Beep.
Shepard stirred slightly.
Beep.
Go away.
Beep.
Leave me alone.
Beep.
I'm dead.
Beep.
Shepard's eyelids fluttered open. She tried to rise from the table she lay on, but it turned out to be a challenge. Voices buzzed around her urgently. Try as she might, she couldn't make any out. The beeping grew louder and faster.
I've been drugged.
Beep.
She lifted her arm, trying to rise once more. Someone grabbed her arm before she could move it far.
What the hell?
Beep.
Her arm looked shriveled and shrunken.
What's going on here?
Beep.
She felt a needle prod her shoulder, and knew at once that she had been drugged again. A woman smiled at her as she fell backwards onto the table. A sweet, knowing smile. It reminded her of-
Liara.
Beep.
Oh God.
Beep.
I'm sorry.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
"Shepard." An unfamiliar voice sounded. Shepard stirred slightly.
"Shepard, get out of bed now. This facility is under attack."
Shepard's eyes shot open, as pain flooded every part of her body. She ran her hand across her jaw. She felt several oddly shaped scars. A quick examination told her that she sported several more. They all burned.
"Shepard your scars aren't fully healed," The voice sounded over the PA, almost sympathetically. "but you need to get moving now." Shepard hopped off the bed, lances of pain shooting up her legs as she landed.
"There's a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room. Hurry!" Shepard hobbled over to the locker in question and fried the lock. Along with part of the locker.
Odd. My biotics seem much stronger.
She opened the remains of the door, and grabbed at the contents. A pistol, along with some sort of uniform. It seemed to be padded for light protection. It sported a logo that was tantalizingly familiar. She shrugged, then pulled it on, and checked the charge on the pistol. There wasn't one.
What the hell.
"Shepard look out!" Several canisters by the door seemed to have caught fire. Shepard decided to assume that the red color of the containers meant explosive, and ducked behind a medical console. The explosion shattered several displays, but Shepard was unharmed by the blast. She tried to establish a barrier, but found she was unable to.
This is not the time to be walking off sedatives.
Shepard moved towards the door, surprised by the holographic display that popped up. She opened the door, finding a dead body in the hallway, two smoldering holes in his chest. He clutched a pistol in his hand. Shepard checked the charge on it.
At least it has power. But what kind of gun only has eleven shots left. No-one should ever let it get that low. Especially since a med lab doesn't see much action. He should've replaced them by now.
She examined the body further. She found an I.D. in one pocket.
She read the name on it: B. Sullivan. She checked the other pocket. She found several small power cells there.
What good are these? Unless…they're clips!
She checked her pistol, sure enough there appeared to be an eject button near the trigger guard. She popped a fresh power cell into the weapon. The charge now read twelve.
Something's not right here.
She opened the door behind the corpse and saw a slightly smoking pile of robotic parts.
Autonomous combat drones? Those are supposed to be prototypes. Where in hell did they get these?
A door opened to her right. Shepard turned as several bullets zipped past her ears. Another drone stood atop a small ramp, a door closing behind it. Shepard almost grinned.
At least they still can't shoot for shit.
She brought her gun up, and placed three rounds through its head. It collapsed onto the floor, then slid down the ramp. Shepard proceeded through the door it had come from, only to find herself in another lab. Another door ahead of her opened, and several drones poured out at once, guns blazing. Unable to return fire, Shepard summoned a torrent of biotic energy; she stood, bringing it to bear on the drones. Then she let it go. A blinding flash lit the room, and air whistled around Shepard, threatening to knock her off her feet.
After the gale subsided, Shepard stood there gazing at the carnage, slightly impressed. Half of the lab had been uprooted, tables were smashed, monitors shattered, chairs splintered. The floor was missing a few tiles, as was the ceiling. There was nothing left of the drones.
I'll have to do a better job controlling my biotics from now on. They must've upgraded my implants while I was out.
She picked her away through the wreckage, and progressed through the facility. Corpses littered the hallway around her. She stepped carefully around them, and arrived at a service elevator. She was about to activate it when a large group of drones fired on her from below. She palmed the button, and then began to return fire as she descended. When she reached their level, she built up a singularity and sent it flying towards them. She sprinted past them, and locked the door behind her. Shepard then turned, and sprinted down the next hallway, and up a flight of stairs. She arrived at what looked like a tram station, two balconies separated by a small chasm. A small firefight was developing here, a lone guard on her side shooting at several drones on the other. Shepard took aim, and brought down three of the robots in a flurry of gunfire. The rest spotted her and re-directed her fire. Shepard sprinted over to join the guard.
"Shepard? What are you doing here?" He seemed to forget the drones across the chasm, staring instead at Shepard.
"Just woke up. You probably know more than I do."
"Where's Sullivan, he was supposed to…"
Shepard shook her head.
"Damn."
"What's our next step?" Shepard asked, eager to move on.
"First step, we finish off these metal bastards." He raised his arm, biotic energy rippling around it, and tossed one of the mechs into the air. Shepard did the same, pulling two into the air. The remaining drones fell back. Shepard felt a slight rush as she dispatched another mech with her pistol. The sedatives were beginning to wear off.
"Alright, through here. This is the fastest route to the shuttles." He gestured towards the nearest door. Shepard nodded. But privately she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. The symbol that was on her uniform, Jacob's armor, and sported on several walls and windows seemed very familiar. She knew she had seen it before, she just couldn't remember where. She took point as they continued on.
"This is the server control room. Just beyond it is the shuttle bay." Jacob entered an override code on the door's holographic keypad. Shepard just barely stopped herself from screaming in frustration.
The layout of this facility makes no sense!
"Got it." The door slid open. Beyond it lay several bodies. One was still moving.
"Wilson?" Jacob helped the injured man into a sitting position. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Trying to shut down the mechs. It didn't work, whoever did this fried the whole system. Completely irreversible."
Jacob shook his head at that, taking a step back. His hand tightened around the pistol grip. "Why do you even have security mech clearance? You worked in the bio wing."
Wilson's face turned red. "I came here to try and fix this. Besides, I was shot! How do you explain that?"
Shepard stepped between them. "Why don't we get out of here before we start pointing fingers?"
She stepped towards a medi-gel dispenser on the opposite wall.
What the? That's against several laws. This stuff isn't even technically legal. They can't just have wall dispensers for it.
A body lay near the dispenser. It was an balding man sporting a labcoat. Shepard stared. That labcoat looked really familiar. She shook herself, and returned to Wilson, dressing his wounds. He stood after she finished.
"Thanks Shepard, guess that makes us even now."
"Right." Jacob muttered. "Now we just need to find Miranda and…"
Wilson scoffed. "Miranda was over in D wing. Mechs were all over that sector."
"A bunch of Mechs won't drop Miranda, she's alive."
Wilson shook his head, smiling condescendingly. "If so, where is she, why haven't we heard from her? Either she's dead or…" Wilson trailed off, letting the silence finish his thought. Shepard, more than slightly frustrated, decided to step in.
"Then why did she wake me up and warn me about the attack?"
Wilson conceded the point. "Okay, that still doesn't change the facts. We're here, she's not. We need to get out while we can." Jacob nodded solemnly. A trio of mechs chose that moment to burst through the doors to the group's left and open fire. Wilson's omni-tool flared, and a stack of explosive crates erupted, decimating the robots.
"That's it," he grinned "lets get out of here."
Shepard took point again, but Jacob saw that she also adopted a stance that allowed her to turn around quickly. It was a stance taken when you were alone, with no-one else to watch your back. Or if you didn't trust others to. Glancing down, he realized that he was poised similarly. He sighed.
"Look, we're not going anywhere if we're all expecting a shot in the back." Shepard turned around to face Jacob, but something caught her eye. The labcoat adorned corpse.
"Shepard, if I tell you who we work for, will you trust me?" Shepard was barely paying attention, her eyes flash from the labcoat, to one of the symbols on a nearby wall. She let out a low growl.
"Cerberus." She brought her gun around, not quite pointed in their direction.
"Shepard?" Jacob looked confused.
"You're Cerberus." She almost spat these words at him. She backed away further.
Jacob took a step towards her, but froze when he saw the look in her eye.
"Shepard what are you…" Shepard didn't hear the rest of it, she bolted down the hallway behind her.
"Nice going Jacob."
They ran after her, following the path of smoldering mechanical pieces, bullet holes, and open doors. Shepard had almost reached the shuttles when they caught up to her. She turned towards them, gun brandished. They froze. The three of them stood there for several seconds, each waiting for another to make the first move. None of them did. Behind the Cerberus operatives, a door opened and a wave of mechs poured out. Shepard's eyes widened. Then her humanity kicked in. She used threw the two men aside and began firing into the tide of droids.
"Get to the shuttles!" She shouted, barely making herself heard over the gunfire. Wilson began working on the door, and Jacob settled behind a small couch to return fire. The fight lasted only a few seconds, the lash mech hitting the floor just as Wilson shouted.
"Got it!"
Shepard and Jacob jogged back as the door opened, revealing a very familiar woman standing there, a pistol pointed at Wilson's face.
"Miranda?" He asked, shocked. "But you're" A gunshot echoed throughout the chamber. Wilson's body hit the floor with a dull thud. Shepard brought her gun up.
"Dead?" The woman drawled, disdainfully.
"What the hell are you doing?" Jacob shouted at the woman.
"My job." She replied without a trace of emotion. "Wilson betrayed us all."
"Are you sure, we knew Wilson for years, what if you're wrong?"
She smiled icily at that. "I'm never wrong. I thought you'd have learned that by now Jacob." She turned to stare at Shepard. Shepard stared back impassively, her gun still trained on Miranda. "Not exactly the trusting type I see."
"You'll forgive me for being a bit uneasy around terrorists. Most Cerberus operatives I've met tried to kill me." Miranda shot a glare at Jacob. But Shepard shook her head.
"The company logo is painted on every visible surface." Miranda looked taken aback.
"How do you know what-" The corners of Shepard's mouth moved slightly upwards.
"This wasn't exactly my first visit. I'm really noticing the lack of sick genetic experiments. Not enough room in the budget?" An explosion sounded in the distance. More alarms blared.
"As much as I've enjoyed chatting here, perhaps we could continue it elsewhere?" Jacob nodded, and glanced at Shepard. Reluctantly, she lowered the gun and followed them into a shuttle. During the shuttle ride, Miranda explained to her the various aspects of Project Lazarus. Shepard was utterly surprised at what the budget had been, and how easily that had been surpassed.
"Now if you don't mind, I'd like to ask a few questions to evaluate your mental condition."
Jacob looked at her as if she had to be joking. "Come on Miranda, she took down dozens of mechs back there with no trouble. That's gotta be enough."
Miranda looked at him sternly. "It's been two years since the attack. We need to be sure Shepard did not sustain lasting brain damage."
Two years?
Her mind flashed back to the station. The new power cells, updated amps, holographic door interfaces, and availability of medi-gel. It seemed so obvious in hindsight.
"Two years and twelve days." Jacob said catching the look in Shepard's eye. "And you were on an operating table for most of it."
"The sooner we start, the sooner we can be done." Miranda said irritated. "Start with personal history." Jacob activated his omni-tool, it projected a display of Shepard's personal information.
"Alright, records show that you were a colonist. Grew up on Mindoir." He stared at the screen again. Then he swallowed. Shepard started grinding her teeth as memories fought their way to the surface. She forced them back down as Jacob moved on, wanting to change the surface. Miranda just stared at Shepard "You enlisted at sixteen, and after series of successful missions, you and your squad leader were both recommended for N7 class training. Before that was approved, you were shipped to Akuze. There you survived an attack by a group of thresher maws. What happened?"
"I survived the attack by Cerberus," She looked pointedly at Miranda, who tried to speak, only to be silenced by Jacob. "Because my squad leader saved me. Then I walked back to the extraction zone." Miranda clearly wanted more, but Jacob moved on.
"Okay. Let's see, Eden Prime, Therum, Feros, Noveria, Virmire. Shepard, on Virmire when you stopped Saren's cloning facility; you had to leave one of your squad behind to die in the blast. You chose Lt. Alenko. Your call. Why did you leave him behind?"
"Do you think it was easy?" Shepard's eyes literally flashed, courtesy of Cerberus' enhancements. "I left behind a damn good soldier, one of my friends. Left him to die because of my goddamn plan. I left him to die because I couldn't get back fast enough, and I had to save everyone that I could." Jacob held up his hands to stave of Shepard's assault.
"Commander, I didn't mean it like that. I understand. Everyone at Cerberus knows that the facility had to be destroyed." He stopped when he saw the was Shepard was glaring at him. Miranda just smirked."
She examined her omni-tool display as well. "It also seems that you were involved with the daughter of a Matriarch Benezia during your mission."
A crackle of biotic energy surged along Shepard's body. "None of your damn business."
The rest of the trip passed in silence.