FREEDOM'S PROGRESS

(How American)

After the shuttle had landed, and Miranda led the three to the waiting area, she explained that the Illusive Man was booked for a meeting to begin in ten minutes. For the remaining time, she suggested a small conference to go over what not to tell the Illusive Man.

"Cole, seeing as you won't be meeting the Illusive Man, there's an armour module on the wall there. According to Dunbar's biography, you wore a lot of different outfits. Is that true?" Cole thought back to his time in New Marais. The coat he'd taken off of Kessler's corpse, his bionic gauntlet. The Reaper Killer coat and warpaint. The various weapons Zeke had fixed up for him- a samurai sword, a khopesh, even two short assegai spears that acted as conductors/ emitters for his powers. He especially remembered the stealth armour Nix had made for him out of swamp monster leather.

"Oh, boy, is that true! Where is it?" Cole smiled. Miranda pointed towards a yellow-orange hologram thing with a cuirass on the front. Cole'd have some fun seeing what they'd come up with.

His personal login was chock full of outfits and melee weapons for him to use. At the forefront was a thing called an omni-tool. The description was 'multipurpose diagnostic and manufacturing tool. Can be used for hacking, decryption, repair, or storage and organisation of inventories. The mini-fabrication pack allows rapid assembly of small three-dimensional objects such as plastics, metals, ceramics, and light alloys. This model is equipped with two omni-blades.'

"Cool." The possibilities are endless! Except I now have to figure out how to wield these without draining or shocking them. Maybe if I… It took Cole a few seconds, but he wrapped the fabricator band and hologram node onto his wrists, just under the final studs that surfaced in his skin there. He flipped through the outfit pages on the Armour Module, until he found one he felt like wearing- most of these were futuristic and clingy.

The one he chose was a kind of poly-fibre crossed with Kevlar plates. It bore a kind of old, wrinkled leather-like texture, with rings of white light pulsing on the shoulders, spine, and chest. The helmet- for no-air environments- was a lower-face mask of the same material without a mouth-grille. His eyes were protected by a black matte drop-down visor with a reticule of some kind on it. No more tar-shit to the face, thought Cole, as he remembered Sasha's hallucinogenic gunk.

He slung two short spears on the mag-plates on the back, and one long sword with such a fine edge, he couldn't see it curve. He also took an M-8 Avenger assault rifle, just to be sure. He checked to make sure it fired bullets, not energy pulses, and then slung that on the lowest mag-plate. He checked himself over in the mirror, thinking, Looking good, Cole...He turned around to find the other three staring at him.

"What?! I like to be ready at all times! Besides, remember what happened when I used that gun, Yara? I don't want that happening to a friend." Yara quickly explained what had happened to the two confused operatives. Comprehension dawned, as a small klaxon went off, signifying the Illusive Man was ready.

As Yara walked toward the stairs to the meeting room, Cole came up to her.

"Hey, do you want me to go with you? Y'know, in case he springs something?"

"No, thanks Cole. I survived this long, I'll be fine talking to a hologram." She smiled at him, and walked on past. Cole followed her with his eyes until she disappeared from view. God, she's beautiful.

It took nearly twenty minutes to talk to the head of Cerberus, but when Yara came back up the stairs, she looked angry, and upset.

"Yara, what's wrong? What did he say?"

"He said he wants me to investigate colonies disappearing. He doesn't seem to understand that I worked fine as a Spectre until now. I don't need a guiding hand! Or a puppet master, for that matter…" Cole saw her fighting to not break something. He understood, completely.

"Ok, so, we go and investigate, but we do so on our own terms. Did he mention anything about me? Or maybe about the mission?"

"Yeah, he said you were my protection, and that you'd make sure I followed orders. What did he mean by that?" Wilson woke up for a brief second.

"He… asked me to put in a control chip. I didn't… do it. Not to the guy… who saved mankind." Aaand he's out again. Nice of him.

"So, the Illusive Man expects us to be on a tight leash. Let's see what we can do to fuck that up, yeah?"

The four stood up, and headed for the shuttle to take them to Freedom's Progress.

The colony was barren. No one around, no signs of battle or struggle. Still-warm food sat on tables, a lukewarm cup of tea. The group proceeded through the empty habitats, until they came across a security mech. Over the valley was a hab with a balcony, holding two mechs. They immediately started shooting at the foursome.

"Hold it! Guys, get in cover. I wanna see what I can do!" Stepping out, Cole let the two mechs take a shot at him.

The thermal rounds collided with his armour, barely even moving him as he stepped forwards. He suddenly drew his spears, and threw two bolts at the mechs. The drain was so minimal, he'd recharge back to full strength faster than he could fire! Each bolt slammed into a mech with enough force to explode their circuits. He concentrated again, narrowing his bolt down to minimise the damage, and threw it at a small dog-like mech running towards him. It flew straight through the shields, and detonated the self-destruct feature of the FENRIS mech.

"OK, I think it's safe to come out now!"

Yara, Jacob and Miranda stepped out of cover, wide-eyed. He'd put next to no effort into destroying those mechs, and he was fine. Their shots hadn't even scratched him!

"MacGrath, how in the hell did you survive those shots? You didn't even activate your shield in your armour! You should be dead! Those LOKIs and the FENRIS would have been hard to beat alone!" Miranda was waxing lyrical about his powers. Just you wait, Miranda… Just you wait.

Cole shrugged. "I'd like to see combat from you three- see how it's done. Mind if I hang back next time, maybe watch you three in action?"

Yara, Jacob and Miranda gawped. This guy had just wiped the floor with three mechs, and now he was bashful?

"Y- yeah, sure."

The foursome continued through the empty colony, occasionally finding a wall safe or data pad, which Yara hacked to take the credits. Made sense, to be fair- the colonists were never coming back, may as well make something of it. There were several gun mods to be found around, too. A silencer for Cole's Avenger was found, as well as a sight. Miranda took the damage mod, for her SMG, and the other sight Yara took for her Avenger. Jacob picked up his own shredder mod for his shotgun, and an ammo capacity increase for his M-3 Predator.

The silence was getting to Cole. At no point, in his entire life, had he had complete silence. Not in Empire, not on the boat to New Marais, and not in New Marais, either. Suddenly, he picked up voices in the habitat ahead. He turned to the other three, and tapped his helmet over his ear, then pointed to the habitat.

Jacob nodded, as did Miranda. Yara sidled up to the door, while the others stayed back.

"Veetor must be here somewhere, we need to get there before Cerberus gets to him! Tali, come on!"
"No, Prazza! If that really is Commander Shepard, I need to know! Where's she been for two years, for a start? Can you answer that Prazza? No? I didn't think so!"

Yara was about to turn the corner, when Cole signalled her. He swiftly waved his hand in front of his throat, NO! Then, he jumped over the crates between them. Whispering very quietly, he told her his plan, while broadcasting it to the others.

"Yara, I'll climb over the top, and continue on to find Veetor. You stay with your friend… Tali, was it? While Jacob and Miranda follow me. These guys obviously don't trust them, so find out why. You don't want to push away your old friends, right?" Cole's plan made perfect sense.

Yara walked around the corner with her gun pointing down- no threat. While she drew the aliens' attention, Jacob, Miranda and Cole jumped up onto the roof and silently made their way to the end of the habitat block. About halfway there, Yara radioed in. "… the Loading Docks? Oh…".

So, Veetor was hiding in the loading docks. "Why?"

"He must've hidden from something, especially because he's ill? An infection, right?"

Oh, she was good. She was giving him all the info, while seeming to chat to the aliens. Speaking of.

"Miranda, what were those things? I have no idea what any of the aliens look like."

"Quarian. Typically migrants, they go on Pilgrimages to help people when they come of age. They have to wear body-suits because they don't have an immune system- their home planet, Rannoch, consisted of symbiotic pathogens, rather than harmful ones. There was an… altercation, between Cerberus and the Migrant Fleet recently where a cell tried to blow up the main live ship- where they live."

"Oh. Well, if we can get the info from Veetor before Tali and the others get bored of Yara, we can leave before they know we're here."

"Agreed!"

The courtyard of the Loading Bay lay before them. Just out of gun range was a group of drones protecting the only way down.

"Cole, is there a way to take out those drones without a prolonged fight through cover?" Cole laughed at Jacob's sentiment- of course there was!

"Just watch."

Cole unslung his Avenger, taking aim at the lead drone. He fired.

The shot was completely silent, but all the more astonishing for it- the drone's shields collapsed under the super-charged mass-driven slug, as it pounded through its armour and into its internal circuits. The same happened in short order to the other four drones, one after the other. Cole then leapt down from the roof- almost twenty feet- landing on the balls of his feet. He was followed by the two agents taking the ladder, like sane, sensible human beings. Miranda was furious with his antics.

"Don't do that again! I thought you'd died! I almost- Urgh!" She sulked for a second before heading off towards Veetor's hiding place.

"Yara. Sitrep?"

"Well, Tali, it sure would be nice to have a drink with you again. Do you mind?" Cole heard a faint response- he had loads of time. Once women sat down to have a drink- they talked. And talked and talked and talked.

Cole ran after the agents, intent on seeing them fight.

The courtyard lay before them, with a massive YMIR mech standing in the middle. Cole looked at Jacob and Miranda, who, by all accounts, looked slightly nervous.

"If you want any help, just yell, yeah? Don't want to have to heal you guys on our first outing together!" He grinned a shit-eating grin, and ushered them off.

The two Cerberus agents looked at each other, and nodded. Jacob went left, Miranda went right. As soon as the YMIR registered their presence, Jacob threw a stasis field at the YMIR. Miranda then hit it with a warp, and they both started shooting at the head. Cole could tell that they both were doing minimal damage- a pistol and an SMG against a big thing like this? That's like trying to take down Bertrand the Bug with an Alpha Bolt…

Cole sat on the gate arch, watching the two work. He could see that they had extensive combat experience together, and used the other's powers as a damage multiplier, just like he and Kuo did.

Suddenly, the YMIR broke out of the stasis, and threw a missile at Jacob. He dived behind a crate just in time, but it shattered, forcing him to continue his roll until he was behind a stronger one.

"OK, Cole! You made your point! Wipe this thing out!" Miranda shouted from across the battlefield- had she no idea of how to use a radio?

Cole jumped up, and drew his short spears. Pointing them at the mech, he narrowed the bolt down, until it was a thin beam, and then threw the two bolts at the mech. Both arms found themselves on the concrete ground, sparking. Next, he threw a single normal bolt at its head.

The mech collapsed. Cole ambled over, and drained the massive battery of the thing- it expanded his core a noticeable amount. What do they make their batteries out of that they store that much energy? Thought Cole, as he swung his spears back onto their mag-plates.

"Yara. We're about to question Veetor, if you can give us five minutes minimum, we can be in and out. Copy?" Two taps on the comm bead- affirmative. Cole nodded at Miranda, who led the way into the control room.

Back at the shuttle, Cole stood waiting with Miranda and Jacob hidden inside. Yara and Tali the quarian were walking up the incline to meet them. Another shuttle flew by, with Prazza's squad and the sickly Veetor on board. They'd gotten what info they needed in three minutes flat. Plus, Veetor was so ill, he didn't know what he'd said.

Yara saw him waiting, and walked faster to the shuttle. The quarian had no trouble keeping up with those weird legs.

"Tali, meet Cole MacGrath, the Lightning Man. Also known as the Demon of Empire of City and the Patron Saint of New Marais. Cole, this is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." The two shook hands, with Cole finding great interest in the two fingers and thumb.

"Tali, Cole's never met another species before, so could you give him a very quick rundown on what a quarian is?"

"Sure, Shepard. Cole, quarians have to wear evirosuits to protect ourselves from pathogens. We have practically no immune system, and we can't eat the same food as humans or asari, because our DNA is dextro-based, and yours is levo-based. That good?"

"Yeah, thanks. Look, Tali. I'm not sure if you know, but we came here by Cerberus drop-ship- technically, the Commander and I are working with- with, mind you, not for- Cerberus to investigate the colonies that are disappearing. There are two agents in the shuttle waiting for us. I wanted to let you know now, away from surveillance, that we want to break up Cerberus, and make a new pro-human organisation that works with the other ones like STG and the Justicars. I think that's all the ground-breaking news out in the open… Oh, and we already asked Veetor what went down here, while you two were chatting."

If Tali could show her expression, Cole was sure her eyebrows would be raised. As it was, she didn't seem to be too fazed by the news- maybe she knew that was why Shepard was so chatty.

"It's ok, I kinda gathered that the three agents who were with her were sneaking off. It was you who decimated the YMIR?" Cole chuckled, glancing back at the shuttle door.

"Well, put it like this- I had to step in." Both Tali and Yara looked gobsmacked- the Cerberus agents couldn't take down an YMIR?

A/N: Yes, I've been gone a long time. I've been writing, but not publishing. I've broken my promise to one of my valuable readers, to whom I can only say, suck a dick. I'm so bad at education, I had to do it all over again! It's almost as if I spent most of my time reading and writing FF! No, don't really suck a dick, I love you really