Chapter 3

Liara T'Soni didn't miss that Alenko was on his way to Illium, and after the disturbing message from Shepard she had a feeling it was connected. The asari Shepard wanted found was gone from Illium, and Liara felt doubtful that she could be found again. She would try in her spare time, she had her contacts looking with limited information and had others whispering that Shepard was looking for old Noveria contacts.

Alenko was surprised to see Liara when he got off the transport, they hadn't seen each other after the Normandy was destroyed but he recognized her immediately over the other asari.

"It is good to see you again, Kaiden," she said politely.

"Hey, Liara…uh, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"Hm, when I discovered you were on your way to Illium I assumed you were on your way to see me…my mistake, I guess," she frowned.

"Sorry, I didn't even know you were here," he said. "It is nice to see you again, though. How are you?"

"Busy," she admitted. "But since you are here...have you been contacted by an asari working for the queen from Noveria?"

Kaiden's eyes widened, "What? The…"

"Be careful what you say on Illium," she interrupted him. "Yes, the queen still lives. Apparently she contacted Andy through an asari messenger here on Illium, and Andy needed to get a message back to her. Unfortunate, but since you are aware if you are ever approached regarding it…I must know."

"Andy gave you a…mission?" Kaiden asked.

Liara smiled, "Not a mission, a request from an old friend. It was cryptically urgent, however."

Kaiden nodded, "Seems like she was watching herself, wanting to take care of unfinished business while not giving away too much to Cerberus."

Liara nodded, "It is as I feared, then. She came to me, shortly after forcing back the Collectors on Horizon, and asked for my assistance. If I didn't have my own pressing situation I would have joined her. I did my best to find a few good agents for her, though. Trustworthy. I have faith in her abilities…but that she sent me a message for help concerns me."

Kaiden nodded, "I have to go, I'm on the next ship to Omega. I'm going to stay there…if they make it back I want to know, and that would be the closest station for them when they return."

Liara nodded, "Smart thinking. I have contacts there, perhaps I will reach out to them so I can stay informed. Do be careful while you are there, though. Omega is dangerous…but you should be fine."

One day after receiving the message Kaiden was in Omega. He had never been there, it was deep enough in the Terminus Systems that he didn't go there for the Alliance and it had never appealed to him in a personal way. He rented a room, hacked into the radio for the docking station so he could listen, and read through the data Anderson had let him copy.

Joker was moving the Normandy gently so he could intercept Shepard's team, and strapped on his mask and hobbled to the airlock. The rest of the crew was still in the shuttle bay (except for Mordin who had come back early with the rescued crew and he was treating each of them medically). He grabbed the assault rifle Jacob had given him for 'just in case' and opened the port-side door. "We're coming in hot!" Shepard warned them, that base was going to go boom in less than a minute. For as well as things were going, he had a bad feeling. He saw them, running up a tunnel that opened to the outside of the base. The Normandy was as close to the platforms as it could be, a short jump and they were in.

The complexity of the base had required splitting up the group. Shepard had ordered most of her team to defend a door to keep Collectors from overwhelming her while she set the bomb, taking only Thane and Jack to watch her back. Once the bomb had been planted she ordered the rest of the team to abandon their position, which meant they had a lot of Collectors going after them now.

"Go! Go!" Shepard ordered her team, turning to shoot, bullets flying out of her pistol until it clicked. "Shit!" She screamed, throwing it at a Collector and turning to run again.

Thane reached the end of the platform first, jumping gracefully and landing hard in the Normandy. Jack wasn't far behind him, and she let out a cry as she took a jump, her arms out so Thane could grab her and pull her in with him.

"Shepard!" Joker shouted, firing the assault rifle, tearing down some Collectors to give her more room. He could see she was getting hit, her shield flashing with each hit and it was flashing like a slot machine after the jackpot. There was a rumble from within the base, and massive debris started crashing down from above them.

"No!" Jack shouted as the platform just three feet away from the ship fell away.

"EDI!" Joker shouted even as EDI piloted the Normandy gently closer to the remaining platform.

Shepard was almost there, though, and her shield gave one last pulse before it finally died. The Normandy was fifteen feet away from the edge now. Her face grimaced as she leapt, her face falling as she realized she wasn't going to make it, her arms flailing and reaching out.

Her hands barely grabbed the bottom of the doorway, and her body swinging below it nearly caused her to lose it.

"AH!" She screamed as bullets from the Collectors still fired at her, breaking through her armor.

"Come on, Commander, you aren't doing this to me again!" Joker said, grabbing her left hand as it slid away.

Jack grabbed her right arm, "No one left behind," she said, pulling her in as the Collectors continued to shoot.

"EDI! Get us out of here!" Joker shouted, firing off a few more rounds before the door closed.

Thane helped Joker get back to the cockpit quickly while Jack worked on pulling Shepard out of her armor outside of the airlock. "Shit, you are bleeding! A lot!"

Shepard was breathing hard, and Jack wasn't sure if it was because of getting hit or from running for her life.

"Everyone hold on, we're getting the hell out of here!" Joker announced.

"MEDIC!" Jack shrieked.

Thane and Joker both turned.

"We need some help up here!" Joker shouted in the intercom. "Shepard is down! Shepard. Is. Down! Thane, get back there and help I need to get us out of here! Don't you dare die on me, Shepard! We did not survive for you to die, damn you!"

Joker engaged the FTL drive, outrunning the blast of the Collector base and heading back to the dangerous debris field and back to the Relay.