Shepard made his way over to the armoury and saw Jacob modifying a shotgun.

"Commander, you want something?" Jacob asked putting his modified shotgun down.

Shepard leaned against the table. "I'm more interested in talking for a bit."

"If you want, Commander." Jacob shrugged. "Cerberus has ranks, but it's not the Alliance. No rules about fraternisation. Your boat, your call. You want to get friendly with everyone, that your business."

Jacob then activated his omnitool and scan several of the mods on the table Shepard was leaning on.

Shepard shook his head. "Relax, Jacob. I'm just interested in what makes you tick."

"Anyone else said that, I'd walk away." Jacob switched off his omnitool and turned to face him. "Most Cerberus people tried to play like the Illusive Man, hiding bullshit behind a smile. But you—I like what I've seen. I'll give you a shot. What you want to know?"

Shepard folded his arms. "Anyone waiting for you back home?"

Jacob shook his head. "Only child and no extended family. Never settle down. Didn't seem fair with this job. But, you can't miss what you never had."

"I have an aunt in the Alliance, she was given the promotion of Admiral but she turned it down because of me. She sent a message through, but other than I haven't heard from her."

"I've read her file," Jacob nodded. "Very impressive records and one of the few Alliance of officers worth their salt."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "You seem okay with taking a risk on me. Why?"

"Soldiers like us know how important trust is to the crew. I'm not used to seeing it on a Cerberus ship. Definitely not from the people they put in command. But you focus on the more on the job. A threat this big, you can't just throw people at it blind. They need inspiration."

"There's a lot riding on this, but we can't give up everything."

"Not always a choice we get to make. Good to try, though. I give it my best back in the Alliance. Got labelled as a troublemaker. They were always on the lookout for disruptive types. Cerberus isn't any better. They just put more effort into hiding how much they spy on you."

Shepard raised his hand dramatically. "Let them watch. We're not hiding anything."

"Wouldn't matter if we were," Jacob smiled. "It's not like they can reel us in. We're handling this, whether they like it or not. Anyway, I should get back to prep. Nice talking to you, Shepard. Let's do it again sometime."

The Normandy soon dropped out of FTL they soon approached a ship called Purgatory. The place was giving its charming name by the fact that it was a prison in the Terminus System.

The reason they were heading there was because according to the dossier there was a convict there that could help them on their mission a very powerful biotic, maybe even the most powerful human biotic by the name of Jack.

"Welcome to the Purgatory, Shepard. Your package is being prepped, and you can claim it shortly." The guard nodded in greeting. "As this is a high-security vessel, you'll need to relinquish your weapons before we proceed."

"I can't do that," said Shepard firmly.

Another turian approached, one with that 'official' sort of walk. "Everyone stand down. Commander, I'm Warden Kuril, and this is my ship." He clicked his mandibles. "Your weapons will be returned on the way out. You must realise this is just a standard procedure."

There was nothing standard about him being the one to pick someone up from jail. "It's my standard procedure to keep my gun."

Warden Kuril glared at him. "Let them proceed. Our facility is more than secure enough to handle three armed guests. We're bringing Jack out of cryo. As soon as the funds clear, you can be on your way." Warden Kuril gestured. "If you'll follow me to Outprocessing for the pickup, Commander."

"Let's go." Michael started walking.

Warden Kuril started to give them a tour the facility. "Cellblock two. As you can see, we keep tight control over the population."

Shepard saw that the entire block was covered with containment cells no doubt for the prisoners. A mechanical arm then appeared and grabbed containers and bring it over to the catwalk.

"Each prisoner's cell is self-contained, modular unit. I'd blown a few are from the airlock as an example. The ship is made of 30 cell blocks identical to this one—we housed thousands of criminals. We can put the whole place in lockdown on a moment's notice. Nothing goes wrong here."

"Maintaining a population of this size in space can't be cheap," Shepard noted.

Warden Kuril nodded. "We can cut corners that governments can't. And each prisoner brings in a fee from his homeworld. These individuals are violent, and their home planet pays well to keep them here."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "What happens if the homeworld doesn't want to pay?"

"We explained that we can't maintain the prisoner without their help, so we'll be forced to release him back onto his homeworld. At an unspecified place and time."

Garrus narrowed his eyes. "So it's an extortion racket."

Warden Kuril glared. "You don't have to agree with my methods, but don't question my motives. These are despicable people and I'm keeping them locked up."

Shepard didn't want to be here any longer than he had to. "Let's get on with this."

"Bet it'd be hell trying to escape from this place," said Kasumi.

"We're in space—they have nowhere to go, and they know it. But still, we exercise extreme caution. These are dangerous individuals."

From the catwalk they saw two prisoners argued with one another, but before they could swing fists a guard activated his omnitool and the shield generator appeared pushing them away from one another.

"We have many ways to control the population." They soon reached the door and the Wwarden looked at them. "I'm going to confirm that the funds from Cerberus cleared. Outprocessing is straight down this hallway. Just keep going past the interrogation rooms and the Supermax wing." He then walked off leaving the three of them alone. "I'll catch up with you later… Shepard."

Shepard continued walking towards 'Outprocessing'. He paused at a cell where the guards were beating a prisoner.

"Is there something I can do for you?" the guard asked.

Shepard felt sick. "There's no excuse for beating a prisoner who can't fight back."

The guard glanced at him. "This is a massage compared to what his victims went through."

"This degrees you as much as him."

"We have orders."

"You're not important enough to make your own decisions?"

"I admit… I sometimes get tired of this. Does this really get anything useful?"

"Stop this. For your own sake."

The guard nodded. "Yeah. You're right." He then looked to the guard was beating up on the prisoner. "Call it off. At least for now."

They reached outprocessing to find the room pretty much empty. A single technician told them to go to the room at the end of the hall before exiting. Shepard headed to the door. It opened to reveal an empty modular cell, and Kuril's voice came over the communicator. "My apologies, Shepard. You're more valuable as a prisoner than a customer. Drop your weapons and proceed into this open cell. You will not be harmed."

He exchanged a look first with Garrus, and then with Kasumi and they nodded. Shepard then pulled out his rifle. "Go to hell. I'll send you there, myself."

"Activate systems!" Kuril's voice responded.

They quickly hit behind several desks just as the guards appeared with mechs. The three of them began to open fire and while Shepard and Garrus were keeping them busy, Kasumi went behind them cloaked and struck one from behind.

Shepard then uses hacking software to make the mechs turn on the guards. Once the guard were dealt with taking down the mechs was easy and they quickly made their way out of outprocessing.

"Reinforced outprocessing! Shepard is loose!" Kuril's voice yelled.

"We have to get Jack out a cryo!" Kasumi yelled.

"What could this guy be thinking trying to lock us up?" said Shepard shaking his head.

"Clearly he's feeling his motives for money," said Garrus. "We should have seen that one coming."

"At least we still got our guns," said Shepard.

"And to no one's surprise..." Michael drew his rifle. "It's time to start shooting."

"I'm confused..." Garrus shook his head.

Michael glanced over his shoulder at him. "Confused?"

"Is this breaking into prison, or breaking out of prison?"

"It's..." Micheal frowned. "You know, that's actually a really good question."

Grunt picked up a desk and threw it at the first guards to come in the door.

They soon reached the cyro chambers which was being guarded by a lonely technician.

"Shepard is on the loose! Repeat, Shepard is loose! Get people down here!"

They open the doors and shot the technician before he could fire a shot at them and made their way to the controls.

"Shepard, if you had back control, every door on the cellblock opens," Garrus warned.

"It's the only way to get Jack out of there," Kasumi pointed out.

"I'm doing it." Shepard touched the control. "Be ready."

The mechanisms began moving as soon as he'd entered the sequence. The mech guards turned to watch, clearly preparing for a fight. There was a hiss of white gas, and the cryo unit was lifted up to reveal… a rather small woman.

Garrus blinked. "That's Jack."

Jack was heavily tattooed, bold and wearing a pair of baggy pants and a single strap to cover her breasts. She then opened her eyes and promptly tore the restrains off. As the mechs approached, she glared before a blue aura began to glow around her. She charged, and more or less went through the mechs. And then through the wall. Explosions could be heard from the direction she went.

"The dossier wasn't kidding, she is powerful," said Shepard.

"We have to get down there!" Garrus yelled.

Even the mechanical voice of the station's VI was starting to sound panicked as they fought their way through the station. Fortunately tracking Jack down was easy, considering that she smashed through every single wall and blast door that got in her way.

The prisoners were running amok in the guards were doing their best to maintain order, but they were beginning to be overwhelmed. The guards also had no problem shooting at them, though considering that they unleash every single prisoner in the cellblock Shepard couldn't really blame them that is if they hadn't shot at him before this mess.

The warden had found himself a nice, heavily guarded, elevated vantage point from which he was sniping prisoners. It even had shield generators. "You're valuable, Shepard. I could've sold you and lived like a king." He fired a shot in their general direction. "But you're too much trouble. At least I can recapture Jack."

Shepard wasn't really inclined to give him good odds on that. "Not happening! You're a two-bit slave trader and I don't have time for it."

"I do the hard things civil governments are unwilling to! This is for the good of the galaxy!"

Shepard shook his head. "How's locking me up good for the galaxy?"

Instead of answering Kuril fired more shots and he was protected by a massive shield generator. Shepard signalled Kasumi to cloak and deal with them while he and Garrus cause a distraction.

Fortunately, Kuril was more focused and killing them than focusing on his shield generators and he didn't notice that Kasumi was destroying them one by one and he was far too late. Sheppard then pulled out his sniper rifle and fired a shot right in between his head.

Once they whacked up dealing with the other guards they saw see Jack in one of the corridors. The guards, weapons, and for that matter, doors, really weren't slowing her down.

"Let's move!"

Jack slid under the door before it closed and used her biotics to slam one of the guards into the window, cracking it. She then slammed the other one against the railings and that's when she noticed the ship parked outside the window. Her eyes fell upon the logo and she recognised at once.

"Cerberus."

Anger flowed into her as her biotics kicked in and she began to growl and perform angry gestures. Shepard shot the guard coming at her, and she turned toward him. He holstered his sidearm. She glared. "What the hell do you want?"

"I just saved your ass." Shepard shrugged.

"He was already dead." She gestured at the guard. "He just didn't know it. Now, what the hell do you want?"

"My name is Shepard, and I'm here to get you off this ship."

"I'm not going anywhere with you." She narrowed her eyes. "You're Cerberus."

He knew teaming up with Cerberus would have this sort of impact, but he did have the time to explain it to Jack nor did he believe that she would believe him. "I'm offering to be your friend. You don't want to be my enemy."

"I take the offer, honey. Otherwise things end badly for you, fast," Kasumi suggested.

"You show up in a Cerberus frigate to take me away somewhere. You think I'm stupid?" She clenched her fists.

He looked around before looking back at her. "This ship is going down in flames. We can get you to safety, and we're asking for your help."

"We could knock her out and take," Garrus offered.

"I'd like to see you try." Jack glared at Garrus.

"We're not going to attack her."

"Good move." Jack started walking toward him. "Look, if you want me to come with you, make it worth my while."

"Join my team and I'll do what I can for you," Shepard promised.

"Don't make promises you can't keep. I bet your ship's got lots of Cerberus databases. I want to look at those files. See what Cerberus has got on me." She folded her arms. "You want me on your team, let me go through those databases."

Shepard really didn't have the authority to do that and the only one who could was Miranda. He had a feeling that she wasn't going to like this, but they needed Jack's cooperation. "I'll give you full access."

"You better be straight-up with me." When he nodded, she gestured at the Normandy. "So why the hell are we standing here?"

"This is going to be fun," said Shepard as they made their way to the Normandy.

Just like he predicted, Miranda was not happy about the situation. She was pacing in front of Jack. "Welcome to the Normandy, Jack. I'm Miranda, Shepard's second-in-command. On this ship, we follow orders."

Jack gave Miranda a withering look before turning her gaze to him. "Tell the Cerberus cheerleader to back off, Shepard. I'm here because of our deal."

"Miranda will let you into the system." Shepard folded his arms. "Let me know what you find."

"Hear that, precious?" Jack smirked at Miranda. "We're going to be friends. You, me, and every embarrassing little secret." She glanced back at Shepard. "I'll be reading down in the hold or somewhere near the bottom. I don't like a lot of through traffic." She turned and headed for the door. "Keep your people off me. Better that way."

Miranda looked at him and shook her head before leaving.

"Mordin." Shepard nodded in greeting. "Got a minute to talk?"

"Yes." Mordin set his experiment down. "Would like that, actually. Talked about work earlier. Time with Special Tasks Group. Studying genophage. Wasn't entirely honest. Lie of omission. Also other kinds. Need to clear the air. Mission too important to keep secrets." He leaned on the bulkhead, looking out the viewport. "Work on genophage was more than just study."

Shepard folded his arms. "What was the Special Task Group doing with the krogan genophage?"

"Study at first, as I said. But uncovered surprising data." He turned back towards Shepard. "Krogan population was increasing at faster rate than expected. Krogan were adapting to genophage. Overcoming disease."

"Did the krogan evolve, or did some of their scientists develop a treatment?"

"Krogan scientists?" Mordin laughed. "Never met krogan scientists worthy of term. No. Natural evolution. Krogan physiology incredibly durable. Organ redundancy, backup systems, cellular regeneration. Genophage like any other natural hazard. Krogan evolved past it."

Shepard always believed that the genophage was what caused mistrust between aliens and the krogan. "The genophage was a terrible mistake. It nearly destroyed the krogan and their culture. Now they have a chance to recover."

"Naive viewpoint." Mordin shook his head. "Krogan too dangerous to allow unchecked birthrate. Look at Krogan Rebellions. Mordin took a few steps forward. "Personally led a science team. Geneticists, chemists, sociologists, mathematicians." He clasped his hands behind his back. "Created new version of the genophage. Released it on Tuchanka, other krogan centric areas. Restablised krogan population."

"I doubt you told many people about this, Mordin," Shepard sighed. "I appreciate you letting me know."

Mordin went back to his experiment. "Wanted you to know I'm willing to do what's necessary."

Ashley stepped back and kicked the console. Like everything else she'd tried, it failed to fix the problem. She was starting to suspect something was deliberately sabotaging the guns.

She glanced at the communicator, and considered playing the message again. Her baby sister was actually seen someone now and she hoped that Ashley could meet him on her next tour. She also got a message from Rick saying that he was on his way back from the Citadel and she was entirely relieved.

However, there may not be a colony for him to come back to if she did get the guns online. Ironically this sort of thing was more suitable for Shepard, he was the best hacker that she had ever met and if anyone could find a problem it was him. Some part of her wanted the rumours to be true that he was alive, but she couldn't believe that he would willingly work for Cerberus something clearly was going on and she didn't like it.