The Illusive Man shook his head and sighed as he read Petrovsky's report. The Adjutants had been contained, Omega's previous ruler had been ousted and Petrovsky was in full control of the populace, with the exception of some small mercenary groups that were no real threat to him. All of that was good, however he had thus far failed to locate the triplets of Fabricator and it had been far too long for them to still be on the giant station.
"Keep me posted on the situation, General." The Illusive Man ordered. "We've one final option to exhaust before the cost of dealing with Shepard becomes too high for the benefits to be worth it."
"Very well, sir." Petrovsky replied, and turned away from the QEC.
The Illusive Man stepped out of his main viewing room and headed for the station's research and development area.
The Illusive Man stepped into Cerberus' main RnD department and nodded to an older male scientist across the room. The man made a show of hurrying over to attend to the Illusive Man.
"Yes, sir, what can I do for you?" Doctor Gregor Weinhaus asked.
"Tell me, Gregor, how has progress been with Project Failsafe?" The Illusive Man asked, his hands clasped behind his back.
"Ah, that." The doctor replied and gestured for the Illusive Man to follow him. "As you will be able to see from our data the research provided by the Jericho facility proved to be invaluable. Starting from scratch would have been truly problematic."
"Glad to hear that we have what we need, then. How long before the first fully integrated unit is ready?"
"You mean a full grown adult, bred with loyalty to Cerberus and full combat programming?" Gregor asked, receiving a nod in response. "Oh, with access to all other facilities throughout the organization I dare say, with a few significant breakthroughs in cloning technology we should have a fully operational unit in one year."
"That kind of time we don't have, Doctor." The Illusive Man impressed upon him. "I need this perfected individual immediately. What alternatives do we have?"
"Well..." Gregor began, looking through the data on the terminal and humming to himself as he mulled over the information in his head. "The only way to decrease the time it takes is to either send half developed embryos out or insert this tech into someone who is already alive."
"So it can be implanted as well as grown into someone?"
"Yes sir, but the results will differ greatly." Gregor replied. "You see, working with nothing but genetic material we can graft the bones, organs, muscles, fats, skin and hair all to suit our needs. And we can, theoretically institutionalize them before they're ever woken up. With a human being already among the living, well... That requires surgical procedures the patient isn't likely to survive, not to mention the chance that the person will decide they want to do things their way, rather than for the good of humanity. Emotional and psychological developments have to be considered."
"Will it be just as strong?" The Illusive Man demanded, cutting off any further explanation.
"In short, no. Not as strong as the finished product of a year's time. But we can graft muscle weavings into a subject's body, increase the density of the subject's bones and implant them with the same equipment that the original three subjects had, but the results of being able to develop the subject completely would be significantly greater."'
"Hmm..." The Illusive Man stared out into space through the near by window and thought for a few minutes, weighing in the options. "I'll begin working on a team for you, Gregor. You'll be in charge of the development of a fully grown subject. I'd like your input on who to place in charge of an augmentee development team."
"Going to try both options at once, sir?" Gregor asked, finding his curiosity and enthusiasm to compare the results overwhelming.
"We are." The Illusive Man replied and stepped out of the RnD department. He activated his omni-tool and keyed into Kai Leng. "Leng, I have need of you."
"Understood."
Comander Jane Shepard and her crew assembled in the mess hall of the Normandy, weapons at the ready while Zaeed was being tended to by Doctor Chakwas. They were all agitated beyond measure, save Jack who was fairly apathetic and Grunt who was more excited than anything else.
"Alright, we don't know who we're dealing with or what they want." Shepard stated, arms crossed over her chestplate. "What we do know is they're good. And there's only two of them on board. We are going to stick to three person teams and-"
"Shepard, a situation has just developed." EDI stated over the intercom. "One of the intruders is present in the drive core housing chamber."
"Damn it, Grunt, Garrus, on me. Everyone else, secure your positions."
The group fanned out and Shepard bolted for the elevator, sliding in and hitting the button as soon as the Krogan and Turian were inside with her. When the elevator came to a halt she drew her shotgun and charged into the drive core. When she didn't see anyone she looked over the railing and paused. Down, just below the humming core was a man, short brown hair, fairly thin and wearing Blue Suns armor floating biotically underneath the drive core. Shepard took aim at the man, signalling for Grunt and Garrus to take up firing positions.
"I wouldn't do that." Jason stated, looking up at Shepard. "You must be the lovely and talented Commander Shepard."
"You know who I am." Jane replied, lowering her weapon just slightly. "You have me at a disadvantage."
"You don't need to know who we are." Came a voice behind her. Jane whipped around and the barrel of her shotgun was grasped, ripped from her hands and then turned on her. Grunt and Garrus pointed their weapons at Stroyer and he shook his head. "Unless you want my brother to use his biotics to tear the drive core apart and drop this ship on the planet beneath us I suggest you tell your friends to stand down."
"Do as he says." Shepard replied, raising an eyebrow. "So, you don't feel like telling me who you are but I'm guessing you'll tell me what you want."
"Cerberus." Stroyer affirmed, lowering the shotgun once Grunt and Garrus weren't taking aim at him. "What is your relationship with them."
"The Blue Suns are going after Cerberus?" Shepard asked.
"These uniforms were a gift, now please answer the question."
"Alright. Until recently, I worked with Cerberus."
"Don't try to give us the run around." Stroyer demanded with a sigh. "We don't know everything but we do know you stole our purpose."
"And what purpose is that?" Garrus asked, taking a step closer. Stroyer brought the shotgun up so fast none of them had even seen him move.
"The Collectors, asshole." Jason shouted from the drive core.
"So this is the criteria the developers came up with?" Kai Leng asked, staring down at the list on his omni-tool. The information expressed the necessity for various physical traits, psychiatric characteristics and the non-negotiable biotic requirement. "This will narrow things down, at least."
"I can't say I'm all too pleased with the circumstances either." The Illusive Man replied as he stared out at the massive star from the window of his office. "But I made a mistake. I allowed my anger with Shepard for setting humanity back to cloud my judgement and make a hasty decision. Now we're stuck with nothing but more hasty decisions. This time, however, we will ensure that the final product is loyal to Cerberus."
"As you say, sir but the list of Cerberus personnel that fit this description is very short."
"Which is why I want you to personally seek out other potential. Mercenary, Alliance, I don't care, so long as the prospects you bring in are within the boundaries the good doctors have set forth."
"Mercenaries and Alliance both have a bit of a dislike for Cerberus, sir. I can bring them in, but with their upgrades, provided they survive the process, they might pose an even bigger threat than Shepard or the Triplets."
"Not this time." The Illusive Man stated, sending Leng another chunk of data. The assassin looked down at the omni-tool but offered no words. "Think of it as net. It's designed to wrap around the central nervous system. Both aspects of Project Failsafe are implementing them into their regimen of surgical enhancements. It will be plugged in to the subject's combat VI upgrades."
"Which follows Cerberus protocol." Leng finished and nodded his head.
"Precisely. There will be no mistakes this time."
"Jason..." Stroyer muttered after hearing Shepard's retelling of the suicide mission to the Collector base. "Come on out."
"Yeah, I figured." The biotic replied and floated up to the top. Stroyer handed Shepard back her shotgun, grip first.
"Apologies, Commander Shepard." The assassin stated in earnest. "Everything has happened so fast since we were birthed that we-"
"Birthed?" Shepard interrupted, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean birthed?"
"Project Fabricator was supposed to be what Project Lazarus was." Jason replied with a sigh. "We were being built to stop the Collectors. Then a year goes by with no funding to the project at all."
"Turned out all the money being used to bring us to life was shunted to bringing you back from the dead." Stroyer continued.
"So you're clones?" Shepard asked.
"We're still figuring that part out." Jason answered. "But that's not something for you to worry about."
"Indeed not." Stroyer agreed. "And the Illusive Man wanted to send us after you because he figured no one else could accomplish the task, so if you wanted to get back to that shore leave you were enjoying, I'd say you're pretty safe now."
"Call me skeptical." Garrus huffed.
"Call me bored." Grunt stated, catching a smirk from Stroyer. "I'm going to let everyone know the crisis... or whatever this was is over."
"And, provided you do intend to land this ship, we have a friend planetside who is likely freaking out right now." Jason said.
"Oh, yes." Stroyer said with a laugh. "She's probably got no clue what to do."