Blue: Cerulean

by Mad-Hamlet

This is the first part of Blue. This is Cerulean. There was no Catalyst-AI, there was no answer to what or why The Reapers were. There was only Shepard, The Crucible and Harbinger. Afterwards there was only Shepard- marked forever by the ancient machines. And for that reason she will be betrayed and hunted down. For that reason she will fight the oldest of enemies.

4. Blue: Cerulean: Three

Drain Brameged Inc. Proudly Presents

A Mad-Hamlet Production

Blue:Cerulean:Three

McGarret was speaking again.

"Epsilon squad moving to engage, Delta, Gamma and Alpha coming into- Sir, Epislon Squad is gone sir. Just..." there was a pause of several seconds. Shepard could picture the young officer trying to regain control, digging deep to stay on top of a situation that just minutes ago had been run of the norm. When McGarret's voice came back Shepard's stomach twinged in sympathy.

"Delta and Gamma engaging, sir, Alpha reports casualties. Enemy fighting strength appears unaffected."

The enemy trooper's head suddenly rocked backwards with a violent pulse of green; the flare of shields died away as the sound of a single gunshot caught up with the bullet.

"Black Widow," Shepard said to herself, her lips pulled up in a grin. "He's done."

The enemy trooper didn't fall, he shook his head violently, raised his the rifle and again a round struck with another flare of shields. This shot spun the trooper all the way around, staggering him as the report echoed through the feed. Before the trooper could reorient the back of his helmet imploded, the impact of a final shot knocking him off his- and his body flashed bright green and disintegrated in mid-air; nothing hit the ground.

Part of Shepard's mind was whooping at the kill, but the more tactical side of her thoughts were grim.

"That took a full clip," Liara spoke quietly. Her words echoing Shepard's own realizations. "I remember how you doted on your own rifle. Three shots in a clip and you said nothing could take more than two shots."

"Barring Reapers," Shepard amended.

Liara nodded, "But that was a basic Cerberus trooper, they didn't even have shields and now this one..."

"Full clip to take him down," Shepard grunted.

"Goddess," Liara breathed. "What are we dealing with here?"

On the screen the battle continued. The alliance forces were recovering from the surprise assault, the camera angle snapped back to a wide shot, the other two holo screens showing different angles of the conflict. From the north a large number of soldiers, armed and armored were moving up from between the few standing pre-fabs, from the south-

McGarret's voice cut in on Shepard's observations.

"The Mako is moving," she reported. "Engaging the enemy."

The snarl of a heavy engine and the Mako crashed into the enemy box formation, the main canon boomed at point blank range- three of the enemy troopers were sent flying into the air, blasting apart to green energy before they even started to come back down. All the cameras were focused on the

war-machine; its machine gun was roaring a constant hail of fire at the remaining enemy troopers.

They seemed confused, torn between which way to focus their attention- at the alliance soldiers rushing them from the north or the Mako right in the middle of their formation.

"Pincer," Shepard said. "Good move."

The figure in the middle of the formation reacted. Tight fitting plating hugging close to the body made it easy for everyone watching to note she was female. A full-helmet covered her features entirely but a pony tail of some sort jutted from the back of the helmet: a brilliant shade of red, like a banner and she bore no weapons that Shepard could see.

The female warrior flung out a hand just as the Mako's main gun boomed once again and the shell froze.

It hung in space, a meter from the end of the turret, a shimmering web work of biotic fury wrapped around it.

Liara's gasped and almost shouted, "Impossible!"

At the exact same time McGarret could be heard, "Sir, the mako has-" there was a pause. "Sir, the mako is meeting-" another pause, the sound of someone swallowing. "Heavy resistance, sir."

The woman in the skin tight plate armor on the screen had her fist clenched; it was visibly trembling, wreathed in green fire. She slowly twisted it about and the shell, still held immobile, copied her movements. When the round was now facing in the opposite direction the unknown biotic opened her hand and the shell snapped forward plowing into the Mako. The point blank impact rocked the war-machine onto its rearmost wheels, almost perpendicular to the earth. Before it could smash back the biotic flung out her other hand and caught it. The new biotic field surrounded the giant Mako and with a grunt that was audible through the long range microphones the biotic lifted both her hands over her head. The Mako was lifted into the air, its wheels spinning uselessly.

"Mako crew re-," she stuttered. "Requesting assistance, sir. They need orders, sir."

The other two monitors showed different parts of the battle. On the left troopers stood, not bothering to take cover as alliance marines poured fire into them, their shields flicking green with every impact but not visibly weakening. A line of marines were huddled behind a low wall. Two troopers simply started firing at opposite ends of the wall and brought their beams together, sandwiching the helpless marines between two intersecting columns of energy. A split second later the wall, the marines and everything nearby was reduced to ash.

Her voice was thick now, fear throttling it but she continued anyway. "Alpha, Gamma and Beta are no longer reporting in, sir."

The right monitor showed several enemy combatants focusing their rifles at one of the hangers. Alliance marines, who had been taking cover inside, made a break and were destroyed. A split second later the converging beams of green power shattered the building, blasting pieces of it and anyone nearby, across the base.

McGarret's sniffed, a sob interrupting the steady report, "Hanger one is totally destroyed. No sign of the crews, sir. Sir, what should I do, sir?"

On the central display the biotic still held the mako in the air; she hooked her fingers into claws and the armor directly in the middle of the vehicle began to buckle. The woman, her body outlined in green energy, twisted her hands like someone would if they wanted to rip an empty can in half and the mako shuddered, heaved violently and split apart. Her hooked hands still raised in the air, the female-biotic looked directly at the camera.

"Sir? Orders?"

There was a flicker of movement, a brief flash of the forward half of the mako hurtling at the monitor and then nothing. All three screens went black.

Shepard sat back and forced the tightness out of her shoulders, letting them slump a bit as she sat back in her chair. Liara, contra-wise, leaned forward and rested her face in her hands, breathing deeply. The admirals were silent as the quiet hiss from the now dead recording thrummed in the large room. Mercifully a few seconds later the holo-displays vanished and the sound cut off.

Admiral Sandoval cleared his throat, "That was everything. As you were told when alliance forces got there the outpost had been annihilated. The system narrow-beamed the last twenty-four hours of recording to the orbital spy-sat though. When our forces arrived there was no sign of any enemy. Just the burning buildings, a few bodies and ash." The admiral looked down at his hands, the fingers interlocked and his knuckles white. "Our best estimates indicate that the enemy definitely suffered one casualty, possible three more while our forces were completely destroyed."

"How many, sir?" Shepard asked quietly.

"Two-hundred and fifty, Commander," Hackett replied. "Including several gunships, and a five makos. Thogh four were knocked out in the initial attack."

"Which was what, sir?"

"We have no idea. It's not an EMP pulse, those are effectively useless with current technology. Whatever it was though it took out nearly all our outpost's heavy hitters."

Admiral Chase steepled her fingers and peered down at the two women seated at the other table. "Tactical analysis, Commander?"

Shepard pushed down the acidic burning in her stomach and forced her mind to think and in her memory the entire recording flashed through in perfect clarity; the burning feeling was replaced again by that fluttering of panic but she shoved that away as well. "They're testing," she said slowly.

She got to her feet, "I think this new enemy is feeling its way along. Not sure of what they're doing. There's a recklessness to their actions. Their cohesion is sloppy and communication is practically non-existent. They're..." she fumbled for words. "They're like children playing with a new toy."

Admiral Chase's eyebrows went up, "Explain."

"Please bring up the video at two-minutes and seventeen seconds," the screens reappeared with the image frozen. They displayed the box formation breaking apart as the mako smashed through the south side. "Here," Shepard said pointing. "When the enemy was confronted with two threats- continue playback, half-speed."

The images crawled forward, the mako bursting into the enemy formation as the alliance marines from the opposite direction charged. The enemy troopers paused, some orienting to fire one way, hesitating and spinning back around and in that time, again, the mako fired, more confusion, the marines having all the time in the world to line up shots.

"Their tech-saved them," Shepard continued. "If not for that they would have been wiped out between the hammer," she indicated the marines. "And the anvil," nodding to the mako.

"Interesting," Chase said. "But hardly indicative-"

Liara stood up, "I concur, admirals."

Chase almost sneered, "With all due-" she stopped herself. "Thank you Doctor T'Soni but you're hardly what anyone would call a military proffesio-"

Again Liara cut her off, "The...the biotic, Shepard can you...?"

"Forward to three minutes and ten seconds please and hold."

The video flashed to the time-stamp in question. The female biotic, pony tail frozen in mid-lash, dancing with emerald energy, was holding the mako aloft, clawed fingers beginning to twist.

"Here," Liara said. "The biotic is incredibly powerful, granted but she's foolish. With the amount of strength she's demonstrated- creating a grav-field to lower the entire group safely to the ground, catching a projectile moving in excess of ten-thousand feet per second via mass effect- her manner of destroying a viable threat indicates her lack of self-control."

The asari straightened slightly. "And it's quite possible she's mad."

Hacket leaned forward, his face intent, "Please go on Doctor T'Soni."

Liara acknowledged the invitation with a nod, "It is no secret that asari industry is the supplier of the most advanced biotic amps available either to the public or various military complexes. Despite the advancements the improvement to biotic performance in any species is limited. Each generation of amps has a steady rate of diminishing returns. The latest model sevens, for example, give only at best a two percent increase in performance as opposed to the six series that improved nearly every species that had biotics by six percent."

She glanced at Shepard who gave her a slight nod.

"I am, as the admiral pointed out, no expert in the field of either tactics or biotic technology but it is fairly common knowledge among my people that the reason for this is more based on the limits of biology rather than technology. It is a misconception that a biotic amp actually produces power for a biotic- it is a boosting technology; increasing the natural abilities of a biotic. Pushed too far though, the sentient mind will be destroyed," Liara hesitated a moment, glancing down at the table then back up. "It was well documented through a series of what, is called by our history, unfortunate research projects."

She pointed at the still frozen image the unknown biotic, "It is my opinion that she has been fitted, somehow, with a biotic map of prothean design. Her power signature is similar to that of the prothean, Javik, we fought beside during the war. If I'm right what we have here is a short term weapon. Though that is only an estimate as the end results of prothean technology are an unknown. Based on this biotic's combat methods, all fury and no tactics, I'm fairly confidant that she already suffering the side effects of someone who has been, well, the asari term is overprimed."

Liara paused, nodded to herself, "Thank you," and sat back down.

Admiral Hacket cast a sideways glace at where Admiral Chase sat silently, and smiled slightly, "No, thank you Doctor T'Soni. Your insight will likely prove valuable."

Shepard quietly bit her tongue to keep from spitting 'I told you so!' at Admiral Chase. Instead she settled with just sitting back in her chair, crossing her arms and grinning. The female admiral appeared unperturbed but the clenched fists said otherwise. "If that is all-" she began saying.

Shepard interrupted her, "With respect ma'am, it isn't." She leaned forward, emphasizing her words. "Whoever they are they're managed to get their hands on prothean technology. When he awoke Javik had at his disposal only two functioning particle rifles. One was destroyed in the battle for London so the only other one in existence today should be with him. Which could mean that this group is not only using prothean tech but manufacturing it."

Admiral Sandoval spoke up, "Is it possible that your former squad-mate could have sold the weapon? Or been captured and interrogated?"

Shepard shook her head in a fierce negative, "Selling his weapon, sir? That would never happen. He's a warrior through and through. And I doubt that he would know how to build what we just saw here, sir."

She took a moment to compose her thoughts, "When Javik was woken from his stasis pod the shield system in his own armor was burnt out, he claimed he did not have the skills to repair it and, even if he had, the current level of technology in the galaxy today was too primitive to be used for any kind of manufacturing. He relied on council tech to replace his old shield system."

"I agree with the Commander," Liara added. "On not only the trustworthiness of Javik but on the difficulty in creating prothean assets. Whoever did this not only had to develop the technology of the weapons but the means to build those weapons which our currently beyond anything the rest of sentient species are capable of." She glanced at Shepard who wasn't smiling any longer. Her eyes were flat, distant and her lips set in a firm line. "The realization of this is..." Liara paused again. "Disquieting."

The underwhelming word hung in the air, silence lapsed over the room. Everyone there was alone with their thoughts and the possible future consequences of these new developments. Hacket cleared his threat.

"Your assessment concurs with our own specialists, Commander, Doctor T'Soni. We believe this group represents a new threat. One that, on the heels of the galactic wide devastation from the recent war, could prove the undoing of us all."

Shepard could not quite keep the weariness and despair out of her voice, "You have a mission for me sir?" She had done the impossible, ended a threat millions of years old, united the galaxy, paid so much and sacrificed so many- and they still wanted more. A weakness, fraility wormed through her guts; like weathered granite from some ancient piece of stone surrounded by so much rubble. Liara's hand found hers and squeezed but it did little to ease the massive grey that was settling over her with cold finality.

She dreaded the answer. Shepard knew what was going to happen- they were going to send her back out. True, she's get a ship, a good crew, maybe even her old crew. Quite possibly even the Normandy and that would be a comfort of sorts. There'd be risk, death at every moment- hers, a friend's or an enemy's. Her commitment would be absolute of course; she'd look the newest threat right in the face and put a bullet between its eyes. Her friends, her squad-mates, her crew...where she lead, they would follow.

And she was so damn tired of leading.

Already she could feel the steel demands of duty settling over her. Like great metal doors in her mind and heart they were swinging shut to crush the tiny hopes she had, up until a moment ago, been treasuring. Hopes to let go, hopes that she could just be, that they could be and she wouldn't have to point anywhere and tell others to go that way. Go that way and die.

Hacket held his hands together as if in prayer, looking over his fingertips at Commander Shepard; the wait stretched on...five seconds...ten seconds.

"Yes, Commander." It took all she had not to slump forward, she held herself upright by sheer force of will hoping that none of the admirals would notice the sudden and violent trembling in her legs. "But not in the way you think."

That got her attention.

"I'm afraid I don't follow, sir," she replied. "You're not going to assign me to discover who this new enemy is and, if possible, end the threat represented?"

Hacket shook his head, his eyes probing. "No Commander, that is not our intention."

Shepard was struck dumb for a moment. "Then why was I briefed on the situation sir?"

"There is a mission," Admiral Chase intervened. "But-"

"Thank you," Admiral Mikhailovich's rumble interjected. "I will take over from here," he addressed the Commander. "The one question you have yet to ask, Commander, is the why the termination orders were brought up in the first place and to answer that question we will have to bring in our specialist." He tapped a button set into the tabletop. "Please send her in."

The doors at the back of the room swung open, the dry click-clack of high heeled boots striking the floor echoed through the room. Her black body suit, the overhead lights gleaming off the leather, hugged her body in all the right ways while her hips swayed; the fingers of one hand brushed errant locks of ebon hair off her shoulder. Miranda Lawson entered the room.

With an entirely incidental saunter she placed stepped to the right side of the room near a series of displays on the wall and clasped her hands behind her back in a picture perfect stance of parade-rest. She glanced at Shepard and gave a slight nod. Shepard returned the gesture; her asari leaned toward Shepard and whispered, "What is she doing here?"

Shepard shrugged a shoulder, still eying the former operative.

Rising to his feet Admiral Mikhailovich spoke up, "Ms Lawson, thank you for joining us."

Miranda inclined her head, "My pleasure Admiral Mikhailovich. How can I be of service?"

"You are were a former operative of Cerberus, is that correct?" The admiral asked.

"Yes," Miranda answered.

"And one of your responsibilities was planning, developing and the implantation of the technologies that assisted in the apparent resurrection of Commander Shepard, is that also correct?"

"Yes," Miranda repeated.

"So it would be a fair assessment that you are the premier expert in this area?" Admiral Mikhailovich said.

And for a third time Miranda answered. "Yes."

"Then proceed, Ms. Lawson."

Miranda took a deep breath, brought up her omnitool with a wave and punched in some commands. Again three holo-displays hung in the air; the admirals turned in their seats to view. In the far left screen an image of a small red cube hovered. It was perfect cube with smooth, equal sides. The middle monitor showed a three-dimensional model of a human spinal column. At the base of the column was a slight aberration. Nestled at the back of the spine, where it fused with the hips, was a complicated, but small, machine. Metal braces latched onto the nearest vertebrate and tiny filaments springing from the sides coiled upward and into the nerve tissue tucked inside the bones. The display on the far right showed a profile shot representation of a human scull. Highlighted lights displayed the contours and different sections of the brain. Again there was an addition to what anyone would expect to see. Like it's slightly larger cousin along the spine, there was a streamlined, sophisticated bit of circuitry tucked around the brain stem. Where the temple would have been another patch of bright metal glimmered, obscuring that part of the the frontal lobes and between the two machines a few, barely half a dozen, tendrils shimmered over and along fragile tissues.

Shepard suppressed a shudder, "I think those are supposed to be what it's inside me," she whispered to Liara.

Liara said back quietly. "They are tools, Shepard. They brought you back but they do not define you." She squeezed Shepard's thigh under the table.

Shepard gave her half a smile, "Keep saying that, I need the reminder."

Liara nodded her own smile only visible in her eyes.

"The word nanotechnology is a lie," Miranda began gesturing to the leftmost monitor. "Cerberus does not have it, no sentient species in galactic community have it. What we do have are tiny, sophisticated robots capable of manipulating biological cells. This was developed by myself for the Lazarus Project. Any person with rudiment knowledge will tell you that cellular manipulation is not nanotechnology. It's a popular term but misleading. However that does not belittle what was accomplished."

With a flick of her fingers across omnitool the image sprang into life. The red squre rotated in space and then from the right side of the screen a shape drifted into the picture. It was a flat, green, circle; crusted, like leather left too long out in the sun, cracked and fraying at the edges. It was also many, many times bigger than the red square. Orienting itself on the intrude the square moved with deliberation, touched the side of the object and melted into it. Within moments the cracks had healed over, the fraying edges smoothed over and a healthy red sheen rippled across the surface.

"What you just saw is real time footage of the most advanced cellular manipulation possible today," Miranda said. "The tiny robot entered the dead cell and replaced the nucleus, providing the initial energy and nutrients required to re-vitalize the inactive components. Similar uses were used to reactivate not only the red blood cells, which was seen, but every other part of the subjects physiology."

"By subject you mean Commander Shepard," Admiral Chase declared.

"Please save all questions for the end of the lecture," Miranda said airily and turned her back on the admirals to face her former commanding officer.

Shepard mouthed the words, "What are you doing?" Miranda could only give a miniscule shake of her head in reply before continuing on.

"The second image shows the neural enhancement technology. To keep it simple it allowed for nerve transmissions along the central system to be relegated to their proper places until the subjects own system had been recovered sufficiently whereupon it switched over to an assisting role increasing reaction and reflex time, as well as shortening the amount of effort to create muscle memory by nearly twenty percent."

"Why not more than that?" Admiral Sandoval asked.

Miranda turned to face, hips cocked and a wicked grin flashing white teeth at the admiral, "Intelligent question. That one I'll answer now."

Shepard had to cough behind her fist, her asari managed to remain composed.

"Again, to keep it simple, more than that would create stresses on the musculature that could not be compensated for without causing other stresses elsewhere. The classic offense/defense problem of warfare. To build defense that can stop all possible weapons requires a power supply adequate to the task, which has weight, which requires power, which requires armor and so on and so forth."

Miranda leaned back, sitting herself on the edge of Shepard's table, crossing her arms and continued.

"The same problem presents itself here, " she began ticking off points on her fingers. "Reinforce the nervous system, then the bones and muscles have to be enhanced to handle the strain, but that increases muscle and bone density which counters the increased reaction time, so you increase the nervous system and so on and so on..." she held out an open hand saying with out words, 'there you are.'

"I see," Admiral Sandoval sat back in his seat, mulling over the answer.

Miranda stood and turned around, staring down at Shepard. Her arms were still crossed, one data pad hung carelessly from her fingertips, she wasn't smiling anymore though. This was the old Miranda, the one who had greeted Shepard mere moments after shooting a traitor in the face. Her gaze swept from Shepard, to Liara and back before turning back around to resume her lecture.

"The final implant, in the subject's brain-stem, was merely a temporary measure. Its purpose was to act as a bridge between areas of the brain that were damaged through which critical neurological activity would have to flow if the mind was to resume full function. Once the brain itself had been rejuvenated to a satisfactory degree the implant shut down and would only have reactivated in the case of mild brain damage. "

And then she said coolly, "But that was then."

Without even looking at it she punched a series of commands into the datapad, "This is now. These images are of a blood sample taken six months ago and computer reconstructions of various scans done of the subject at the same time."

The holo-displays changed. The new images were similar to what had been there but only just. The leftmost, originally showing the cubical Cerberus nano-bot was now replaced by something far less benign in appearance.

Black.

Shimmering.

Streamlined.

The body was a teardrop shaped, smooth curves surging around a pointed apex from which appeared countless tiny fronds drifting in an unseen current. There was more to it that that though- the fronds moved of their own volition. Shifting, some darting out here and there, others wafting gently back and forth but all of it seeming to imply that there was a thought process behind the activity. Something seeing, knowing and reacting to events around it.

The image in the central display was similar to what had originally been there. Again there was a three dimensional image of a spinal column and at the base, still nestled where vertebrate met pelvis was an obvious synthetic implant. Where the original had been a somewhat boxlike in appearance the image now showed something alien. Again, black metal shimmered, the implant being all curves. The edges were ill defined as they appeared to have merged with the surrounding bone and muscle tissue. The original implant had had a few attachments spinning off the main body and into the spinal column; now a veritable forest of black wire spiraled out of the machine. Curving about, plunging between and merging with the delicate nerves tucked behind bone. All the way from the base of the spine to where it met the skull, black, shimmering metal could be seen glistening from between separate vertebrate.

The final image in the display farthest to the right had shown a profile shot of the inside of a human skull complete with diagram of the brain. Now it was replaced with another three dimensional model- this one also of a human brain; the model spun around on all three axis, rotating over and under, around and about. Crossing back and forth, like some ebon hued spider web, tiny filaments hugged themselves to the contours of various lobes. From the brain stem, wrapped around the entire structure was another black ...thing. Obviously of manufacture, it clung flush to the critical tissues it embraced. From below, up through the hole in the skull, snarled a swarm of filaments that all plunged into bottom of the device. From the top erupted the even finer attackments that formed the web-work that surrounded the brain itself. The minute empty space that normally existed between the hemispheres in a human mind was gone. Bridged over and, for lack of a better term, bridged by a seething mass of black fibers.

Shepard chocked back the urge to vomit. The shaking in her legs had gotten worse and, ignoring the frantic tugging from her asari's hand still on her thigh, she forced herself to her feet. Pointing to the monitors she asked the question that she already knew the answer to, "What the hell is that!"

Miranda gazed back at her, nonplussed, "Obvious Commander, those are what's become of Cerberus implants," she cast a look over her shoulder at the displays. "And no one even asked me before they changed all my work."

She shook her head slightly in apparent disapproval and walked toward the other side of the room away from her former commanding officer, not paying any attention to the quietly whispered, so quietly that only an asari and herself heard it, denial of : "No."

"In the first display you can see, from what we can estimate, the current galaxy's first true nano-bot.," Miranda continued. "In truth they move so fast that it's proven nearly impossible to get an image of one, even at the high capture speed possible. Admirals," she turned to the officers seated behind the raised dais. "This is a true nano-bot. "

Shepard was only half listening, she held her hands in front of her, staring at her empty palms, studying them intently.

"What is even more staggering is they appear to be generating their own mass effect fields."

The quiet gasp from Liara echoed around the room causing Miranda to grin at her, one eyebrow raised in amusement. "I know," the former Cerberus operative snickered before going on.

"A nano-bot with a mass effect field," she repeated. "This would allow it the device to reach unparallelled velocities and complete whatever enhancements and tasks assigned to it at breathtaking speeds. It would counter any threats from heat build up from friction and, to a lesser degree, provide a work around for the aforementioned problems that Admiral Sandoval's question raised, to a degree. "

"Meaning what exactly?" Admiral Chase asked. Her upper lip shone with a layer of sweat.

"Meaning that Shepard is faster, stronger and more durable by any other human, treated with Cerberus implants or genetic tailoring."

"By what margin?" Admiral Chase insisted.

"No idea," Miranda replied with a shrug. She turned and stared at Shepard in an almost predatory manner. "We'd have to see. We did manage to record this-"

The screen split into two halves. The tiny squid thing was moving with deliberation now, moving toward a homogenous red...thing. A seething mountain of red fibers, stretching away forever in all directions, on the other half of the screen was obviously a red blood cell. The tiny squid thing began to glow, a deep purple halo tinging on black and on the other screen the entire cell glowed in similar colors. There was a flash of dark purple light and the cell had...changed. It was now encased in

Shepard was still staring at her hands, a tiny part of her mind, gibbering in terror that she was fighting to keep bolted down, locked inside and tucked away behind layers of mental walls. She noted absently how Liara was taking deep, deliberate slow breaths, the way the asari's gloves were slowing peeling away from the blue skin underneath as fingernails sliced through the tough material.

"The second image is the result of similar alterations to the Cerberus implant married to the subject's nervous system. Originally designed to allow for damage control of the tissue and slight augmentation the ...alterations have completely re-wired the original nervous system. I have coined the term 'hardwired'. The difference in reaction time between the original organics and what we have here is comparable to a child's first telephone made with two soup-cans and a string with a quantum string communication hub."

Her gorge heaved in her chest and Shepard almost lost her footing her knees were shaking so badly. She caught herself and leaned forward, putting her palms on the table, letting her head hang. Liara was muttering something that sounded vaguely like a prayer. Shepard felt numb.

Miranda waved her hand that the right most display, "As I said, the original implant was for a temporary purpose, that, as you can see plainly, is no longer the case. No, we have no idea what's happening here except to say that it would explain the increased activity detected in the subject's brain all these months. However what we do know is this:"

The image zoomed in for a close up of the implant itself.

"According to the signatures that have been picked up from the implant this device is no longer just a central-command and control hub for the implants. The scanners have detected what we believe is a quantum wave-form."

Admiral Sandoval again asked a question, "You mean similar to the communication relays on several of the larger ships of the line?"

Miranda shook her head, "No Admiral. Wrong kind of energy signature. From what I've been able to gather and let me stress this next bit, from what I believe, there is some sort of quantum data trove tucked into the device."

"Data?" Admiral Mikhailovich queried.

"Some sort of information," Miranda answered. "If I'm right and my math holds up, aspects of the code allow for the data to be held in a stable quantum format. Both here and not here. If we follow that reasoning the amount of information possibly held here could," she spread her hands. "Limitless.

"What kind of data?" Admiral Mikhailovich asked.

"No clue," the raven haired woman replied with a shrug. "But even if the data itself was useless the technology to maintain this kind of set up would change ...everything."

With the flick of a finger the former operative shut down the displays.

Shepard's breathing shuddered in her throat, her stomach was roiling about and she could barely feel it when Liara reached up, grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into her seat. Her asari leaned over and hissed into Shepard's ear, "Those are not you! Do you hear me Shepard? They are machines. They are only machines, Shepard. They do not make you, or define you. I know how you think Shepard and part of you right now is terrified that what you are seeing here somehow makes you less than human. We're going to settle this right now- They do not."

Liara's grip on the corner of the Spectre's uniform tightened, "I said, you. Are. Human!"

And Shepard quietly snarled, "I know."

Flickers of anger rushed along lines inside her, she welcomed it. She needed it, she could feed her fear to it, allow it consume her weakness and disgust and then use it to make sure-

"Is everything alright Commander?" Admiral's voice could be heard, not in any way actually concerned, or so Shepard thought.

Cobalt steel eyes, with all the reflective appeal of lead, glared up at the admiral, "Yes ma'am. I'm just fine." Doors slammed down hard in her mind, blowing away the paralytic effect of these newborn terrors like snowflakes in a blast furnace.

"Good," Admiral Chase replied, oblivious. "Thank you Ms Laws-"

"A moment more," Miranda interrupted. "If I might inquire, why did you want this report? I already sent you my findings personally. And yes, I'm more than aware I'm not military."

Admiral Hacket said simply "We needed the commander to see. Do you understand Commander?"

The operative accepted the unspoken dismissal and stepped back to the nearest wall, tapping her data pad against one thigh absently.

The Spectre nodded grimly, "Yes sir."

"Are you ready to hear about the mission then?"

Another grim nod, crushing any sense of betrayal or outrage in her heat, "Yes sir."

"Good, tell me commander, how do you think these changes to your implants occurred."

She answered in monotone voice, without inflection, eyes boring into an empty spot on the front of the dais. "At a guess I'd have to say it was Harbinger sir."

"Please explain."

And she did. She told them of her final moments with The Illusive Man, the conversation with Harbinger and her escape from The Citadel. She told of how she could have sworn she had heard Harbinger's pronouncement of doom as she lay dying in the heart of London.

She did not tell them what Harbinger had named her.

Hacket nodded slowly, he looked older now than he had a few minutes before. "Thank you commander. We had assumed something similar. Somehow you've received a...for lack of better term, upgrade. Ms Lawson has little idea what that means but that the technology incorporated is, in all likelihood, our best chance at defeated this newest threat."

Liara pushed herself to her feet, her chair scraping on the floor loudly, marring the bright finish of polished steel. "What exactly are you saying Admiral?"

"Commander," Hacket replied heavily. "You have to understand. Even by your own admission the enemy we face has vastly superior technology. Were they engaging in direct combat, or even our own forces at their prime it probably would be an annoyance at best. But they're hitting us in our weak points. The alliance is going to crumble under its own weight and inertia if we don't find them and kill them fast and hard. It's the worst kind of war, Commander. We need to counter their technological edge and you're our best chance of doing that quickly."

He sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment before soldiering on. "Your mission is to report to the base hospital. There you will undergo surgery to have your implants removed for study and reverse engineering. We have...employed the best experts in the field and they have assured us there is a ...reasonable risk factor and even, perhaps, the possibility full physical and mental recovery."

Miranda had stepped away from the wall, arms crossed, her fingers still tapping on the data pad.

Silence. Nothing. A void of emptiness filled the room. The finger's of Liara's hand, curved into a fist that visibly shook. Shepard put her own hand over her asari's fist in a gesture of restraint. She made a shushing sound ignoring Liara's incredulous stare.

She stood up slowly, straightened the wrinkles out of her dress blues with a practiced motion staring Admiral Hacket directly in the face.

"I see, sir," she said calmly. "And if I refuse?"

"Then you will be held under the clear and present danger clause of the current constitution," Admiral Chase answered. She licked her upper lip free of sweat. "You've been implanted with Reaper-tech Commander Shepard, it would be for the public safety."

Shepard went numb.

As our time ends your people will harvest us. Learn from us, grow from us. Perhaps you will turn your new found strength upon each other,

Liara was shouting something now, her voice ringing with outrage, the smell of ozone began to permeate the room, behind her over the tumult doors were opening. Heavy footsteps pounding on metal floors, armored boots then, troops, enforcers, they were not going to give her a chance to go quietly.

Miranda was tapping her data pad even harder now.

Would they kill Liara if she didn't cooperate?

The tapping began to grate on Shepard's nerves.

Wouldn't it be better to go down fighting?

She was still so damn tired.

Would she please stop tapping her damn data pad?

Shepard felt her lips curling in a snarl-

The tapping. Three long taps, a pause, three short another pause, three more long. Then the cycle repeated. Shepard felt her eyes grow huge at the realization, she turned her head to stare at Mirdanda. The former operative caught Shepard's eyes and glanced down at her other hand, resting on her upper arm, five fingers splayed across the black material of her body suit.

Five, she curled a finger, four, another finger-

"Liara!" Shepard turned and dove for her asari, "Get down!"

The back of the room exploded.

The glass windows blew inward with concussive forces, the curtains torn to shreds and sent spiraling into the air, drifting down in shredded tatters. The raised dais was sent blasting across the room, smashing into the floor and cracking the tiles only to go tumbling end over to end, tearing itself to pieces. The admirals themselves lay on the at the base of the former dais, apparently unconscious...or dead.

Shepard scrambled to her feet, pulling a very dazed looking Liara up after her. Miranda groaning slightly stumbled over to stand beside them- blinking away tears Shepard started through the dust cloud of the explosion.

Hovering gently just beyond the now gaping hole in the side of the building, the gentle curves of her silver and blue hull reflecting the lights of the mid-afternoon, was the Normandy. Her gangplank was lowered and hung only meter off the ground. And there, armed and armored, tethered to a hook at the top of the ship, was Garrus Vakerian.

He flashed the three woman a brilliant turian smile, flickering his mandibles wide for a moment then shouted, "Someone order a pizza?"

He snapped off two controlled bursts from his rifle directly at them, before they had a chance to duck. The rounds whipped between the women and caught the two marines that had been running up behind them square in the face plates, knocking them back with such force their shoulders slammed into the ground.

"Concussion rounds," the turian vigilante shouted, still grinning. "Honest!"

END-Cerulean:Three