butterfly. With a rowdy party of over one hundred guests on, Shepard was practically invisible in her black Eclipse hardsuit. Liara's agents had outdone themselves by inserting her name seamlessly into the guard roster.
Under cloak, Kasumi was let in through a window in one of the many bedrooms on the second floor.
"You could have followed a guest in through the front door, you know." Shepard said as she locked the window back up.
"And risk drunk party goers spilling their expensive champagne all over my clothes? Not a chance."
"Fair enough."
The entrance to the vault was not exactly well hidden. Shepard had a feeling that a bragger such as Hock liked to display his wealth by showing off his collection to trusted friends.
"Kinetic barrier, DNA, password, and voice lock. I'm getting tingles. I bet this is the right place." Kasumi said slowly while examining the hardware with her head slightly tilted to the side.
"I can get DNA samples from his room. As for voice lock, we only have to stand around with an Omni-tool out for a little longer. The guy is in love with his own voice. And I've got a password handed to me by the chief of security. Plus, if we cut the electricity, the kinetic barrier will fail." Shepard said, frowning at herself.
It felt too easy.
Kasumi picked up on the unspoken sentiment. "Yeah, Keiji could have done this in his sleep. Hell, I bet even you could do it with the right software and some careful coaching. But the thing is, honey, it's never about getting in. The hard part is getting out. That's why I needed the blueprint."
The master thief then proceeded to explain in detail while Shepard went about the mansion, collecting various bits and pieces of data to construct the key.
The crux of the issue was, once they took the graybox, the vault would lock down with the intruders inside, cutting them off from their escape route. To leave this place, they would need to first open the deadlocked vault door, fight through an army of guards, and get to their getaway car before it got shot down by air support. Without the blueprint, they would have had to rely on brute force for most of the obstacles. With blueprint in hand however, well, now they had options.
The deadlock was no trouble. Kasumi had all the existing vault door schematics stored in her greybox, ready to be used to crack it open.
Now came the getting away part: while the vault itself was completely surrounded with thick concrete and reinforced durasteel, there was a maze of service corridors right outside the vault that led to other less secured warehouses and multiple loading docks where unwanted guests could easily get lost. With the blueprint stored in Kasumi's graybox, she could now use that information to her advantage. For example, the thief could trap their pursuers by cutting off electricity to different sections, fooling surveillance footage by tapping into the grid, and impeding security mechs by flooding the hallways via false fire alarm. In other words, Kasumi could use the blueprint to buy time for their escape.
To accomplish the same effect without the blueprint, Kasumi would have had to waste precious time standing around and endlessly scanning to find the appropriate electrical conduits buried within the walls. It would be entirely impractical under battle conditions where she might need to flee at a moment's notice. This method might be useful for exploring, say, a prothean ruin to spot traps and hidden mechanisms at a leisurely pace, but it was mostly useless in a time crunch; ergo, applying overwhelming force with a very large gun would be the preferred method under this condition.
Kasumi's explanation was really quite insightful. Shepard had seen many military operations carried out with less forethought before. Perhaps this was a hint that she should delegate more tasks to the master thief in the future.
"And we're in." Shepard could hear the grin in Kasumi's voice. "I have the sudden urge to say Open Sesame."
The underground vault was so enormous, it could have been used to accommodate a small frigate. At the far end of the the vault, the severed head of Lady Liberty hung motionlessly on the wall as if it were a stuffed elk head decorating a hunter's cabin. Kasumi swore loudly at the gruesome sight.
Shepard paused in her step when she spotted something else that was equally irksome. "How the hell did you end up in here, David?" The battered marble sculpture stood stoically on its one remaining leg, silent and motionless as all its neighbors.
Hock had ample reason to keep his vault as well guarded as Fort Knox. As far as she could see, most of the artifacts could not have been acquired legally. The distinct Prothean statute that could only be found on Ilos - a rare artefact that was impossible to lawfully possess by private collectors. The quarian stone tablets with exquisite ancient scripts carved onto its surface - undoubtedly a zealously guarded treasure the quarian would kill to keep. And that was just the ones she could identify at a glance.
"I think I just found something Liara would like." Shepard waved down Kasumi from two aisles away.
"You have good eyes, Shep." Kasumi picked up one of the compact submachine guns from the display table to get a closer look. "This is a M-12 Locust by Kassa Fabrication, a gun that killed two presidents. Actually, I believe this is the gun." She handed it to Shepard and picked up an almost identical gun next to it. "How convenient. This is an exact replica." With a flourish, Kasumi flipped the weapon over to show her the standard laser engraved replica icon stamped at the butt of the handle.
"Nice. Liara will love this." Grinning widely, Shepard clipped the shiny new toy to her belt before taking out her Omni-tool to make a small change. "Locust, plus cryo ammo. Now we're set."
"Oh, that is evil." Kasumi shook her head, but froze a heartbeat later. Her gaze was now fixed on a small object sitting on the same display table as the Locust. The innocuous silver gadget was about the size of a thumbnail, and seemingly entirely unremarkable within a vault of treasures.
"Is that…?"
Kasumi picked up the graybox and caressed the priceless item with reverence reserved for the gods. "Yes." She breathed. Taking a moment to visibly get a hold of herself, Kasumi secured the prize in her belt pouch and said, "we need to go."
It was unexpected, but they actually made it out of the vault before the alarm started. This lucky break saved them from having to crack the door, and also gave them a head start against their pursuers. Shepard turned on the map overlay on her HUD as she followed the thief through the maze of service corridors. Guards already in front of them were easy to dispatch; narrow hallways, straight shots. A few glancing hits from the Locust was enough to freeze the mercs. Follow up the attack with a well timed biotic throw, and the resulting cryo explosion was enough to knock over an entire group of opponents.
As for enemies behind them, Kasumi had used her previously mentioned tactics and dramatically impeded their progress by tapping into the building's power grid. Even if they made it through electrified water/exploding mechs/falling fire doors alive, none could catch a glimpse of their target before they were permanently put down. Phasing in and out of cloak like a vengeful ghost, Kasumi was able to strike unsuspecting guards in the back and end them with one hit.
They reached the rooftop loading dock where they were supposed to rendezvous with their getaway vehicle, but met with the business end of two Yimr mechs instead. While they were justifiably distracted, three transporters flew in and started raining mercs on top of them.
Above them, Shepard could hear the distinct engine roar of a gunship approaching.
"Miss Goto, I knew you would come eventually. Like a moth to flame, you cannot keep away." Hock's mocking voice boomed through the gunship's loudspeakers. "Lay down your weapons, you are surrounded. Or don't. It doesn't matter to me. Regardless, I must thank you for bringing me another graybox to my doorstep."
"Murderer!" Kasumi cried while firing at the gunship; the attack caused no damage, as the bullets simply bounced off its impressive kinetic barrier. However this made her intention clear. She would rather die than be captured.
Hock spoke again, not even bothering to move the gunship out of range from the pitiful attack. "Very well, Miss Goto. Goodbye. And do try to keep your head in one piece. I will enjoy ripping it open myself."
Shepard watched Kasumi's face twisted into a rictus of hate. Hock's taunt had clearly hit its mark.
"Calm down!" Shepard quickly grabbed onto her elbow to prevent her from sticking her head out of cover. "Listen, I need you to distract the mechs for as long as you can. Do you understand?"
Kasumi's features smoothed out at the request as she considered her options. "Yeah. I can give you maybe three minutes."
Three minutes was more than enough. The crime lord obviously had no intention of pulverizing Kasumi for fear of damaging the two grayboxes on her person. For now, the gunship was out of the play.
As for the Ymir mechs, while they had excellent defense and overwhelming offence, their mobility was abysmal, especially when compared to the nimble master thief. If the mechs were out of the way, Shepard would be able to give the guards her full attention. It would be a challenge to pull off while staying in the character of her Alison Gunn persona. In other words, she needed to get out of this jam without using any of Commander Shepard's signature moves; no charge, no nova, and no biotic punch. To make matters worse, she had to fight without a shotgun or an assault rifle because she was only allowed to carry sidearms while masquerading as a guard.
Oh boy, Liara is going to be so mad when she finds out.
Clipping the Locust back on her belt, Shepard took out the collapsible monomolecular blade from her back pouch and whipped it to its full length. This melee weapon was part of Alison Gunn's disguise, and Shepard was going to kiss her wife afterward for reminding her to bring it just in case.
"Widget, takeover the mechs. Kasumi, on my mark!" At the same time Shepard barked out the command, she spun and slashed at the closest group of guards from behind cover. The wide arc of razor sharp biotic energy phased through covers at a blinding speed and ripped apart the advancing guards like a hot knife through butter. "Go!"
Taking advantage of the ensuing chaos, Kasumi shot off like a bat out of hell in the opposite direction. The mercs were scattered by Shepard's previous attack, but the two Ymir mechs predictably stomped after the thief. It would take some time for Widget to seize control of the mechs. Meanwhile, Shepard had a different target in mind while Kasumi stalled for time.
Channeling a jet of biotic down her legs to boost her speed, Shepard exploded forward to unleash her fury in a flurry of strikes. To the bystanders, she was moving so fast, she appeared to be teleporting around the battlefield. One blink, and she was behind someone to cut off their head. The smart ones tried to keep their distances, but her biotic slash could reach far and cut through cover. If that one attack didn't kill them off, Shepard simply tossed around more biotics to blast people off their feet. More than a couple mercs were thrown off the roof during the violent exchange.
Wincing from bullets ricocheting off her back, Shepard quickly rolled behind a large shipping crate to recover her diminishing shields after dispatching a group of guards. Roughly a third of them were down, but more were closing in on her location. From the sound of rocket launchers going off, she knew Kasumi was barely hanging on. Widget was almost done, and she needed to wrap this up prompto.
When she first ran into Chief Roe at the guard's quarter, Shepard had discreetly tagged her Omni-tool as insurance. In the beginning it was hard to get to her target when there were so many enemies in the way, but now that the opposition had been thinned out, Shepard was able to close in. The red dot on her HUD that marked the Eclipse leader's location was about thirty meters away. Roe was currently crouching behind cover while flinging fire at her to incinerate her armor. The cracks and scorch marks on Shepard's chestplate could attest to how good a job she was doing.
In a burst of speed, Shepard stormed towards the security chief and fired off a warp to chew through her shields. Not waiting idly for results, she followed up the initial salvo with another powerful slash as soon as she was within range to detonate the unstable warp field. Even from twenty meters away, Shepard could hear the woman scream as the rapidly shifting biotic shroud shredded her body to ribbons at the molecular level. The added defense from her tech armor that was effective against normal gunfire was proven useless when tested against biotic explosion.
Shepard closed in the last few paces and cut open Roe's jugular to put her out of her misery. In a shower of red, the only reliable witness who could identify Alison Gunn as the turncoat amongst Hock's private guards went down. There would still be rumors and hearsays about a female biotic with a sword, but there would be no names and no faces to go with the story.
AI hacking complete. Ymir A and Ymir B stand by. Widget updated the work status at the bottom screen of her HUD. Shepard grinned underneath her helmet as sweats rolled down her face. "Take out the gunship!"
The two giant mechs whirled towards their new target and launched a barrage of rockets at it. The gunship's kinetic barrier glowed under the strain before it shattered to a million pieces.
Naturally, Hock retaliated by tearing the two Ymir mechs apart with its oversized guns. Now that was two fewer problems Shepard had to worry about.
"I got this!" Kasumi shouted and signaled Shepard to keep the gunship occupied. And then in a series of acrobatic moves, the thief scampered up the electrical tower and flew at the gunship. Her Omni-tool extended and formed a protective gauntlet as she slammed down her fist on top of the gunship, punching a hole through the glass roof of the cockpit.
Shepard laughed out loud when she saw Kasumi gave Hock a cheery two finger salute before she jumped off. The next moment, a blinding light went off inside the cockpit and forced Shepard to look away. Somehow it made the gunship lose control and crash into the electrical tower. The resulting explosion was so strong, it sent her sailing into a metal crate.
Ears still ringing, Shepard shouted at the thief, "what the hell was that?"
"Flashbang grenade!" Was the reply.
If the multiple false fire alarms and the berserking gunship was not enough to bring the local law enforcement to Hock's mansion, Shepard was sure the mushroom shaped fire cloud was going to do it. "We need to scram. Where is your car?"
Kasumi pointed at the closest transporter that was used to drop mercs in.
Of course. Why own when you can steal?
x-x-x
Joker felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. The oppressive silence inside the cockpit manifested as this uncomfortable sensation of tiny pin pricks on his skin, making his teeth itch.
"Seriously, you guys need to back up a little. Literally breathing down my neck just isn't helpful at all. If you want to help, sit down and keep an eye on the sensors, or something." Joker complained to the two N7 standing behind his seat. Toombs was currently sitting at the navigator console to help him plot a course through the asteroid field surrounding the planet Alingon, while Daniels and Donnelly were busy monitoring the ship's shield generator in the engine room. They would definitely be put to work if the ship were attacked.
A morbid part of his brain screamed at him that this place was a perfect ambush site, while the sarcastic part decided that the planet's magnetic interference was so bad, no pirates could possibly find their unremarkable merchant ship. Either way, it seemed like a supremely stupid idea to come out here in a civilian vessel. What they needed were guns; huge ones that would give Garrus a raging boner.
Hadfield sat down at the communications console, but to Joker's annoyance, Rizzi remained exactly where she was. "It's all garbage signals. Too much interference." Hadfield grumbled, flipping through different channels to get a better read. Nothing seemed to work.
"I got something." Toombs said, squinting at his screen. "Some kind of machine… Bots. I see three, but I bet there are more out there."
"Donnelly, how's our shield looking?" Rizzi asked.
Donnelly's reply sounded a little tinny through the comm, but he didn't sound worried. "Holding strong. This ship's shield generator is military grade. A few rocks won't bother us."
"It's not rocks I'm worried about." Rizzi muttered, frowning at the navigation screen thoughtfully.
"Sentinel bots!" Toombs raised his voice. "They're armed!"
"Shit!" Joker felt sweat rolled down his back as he prepared himself for evasive maneuver, however little good it might do. Comparing to a frigate, this merchant freighter handled like a dumpster. The bots were highlighted on the screen in red, and they seemed to be multiplying. "We need to get out of here."
Hadfield interrupted him. "Wait, we're being hailed."
Of course they were being hailed. Because Bond villains always hide their evil lair inside a volcano, or in this case, an asteroid field. Joker knew this black ops business would be bad for his health. Military grade shield would not protect them from sustained fire from dozens of sentinel bots. "Let me guess: gimme all yer booty, argh!"
"Don't be ridiculous." Hadfield rolled her eyes - which, Joker couldn't help but notice both N7 seemed to be doing that a lot every time he opened his mouth - and sent the message over to the main screen. It was one line of simple text: IFF confirmed - Poseidon.
"If they keep doing this, I'm gonna die of a heart attack." Wiping the sweat off his brow, Joker took the ship deeper into the field, passing dozens, if not hundreds of sentinel bots, towards the coordinates marked on the surface of the planet.
Being this close to the planet, Alingon's magnetosphere essentially had rendered Joker blind. This merchant freight might had an upgraded shield installed, but its sensors and long-range locator system might as well be made of potatoes. Joker had to manually calculate the fly path as well as rely on the good old-fashioned stick-your-head-out-of-the-window (not literally) method to locate the well hidden compound located somewhere along the planet's equator, in a small valley between rolling mountains of ice and jagged earth - a perfect hideout for a pirate's den.
"We're being hailed again. They want us to dock inside the hanger." Hadfield said.
"Is that really such a good idea? I have to say, this is downright sketchy. Skipping town, changing ships, hiding in pirate infested space; I'm not an expert, but I have a feeling this is not normal at all. And I bet you that's not a super secret Alliance base down there."
Joker had expected his repeated complain would earn him more of the same answer, ie, blah blah blah, black ops, blah blah blah. However, Rizzi surprised him with one word, "no."
"No?" Joker repeated slowly, almost didn't believe his ears. "You mean, you actually agree with me?"
Rizzi shook her head. "No, I only agree that this place is not an Alliance base. Despite the irregularities, I could not sense any malice in the methods. Call it intuition if you like. The more rational explanation for this unorthodox treatment is that absolute secrecy is a requirement."
Joker turned around to give the Fury an open mouthed stare. "I didn't know you can talk so much."
Without so much as giving a verbal reply, Rizzi clicked her tongue in distaste and walked away, presumably to suit up and get ready to disembark. Or perhaps to grab a pistol so she could send a bullet through his kneecap. Joker didn't know her well, so he wasn't sure which one was more likely.
Hadfield shook her head at him in clear disapproval. "Wow, way to run your mouth. Do you know how hard it is to get an introvert comfortable enough to open up without the aid of a lot of liquor?" She paused and looked at him expectantly for a second and added with a wink, "get it? Open up?"
Joker decided he was the one who needed a lot of liquor because he did not hear that terrible pun coming out of Hadfield's mouth. "Fine, I'll apologize for being an insensitive ass later. Right now I need to know if I should dock or hightail out of here."
Hadfield shrugged. "Sure, since we're already here, go ahead and dock. Besides, if they had wanted to kill us, we would've been space junk a long time ago. Until we make contact, we won't know if this is an elaborate trap, or if this is an extremely sensitive mission that's been classified to hell and back."
"Alright then."
The Not Alliance facility had a multitude of hangers attached to the main building. Judging by the layout, this place could serve as a small trading port. A top-of-the-line salarian frigate was already docked in one of the many spots. Joker could only hope that it wasn't filled with pirates.
They really had no way out. Alingon was a far cry from a typical garden world. The harsh cold alone meant that they would die in about thirty seconds if they tried to leave the compound beyond the protection of its powerful forcefield. It would be idiotic to die in a pirate's den after having survived a shipwreck.
His apprehension must have shown on his face because Toombs unclipped his pistol from his belt and handed it to him just as he got up from the pilot's seat. "Here. Just in case."
Joker accepted the weapon with a grateful nod, even though he knew the pistol would most likely cause more damage to his own hands (or his foot) than the person he attempted to shoot at.
"You probably won't need it, but it doesn't hurt." Hadfield said and patted him on the shoulder. Her reassuring gesture mercilessly reminded Joker of Commander Shepard. For once, he was glad he had Rizzi and Hadfield at his back - or preferably, in front of him while he cower behind cover.
As it turned out, no cowering was required. One would expect guards posted at every door for a secret pirate base, but the party had yet to encounter one living soul five minutes after they wandered off the dock. There were a few sealed off sections, but this placed seemed abandoned… except for this faint sound of music and throbbing bass that was steadily getting louder the further they moved into the compound.
Hadfield moved up from rear guard position and walked along side Rizzi at the front. Joker watched them exchange messages through rapid hand signs before Hadfield turned around and signaled the rest of the party to stay back. They followed the music (if it could be called that), which turned out to be some kind of batarian heavy metal, complete with incoherent screeching about sex and death, in the order most people would find disagreeable, and with body parts that weren't meant for the activity.
They finally arrived in a large hall where they found the source of all that noise - it was a customized Fenris security mech with blue striped warpaint on its silver armor plates. Its stubby mechanical head swerved towards the intruders, but it stayed seated on the floor and kept on playing the awful ruckus.
Thinking to himself how surreal this scene looked, Joker almost jumped in surprise when a stranger casually strolled in the mess hall through a different set of doors. Hadfield and Rizzi both tensed up, but this baldheaded, half-naked, heavily tattooed newcomer barely spare the party a glance as she walked by with her arms full of stuff - two packages of MRE, a handful of field ration bars, three tins of salted varren meat, a jar of pickled eggs of mysterious origin, a jumbo pack of Blast Oh's breakfast cereal, and a case of cheap batarian ale - before dumping the contents on a table. Without so much as acknowledging their existence, this female pirate (her tit straps sort of gave her away) proceeded to sloppily rip open the cereal box and dig her hand in, probably to look for the plastic toy rocket ship included in every package.
"Excuse me. Hello? Hey, excuse me." Hadfield took a step forward and waved at the woman to get her attention, but she was pointedly ignored. With the unholy noise playing in the background, Joker strongly suspected the pirate was completely deaf.
Hadfield raised her voice. "If you don't mind? Hello?" She took a few more steps towards her, but the N7 was ignored again. Unless the pirate was blind on top of being deaf, there was no way she didn't see that. Actually, Joker was certain she did, because he saw her looking up for a brief moment, gave the party a stink eye, and went back to her task.
Hadfield whipped out her Omni-tool and began to type. A second later, sparks flew out of the Fenris mech's back before the music suddenly stopped. Instead of retaliating like a normal security mech, it made a series of chirping sound in distress and fled the room.
The tattooed woman looked pissed by the interruption. She stood up from her seat and slammed her fists down on the table, spilling corn flakes all over the place. Blue wisps of biotics flickered across her white knuckles, the woman snapped at Hadfield, "I was listening to that, asshole!"
"Oh good, so you can hear me." Hadfield replied in an acerbic tone.
"Of course I can fucking hear you. I've got ears. Now leave me alone. I'm trying to eat here." The woman gave them a dismissive wave before she sat back down and picked up the cereal box again.
It was probably a bad idea, but Joker's mouth went off on its own before his brain caught up. "Who the hell are you?" His outburst earned him a glare from Rizzi and a an exasperated sigh from Hadfield. Joker could just imagine the impending scolding coming from Dr. Chakwas after this. It would not be the first or last time the good doctor commented on his impulsive behaviour.
The woman glared at him, and the slightly crazed look in her eyes made Joker think his mouth was going to get him killed for sure this time. "I can ask the same question. Who the hell are you? I'm just here minding my own damn business, and you losers showed up."
"We are…" Joker fumbled over his words for a second, and finished lamely, "invited."
Hadfield and Rizzi turned around to stare at him like he was crazy, while the heavily tattooed woman snorted at him. "Funny. Where did you find this clown?" She asked the two N7s like he wasn't there.
"In his bed." Hadfield replied nonchalantly.
"Hey! That's misleading." Joker protested. "And I wasn't trying to be funny. We really were invited."
The woman narrowed her eyes and studied the party intently for a moment. "Figures." She scoffed and sat back down, cracked open a beer and took a long drink from the can. "Alliance goons, eggheads, and a clown. The Queen of the Girl Scouts really ain't picky at making friends. That explains a lot. Well, you guys are unlucky. Boss Lady is out. Come back later."
Joker wasn't the only one picking up on the clue. Rizzi perked up at the unexpected intel and asked, "I take it that this 'Boss Lady' is the one in charge?"
"Sure. But as I just told you she is not here. She's busy."
"When is your boss coming back?" Hadfield asked, looking way more patient than what she probably felt.
The tattooed woman shrugged. "Hell if I know. I ain't her babysitter."
That was helpful.
Joker shook his head and slowly shuffled towards the table to have a seat, completely ignored the warning looks from the N7s.
The woman stared at him. "Did I say you can park your ass down?"
"No, but my ass is tired from all that walking, and your ass only takes up one seat. So I'm sitting." He wasn't lying either. His knees were starting to burn from the short trek. As thoughtful as Hadfield was to include his meds in his field kit, she didn't pack his crutches. In a bad day, he couldn't walk more than a few minutes without aching all over.
"Fine." The woman said sulkily and wrapped her arms around the pile of food to pull it closer in a possessive gesture. "But get your own food."
Joker resisted the urge to roll his eyes again. "I said I was tired, not hungry. I'll have to be starving to want to eat - what the hell is that anyway?" He pointed at the jar of pickled eggs (kidneys? eyeballs?) thingy. He was 90% sure they were not your everyday chicken eggs. For one thing, they were blue and fuzzy.
"Some kind of fruit, I hope. Tasted like chicken, though."
Joker had never heard of any kind of fruit that would taste like chicken.
"Jack! You know you're not supposed to mess with the mech!" Shouted a familiar voice from the far end of the hall. A second later, the sight of a female quarian in a purple environmental suit stomping into the mess hall jerked him out of the chair. He was on his feet, grinning like an idiot upon seeing his old friend.
"Tali!" Joker raised his arms up and limped towards the young quarian.
"Joker? What are you doing here?" Tali sounded dazed as Joker wrapped her in a tight hug. "Dr. Chakwas, you're here too! What's going on?"
"We were hoping you would have more information." Dr. Chakwas replied.
Tali made a sound and nodded understandably. "Oh, I have no clue. You'd want Liara for that. Let me give her a call. She's been locked in her room for days."
Joker paled at the thought of seeing the Commander's widow face to face again.
"At least now we know they're friendly, not pirates." Rizzi deadpanned before she turned around to signal the rest of the party to come into the room.
Unlike Joker, everyone else had followed order and stayed back a respectable distance away since they had spotted Jack. In hindsight, it was monumentally stupid to act the way he had in a hostile area. He would have been sporting bullet holes if Jack were indeed a pirate.
"So what is this place?" Joker asked, hoping Tali might have a clear answer in this convoluted spy game.
Tali made a vague gesture. It was obvious she was trying to give a truthful answer without revealing too much information. "Technically, this is Liara's place. You know, she had inherited all kinds of stuff from Matriarch Benezia."
Not a lie, but it feels off. Interesting. Tali is being careful. Joker's eyebrows climbed up towards his hairline in amazement. Of all the people he knew, Tali was one he would peg as couldn't tell a lie to save her life. Apparently he was wrong.
"Sorry for the wait. I had anticipated your arrival, but I lost track of time." Dr. Liara T'Soni, one of the nicest person Joker knew, greeted them warmly with an apologetic look on her face. Joker gritted his teeth and told himself it would be unseemly to burst into tears for no apparent reason. There were shadows underneath Liara's eyes. Not surprising, seeing how there were plenty of reasons as to why she was losing sleep.
Liara continued. "First of all, welcome to Lokasenna station. I am Dr. Liara T'Soni, the leader of the Neptune cell. Here is the letter of authorization from Admiral Hackett. The pass code is Poseidon." She pulled up a screen from her Omni-tool and show the party the Admiral's personal signature and his digital authorization code.
Everyone was dead quiet at the explanation. Judging from the no nonsense expression on the two N7's faces, what Liara had claimed must be genuine.
"There are a few complications, but the basic mission parameter is simple: to recover the stealth frigate Normandy SR-2 from the terrorist group Cerberus." Liara calmly dropped the bombshell as she pulled up a holo of a familiar frigate docked in a shipyard.
Joker felt his throat closed up at the sight.
What the hell is going on?
x-x-x
A/N: Sorry about the long wait. This chapter has suffered rewrites 3 times. I've scrapped more words than I've kept. Also I must express my gratitude to kind readers who have left encouraging words regarding my recent struggle with a failed IVF cycle that ended in surgery. Thank you for your support and patience. I'm feeling much better now. We will try again in a few months, I'll keep my fingers crossed.