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POV: Aedon Wynne
Waking up from my sleep with Tali I didn't wake up naturally and was instead woken up by a knocking at my door. Wiggling myself out of Tali's grip I threw on some sweats and opened the door. Standing there was Shepard and gestured with his head to follow him. I grabbed a t-shirt and threw it on as I did so to make sure wherever was going on I wasn't bare chested.
It took me all of half a minute of following him to realize that we were going to the conference room. Still, as I was curious as to why he brought me in here. A question that was answered when we went by everyone and into the call room. I'm assuming that we couldn't connect to whoever he wanted to call because of all the Reapers in the area. Calling would probably attract them with how strong the signal would need to be.
As for where we were at the moment within the galaxy I had no iea. But probably somewhere between Thessia's system and the nearest Relay. Couldn't use the one in their system when there was a solid 10 or more Reapers all around it. Not the most conducive plan to use that relay if we wanted to live another day.
Shepard still hadn't told me who we were calling when he started it up. It rang a good few times before whoever we were calling actually answered. Ended up being the whole of the council and knowing that I kinda wish I had a coffee in my hand right now. This wasn't going to be a pleasant talk in any way shape or form.
"Spectre's. You have the report for your mission to Thessia; with good news I hope. Thessian command has responded," Tevos spoke getting hesitant nods but hopeful nods from the rest of the Council. Shepard and I just looked between each other. We had a silent conversation for a quick moment before Shepard opened his mouth.
"Which news would you like first?" he asked them as he took a step in forward. "We have plenty to report," way to sugarcoat it Shepard. Not like we're just about to punch them in the gut afterwards; should've just ripped the band aid off.
"Tell us everything you can about your mission," Tevos stated. A hopeful tone seeping into her voice. One that I immediately dashed before Shepard could open his mouth.
"Councillors… Our mission on Thessia was the closest thing to an outright disaster as it could've been. We didn't loose anyone but in terms of the mission parameters we failed in every facet of it. Not to mention that the Council of Matriarchs is dead besides Caleto and any not on Thessia," I ran a hand down my face as I took a deep breath and continued.
"To make matters worse Cerberus has the information for where and/or what the Catalyst is for the Crucible. They are now confirmed to be completely indoctrinated as an organization and actively working with the Reapers. There is a silver lining there however, as both Ceelo'Nos and Tali were able to hack the man and plant an undetectable tracker. With us out of the Reapers range now we should be able to track his movements actively now without the risk of the Reapers honing in on us. We'll be going after them as soon as we have a place to hit."
"For what you've described this mission as so far the fact you even have that is an accomplishment," Sparatus stated. "This is now a Code Metal situation gentlemen. Get the job done," he stated getting nods of approval from the rest of the Councillors.
As for Code Metal… well it gave us permission to take off the gloves and do whatever we wanted. Which, all things considered, was allowed to all Spectres upon their inception into the ranks. However, Code Metal took away all possible consequences and it gave us permission to supercede the Council for everything. Essentially, we now had the same amount of authority and power as the council, plus a blank check for violence and nothing we did while Code Metal was active could be used to accuse of anything in the future.
To put it in perspective the last time that Code Metal was active, it was during the latter stages of the Krogan Rebellion. The end result being the genophage and the slowest death to a species imaginable. Insanely cruel; but beyond effective. That's the scale that we were expected to go to or exceed if necessary.
"And the status of Thessia?" Tevos' voice broke through my internal thoughts. Shepard and I sharing a quick look before spoke again. Better to get it over with.
"Thessia has fallen. Brutally so ma'am. The same goes for all Asari colonies… It is extremely likely that there are now more Asari living outside of the Republic than there are ones left in it. The confirmed numbers we had before we even left the Citadel were close to 70% of the Asari population was dead or mission… It's definitely closer to if not exceeding 90% of your overall population. A fact that puts the remaining population of the galaxy at around 20% of what we started with and that's being generous."
Silence reigned over the call as everyone looked down at the ground realizing just how screwed we really were at that moment. That we were the next closest thing to declaring that we were going to die. We were literally teetering on the edge of galactic extinction at the moment. Out of everyone myself and Shepard were the only ones that kept our heads up not allowing ourselves to fall into despair.
"With Code Metal active and you get the Catalyst back what do you guess our changes to be to win this war outright?" Brian MacLyne asked as he raised hi head back up and looked at Shepard and I.
"That depends on the Crucible sir. If it is galaxy wide as all the information about it points to then we have a good chance… If it's only Sector by Sector I don't know. A lot could go wrong there but one single attack to wipe them out. We have a great chance then," Shepard stated and MacLyne shot a look at me and I nodded my head agreeing with the man. That seemed to take some of the stress and anxiety out of the room but it didn't get rid of it.
"Then get the job done gentleman," Valern stated and then the call cut out.
Shepard and I exchanged looks between each other before taking deep sighs at what we had just been a part of. There was nothing really good about it but like we have done in the past we would figure this out. Not like we had much of a choice regardless; for all the marbles is a good way to put it. And I wasn't about to loose when I had a kid on the way; hell no.
"Any information from the tracker?" I asked breaking the silencet that had begun between Shepard and I.
"Ceelo and Traynor are taking shifts looking over the data right now. Told me they would fi-"
"We got something," Traynor shouted as she sprinted into the room with Shepard and I. Both of us reacting to the interruption instantly by dropping our bodies into stances ready to kill her. Traynor seemed to recognize this and squeaked in surprise before holding her hands up in surrender. Ceelo walked in a second later and just looked at the scene with a completely blank face betraying nothing as he looked at everyone.
"Miss Traynor found where our target went," he said target with as more hidden spite than should've been possible. That being said Traynor did preen under the praise when he said that she found Lang. "However, it is not the good news that we might've been hoping for."
"Where is it Ceelo?" I asked the man and he took a sigh before responding.
"Horizon. And from my network and Liara's his specific location is at a refugee facility. One that has been almost exclusively broadcasting for human refugees. There has also been not a single outgoing broadcast that wasn't one calling for people to come there for shelter from the war. From what I know about Cerberus I wouldn't be surprised at all if this facility was used for either forced recruitment or experimentation."
There was a heavy silence between everyone in the room at that moment. Which was ended when Shepard ran a hand across his face and released a big sigh. He stayed like that for a moment before his hand dropped and his face was set. He immediately looked at Traynor and Ceelo.
"I want everything you can get me on that facility in the next hour, no excuses," then he turned to me. "Aedon, get to the armory and get every heavy weapon ready. I'll get Joker to set a course and announce the time for everyone to be ready. Move."
Nodding to the man I was out the door instantly and made my way to the armory faster than normal. Making sure that I was moving as fast as I possibly could without running. Reaching the armory though there were a couple people that I'd never seen before to be honest. I took care of my own weapons and gear and there was no way that I was going to let anyone else touch them. Especially not military armorers; I've heard horror stories there.
"How ca-"
"Every heavy weapons system that you have that is portable is to be ready as soon as humanly possible. Move," they looked at me for a moment, their eyes wide and surprised before they burst into movement.
Running to the back and around the armory grabbing everything that seemed important. With my job done there I left them to their devices and started going around the ship finding those on the ground team and telling them to be ready. I knew that Shepard was going to announce it soon enough but I wasn't about to wait for him to do so in case they didn't get enough time. They should've regardless but after telling Garrus and Kelli that Code Metal was active now for the Normandy they each went to the armory immediately.
I made sure to get the message across to everyone else before curiosity got the better of me and I went to the armory. Kelli and Garrus had an assortment of items and ingredients in their hands and it took only a couple seconds to connect the dots on what those ingredients could make. For the obvious one they were building small IED's with ingredients that when combined were extremely illegal to the point that they shouldn't have even been on the Normandy; I love grunts. As for the second batch, well it was Thermite; I didn't know they had that stuff on the Normandy. If I did I would've been making it since day one.
Either way, I left them to their building of bombs and made my way back to my room. Where Tali was awake and tinkering with her omni-tool and my helmet. I cleared my throat to get her attention and she stopped working on my helmet and her omni-tool. Tali was my wife and I loved her but I still didn't like it when people touched my equipment without my knowledge. That was true for everyone no matter who they were.
"I know I can't go with you physically anymore without putting myself and the baby in danger. Still, I'll be with you every step of the way and that is non-negotiable," the edge in her voice was sharp but I understood why. She wasn't happy about being left behind.
"What modifications did you make?" I asked her as I walked up to her and kissed her forehead before sitting on the bed.
"Just integrated a couple of programs into your helmets systems. Sam made for an interesting conversation by the way, thanks for sharing him with me," Ah, I wondered when he would come up. "I'll wash that under the bridge for now. Moving on, I am now in complete sync with your helmets systems. Meaning that I will be able to follow you every step of the way when you're out there."
"I expected nothing less," I really didn't.
"Good. Now, when you go out there you win and you come back. I'll be waiting," I just smiled before grabbing her around the waist and planting her on my lap, kissing her the moment she got there.
It was about five hours later that Shepard finally called us in for the briefing on where we were going. When the briefing started we were about 90 minutes, maybe more, away from the drop off point to get to the facility. At the moment everyone was in the room and Garrus and Kelli were off in the far corner. Both had soot all over themselves and smelled like a bomb factory; I approved.
"Alright everyone," Shepard started throwing up a picture of the facility. "Name: Sanctuary Horizon, confirmed to be a Cerberus front but for what we don't know exactly. Theories from everyone is still in the air but that doens't matter. Our goal here is to get in and find Kai Lang and recover the Prothean VI. That is the one and only job we have here.
Now, we've been able to find at least parts of the schematics for the facility and there are two main entrances. Straight through the front and there is a back way that seems to be reserved for troop landings; as for there being two entrances there will be two teams. I will be leading the first one going throught the main entrance with Liara, Garrus, Javik and EDI. Aedon you got team two with Ceelo, Kelli and Nif; the back entrance is all yours."
Most everyone noticed the absence of Tali's name among the names listed off for the teams. Garrus and Kelli looked at me expectantly but I could tell they understood. Taking Tali out of the equation for the teams needed to happen even if it did take away a big asset. However, that wasn't the point at the moment and I left the room.
Back to my room and got dressed in full kit but instead of the AR I brought my sawed off. With the narrowness of the corridors and the general close quarters I was going to be fighting in the AR would've been a liability. Thing hit like a truck but was as big as a DMR and sucked in close combat. The Locust had been doing good in its place as well; not as hard hitting as I usually liked but extremely fast and accurate to boot. If I could find a way to add a little more power without more recoil or decreasing fire rate it would be a perfect gun.
Regardless once I had everything and was dressed and ready for the occasion I looked at the bed finally looking at Tali who had been sitting there. She raised an eyebrow at me silently telling me off for not giving her a little bit of attention. Something that I turned away to chuckle at; pregnancy hormones were really startin to get to her. Either way, at the end of my little chuckling i turned to her and gave her a quick kiss before leaving the room and went to the shuttle bay.
Upon getting there and throwing my helmet on I immediately heard Tali's voice in my helmet. Repeatedly saying 'radio check' every couple of seconds. I answered her after the fourth one and from there she went on to explain that she would be with me every step of the way. Also she had hacked into the HUD's of some of the other helmets so she would be better able to help. She was using EDI's tech suite on the Normandy to boost her signal and be able to connect to everyone that way.
As Garrus and Kelli showed up a minute or so later they both tapped their helmets and indicated that Tali was now talking to them as well. Seemed that was it for her though until everyone was at the shuttle. As we all piled inside the shuttle she took over the radio and explained that she would be the radio overwatch for us and to make sure everyone stayed connected. She would also be helping us perform some hacks and make sure we knew exactly where we were going. As good a set up as any in my opinion.
After Tali gave her quick brief on why she was connected to everyone's helmets the shuttle took off. It was a quick decent as we moved through the skies and I looked out the window looking for any Reaper presence; the Normandy said there was none but I'd prefer to confirm with my own eyes. As it turned out there actually was a Reaper presence but no Reapers. Only their soldiers and it was extremely minimal at best.
The few Reaperfied beings I could see looked weird and didn't move like normal. Not weird in the sense that they were mutated but more in the fact that they looked injured. Not by bullets however, it looked like they had been slashed with something. Even the Harvesters that flew by had chunks torn and ripped out of them but there was no real evidence of fighting that happened anywhere.
If there was evidence than I couldn't see it from the shuttle and it was minimal at best. Which was just impossible with the amount of Reaper forces here; it wasn't that many but with how many refugees were supposed to be here there should've been something we could have seen from the air. What happened… here… They wouldn't… they would. Fuck.
"Shepard. I think I know what this place is," Shepard's head snapped over to look at me as he had been looking out the window same as me. Silently asking me to share with the class. "This place is a research lab, they were using the refugees to study the Reapers and their forces. For what reason I don't know but its the only thing that makes sense. Look at the husks and others too, they have slices, chunks and what look like stab wounds all over their body. They were experimented on and if this place was for Refugees, we should've seen at least a body of one of them at this point; at least a dead guard but there's nothing here."
There was a tense silence in the shuttle as everyone realized what I was saying was probably true. I didn't know for sure if it was or not but from what was visible for me it was the only explanation that made sense. The only thing that evaded me though was what they were studying here and what could possibly be important enough to sacrifice tens of thousands in experimentation to achieve it. I needed more information.
Shaking myself out of that thought process I simply waited for the shuttle to touch down in the back of the facility. As we approached the back entrance there wasn't any other shuttle I could see so Lang might not be here. Either way, this place warranted some investigation at the very least. Plus, Lang had definitely been here and if he had been the 'why?' was a good question.
Landing on the pad for the back entrance my team got off the ship and we stalked towards the closest door to the facility. Scanning the area as we did so everything seemed uncomfortably silent. Even the turrets were off and showed no sighs of spent ammunition or markings of being hacked. It was like they were just shut off. The lights around us and on the wall were on however, dim as they may be they were still on so power wasn't a problem.
Moving past the turrets and to the door we stacked up on the door and I attempted to hack the door. Attempted being the key word as the hold system was shut down and the doors were bolted closed. I could have ripped them open or burned them open biotically but I didn't want to risk something within the facility being able to sense biotics. Better to have the element of surprise.
So, instead of that I activated my pulse and once I was sure no one else was in the immediate vicinity I looked at Kelli. We couldn't see her face because of her helmet but the rest of us there knew that she was smiling as she dropped her pack to the ground and grabbed to small packages. She then set them up where the hinges of one of the doors would be and set the packages aflame.
Several thousand degrees of thermite sparked to life and burned its face through the hinges of the door in barely a minute. With minimal sound as well, though the sparks were very obvious the lack of people on my pulse made it a moot point. I've gotta say though, watching the Thermite was extremely gratifying.
When the Thermite was done doing its job we waited an extra couple minutes for it to be cooled off. Once it was I stuck my ax into the middle between the sliding doors and pushed the door to the right. It slid on its hinges easily and opened the way for us and we stepped through the opening entering the facility for the first time.
First thing I noticed in the hallway was that only the emergency lights were on, something had definitely killed the power here. Pulling up the schematics on my omni-tool I looked to see if we were anywhere near the power center of the facility. We weren't anywhere near it but Shepards group should be. Radioing the man and relaying what was going on he told me they were already on the wya to the power center and that the power should be up in a few minutes.
Not wanting to wait too long for anything to happen we continued on our way searching for anything that could tell us what happened here. We walked through the corridors for a minute or two before we came across an office. One look through the window of the door showed that it was probably someone with at least some higher level of authority for the facility.
Stacking up at the door Nif raised a hand across from me and reached out towards the door before softly pushing it forward. The door swung open and we shared a look before entering the room quietly with our guns raised up. We saw nothing at first as we entered the room and then we got around the desk in the middle and saw a man on the floor. He had a stab wound through the middle of his neck aimed upwards. A strike that would've severed the man's lighswitch.
Cut was thin and precise with no wasted movements indicated. It was done by a professional assassin; probably Kai Lang. Checking the body over it was still warm and as I looked a little harder I realized that blood was still seeping out. Extremely slowly but it was still going; Lang had been here, probably only minutes before us. Why kill this man though?
As I was about to Radio Shepard to see where he was on getting the power on all the lights turned on. Smiling at that I began hacking all of the data from the dead mans terminal before uploading all the data to Tali through my omni-tool. She immediately began sifting through all the data as my group left the room and walked down the corridor.
Reaching a corner I activated my pulse out of pure instinct and received chittering in response from around the corner. Looking back at the other three quickly I saw the glare from Ceelo through his mask but the other two were silent. Either way I gave the signal to get ready for a fight and stepped around the corner with a Wall raised.
Three rockets from three separate Ravagers all slammed into the wall before I sent them all back at one of them. That Ravager was eviscerated from existence as the four of got into cover. Poking my head out of the cover to see if there were any other forces in the area I saw several Husks and a couple of Marauders all charging our positions.
Dropping back down I cleared my mind and thought back to the meditations with Jack. Clearing my mind and letting my biotics flow outwards across my team and the entire area I knew exactly where everyone was and how much time I had to do anything. It was like all of the husks, marauders and ravagers had clocks on their bodies telling me what they were going to do and when. It was weird but exhilarating at the same time.
Popping out of cover fully I fired six shots with my Locust at the two Ravagers ripping through their puss filled underbodies. Kelli finishing them off with two well placed shots from her rifle as she had popped up with me. Swiveling to look at the husks and Marauders one of the husks was in the air jumping at me.
As it did so though I just knew that it was going to take a swipe with its left arm and it did. The millisecond its left arm started going forward I stepped to my right avoiding the slash of its claws before grabbing its face with my left arm and slamming it into the edge of my cover. Its head exploding in a shower of core.
The next couple husks didn't make it another foot before they were shot down by the others. After the husks were dealt with the Marauders went next extremely quickly. A singular grenade from Nif and they were all ripped apart by the shrapnel. Bad news there being that there was no way we had the element of surprise anymore but it is what it is.
With the husks and co dealt with we pushed through the area we were in, or at least tried to. We made it to the far edge of the room before I saw a console still on in what must've been the security room. Seeing what was on the console I kicked the door open and walked up to the console and made sure it wasn't old footage. It wasn't, Kai Lang was on site.
"Shepard. I got confirmation Kai Lang is at the facility," I stated through the radio before I saw one of the other video's on the console. "And apparently so is Miranda."
"Miranda's here too? Why?"
"I can answer that," Tali's voice came over the radio. "Her father is in charge of this facility. She's been sending out radio messages telling people to stay away from the facility… And her father is currently holding her sister hostage," a small silence started.
"Okay, Tali can you guide us to Kai Lang?"
"I can for you Shepard but he's already on his way out. Aedon, your team is too far away to get to him. Your close to Miranda's father though," I wanted Kai's head on a platter but right now it wasn't viable no matter how much I wanted it.
"I'll get the Lawson family. Go after Kai Shepard."
"Copy," then Shepard cut the connection but Tali didn't.
"I locked Shepard out of this channel Aedon," Tali started and the other three in my group all looked at me as she started. "I found out what they were doing there; they were researching a way to control Reaper forces… and they got it to work."
"What?" that was massive.
"It's small scale from the data only working for about 100 yards in any direction but it works. They got videos showing that it works but none of the data is there for us to recreate it. We can't loose this asset."
As she talked I pulled up the destination for where the Lawson family was and started moving towards it. The others following along behind me as Tali continued to talk but we all had an idea of where she was going with this. I completely agreed too if her unsaid hunch was right.
"You think Mr. Lawson has all the actual data to recreate what they did here?"
"He's the head of this facility. He should have the data almost exclusive to him; he's probably guarding it religiously. I can't imagine the fame that he'll get after the war if it proves to be effective. No one would want to share that type of prestige," Ceelo stated as we continued our trek through the facility.
"And he's currently holding his youngest hostage while his oldest wants to kill the man," Kelli stated with a huff and a shake of her head. "We might have to kill them if we want the data."
"Try to disable them first. If you can't, put them down. Mr. Lawson is now a Priority Asset," everyone grunted in agreement as we started to pick up the pace towards where Mr. Lawson was.
As we closed in on the room we wer greeted by a pair of Banshee's strutting about in the corridor with about five husks with them. All of which was bad news for us as we hadn't been taking our time at all and were loud. So when we rounded that corner all of the husks and the two Banshee's were staring directly at us. I reacted first going into the state of mediation I had used early in the day and tossed a grenade forward.
Both Banshee's teleported away from the grenade as it exploded but two of the husks were two slow and it ripped into them. The other three husks immediately charged us and the first one was eviscerated by Ceelo's shotgun and the other two were dropped by head shots from Nif and Kelli. Husks were really only dangerous with numbers and when they didn't have them they weren't much of a problem.
The Banshee's on the other hand were as they teleported and one appeared next to Nif. Who was barely able to raise his rifle to protect himself as the Banshee stabbed at him with one of its hands claws. Nif was barely able to raise his weapon in time to block the claws as it ripped through the weapon but it did just enough so that he wasn't stabbed.
The banshee raised its free hand instent on stabbing forward into Nif's chest only to stop as three bullets pierced through its head. Kelli's weapon smoking as the Banshee dropped to the ground and the second one appeared right in front of me and backhanded me before I could do anything. It wasn't that hard of a hit but it did make me stumble backwards and knocked my Locust out of my hands.
The Banshee decided to try and follow it up as it stabbed down wards at me and I dove out of the way. Pulling out my Sawed off at the same time as the Banshee began teleporting around the room. It was not fun to continually spinning around the room trying to keep track of it before I let my meditation take over and sensed that it would appear behind me. Twisting around it did appear there and I fired my sawed off straight into the Banshee's heart. It looked down at me in what could only be surprise before I raised the gun and blew off its face. Then it collapsed to the ground
Not gonna lie, I was a bit surprised too. Either way, there was no time to worry about that as I looked at the others and we took off towards where Mr. Lawson should be. We sprinted through the corridors for a couple of minutes running into no more husks or anything otherwise. We did find a couple more dead scientists and a few giant clear tubes; all with people in different stages of being Reaperfied. It wasn't a pretty sight at all.
Pushing it down we ignored it and kept on running until Tali called over the radio that we the doorway we were running to should lead to Mr. Lawson. Not bothering with stacking up on the door I kicked it open and got three head snapping to me as Mr. Lawson held a gun to Miranda's sister and Miranda had her biotics fully activated around her.
"Who the bloody hell are you?" Mr. Lawson snapped at me as he changed his pistol from Miranda to me. Miranda tensed at that and so did her sister, they were preparing to do something stupid. Clicking my radio twice Kelli and Nif pointed their rifles at Miranda in silence as they closed in on her.
"Aedon, tell your dogs to back off," Miranda ground out as she still stared at her father.
"Can't do that Miranda. As far as I'm concerned at the moment Mr. Lawson is a priority asset and you are not," that seemed to get a surprised look from everyone. Even Mr. Lawson's gun drooped from his daughters head. Miranda recovered almost instantly though as her eyes hardened and she snarled at me.
"Do you know what he's done here. The tens of thousands he's sacrificed for this not to mention all that he did before. He's a bastard that deserves to die," I didn't refute her claim.
"Miranda. We are loosing millions of people every hour if not quicker and what your father did here will save millions, if not billions and only he has the data to replicate it."
"Thank you. At least someone understands," the man in question stated as he gestured to me with his pistol. The moment he did Miranda's sister threw an elbow in his stomach making him double over before diving away.
The moment her sister was clear Miranda reared her right arm back to throw a biotic attack at the man. She never got the chance though as three shots rang out and Miranda crumpled to the ground shouting in pain. One shot through each of her legs and one through her right arm; she was alive though and she should be thankful for that.
Looking at Kelli I tossed her my med kit and she got to work on treating Miranda while said womans sister ran to her and began helping Kelli. While they did that I walked up to Mr. Lawson and grabbed the gun he still held before ripping it out of his grip and tossing it away. When he realized that he was disarmed after finally catching his breath he straightened himself and dusted himself off. He was, an inch or two taller than me.
"Henry Lawson at your service," he outstretched his hand to me and I simply stared at it behind my mak before looking back at him. He coughed into his hand before continuing. "You seem to have need of my work."
"Yes. Do you have the data on you to replicate your work," the man fished out a usb drive from his pocket.
"Old tech I know but very few have the low tech to operate it and my omni-tool was designed for it," I nodded.
"Okay. Follow us and keep your head down. Kelli, is Miranda good to be moved?"
"She's stable boss but she'll need to be carried. No way she's moving on her own."
"Copy, she's yours. Everyone check your ammo, we move in three."
Three minutes later we left the room and were moving through the facility back the way we came. Mr. Lawson started to shoot barbs at his daughter before he got smacked in the back of the head by Ceelo. He looked indignant but when I didn't say anything against it and gave him a quick glare with my helmet he shut his mouth. The rest of the way back went quickly as well and we didn't run into any problems.
Getting out of the facility back to the entrance we came in I radio'd for pickup. The shuttle took a few minutes to arrive and we all piled in when it did. Shepard and the others were already in there but looked about the same as when we had left them. Though there was some soot on them as well and I could tell they were upset from their body language.
"Lang get away?" Ceelo asked them with absolutely no tact and they just glared at the man who shrugged it off.
"Why does Miranda have three bullet wounds and her father still alive?" Shepard asked looking directly at me.
"Explain why we didn't kill you," I stated looking over at Mr. Lawson who nodded his head. Good thing he still had his confidence.
"My experiments worked to a degree and I'm the only one that can replicate it end product. The device to be built is rather cheap to do so and portable. It sends out a frequency within a 50 yard radius that impairs all abilities of Reaper foot soldiers. They are still dangerous mind you but nowhere near so. Per example I would liken them to baby predators, still dangerous if approached foolishly but their threat is greatly reduced."
"It could save millions if we deploy them correctly," I stated making everyone go quiet.
"To a degree?" Javik asked once everyone had gotten over the fact that Lawson's experiments result to save a lot of lives.
"The goal was to outright control the Reaper ground forces. Failing that the end result was our secondary goal, impairment."
"How do we know you are not indoctrinated. Cerberus seems to be all about that these days," Garrus stated looking at the man with nothing in his eyes. It was just a question to Garrus with nothing behind it. He agreed with why I didn't kill the man; I could tell.
"I made sure to test myself and my team daily. There would be no point in controlling them if they already controlled us. I had to put down 13 of the original 30 I started with; I did it personally. That being said, I will submit to any tests you deem necessary."
"Tell them how many it cost to do it," Miranda growled out from the ground as Kelli made sure she didn't hurt herself any further. As for Mr. Lawson, he didn't hesitate to answer.
"174,962 people. That's how many people I experimented on so that this project could work. So that we could win this war," there was silence in the shuttle as we broke the atmosphere. I wanted to kill the man, truly I did but at this point I couldn't. He was too valuable and his invention would save more than it had killed to accomplish. A couple minutes later we were in the Normandy and heading to the Citadel to drop off the Lawson family.
Over the next three weeks we desperately followed Kai Lang's tail. Jumping all over the galaxy just missing him every time and it was getting on literally everyone's nerves that we hadn't caught him yet. The only silver lining to all of that was that on the fourth day of the second week we found Jacob. Apparently the man got a group of Cerberus scientists to defect and one of them he got pregnant. Either way we got them out of there but still missed Kai Lang.
As for Mr. Lawsons invention it was deployed across the galaxy before the end of the first week after we dropped him off at the Citadel. It's been the definition of a boon for the entire galaxy. The calculated number of lives that its saved closing in on a hundred million but it was only staunching the bleeding of those fighting.
The total numbers of confirmed dead within the galaxy at a staggering 83% as of today. That's just over 200 billion people dead in the galaxy. We were rapidly loosing out on any ability to truly fight this war but all of the war machines were working overtime. We were doing our best but the Crucible they were building needed to be finished and now; and we needed to find out where the Catalsyt was.
Moving back to Kai Lang we still didn't know where he was with the data but we knew where Cerberus HQ was thanks to Miranda. We had a STG vessel parked a few thousand miles away monitoring the base and waiting to find Kai Lang's signal enter the area. He eventually had to go back but if we could capture him before hand it would be all the better.
I argued that we blow the place to hell with Shepard since we finally knew where their base was. He vetoed that by stating that Kai Lang would be in the wind and we knew he was indoctrinated. If he went in the wind we'd never find out what was the Catalyst was and we needed it. He won that argument.
During these past weeks as well if I wasn't on the ground fighting or with Tali I was meditating. Putting in more effort than before trying to replicate what Jack could do and basically predict a fight. I was getting there with ease but keeping it up for any stretch of time was difficult. The concentration required was ridiculous; I'm convinced the system is only good for one vs one fights. Still, the Cerberus facility showed it could be used against multiple opponents, just not for long.
As of right now, I was finishing up a round at the range when the PA system went off.
"All ground team members to the briefing room," I went straight there not even bothering to put my weapons away and walked into the room sitting down in the first chair I saw. It took no longer than another minute for everyone to be in the room. Fastest I've ever seen the room fill up.
"Lang just showed up at Cerberus HQ. We are moving now; we'll be there in an hour and an Alliance fleet will be no more than a minute behind us," Shepard stated once everyone was in the room and I couldn't stop the feral smile that crept onto my face.
Finally, the weaboo dies.
Hope y'all enjoyed. :)