Location: Unknown
The ground shook around Shepard as she lay dormant on her bed. What she assumed to be the operating room was cold and smelled of antiseptic, but that was nothing unusual; the smell of death was always prevalent in an operating room. Partially asleep, she closed her eyes again before an explosion nearby shook her awake. She could hear screams outside as she struggled to get up, slowly easing her eyes open.
"Wake up, Commander." The voice belonged to the female turian doctor from earlier. Her eyes eventually opened to blurry surroundings, a likely side effect that her eyes were not used for a long period of time. "Commander, do you hear me? Get out of that bed now - this facility is under attack." Gunfire could be heard outside as she lifted herself off the bed. Shepard grimaced, holding her side in pain. Apparently, she hadn't fully recovered from whatever this doctor had done to her yet. "Commander. Your scars are not fully healed, but I need you to get moving."
She hoisted herself up and out of the oddly shaped surgical bed, clutching her side again temporarily before standing up straight. She probably tore a wound open from her sudden movements, hence the pain. Her hand felt wet with what she assumed was blood. She looked down at the floor to see a small puddle of blue blood pooling under her hand. Wait, blue? She brushed the thought aside and chalked it up to her brain playing tricks on her. After all, she just woke up from what looked like a medically induced coma. Hallucinations were normal. Her arm fell to her side as she observed her surroundings clearly for the first time. The room was small, white, clean, and square in its design. What she assumed to be medical equipment littered all available space aside from her bed, a few countertops, and a sink.
After her brief examination, the female turian speaking over the intercom interrupted her thoughts. "There's a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room. Hurry!" Doing as she was told, Shepard opened the locker on the other side of the room, revealing a Carnifex heavy pistol sitting inside. She grabbed the gun with her hand, but her grip felt off. She toyed with the grip on the pistol, readjusting her finger positions. She theorized that what used to be a five fingered hand was now a three fingered hand. Damn, she must've lost some fingers. When she moved to check the ammo, she looked down at the grip she was holding tightly. She didn't lose fingers as she had initially expected. Instead, she was literally staring at a turian hand. Her eyes widened at the surprise. Shepard moved her fingers, testing her hand to see if the illusion would go away. To her shock, it didn't. The turian fingers did exactly what she had commanded her own fingers to do.
Shepard had to be dreaming. "No no no, this can't be real! I have no ammo in this pistol, one of my wounds tore open, and now I want to know what the fuck you did to my hand!" Through the explosions, she could barely hear herself, but the change in her voice was there: it was dual toned, like a turian.
The female over the intercom sighed, likely annoyed. "For spirits sake, breathe! Now isn't the time to panic - we'll discuss the conditions of your revival later! And as for the pistol? It's a med bay, commander!"
A collection of power cells outside the med bay blew up, effectively shutting her up for now. The voice was right - the proper time for a mental breakdown came later. Her position was under attack and she wouldn't be caught with her pants down, not again. Not after the Normandy. She shivered at the thought.
The explosion cleared her path through what used to be locked doors. One of the bodies outside, likely an enemy combatant, had flown her direction. It landed on the ground in front of her with a thermal clip attached to its belt. She took the clip off the corpse, quickly loading her pistol. Turning over the charred body revealed what used to be a human man clad in white, yellow, and black armor. "Cerberus," she quietly muttered, hearing the dual tone in her voice again. Shepard wanted to break the mandible of whoever changed it.
"They hit the station hard when they found out we were holding you here," the doctor interrupted, pulling Shepard out of her mandible breaking daydream.
"Who is we, exactly?" Her tone turned hostile and she swore she heard herself snarling at the doctor. She couldn't control it. The sound was almost instinctual in that sense. Why did she snarl? What the hell did these turians turn her into?
The voice sighed again, clearly irritated with the direction their conversation had turned. "Not important. Keep moving."
With an audible growl, Shepard made her way outside.
She saw a few turian soldiers shooting at a collection of Cerberus troops while running for cover behind a makeshift barricade. They didn't make it in time. The two turian troops went down in a matter of seconds, outnumbered by the enemy combatants. She hid behind the turians' barricade, firing on the human soldiers. One by one, they went down, each with a well focused shot from her pistol. Once she knew the soldiers were dead, she made her way towards an open hallway. The alarms that blared were louder here, hurting her ears slightly as she moved forward toward another door. Corpses littered the floor as she passed while she checked the perimeter for movement. Clear, she thought.
Through a window to her right, a large mech piloted by a Cerberus soldier proceeded to rip holes through three unfortunate turian soldiers. They were in a tight spot, backed into a corner. Their blue blood splattered over the windows as she watched them die in front of her. She didn't even try hiding the horrified expression plastered on her face.
"Commander, they knew what they signed on for when they joined this project." The voice kept a respectful tone when referring to the fallen men seconds prior. "Please keep moving, more Cerberus troops are heading your way." Shepard silently said a few words about the fallen soldiers. She prayed to their spirits, the turian spirits, before moving on.
The hallway she traversed led to a balcony overlooking a storage area. "There should be a grenade launcher on the fallen soldier in front of you. Relieve him of it and neutralize the troops coming ahead." A fallen turian corpse lay beneath her, clutching the aforementioned grenade launcher. She silently apologized to the dead man before taking his weapon, proceeding to position herself with practiced ease when the doors below opened. She fired. Her grenade landed under a gas tank the group of hostiles was far too close to. The Cerberus operatives on the floor below her were caught in an explosion of Shepard's creation.
"Take the elevator down one floor."
Shepard quickly located a large cargo elevator that ran up the length of the wall. She did as instructed, tapping on a control panel that allowed for her to be taken down a floor. Fires had broken out from the explosion, spewing through punctured holes in the fuel tanks. "I'm detecting gas leaks in your area. Run through the fires quickly to avoid unnecessary injury."
Again, she did as she was told, holing up in another hallway. "Excellent work Commander, we'll rendezvous at-t-t m… loc..ion."
Someone was jamming their communications. She had to be getting closer to the source of Cerberus' involvement if their line was breaking up so suddenly. The doctor went quiet for a few seconds before the sound of her voice filled her comms again. "Spirits! I h..-ve Cerb-us troops cl...ing in on m-m-my pos...ion. F...d a w.-y to th-e sh..tle bay, we'..l meet th..r.e. Sur-..raka ou..-t."
Permanent radio silence followed as she moved her way through a few connecting hallways and up a flight of stairs. She found herself holed up in a small office, sharing the space with two Cerberus bodies. Shepard leaned against the wall, clutching the same side that had bothered her previously.
The wound that tore open when she woke up started bleeding again. When Shepard turned to look at the tear, she knew her mind wasn't playing tricks; her three fingered hand was covered in blue blood. She could see the connections now, clear as day. She had three fingered hands, blue blood, and her voice was flanged; all features present on a turian.
She searched the small office, digging her new talons into drawers and rummaging through the desk in hopes of finding something with a reflective surface. Maybe a mirror would make itself apparent. Her actions were rewarded with a stainless steel surgical tray. The panic was settling in and she wanted to know what she looked like. She dumped the tools off the tray and took a good, hard look at herself.
A female turian face greeted her on the reflective surface of the tray. Her mandibles clicked and the browplates moved to match her surprised expression. She decided to talk and see how the face would react.
"I'm Commander Jane Shepard, Alliance Navy."
The mouth moved exactly to the rhythm of her words and the mandibles fluttered each time she felt shocked. This was her face. Her brand new, exceedingly turian face. She didn't want to look at it anymore, but at the same time, found that she couldn't look away.
Long, protruding mandibles covered the sides of her jaw and her once prominent nose now sat flush with the rest of her face. She had beige face plates that contrasted with the darker brown shades of her leathery hide. What she assumed to be her fringe extended to the sides of her head, making their way towards the back while the top of her head remained bare. Despite how different she was now, Shepard found a certain beauty to the intricate patterns of her new face. And while almost everything about her was different, these turians had at least left her eyes the same shade of green; a small comfort.
Shepard put the surgical tray down on the counter next to her, fully intent on looking over the rest of herself. She was wearing a standard armor undersuit common with most turians, but found that her hands were exposed. For her feet, the turians working on her had given her boots; having a total of four toes with only two on each foot was disconcerting to say the least. With her hands, she had three sharp, taloned fingers per arm. How an entire species got anything done with so few fingers was beyond her. Garrus always said she had too many. Shepard smiled while recalling the fond memory. She missed him.
"Hell Garrus," she said, talking to herself while looking at her reflection in the tray again. "You always said I would make a good turian." An empty and bitter laugh emerged from her throat. "Look at me now."
Shepard sighed, setting down the tray again. She'd seen her reflection enough for now. Bending down, she looted the thermal clips from the Cerberus corpses before heading out into the outside hallway. Her current objective was to get to the shuttle bay. She reached the end of the relatively short corridor with a few paces; the perks of having a new set of long legs. 'Dog legs' Ashley had inelegantly called them.
On the other side of an unlocked doorway was a large, open balcony. Gunfire echoed through the halls she stood in as she watched a single turian soldier fighting, taking cover behind a thick glass railing. She sprinted her way towards the soldier, taking out two of the Cerberus soldiers with a single dash before joining the man behind his cover. She took a deep breath, reloading her pistol.
From what she gathered, the turian soldier was shocked to see her; his expression bordered on genuine confusion. The soldier's plates were a dark beige color with white colony markings covering the majority of his face. He had a more bulky appearance than the first male she saw with the doctor. His gray armor only added to the bulk, effectively making him the living manifestation of a tank. The man's grey eyes stared straight into her own as he started speaking. "Commander, what are you doing here? They said you were still a work in progress."
She tilted her head in confusion. "I just woke up! You probably know more than I do!" Her mandibles flared in annoyance and a high pitched sound escaped her throat. Were those her sub harmonics? The male turian registered her response, turing to fire on two more Cerberus troops. Afterwards, he responded with a sound similar to hers, his mandibles fluttering less aggressively. Apparently they were. From what she learned from Garrus, sub harmonics couldn't be controlled and provided insight on how a turian was feeling. They were instinct and appeared whether or not you wanted them to. This was going to be hard.
"My apologies, commander. I forgot this scenario is entirely new to you. I'm Augumus Declinus. I've been stationed here for—" He stopped mid sentence when a massive explosion destroyed the right section of the balcony they were standing on. It held, but the structural support was drastically weaker. Augumus growled. "Tarc! The situation must be much worse than I imagined if Taana let you loose. I'll explain your predicament, but we should get to the shuttle bay first."
Shepard hugged the railing cover, her pistol secured firmly in her talons. "I know this isn't the best time, but I'm sick of stumbling around when I don't know what's going on."
Augumus huffed, shooting the last Cerberus trooper on the opposite balcony. "I suppose you do deserve an answer, despite how rushed I must make it." He took a deep breath. "You and your ship were attacked by an unknown vessel, resulting in the destruction of the Normandy. You died from asphyxiation due to a suit rupture you acquired in the explosion. When we brought you here, you were nothing more than ground up lecra with some electronics slapped on for good measure. Our scientists dedicated the last two years placing your consciousness into a new body." He smiled, his mandibles fluttering slightly as his gray eyes focused on her again. "I was hoping to give you a proper welcome back to the land of living spirits, but Cerberus ruined my plans."
She stared at him silently with an intensity that made him flinch. On any other day, she would be proud. "Two years?" While she kept a stoic face, her sub harmonics revealed her distress. Damn it.
He nodded, directing her towards another hallway. They both raised their pistols and continued their conversation while walking. "The Human Systems Alliance officially declared you killed in action and the whole galaxy thinks you're dead. They gave up on you. We didn't. We wrestled with Cerberus to retrieve you because we need a hero soldiers and civilians alike can look up to. I can tell you more later, commander. Right now, we need to get to the shuttle bay. You know from experience that Cerberus doesn't play nice."
Shepard wanted to continue her interrogation with Augumus, but she knew he had a point. The whole station was a combat zone and she could always ask more questions when they were a safe distance away. Waving her hand, she motioned for him to follow as she continued navigating hallways. "When I first woke up, someone named Surraka was talking to me over the intercom. I think she was the doctor that worked on me."
"Yes, her name is Taana Surraka. She's the head of Project Tarin, the project created to revive you. It was her job to bring you back to life. She poured two years and virtually unlimited resources into you, so forgive me if I'm not surprised she tried to save you, commander." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Can you still contact her? Communications have been spotty since Cerberus arrived."
Shepard stopped in her tracks, looking around the corner wall and scanning the perimeter. When it was confirmed the area was clear of hostiles, she glanced in his direction again. "Negative. I lost contact with her a few minutes prior to our meet up. She said Cerberus troops were closing in on her location and told me to make my way to the shuttle bay."
Augumus paused, evaluating the possible courses of action they could pursue. He motioned for her to follow, escorting her up a flight of stairs. "Our best option is a direct approach towards the shuttle bay. Knowing Taana, she's doing everything in her power to get there now."
The two kept walking with their pistols drawn, killing any hostiles they encountered along the way. Their journey was relatively uneventful, mostly consisting of stepping over corpses and looting heat sinks. Augumus took point, acting as a tour guide through the war torn turian station. The few live troops they ran into saluted her guide and followed the two of them as additional backup. He was likely one of the higher ranking torins among the crew stationed here. Shepard made a mental note to ask him about that later.
The group rounded a corner into a large hallway under heavy fire from Cerberus soldiers. The three turian soldiers following them saluted and departed to assist in fighting off the wave of heavily armed human supremacists. Gunfire turned to echos as the two paced side by side, distancing themselves away from the scene.
"The shuttle bay is just up there," Augumus said, gesturing to a large staircase up ahead. He motioned for her to follow. "Let's get you out of here."
"What about everyone else? Do they have a way off this station?"
He turned to face her. "Commander, a good majority of station personnel already left on shuttles or escape pods. Those who didn't are soldiers engaged in armed conflict around the station. They will be aided; rest assured, backup is on the way. We did, however, lose many good men today... May the spirits guide the souls of those who lost their lives." He put his head down as he walked, silently thanking the deceased for their sacrifice. Shepard did the same. She hated losing good soldiers in a fight. Knowing they were good people made the sacrifice even harder to bear.
They reached the top of the stairs, scanning the perimeter for any sign of a threat. There were none.
The shuttle bay was powered down with the emergency lighting illuminating the area. Only a single shuttle remained parked and the docking clamps were tightly locked in place around it.
"This is our way off the station Commander," he said, sealing the doors behind him. Augumus looked up towards the darkened ceiling, registering slight movement. He smiled, cupping his hands around his mouth to call out to the person above them. "Hello Taana, nice of you to join us! I was told you were occupied by Cerberus troops! I must say, they don't make for good company!"
A silhouette shadowed in the darkness of the ceiling jumped down from one of the roof pillars and onto the floor. The female turian looked between the two of them, setting her eyes on the commander. "Whoever told you that would be right." Her mandibles fluttered slightly, widening into a smile. "Hello, Commander. Doctor Taana Surraka," she said, giving her a turian salute. "I'm the head of Project Tarin. We talked earlier when you woke up." Taana looked behind her to check the doors Augumus sealed. They were clear, but that wouldn't last long. "I promise to tell you more once we leave the station. Right now, we're short on time." Once she finished her brief introduction, she pointed her talon to the worn out armor undersuit Shepard was wearing, gently flicking aside some of the worn fabric. Upon closer inspection, the doctor noticed blue blood clotting on the side she poked. The commander wasn't fully healed yet and likely tore something. Taana sighed. "You were scheduled to wake up two weeks from now. I suppose it was too much for me to hope nothing would tear open."
Augumus glared at Taana for her sarcastic remark. Now was not the time for her criticisms. His sub harmonics rang out loudly as his mandibles fluttered with irritation. "We need to tend to her injuries immediately. Taana, prep the shuttle."
She grumbled, heading in the direction of the shuttle. A few seconds later, it powered up and the engines came to life. The clamps around the turian shuttle released, leaving it floating above its designated landing pad.
"Come on," Augumus spoke, gesturing Shepard to follow with an outstretched hand.
She followed him into the shuttle, taking a seat across from the two occupants. "Let's get out of here. I've had enough of this station to last a lifetime."
Taana leaned back in her seat as the shuttle door closed. "Or two in your case."