From Hell To Hell

by mcknight93

Set around the beginning of Mass Effect 2 timeline, the Normandy SR-2 finds the Forward Unto Dawn. How will the Mass Effect universe change when the Master Chief is involved? All chapters have been rewritten and reposted with much improvements. The awesome picture rightfully belongs to: KnytGrey on deviantart.

4. Chapter 4

Here is the rewritten version of chapter 4.

Thank you everyone for the positive reviews and advice

If anyone is wondering why I didn't get Chief reveal a lot of information is because he wouldn't want to reveal everything to someone on the first meeting, they will have to work to know John's name.

Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Mass Effect. Halo belongs to Bungie or 343 Industries now, Mass Effect belongs to Bioware. Enjoy the chapter

Shepard is male, Paragon, Vanguard.

Chapter 4: It's Easier Getting In Than Out

Normandy SR-2 Captain Quarters

Commander Shepard was deep in thought over the mission that was about to commence. He thought he would bring the Spartan because if he brought him it would be a win-win situation. On one hand, he would get a chance to see the green armored giant in action. Plus, if the biotic was as dangerous as he had heard and reacted violently, then the Spartan should definitely help contain the convict.

On the other hand, if the Master Chief betrayed him, then at least he could try to lock him in the prison ship they would soon be on.

"It wouldn't hurt to bring a little extra backup either." The former Spectre thought to himself as he didn't completely trust the Spartan yet. He may had seen videos from Chief's universe, but the story was still pretty farfetched.

The crew members were going to be Garrus Vakarian and Miranda Lawson. He was bringing Garrus for he could trust him with any situation, and was a true friend. Conversly, he couldn't leave Miranda alone or she might confiscate Master Chief's unknown equipment. The ex-Spectre also hoped that after they recruit the convict, he could try get Master Chief to open up more, after all nobody bonds more than soldiers once they have been in combat together.

So far, Shepard was able to deduce that Chief was a quiet stoic person. But he also figured out that the Spartan was a military man to the core.

"He probably understands military language as clear as natural English. It might create a familiar background if I be more porfessional with him." Shepard thought to himself.

"Commander," said Joker through the intercom. "We are closing in on Purgatory. Whose going on a field trip today?"

"Tell Garrus, Miranda, and Chief to get ready for some action. Get the shuttle warmed up too."

"Bringing extra firepower, Commander?"

"Yeah, better safe than sorry."

"Hey works for me. That's three less hard asses on board. I finally might get a chance to relax on here without Miranda giving me the Cerberus death stare." Joker said with sarcasm.

"Just get to it, Joker." Shepard said with a smirk.

"On it, Commander. Maybe next time you can take IT with you." The helsman emphaised on the word it.

"I heard that, Mr Moreau." EDI's feminie voiced also sounded over the intercom.

"Aw dammit." Joker swore at the A.I that pestered him to no end, before he shut off the communication.

Shepard chuckled as suited up in his N7 armor. Once he was strapped into his armor he walked to the elevator to meet up with the rest of the squad.

Normandy SR-2 Cargo Hold

The Master Chief had made the cargo bay his own little armory slash living quarters. He sat his guns on the tables and crates, even stacked some against wall.

The Chief also brought down the foreign mass accelerator guns to dismantle and put back together. Maybe he could learn enough about them to practice shooting them. One of the crew members, a Jacob Taylor, was kind enough to show what the guns were called and how they operated. The Cerberus operative even lent him a few of their weapons.

It wasn't long before they settled in the cargo bay, Cortana informed the Spartan that there were listening devices all over the room. With help from his trusted A.I. companion, John destroyed every single bug in the room. When he finished off the last one he could have sworn he heard a feminine yell from another floor of the ship.

John busied himself with assembling and disassembling an assault rifled called an M-8 Avenger. After a while, Master Chief started to pick up on a few things from the weapon. It used ammo known as "thermal clips." It was double-barreled with a built-in scope. It could be fired in short bursts or on full-auto, though the Chief suspected that it did less damage than the rifles he was accustomed to. He was interrupted when the voice of a human male blared on the intercom in the cargo bay.

"Uh, Chief? We're going to a prison ship called the Purgatory to recruit someone, and the Commander says you're going with him if there are any problems. Get prepped to board the shuttle." The helmsman Joker said in a rather nervous tone.

"Acknowledged." John replied quickly.

"Well, it looks like they need you already big guy." Cortana chimed in.

Master Chief got up from his seat and picked up two of every grenade from his private collection, and a bubble shield. Now for weapons Chief attached two plasma rifles to his sides, a Covenant carbine placed on the magnetic plates on his back, and a plasma repeater in his armored arms. The Spartan II then proceeded to the elevator.

"Hmm… your first mission is going to a prison with people you just met. Am I the only one that is worried?" Cortana spoke to her human companion.

John stepped into the elevator and turned around.

"Yep." Chief simply said as the elevator door closed.

"After going through their codex it said that this Purgatory was originally an 'ark ship' designed to carry agricultural animals. During a large scale battle, the Purgatory was later taken over by a mercenary company known as the Blue Suns. It then went under some reconstruction where it was repurposed to hold prisoners. Supposedly they captured so many in their conflicts throughout the galaxy they needed to store them somewhere. When people started to make claims that the ship was used for slaving operations, the Blue Suns turned a public relations nightmare into a regular income source. Sounds like a friendly neighborhood." Cortana explained in great detail about the prison ship.

"What about the ship's defenses?" The super soldier asked.

"On the inside, it's your typical prison with security and guards. On the outside it's minimally armed with GARDIAN turrets."

"GARDIAN?"

" 'General Area Defense Integration Anti-spacecraft Network.' Anti-missile and anti-fighter guns under V.I. control. But the Blue Suns seem to mainly rely on their own personal army of fighters to prevent any jailbreaks or incoming attacks. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, as long as we can trust this Joker pilot to do his job."

The elevator doors soon opened to reveal Commander Shepard in his N7 armor, already in the hangar. The former Spectre bore a smirk on his face.

"Nice of you to join us, Master Chief. Are you prepped for the mission?"

"Affirmative, Commander." John-117 nodded.

"Good to hear, Spartan. Follow me, I will show you to the shuttle."

Both the super soldier and the hero of the Blitz started their walk towards the Kodiak shuttle in the hangar. During the walk, Shepard thought it would be a decent moment to explain the mission to the Master Chief.

"Our location is a holding vessel by the name of 'Purgatory'. The objective is to subdue and retrieve a prisoner. The target is known as Subject Zero or Jack, a dangerously high level biotic. Approach is to be made with extreme caution."

Shepard saw that Chief looked at him, but he knew that the Spartan was about to ask; ' why he was going?'

"Cerberus has already paid the funds, so it should be a simple trade. But as unpredictable as Jack is said to be, extra security is being insured. We clear?"

Master Chief simply nodded his head.

In a few seconds, the Spartan the spotted the white shuttle that had similar markings to the Cerberus emblem stamped on it. Next to the shuttle was the alien with the cybernetic mouth that he injured when he woke up from cryo-sleep. The Turian tensed up when he saw him, but the alien was able to relax himself.

Beside the Turian was also the Cerberus woman.

As Shepard escorted the Master Chief to the Cerberus Kodiak shuttle, the former Spectre decided that before they go to Purgatory it would be best to introduce the Spartan to the others in the team. He already knew that both Garrus and Miranda had already met the man in dark green armor, but that was when he was still an unexpected encounter.

Strangely enough Garrus almost looked rather excitied to see Chief. When Garrus first met the Spartan it was not on happy terms. The Turian was knocked aside and unconscious by the super soldier. And if Shepard knew his friend well enough, then Garrus was itching to see what Master Chief could do to the enemy and not him.

There was no doubt in his mind that Miranda's own first encounter with the man was anything, but cordial though unlike Garrus she did not get knocked around.

However the sooner they smoothed things over the better in his mind and also he still had to rely on his backup plan if things went sour when they got Jack. They were going to be fighting side by side so they might as well try and get along with one another and try to bury the hatchet, preferably NOT in each other's backs.

"Might as well get the introductions over with." Shepard thought to himself.

"Chief, before we go on this mission, you will need to meet the others working with us on this op."

"Understood sir."

Even if it was an automatic response in his mind, Shepard took the response in stride and introduced Garrus.

"This is Garrus Vakarian, former C-Sec Detective and a good friend of mine. He helped me deal with the rogue Spectre Saren two years back and is one the best snipers I have worked with."

John studied the Turian and managed to calm himself as he had noticed some resemblance to the Sangheili he worked against, and with. He was still uneasy working with aliens though he would be able to put aside his differences for the time being. And from what he was able to read on Shepard and his own team, Garrus was a trust worthy sort, a bit of a rebel but had his gut and heart in the right place. He could tell that Shepard's claim of Garrus being a good sniper was accurate due to the fact that Garrus favored the sniper rifle he had with him, though he wondered if such a long range weapon was wise to use in the confined space of a prison. Still he was going to reserve judgment for now and he did notice one of the assault rifles on the Turian's back so he clearly had weapons training in other fields.

Garrus looked the Spartan over and saw his reflection on the visor and felt a bit of a shiver run up his spine, and for good reason. He recalled how the Spartan manhandled him, Zaeed and Mordin and was happy that at least for now he was not going to fight this guy. Still he trusted Shepard's judgement and decided to at least play ball with the Spartan.

"You pack a hell of a punch, as long as you're focusing on the bad guys and not me then we're good." Garrus said as he tired to be the bigger man, well figuratively.

John gave a nod at that and then Shepard spoke.

"And this is..."

Shepard was hoping that Miranda would at least let him do the introductions, but he felt that it was not going to end the way he hoped. And his gut was right on the money as Miranda spoke with her usual air of authority.

"Miranda Lawson, Cerberus officer, and second in command of this operation against the Collectors."

Miranda was not going to give ground on this matter as she wanted to show that she was more than able to hold her own in anything, even her own introductions. She had to admit that the man before her was...different, and it had little to do with his size or height, but other matters as well. She eyed at his armor and also his gear as she was very much hoping to find out what made them all tick, as they were unlike anything she had seen before. Nothing in the Alliance, Cerberus, or in the Terminus Systems had tech like that on the man and she was hoping to learn all that she could.

She was unaware that in the seconds she was sizing John up, he was doing the same to her as well. He could tell that she was the kind who favored precision, light, and rapid firepower judging from the still folded Heavy Pistol and SMG she had on her hips. She also appeared to be reliant on agility, speed, and flexibility in hand to hand fighting if her form was any indication. He also guessed that the looks and the suit were used to distract people and make them think her harmless and merely a beautiful woman. He could tell by the way she moved and looked that she was well trained and more than aware of her abilities and she had a confidence about her that spoke of experience and authority, no doubt giving her a reputation among the crew similar to some female officers in the UNSC he had dealt with in the past minus the late Miranda Keyes and ODST Lieutenant Melissa McKay.

All the same though, John was going to be wary; he had already seen her eyeing the gear he had on him and his armor when she thought he did not notice... so no sense not watching himself.

Cortana would had commented now, but she kept silent for the time being. That was actually a good thing in his mind as he finally spoke.

"Ma'am."

During the ride to the Purgatory in the Kodiak Shuttle

The trip in the shuttle was relatively quiet, something that normally did not happen with the kind of mission they were undertaking. The silence was very different, almost awkward. Shepard and Miranda sat down on the seats, while Garrus and Master Chief hung on the rails inside the shuttle with his weapons already with him.

Normally this was the time that the team would go over the operation parameters of the mission, inspect their weapons for errors, check for their supply of thermal clips to see if they had enough, just the regular things a strike team would normally do. But this time there was nothing more than a deep unnerving silence as each was swept away by the tumultuous sea of their own thoughts.

This however was only for the three members of the Normandy crew as John was busy running through the details in his head on Purgatory with Cortana in a strong conversation that was muted from the others.

Garrus gave the Spartan a slight glance and recalled how easily this guy had taken him out once more. He was sure that Shepard brought the guy here to see how he would do in a fire fight, he could have told Shepard not to bother since he had seen him up close but he chose not to. The reason was that had it been a serious fight to the death, he seriously doubted that he would still be in the land of the living. He was actually eager to see just how this armored warrior handled himself in a real no holds barred fight, and judging from the still present ding on his armor, he had a feeling that he was not going to be the least bit disappointed.

Shepard was likewise reviewing his options when it concerned the Chief, as much as he wanted the guy to stay as part of the team he had to take a lot of things into account. He still was not sure how skilled the Spartan was despite seeing the records, so this was a good chance. He also hoped that this would be the chance to see if the Chief was reliable and if he proved not to be one, then he would make the move to leave him in the prison ship. It was not something he personally wanted to do, but he had to be ready to make that choice and at least he could count on both Garrus and Miranda to help him.

As for Miranda Lawson, her train of thought was more focused on getting as much data as she could about the Spartan. Even with the information that she had already gained, she knew that she needed more facts. The Cerberus officer therefore directed her full attention to the Master Chief and began to think on her plans to get the data she needed. The female scanned the Spartan with her blue eyes from head to toe, her main focus of her silent scrutiny being the Chief's armor and also his weapons.

The guns were completely foreign to her both in design and function, they were definitely alien in origin and therefore she had no idea just how they worked and what powered them. But there was no doubt in her mind that if the Spartan carried them over the weapons that he had which possessed more human design characteristics, then they had features that could never be seen anywhere else. Miranda knew she had to get her hands on them and send them to the Illusive Man for an analysis on all aspects, ranging from firing mechanisms, construction materials, power source, ammunition and the like. All of this could very well give humanity an advantage in the many challenges that Cerberus was willing to face that the Alliance would either deny or ignore.

The kidnapping of the humans in the Terminus Systems being the most obvious.

"Those are some unusual weapons you have." Miranda said as she looked at the Plasma Repeater and the other devices with genuine interest in her voice.

The Spartan did not reply to that, but she was not deterred easily as she decided to try another approach before they could get to Purgatory. She normally did not take a lot of interest in one person, not even Shepard got that much interest as she had been working with him for nigh on two years to bring him back. But the Spartan was a totally different matter, the way they found him and what they had learned about him made him VERY interesting to her.

All in all, he was an anomaly to her as well as possibly a gold mine of information, and a powerful ally. And being a high ranking officer for Cerberus as well as her insatiable desire to learn and uncover mysteries and motives, she needed to know everything about everyone. And right now... he was number one in the list of things she needed to learn and solve.

"What kind of weapons do you have with you there? They obviously don't look the least bit human in nature and design."

John was already familiar with her interest, namely in his choice of weapons and he could understand just why she was interested in them as well as his MJOLNIR Armor. When the war broke out between the UNSC and the Covenant, the scientists in the UNSC worked their brain cells to exhaustion to crack the tech the Covenant had, namely their plasma weapons. They did have an understanding of the principles of beam technology but they did not dedicate as much resources to the area due to the Insurrection going on. And here before them was living proof that infantry grade beam weapons were possible. One of the reasons they never developed their own plasma weapons was the Covenant had a nasty habit of placing tracking devices in their weapons.

This was always the bane of recovering Covenant tech since they had to do exhaustive scans to remove any tracking devices, before the salvaged tech was taken away for study. And if not done, then the UNSC recovery teams and research sites would usually have less than friendly non human visitors blowing down their door.

At the moment, he was not all that sure with the idea of allowing Miranda to learn anything about the Covenant weapons. He still had no idea just who this woman was, her loyalties and the organization she was part of...this Cerberus. And her actions and attitude prior to their trip to Purgatory told him that she was not someone he should open up to unless he could learn more. Cortana likewise agreed and told him in private NOT to be too open just yet. If she was trying to fish for information, she would have to do a lot better.

"They don't operate with any tech I've ever seen. May I look at your rifle?" Miranda bristled and asked more bluntly this time.

"Sorry Ma'am but the technology that is used in these weapons is off limits."

Miranda started to get frustrated though she did her best not to show it on her face. It was clear to her that taking the direct approach was not the best way to get what she wanted. Then again, she decided to try a different approach and concluded that if asking directly was not going to work, then asking sweetly might work. She was not sure if it would work, but it was worth a try anyway.

Meanwhile, Shepard and Garrus watched the interaction like spectators at a tennis match. Both exchanged half hidden smiles in a light atmosphere between each other.

However, that plan had to be shelved as the announcement came that they had docked to Purgatory.

The Normandy soon docked at the Purgatory.

Shepard, Garrus, Miranda, and the Master Chief strode toward the entrance of the prison ship to meet up with Warden Kuril; the one responsible for the 'exchange' involving a certain highly unstable biotic.

The group walked up the entrance of the prison and there they were greeted by Blue Sun Turian guard and two other humans. All of them were armored up in the traditional Blue Sun armor.

"Welcome to the... uh...um Pur...ga...tory." The human stammered.

The Blue Sun merc was well prepared to see Commander Shepard despite the rumor of his death, along with Cerberus. But what made him pause in shock was who traveled with Shepard. Behind the former Spectre was a thing that stood seven foot tall, covered from head to toe in dark green armor. His weapons were just as strange, all of which he has never seen the likes of. They seemed to be colorful with strange curves on them that slightly glowed. The Blue Sun almost fell on his backside when he saw his golden reflection in the thing's visor.

The Turian Blue Sun let out a loud sigh.

"Ugh, what he is trying to say is that your package is being prepped and you can claim it shortly. As this a high-security vessel, you'll need to relinquish your weapons before we proceed." Stated the Turian guard who then looked at Master Chief. "Espeically yours. I don't even know what you are carrying."

"That makes two of us." Miranda thought bitterly.

There was no chance in hell that Master Chief wouldn't let anyone lay a hand on his guns. John-117 was about to deny the guard's orders, but the Commander beat him to it.

"I can't do that." The ex-Spectre replied calmly

"I will ask one more time Shepard, give us your weapons." The guard warned with a hint of anger in his voice.

"My weapons stay with me." Shepard said just as determined to hold his ground.

The guards drew their own guns weapons, as did the Normandy crew.

"Sorry, it has to be that way." said the Turian.

Before any of them could shoot a single bullet, a barefaced Turian walked behind the Blue Suns.

"Everyone stand down! Commander, I'm Warden Kuril, and this is my ship. Your weapons will be returned on the way out. You must realize this is just a standard procedure."

"It's my standard procedure to keep my gun." The Commander rebutted.

Silence filled the hall where Warden and Shepard had a stare down, but soon the Warden caved in.

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

"Let's go." Shepard simply said as he and his squad mates followed Warden through the prison ship.

"That was close. Good thing, that Shepard guy knows a few things about talking." Cortana said in Master Chief's helmet.

The Spartan had a bad feeling in his gut about this "Warden Kuril" and Chief Mendez taught him to always trust his gut, it knows you better than anyone else. Now Chief was well prepared to pull out a plasma rifle when the situation demanded it.

The entrance door opened that lead to a window hallway where everyone could see countless rows of cells with prisoners inside. They also saw some criminals get taken out or put in their cells by mechanical cranes. The way the cranes moved cells, made it seem more like a factory line than a prison.

"Cellblock two. As you can see we keep tight control over the population. Each prisoner's cell is a self-contained modular unit. I've blown a few out the airlocks as an example." Warden informed as the tour kept on going with everyone glancing at the prison.

"Not exactly employer of the year. This guy seems more like a tyrant than a warden. I'd keep an eye on him, Chief." Cortana advised inside his helmet.

John-117 didn't say a word- which the A.I. was quite use to- and followed the group.

"This ship is made up of thirty cell blocks identical to this one. We house thousands of criminals. We can put this place in lockdown on a moment's notice." Warden bragged.

The barefaced Turian stopped and turned around. "Nothing goes wrong here."

"Can you tell me about Jack?" Shepard thought it would be a good time to ask some questions and learn about the convict.

Warden shuffled his fingers against his other hand as if he was nervous or scared. The other Blue Suns stiffened up, scratched their necks, or shuffled nervously as well.

"Cerberus hasn't told you? Jack is the meanest handful of violence and hate I've ever encountered. Dangerous, crazy, and very powerful. You'll see soon enough." Warden warned in a wary and wisp-like voice.

"How did you end up running this ship?" asked the Commander.

The barefaced Turian turned to look out the window to admire his work of containment of prisoners and answer the question at the same time.

"I was in law enforcement on Palaven, and got sick of seeing criminals escape out into the galaxy to carry on with their crimes. Bounty hunters aren't dependable. Eventually I hit upon this idea. Keep criminals in space and the galaxy is a safer place."

"You do this because you think it's necessary?"Garrus said clearly unconvinced.

The Warden turned back to look at the group.

"Every day I see the worst sapient life has to offer. Governments are soft, unwilling to make the hard choices. Someone had to stand up to make the galaxy safe."

Garrus narrowed his eyes at Warden. The former C-Sec officer was quick to not to trust the barefaced Turian. In his culture, a Turian with no markings of any sort that showed their clan, could not be trusted. Garrus belief on the idea was heavily reinforced when he fought some of his toughest battles caused by another barefaced Turian, Saren Arterius.

Garrus nudged Shepard on the shoulder.

"Watch out for Warden. I got a bad feeling about him." Garrus whispered to the Commander.

"Same here, but the sooner we get Jack the sooner we can leave." Shepard whispered back.

Shepard had one more thing to say before they would move on.

"Maintaining a population this size in space can't be cheap."

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

"What happens if the homeworld doesn't pay?" Miranda Lawson asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We explained that we cannot maintain the prisoner without their help, so we'll be forced to release him back onto his homeworld. At an unspecified time and place." Warden replied with a sly Turian smirk.

"So you scare the homeworlds with prisoners? Like an extortion racket?" Garrus scoffed at the idea.

"You don't have to agree with my methods, but don't question my motives. These are despicable people and I am keeping them locked up." Warden retaliated at the remark.

"Let's get on with this." Shepard said wanting to acquire his package.

"Has there ever been any attempts at an escape?" Miranda wondered if the prison was truly unescapable.

The group kept walking, while looking out of the windows to see many prisoners and guards.

"We're in space-they have nowhere to go, and they know it. But still, we exercise extreme caution for these are dangerous individuals." Warden answered.

The group looked out of the window to see two prisoners arguing violently. Spotting them, a Batarian prison guard played with his omni-tool and a pillar popped out of the floor. From the top of the pillar shot two blue streams of energy, which encased the prisoners in blue spheres and then separated them to a safe distance.

"We have many ways to control the population." Warden bragged.

The group turned a corner and followed their guide through yet another door.

"I'm going to confirm that the funds from Cerberus are cleared. Outproccessing is straight down this hallway. Just keep going past the interrogation rooms and the Super-max Wing." At this the tour ended and Warden began to leave, but he turned and said.

"I'll catch up with you… Shepard."

Miranda took a curious second glance at Warden Kuril. Something about his whole demeanour aroused her suspicions. In her years working with the higher-ups at Cerberus, she'd run into plenty of shady characters, and she had developed keen senses when it came to spotting deceitful behaviour. Right now those same senses screamed that Warden Kuril was hiding something.

Shepard, Garrus, Miranda, and Master Chief now were heading to the Outproccessing area to unfreeze Jack.

"This was easy, too easy. Something feels completley wrong. Garrus might had been right, Warden Kuril can not be trusted." Shepard thought to himself.

But as they walked they passed by a Blue Sun Turian watching another Turian interrogate a human prisoner with brute force. Everyone stopped and watched in disgust at how the Blue Sun continued to beat the criminal with his bare fist.

"You don't even get good information that way. After a point, victims admit to anything to make the pain stop." Garrus said as he recalled some days when he was a C-Sec officer.

"Interrogation is sometimes... necessary, but this is just pointless cruelty." Miranda voiced her opinion with her hands on her hips.

Again, the Spartan stayed silent, but Shepard wanted the big man to feel like part of the group, so he played the diplomat.

"What do you think Chief?" Shepard ventured.

"I've seen worse." Master Chief simply said. But in truth, the sight of an alien wailing on a human being like that – and nobody doing a thing about it – turned the Chief's blood cold. It reminded him of the pains the Covenant had inflicted upon humanity in his home universe. It didn't help that Turians looked like Elites, either.

This caught the attention of Miss Lawson.

"So this UNSC must be pretty cruel to their prisoners. How hard they interrogate a prisoner, usually they train their soldiers even harder just in case they get captured… so this guy must be very tough."Miranda thought.

The Cerberus officer remembered the organization that the Spartan served when she listened in on the conversation between Shepard and Master Chief through her bugs in the meeting room.

If she only knew that John actually referred to ONI when he said "he saw worse".

The Blitz hero then went up to the Turian guard.

"Can I help you with something?" The Blue Sun asked.

"There is no excuse for beating a prisoner that can't fight back." Shepard said.

"This is a massage compared to what other guy went through." Said the Turian guard with no regret in his words.

Shepard thought he would try a little harder to persuade.

"This degrades you as it does him."

"We have orders." Replied the Blue Sun.

"Are you not important enough to make your own decisions?" The Commander knew just what to say.

The guard stood there deep in thought about what the former Spectre said.

"I admit I sometimes get tired of this. Does this really get us anything useful?" The Turian said more to himself than to Shepard.

"Stop this, for your own sake." Shepard said softly.

The Turian once again thought about the situation.

"Yeah, your right. Call it off, at least for now."

The interrogator stopped beating the prisoner at soon as the guard gave the order. The prisoner crawled away to a corner, as if terrified that he would have to go through that process again.

Feeling slightly vindicated by his own small contribution to ending injustic, Shepard refocussed his attention on the more importanat mission at hand: recruiting Jack.

"Okay, this guy definitely has a way with words. You can learn a thing or two from this guy, caveman." Cortana commented in John's helmet.

Chief didn't say a word, but Cortana wasn't offended as she was quite use to his silent damenor.

Then a prisoner with the numbers 780 on his orange and black jumpsuit, from the cell next to the interrogators called out to the Normandy crew.

"Hey, if you're buying prisoners, can you buy me? Man, I don't care where you take me or what you do to me; it's got to be better than this." The criminal said almost sounding desperate.

"We are here for the biotic prisoner Jack, not you." Miranda scoffed.

The criminal quickly shook his head and his eyes widened.

"Jack? Forget what I just said. I don't want to go nowhere with you." Prisoner 780 replied with fear and then took a couple steps back.

"I thought this ship was a prison, not a market." Shepard said with a raised eyebrow.

"Sometimes people buy cons so they can do some punishing of their own, if you understand. Warden sells us to whoever can pay enough."

"Why were they interrogating that prisoner, does he know something?" asked the Commander.

"That's Bimmy, he offend someone in the shower today. Apparently he killed someone that Warden liked."

"Has anyone ever died through interrogation?" asked Garrus.

"No, Warden can't get money off us. Though when a guard tortures someone they seem to get meaner."

"So what are you in for?" asked Shepard which was a common question in prison.

"I killed a few people, only twenty or so and I blew up that one habitat. Small timed compared to most of the guys around here."

Shepard thought he could try and get some information on their soon to be recruit.

"Tell me more about Jack."

"The worst trouble you ever saw mixed with some... mixed with some crazy and way too much biotic power. That is all I am saying." The criminal said in fear.

"So what is it like here?"

"Bad, and you got to watch out. Damn, but someone is always after your stuff. Your smokes, your clothes, your… pride. I haven't taken a shower in three months."

Miranda's perfect features rearranged themselves into a look of disgust, when she heard about the criminal's hygiene. She then walked off with her heels clanking against the floor, where it made the obivious sign that she was ready to leave and carry on with the mission.

"I better get going" Shepard said after the answers were getting a little strange.

"I wish I could go." said Prisoner 780, hanging his head in shame.

Now the Normandy crew went through another giant white room that looked similar to a cafeteria, except there was a terminal next to the entrance. There were four large tables in the room and in that room was also a technician on a terminal. The technician said to go to the end of the room to get into the Outprocessing room. As the doors slithered closed behind them, an ominous voice echoed through the room over the intercom.

"I'm sorry Shepard, but you're more valuable as a prisoner than a customer. Drop your weapons and proceed to the open cell. You will not be harmed."

"Maybe I can change your mind." Shepard's mind began to race as his peaceful sensibilities urged him to try and solve this problem through use of either words or money.

"Activate systems!" Warden yelled out.

In a moments notice the team got ready for battle as they pulled their weapons and jolted behind the tables. Shepard had his submachine-gun, the M-4 Shuriken and was behind the left desk with Garrus who welded his signature sniper rifle the, M-92 Mantis.

"So much for a civil approach." Shepard said.

"Told you not to trust him." Garrus said with a small smirk.

Miranda and Master Chief rushed behind the right desk. Miranda had her own M-4 shuriken submachine-gun, while Chief pulled out his dual plasma rifles.

Normally Chief would have used the plasma repeater, a two handed weapon, but his military training told him that in the first ambush the enemy sends in a large number of troops to overwhelm the enemy. But the main problem with that logic was that there was only way in, through the door they came. So as soon as the doors open he could kill many enemies really quick with a barrage of plasma fire from the plasma rifles.

"Well Chief, your gut was once again right. Sometimes I think you listen to it more than me. Seven contacts are coming in through that door and two mechanical contacts too." Cortana warned.

Soon the door opened with a familiar hiss. The Normandy team heard the pounding of armored footsteps as the Blue Suns thundered in through the doorway like the beating drums of war. The served the team with a sense of adrenaline and thumping hearts.

A group of seven Blue Suns walked through with their mixed mass accelerator weapons aimed. The Blue Sun group was led by a Batarian legionnaire. The legionnaire had a kinetic energy shield, along with a M-15 Vindicator rifle. Beside the legionnaire were two Turian Centurions. The two Centurions were also shielded and both carried M-27 Scimitar shotguns. The other four were low ranked Blue Sun humans with avengers in their arms.

The room erupted in a furious symphony of gunfire from the continous rounds of the Blue Suns to keep the Normandy commandos pinned down. Soon the gunfire ceased when the leader gave the order to stop shooting.

The Batarian legionnaire made certain hand gestures to signal to his team for them to move ahead in the room and get ready for an assault.

"Spread out! Remember, Warden wants Shepard alive, the rest are target practice."

The Blue Suns went ahead of their Batarian leader, as they scanned the room for their enemies.

What the Blue Sun troopers weren't expecting was the sudden reaction of a Spartan-II.

The Master Chief leaped up from his cover and let out a barrage of plasma bolts from his plasma rifles. The plasma rounds ate away the Blue Suns armor as if it was tissue paper. It even took out the Turian centurion's kinectic shields in only a few blows. Soon a Turian centurion and two human Blue Suns went down, their armors, charred, seared, and sizzling from the intense heat.

The rest of the Blue Suns took cover behind some white tables. The Batarian leader hid behind a table on the right side of the room next to a human Blue Sun. While the Turian Centurion ran behind the other table on the left next to the other human.

"What just happened?!" The Batarian demanded in confusion at how his troops went down so fast.

The Batarian was not the only one that in was in shock. Shepard wondered the same thing. However, before he could even register any thought, the explosion of gunfire jarred him out of his head and ripped his attention back to the chaos around him.

"Move out! Take that metal bastard down!" The Batarian legionnaire commanded.

The Blue Suns got out of their cover and started to make their way towards the Normandy commandos position. The humans were going to flank them from the sides while the Turian assaulted in the middle.

"Except the room is too narrow for an effective flank attack." Shepard saw this fatal strategy as the perfect opportunity to get rid of the enemy.

"Take the..." But the Commander stopped during his sentence when he saw the Spartan jump over the table.

"What are you doing?!" Shepard exclaimed at Master Chief's sudden action.

It was then that Garrus placed his three digit hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Just watch," Garrus said in a reassuring tone, as he knew what was about to happen.

Chief leapt over his table with plasma rifles in both hands. He extended his arms and shot out a few plasma bolts from each weapon as he advanced on the Blue Suns. The bolts slammed into both human guards, burning their armor with blood curling screams. A portion of the Spartan's energy shields were damaged. Chief saw that the Turian centurion had shot at him with his shotgun. The super soldier ran up, and roundhouse kicked the shotgun out of the Blue Sun's hands, leaving a good size dent in the weapon. Chief then smacked the Turian on the head with his plasma rifle, caving in the Blue Sun's skull and smashing its helmet.

"Dammit!" The Batarian swore. His omni-tool then lit up and spoke into it. "Send it in the FENRIS mechs!"

Two white dog like robots with red lights on them, ran in the room, searching for their targets. It was then the mechs spotted Master Chief out in open and moved in for the kill.

"FENRIS mechs! Don't let them get too close or they will eat away your shields!" Garrus warned.

Chief holstered his weapons on his sides and waited for the robotic dogs.

One of the FENRIS mechs jumped on top of the tables and lunged at the dark green armored giant, but its face never collided with the being as it was caught in mid-air by the neck. The Chief then raised the FENRIS up and got his other hand on the waist and turned the robot sideways and brought it down on his knee and ripped it in half. John looked at his handy work and tossed the remains aside.

Miranda and Shepard's jaws dropped at the sight. Not even a Krogan was strong enough to do that and mechs were well reinforced with tough armor. Garrus wasn't all that stunned as he had the bruises to remember the Spartan's abilities.

Chief reached over his back and pulled out his plasma repeater, ready for the next target.

The last FENRIS mech dog ran mindlessly down the middle at the Spartan. The mech dog sprung at Chief, but he successfully stopped it by holding out his leg and brought it down to the ground. The mech struggled under the Master Chief's boot, trying to get free. Chief aimed his plasma repeater at the head of the FENRIS and fired a few rounds, ceasing the robotic dog's squirming.

The Batarian watched in terror at what happened to his small squad and mechs.

"Fuck this!" The legionnaire shouted and ran as fast as his trembling legs could carry him.

John-117 saw that the last Blue Sun was about to make a break for it. He quickly aimed his Covenant weapon at the Batarian and pulled the trigger for a short burst. The plasma instantly went through the Batarian's kientic shields, his armor, and into his back.

The legionnaire fell hard to the floor. The Batarian tried to get up, but it was of no use, he was far too wounded. So he tried to crawl away on his elbows.

"I don't get paid enough for this." The Batarian legionnaire muttered with a small trail of blood leaving his mouth. The Blue Sun then heard the heavy metallic footsteps of the one who wiped out his team, walk towards him. With some strain, the legionnaire brought his hand to his ear, and pressed two fingers against his comm unit.

The Comm Station aboard the Purgatory

Warden Kuril walked in the communications room, carrying a datapad. The bareface Turian was rather anxious on selling his new prize to the highest bidder. Already he has received several offers to buy the actual living breathing Commander Shepard. Most of the offers were from Batarians, but Warden did not care, as long as he got his money. And from the look of the bids, he was going to get a lot of money.

"I will live like a king." Warden thought to himself with greed.

Warden looked away from his datapad and turned his attention to his two Blue Sun Turian communication officers in the room.

"Has Borvan and his team captured Shepard yet?"

One of the Turians glanced over his shoulder at his commanding officer.

"Well... oh, we are about to find out." The Turian said when one of the many buttons blinked.

When the Turian communications officer pressed the button, he heard something that sent shivers down his spine.

"This is Borvan! Shepard and his team are loose! He brought some sort of invincible metal giant with him! Killed everyone, send reinfor... ahh!"

What came next was a blood curdling scream with some strange noise going off. Afterwards there was some sort of sizzling sound like if something was melting from a hot source.

Warden had a good hunch who the metal giant was as he recalled the Krogan sized human in dark green armor with a gold visor that accompanied Shepard. The bareface Turian eyes widen when he realized that his trophy was not in a cell yet. Warden rushed up to a console and pressed the intercom button.

"Reinforce on processing, Shepard is loose!"

Back with the Normandy squad

Once the Batarian was disposed of Master Chief scanned the room to ensure that there were no more hostiles. He also looked at the radar on his HUD and saw no more red blimps on it.

"Area is secure," Chief said in his gravely voice.

Shepard still had his mouth hanging open from seeing the Spartan in action.

"See what I mean?" Garrus said bringing the former Spectre out of his thoughts.

The Commander stood up from his cover with a smirk on his face.

"He is going to be a great help against the Collectors." Shepard thought with confidence.

Shepard walked up and patted the super soldier on his armored shoulder.

"Nice job, Chief. Remind me to not make you mad." The Blitz hero said as he walked ahead of Master Chief.

Miranda Lawson on the other hand had a more technical analysis on the Spartan's performance.

"He is stronger and faster than the average human. His reflexes were phenomenal. He also seems to have different kind of energy shielding on his armor as the barrier itself was yellow in color and stronger. I need to get a medical record on him and see what else he is hiding under that armor. The Illusive Man will be most interested in my report." Miranda thought to herself.

Garrus wasn't that surprised as he has already seen what he could do in combat unfortunately he was going against him. "He must have been holding back when we fought otherwise I would be dead."

"Let's move out!" Shepard ordered, while he brought out his M-23 Katana shotgun.

"Reinforce on processing, Shepard is loose!" Warden's voice came on the intercom.

"We need to get Jack out of cryo!" Garrus said to Shepard.

The Normandy team proceeded through the halls of the Purgatory, taking out any Blue Suns that stood in their way. Shepard took the lead of the four person group with his shotgun in his arms, cutting down several foes. But with the Master Chief's plasma weapons, killing the Blue Suns and making their way through the prison was cake walk.

Miranda watched at how Chief's plasma guns would tear through the shields in a few shots and melt the armor of the Blue Suns, killing them instantly.

"I got to get a hold of his technology." Miranda thought once more.

There was a group of six Turian centurion Blue Suns standing in front of the Outprocessing door, hoping to guard from it from the advancing commandos. Three Turians were standing up with avenger assault rifles aimed while the other three were on knee aiming their guns as well. All of them were a little nervous for taking on Shepard after hearing how quickly he and his team had advanced through the Purgatory and killed off many Blue Suns. But they still held their ground.

"Keep steady. Wait for him to show up." The head Turian centurion reassured.

Suddenly Commander Shepard came out from the corner at the end of the hall.

"Open fire!" The head Turian shouted.

All six Blue Sun centurions let loose a hail of rounds from their avenger assault rifles.

The former Spectre instantly dove back for cover at the corner of the hallway, with his shields taking most of the damage.

"I count six of them guarding the door out there." Shepard informed while he placed a new thermal clip in his katana shotgun.

It was then, John-117 pulled out a spike grenade and threw it the leading Blue Sun in the middle. The grenade stuck to the Turian trooper, he screamed in pain at how the spikes speared into him. Soon the spike bomb exploded, where it killed the Turian it stuck and the two standing Blue Sun centurions next to him. Spikes shot out from the grenade where they bounced against the ceiling and walls in the hall. The spikes then impaled the three remaining Turian centurions mortally wounding them. The Blue Suns fell to the ground, screaming in agony from their intense pain.

Garrus leaped out from the corner and headshot one of the Turian centurions, where he ceased his suffering.

Miranda came out and put a few rounds into one of the Turians with her heavy pistol. She then threw out a biotic move called Warp at the last Turian Blue Sun. It was then that no more screams filled the hall.

Garrus walked up to the dead bodies of the six Turians and stared at the glowing yellow spikes that protruded from their bodies.

"I don't know what that grenade was, but it seems pretty... brutal." Garrus commented with a hint of disgust.

"Doesn't matter as long as it was effective. The outprocessing should be right behind this door." Miranda said coldly, but she too wondered what the device was that the Master Chief threw.

"Get ready. There might be more on the other side." Shepard pointed out where everyone soon prepped themselves.

The squad opened the door and saw a scientist on a terminal with two human Blue Sun troopers on his sides. The scientist turned around and pulled out a pistol. The two Blue Suns pulled out their own assault rifles and aimed them at Shepard.

"Take down, Shepard!" One of the troopers ordered.

Shepard threw out a biotic Pull on the Blue Sun troopers. The biotic move hit the troops where it sent them floating in the air, flailing their arms helplessly. The Commander pulled out his shotgun, and shot both troops in mid air, killing them.

With shaky trembling hands, the scientist threw down his gun.

"Don't shoot! I surrender! Please let me go!" The scientist cried.

The former Spectre leered at the cowardly but innocent scientist. He then nodded his head in the direction of the exit behind him.

"Go, before I change my mind."

"Thank you!" The scientist said desperately as he ran out the door.

Miranda shook her head in disapproval.

"You should have killed him. He may alert the others and tell them where we are."

"I don't think he will tell anyone, he looked to scared. He just better hope that there is a spare ship to get him off this prison." Garrus added.

Though it was a rash and immoral decision, Master Chief couldn't help to slightly agree with the Cerberus officer. He recalled on one time when he and a team UNSC personnel infiltrated and captured a Covenant assault carrier the Ascendant Justice. A Huragok repaired his damaged shield generator and then floated away. Unfortunately the Engineer was later shot by Lieutenant Haerson to prevent it from possibly giving the specifications of the Spartan's improved shield technology to the Covenant. Chief did not favor on killing the Huragok as they were the peaceful and innocent ones on the Covenant.

All of them walked up to the terminal.

"If we hack that control every door in the cellblock opens." Miranda warned, but still had her mind dead set on completing the mission.

"It's the only way we can free Jack" Garrus advised.

Shepard turned to the Spartan.

Chief only nodded his head in approval.

"I'm doing it, be ready." The Commander pressed a few buttons and watched the scene unfold in front of him.

All of them looked through the window from the outprocessing are above Jack's cryogenic cell. A mechanical crane extended and reached down to grasp the cell as the four locks holding it in place retracted. The arm lifted the cell, exposing Subject Zero.

The Purgatory's mechanisms unlocked the cryo pod that contained the super biotic. Shepard saw three YMIR mechs activate in response and soon got a bad feeling in his stomach.

"Great." Shepard mentally groaned at how a pain it would be to get through three heavy mechs.

It was then the pod opened.

Miranda blinked as though she wasn't sure if what she was seeing was real. From all of the rumors and talk about how deadly and crazy subject zero was, she just couldn't believe that was what the convict looked like.

"That's Jack?"

"I was not expecting this." Garrus added in.

Jack wore old combat boots that looked like she'd taken them off of military personnel that she'd probably killed, and rather loose fitting pants. As for the waist up, all she had on was a few leather straps that barely covered her breasts with a bald head. And a lot of tattoos that looked very strange.

"I would be careful around this one, Chief. If they had to put in her a cryogenic sleep to contain, then she must be more dangerous than she seems. She does look very... odd." Cortana warned Master Chief.

All three heavy mechs turned and examined Subject Zero as if they were caught off guard by her awakening.

Jack seemed a little groggy at first from just waking from cryo, then got a furious expression on her face as she freed herself from the cryo pod and the metal cuffs that bonded her to the cryo pod with her hands. The instant she did so, Jack ran at the YMIR mechs screaming for blood, and then destroyed them all with the strongest biotic punch any of them had ever seen.

"We have to get her!" said Miranda not wanting to fail the mission by losing a crazy biotic woman.

"Come on, let's go get Jack." Shepard said with him and everyone running out of the outprocessing room.

Few moments later

The Purgatory was in complete chaos. Prisoners were out and rioting, guards were using lethal force, life support in most of the bays were lost, mechanisms were malfunctioning. Explosions, alarms, and guns were going off, all that almost deafened the screams of the people inside the prison ship.

There were several firefights going on throughout the entire prison where it was the Blue Sun guards versus the prisoners. The battles between the two factions were fierce. While the Blue Suns had weapons, armor, and organization, the prisoners had numbers and creativity in their kills. The Blue Suns were quick to kill of prisoners, but for every convict they killed three more even crazier than the last one would show up. Everytime a prisoner would kill a guard they would pick up their guns and move onto the next one.

Meanwhile, in midst of all the commotion, the team of Normandy commandos was killing any prisoners or guards that stood in their way of their objective: finding Jack. There were just small scattered teams of guards and prisoners out and picking them off was no problem at all. Until they came upon a battlefield.

Miranda's POV

There were dozens of Blue Sun prison guards waiting for them. All armed and waiting behind cover.

"Why would they be waiting here? Maybe they were guarding something or making a last stand?" This thought was abruptly cut off, as a green blur that she recognized as the Chief flew past her.

She heard several gunshots go off from all around. Automatically going for her submachine-gun, she saw dozens of Purgatory guards coming straight at them, and they took cover behind many crates layed out on the floor.

The Commander pulled out his heavy pistol and fired off a few shots as he ran and killed a Batarian guard. Shepard had dived in the opposite direction, and was now out of sight. Shepard radioed the team.

"Garrus, head to the left flank. Miranda, get to the right and flank them, I'll keep them…" He began to trail off "occupied…" he finished quietly.

Wondering what was wrong, Miranda responded.

"Shepard, what's going on?"

After a few more seconds, he answered.

"Miranda, Garrus… look." Miranda could had sworn that the Commander sounded flabbergasted or dumbfounded.

Not knowing what he meant, she peered out from behind her cover. There were still plenty of security guards out there, but none were shooting in their general direction. They were all focusing on the Chief, who appeared to be moving faster than she had ever seen anyone move in her life. The Spartan was a green blur in her vision.

He was diving from cover to cover, firing his alien assault rifle weapon near constantly, and only pausing to cycle the heat sinks. The guards filled the air with bullets, but the few that contacted were halted by his strange yellow kinetic barrier. Meanwhile, the guards were dropping like flies in the firefight.

The detonation of a frag grenade took her by surprise as it took out three nearby Blue Sun troopers.

As the Chief ran for the next crate, there were two human Blue Sun troopers that stood in his path. This didn't seem to bother him, as he simply swatted one with his forearm, sending it flying, its torso caving in. The other was directly in his way, but as he dove behind the crate, it failed to slow him at all. The Spartan ran up to him and grabbed him by the neck and used him as a meat shield, while firing the large rifle with one arm at any unfortunate guards that dared to challenge the green goliath. After the body took enough bullets, Chief tossed the hole riddled body aside like a rag doll and dove for cover behind another crate.

Miranda then saw that a five mixed species group of humans, Turians, Batarians leaped over their cover and made their way to the Spartan's position. The Blue Sun group seemed to be lead by a human legionnare with a vinidicator rifle. The rest of the group carried a various amount of different weapons such as pistols, assault rifles, and shotguns.

The Cerberus officer watched the Master Chief jump over his own cover and charge at the Blue Sun group. It was obvious that the guards were caught off guard by the way they stumbled on their own feet. The human legionnaire shot his vindicator rifle, but the Spartan's shields absorbed the rounds. Chief retaliated by firing his own weapon at the legionnaire and in a few shots the Blue Sun was quickly cut down.

The Spartan continued his run at the now four person Blue Sun group and rammed into a Turian and a Batarian. The Turian and Batarian were sent flying away like they were nothing, but bugs on a windshield. A surviving human Blue Sun fell down on his behind, in fright from seeing the carnage of his teammates.

A Turian threw a right hook at the Spartan, but Master Chief was fast enough to turn and catch the punch. Chief then snapped the Turian's wrist which made the Blue Sun howl in pain. The Turian didn't scream for long as Chief then hit the guard with a uppercut, sending the guard flying with a broken face and helmet.

The last of Blue Sun of the group, the fallen human, tried to get back up but before he could, Chief spun around and kicked the human. The human guard flew across the large room with a caved in torso.

Miranda then saw Chief's yellow kinetic energy flare as it took more rounds. The Spartan instantly dove for cover, while the Blue Suns fought back.

For the next few moments, Miranda watched as the guards tried to surround and pin the Chief down, but found it impossible. He moved far too fast for their simple minds to follow. Shepard reappeared on her radio.

"Miranda, Garrus, let's move."

"Affirmative." She responded.

"Got it, Shepard." Garrus replied.

They still had to get Jack, but it seemed like this task would be considerably easier now with the Spartan's aid. Miranda sprinted forward, and found cover to the right of the Chief's kill zone, content with picking off guards from the sideline.

Miranda could handle herself quite well in a fight, as cold as she was in person, she was more deadly in a firefight. Her method was always quick and careful but very tactic and clever. She was laying down cover fire as the team moved ahead to complete their assignment. On the other side of the room, she spotted Garrus, who had adopted the same tactic, but with his sniper rifle.

Most of the Blue Suns focused on the Spartan, so the group managed to move closer to the door, but some were observant and turned their attention to Miranda, Garrus and Shepard. They weren't much trouble though as Miranda was able use her biotics to take out some while Garrus sniped like a professional and Shepard worked his magic with his shotgun.

Miranda considered making a break for the door that hopefully lead to Jack, but before she could consider it further, she heard a very unwelcome sound. It was unmistakably the pounding footsteps of an YMIR mech, a ten-foot-tall, heavily armored behemoth that most people would only dare to face.

"Bloody Hell." Miranda mentally swore to herself.

She knew there was no way to fight this heavy mech alone, but before she could even try to fall back, the machine spotted her. It fired a rocket from its arm aimed in her direction.

There was a deafening blast, and Miranda found herself sprawled upon the ground, shaken and disoriented. The crate she had been hiding behind was in splinters, and her kinetic barrier was down. She faintly heard the YMIR's minigun spinning up, and realized that it was over.

Master Chief's POV

In the midst of demolishing the horde of the blue armored troopers, which were considerably weaker and slower than his usual opponents, the Master Chief heard an unfamiliar noise. He quickly placed a few plasma rounds from his plasma repeater in the heads of the two Batarian centurions in front of him, and turned to see a hulking white form fire a rocket at his Cerberus female teammate's position. It was too big for her to handle alone, that much was clear. The rocket made contact with her crate and destroyed her cover. The deadly rocket seemed to have wounded Miranda Lawson as well.

The Chief felt Spartan time kicking in once more, the rest of the world slowing down. There was no time to take the machine out with his grenades for the blast could kill his teammate. He dashed forward as fast as his armor would carry him, getting ready to take the heavy mech head on.

The dust from the shattered crate cleared, and John saw the Cerberus officer on the ground, stunned and completely exposed. The large robot's other arm made a sound easily identified as another weapon. Just as it was about to finish her, he dove at it.

John grabbed the arm that was shooting a rapid fire rounds and shoved it away from his squad mate with one arm. Fast gunfire went off from the arm that shot in the air. The YMIR was foolish enough to try and finish Miranda off with the rocket arm, so Chief repeated the process and shoved it away with his other arm. The mech and the Spartan were now in a grapple match.

The heavy mech tried to throw the Spartan down, but Master Chief stood his ground. The large machine was strong though, and extremely heavy. It tried to aim its guns at him with its arms, but he wouldn't let that happen for he was stronger. The Chief knew that if he let go for even a moment, it could be the end of him or the Cerberus officer. With a little thought, Sierra-117 thought of a plan. As he was about to commence his plan into action, his shields glowed, and the bar in his Heads Up Display began to drop slowly.

"Behind you, Chief!" Cortana shouted.

Sure enough, more prison guards were coming up behind him, firing at their giant green armored target. As he tried to figure a way to keep from being riddled with holes, his ears suddenly picked up on additional gunfire directly behind him. Chief turned to see one Blue Sun go down to the Cerberus officer's submachine-gun, followed by two more that fell. This caught the attention of the other Blue Suns.

Miranda was up but wounded, still she could hold her own and help the augmented soldier.

Refocusing on the more pressing matter, Chief threw up the arms of the YMIR heavy mech and then rammed it with his body which knocked it down on its back. The giant machine was now down, but not out, still trying to aim at him from the ground. Chief didn't let up, his goal was to complete his plan. He grabbed one of the legs of his mechanized opponent.

He began to drag and spin the mech with his Spartan strength, and after two seconds the mech was spinning in air at the Spartan's grip, while still trying to shoot at him with its mini-gun arm. John moved a little bit to swat at any close guards with the heavy mech.

"Duck!" Master Chief shouted to Miranda.

Miranda did as so, and watched in amazment at how the YMIR mech swung over her. The Cerberus officer recollected her thoughts and dove out of the Spartan's range to keep in a safe distance.

When the Spartan thought he had gained enough momentum he let go of the YMIR mech and saw it sore through the air and collide with the wall in the mid-air and then fell to the ground really hard and greatly damaged. To finish off the robot, the Master Chief pulled out two plasma grenades in each arm and activated them and threw them at the downed mech. One landed on the face and the other on the torso and in a second they exploded in a bright blue flash and the YMIR mech was in tiny pieces.

Chief turned around to see any other surviving Blue Suns. But he only found that most of the guards were now swearing like "Holy Shit", and "Screw this! I didn't sign up for this!" and they retreated to find a way off the doomed ship.

When the Blue Suns were all but gone, he went up to Miranda, who was on one knee applying Omni-Gel to herself. She looked up at the super soldier when he approached and was quite surprised when he offered one hand to help her up, which she accepted.

"Are you alright, ma'am?"

Normal POV

"Yeah, I am fine. Thanks for the help back there." Miranda said to Master Chief in between deep breaths.

"It's what I do." Chief answered

Miranda gazed and smiled at him for a brief moment, but soon got her focus back.

"Come on, we need to find a convict." Miranda said as she pulled out her sub machine-gun.

"Agreed, we need to move fast." Chief got out his plasma repeater and began to move.

Shepard and Garrus caught up with the Spartan and the Cerberus officer.

"We need to talk about your tactics Chief, once this is over." The Spartan looked at him and simply nodded and they all carried on with the mission.

Suddenly the intercom went off, which caught everyone's attention.

"All guards, head to cellblock one immediately! I repeat, all guards head to cellblock one!" Warden said through the intercom.

The next room where Warden Kuril waits.

Shepard's team opened the door to a large room, and in it, several prisoners were attempting to overpower Warden Kuril. Unfortunately for the prisoners though, Kuril was on a higher level, so they couldn't simply swarm him like they had with the other guards. Also, their weapons were either stolen from guards they had managed to kill, or they were improvised, and they had no armour.

Warden Kuril had high tech Blue Sun armor and his gun the M-76 Revenant Light Machine Gun. The bareface Turian also had his tech armor activated as seen where extra shields appeared over his form.

Three prisoners tried to attack the bareface Turian, but they were quickly gunned down by Warden with his revenant. As the Warden shot down the last of the prisoners and began to focus his fire on Shepard, he snarled.

"Your valuable, Shepard. I could've sold you and lived like a king! But you're too much trouble. At least I can recapture Jack!"

Everyone instantly dove for cover behind crates when the shots hit the ground.

"Not happening! You're a two-bit slave trader, and I don't have time for it!" Shepard combated.

"I do the hard things civil governments are unwilling to! This is for the good of the galaxy!" Warden declared as he fired another shot, then activated the Purgatory's containment systems to shield himself right before more Blue Suns stormed into the room.

Shepard took a quick look at what they were up against. Warden was encased in a blue orb shield that was once used to contain prisoners, but now instead to shield the Turian. There were two platforms in the giant room, one high and one low. The lower platform had three shield generators that protected Warden, along with several Blue Sun down in the middle. The high platform had the bareface Turian. Warden himself stood on top of a cell behind a metallic fence for cover, for higher ground. There looked to be around fifteen normal Blue Sun troopers, along with a Batarian Commander with his own revanant.

"I count seventeen targets spread out, including the loose cannon Warden Kuril. What's the plan Shepard?" Garrus asked.

It only took a brief second for Shepard to think up of an idea.

"Chief, you and I will take out the main group and get their attention. Garrus you get back and start sniping them. Miranda, you will use your Overload on the pillars so we can take out Warden, find Jack, and get off this god forsaken ship. Got it?"

The commandos nodded their heads in agreement.

"Ready...Go!" Shepard announced as he and Master Chief leaped over their cover and started to lay down some suppressing fire with their weapons.

Garrus sprinted to the left to find a good sniper point so he could have some decent protection, and be able to ambush the Blue Suns when they were in the wide open. Miranda quickly ran to the right, to get ready to disable the shield generators with her overload. Luckily for the Cerberus officer, most of the Blue Suns will be distracted by Chief and Shepard, so she would have no problem on her end.

With so many enemies out, the former Spectre thought of an excellent way to lay out hard damage and wreak havoc on the Blue Suns. Shepard reached over his back and pulled out his heavy weapon, the M-100 Grenade Launcher. Two guards ran at the Blitz hero, but Shepard was quick to put them down when he shot off two grenades at them.

Suddenly, the Commander's shields failed after he took some serious damage from a hail of gunfire. Shepard leaped over a metal fence and took cover. He poked his head out, and saw three Blue Suns in a triangle position heading towards his position. Shepard then bent down slightly on his knees in a stance to get ready for the Biotic move Charge. The blue biotic energy enveloped Shepard, and then he launched himself with a blue streak behind him, at the Blue Sun guard in the back. Shepard slammed into the back troop with the powerful biotic power. The Charge sent the guard flying with his body going limp. Then with amazing speed, Shepard pulled out his shotgun and started to blast each Blue Sun at a very close distance, instantly killing them.

The Commander then hid behind a crate to let his shields recharge. He was about to make his next move, but a male human voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Hold it right there!" A voice from behind Shepard shouted.

Shepard turned and saw a Blue Sun armed with an avenger assault rifle, pointed at him.

"Dammit, he must have snuck up on me." The former Spectre mentally cursed at himself.

"Put your weapons down and stand up slow..."

*BANG!*

But the guard was cut off as his head suddenly exploded.

The former Spectre blinked a few times to make sure he saw correctly at what transpired with the Blue Sun. Shepard followed the trail of smoke from where the round went off and saw Garrus reloading his sniper rifle. The Turian nodded his head at the Commander, while Shepard responded with a thumbs up.

When Shepard heard Garrus fire off another round from his sniper rifle, he knew that was his time to make a move. With his heavy pistol in hand, the ex-Spectre popped up from his cover and shot five rounds into the chest of a foolish Blue Sun that stood up as well. The Commander crouched back down and brought his hand to his radio.

"Miranda, how are we doing on those shield generators?"

"I disabled one and got two more to go, Shepard." The Cerberus officer responded.

"Keep it up."

Shepard then wondered how the Spartan was faring.

"Chief, what's your status?" The Commander asked over his radio.

*THUMP!*

The mangled body of a Blue Sun flew through the air and collided into a box, smashing the box to pieces. Shepard carefully looked over to unfortunate dead guard. The crushed and splintered body looked as if it was chewed up and spit out by an angry Thresher Maw.

"Never mind, Spartan." Shepard radioed blatantly to Chief.

The former Spectre directed his attention to the Spartan only to see the super soldier slam the butt of his strange purple gun into an unlucky guard. The Master Chief then raised his weapon and shot out two green ballistic rounds from it. The strange energy easily pierced the helmets of two Blue Sun troops.

"Is that some kind of carbine?" Shepard asked himself as he studied the Master Chief's unknown weapon.

Chief shot two more times, and two more guards fell. Shepard kept close attention to the precision semi-automatic fire.

"And there's my answer." The Commander thought to himself.

"Shepard!" cried a deep, furious voice.

The former Spectre looked up from his cover to find out who called his name, only to duck back down again when rapid gunfire shot at him.

"I got a bone to pick with you!" the voice called out again, which Shepard deduced was a Batarian.

The Batarian Commander laid out some suppressive fire at Shepard's position, to keep him pinned down.

"I had some friends that were apart of the Skyllian Blitz! And you and your Alliance dogs killed them all!" The Batarian vented out in anger.

"Great another Batarian with a grudge." Shepard mentally groaned as he rolled his eyes and still hid behind his cover.

"What luck for you to come by the Purgatory! My perfect chance to avenge my fellow brethren! And what a better way to avenge them, by spilling the Blitz hero's blood all over the floor!" The crazed Batarian laughed as he continued to spray cover fire at Shepard.

As the battle went on, the warden of the prison, Warden Kuril paced frantically on top of the cell. The barefaced Turian knew the situation was dire. The Purgatory was in chaos, most of his guards were wiped out, prisoners were running amok, Shepard looked to be undetanable, and worst of all Jack was free. The shields that Warden hid behind flickered and weakened as the Cerberus officer took out the second generator.

"When it rains it pours." Warden let out a feral growl in frustration.

The barefaced Turian saw that he had seven guards left before him. Toran, the Batarian Commander, seemed to be hell bent on taking out Shepard, so he would have to work with the last six Blue Suns.

"Alright if any of you want to earn a few more credits and get out of this alive, then listen up! I need two of you to take out that sniper! Two of you to guard that last generator with your lives! And the last two to kill that walking tin can in green armor, he has become too much of a problem. Get the job done, or I will vent you all in space!" Warden radioed to the last Blue Suns.

"Yes sir!" The guards acknowledged.

The Blue Suns split up as all of them headed to their newly formed objectives.

Garrus' POV

Garrus zoomed in on his custom targeting visor, and saw two human Blue Suns heading towards him.

"Hmmm, looks like I got some company. Well might as well play some music to get the mood going." The Turian once known as Arch-angel mumbled to himself.

Sometimes whenever Garrus was in a firefight, he liked to play some music on his visor to get a little more of an adrenaline rush. His Kuwashii custom visor had many functions such as magnification, monitoring biofeedback, detection and measurement of biotic fields, kill timer, and even a sound system.

"I feel like playing 'Bang Bang Boom' right about now." Garrus said as he picked the Clubs Kicks song from his visor.

The music gave off a dance mix beat, which created some excitement for the former C-sec officer. Garrus switched to armor piercing rounds for his mantis sniper rifle. The Turian took a deep breath and exhaled. He then shot out from his cover and fired off a round. Garrus successfully shot a Blue Sun guard in the chest, with the armor piercing rounds passing through the guard's blue armor.

"Ha! No scope!" Garrus cheered at his professional aiming.

The other guard reacted by shooting his assault rifle at the Turian sniper.

Garrus was quick to avoid being hit by making a twirling side step. He then activated his omni-tool and threw out an overload.

The tech power caused the guard to drop his gun and fall on his hands and knees. The Blue Sun let out low grunts and groans as the electricity surged through his body.

Garrus then shot off a concussive shot at the guard, sending the trooper flying and sealing his fate.

The former C-sec officer's mandibles twitched with satisfaction on his victory.

"That was easy." Garrus said as he shut off the music on his targeting visor.

Shepard's POV

Eezo rounds continued to pummel at Shepard's cover, with said Commander ducking and weaving occasionally to avoid getting shot in the head, whenever his shields took damage.

"Come out, Shepard! I wanna see the look on your pathetic human face when I gut you!" The Batarian Blue Sun Commander mocked, as held down the trigger on his revenant.

"You got it!" Shepard replied back in a shout.

The former Spectre sprung into action by making a dive roll out of his cover, too quick to follow for the Batarian Commander. Once he finished with the roll, Shepard took a knee and pulled out his shruiken sub machine gun and sprayed the rounds at the Batarian.

The Batarian Blue Sun stumbled backwards when his shields failed, but he retaliated by bringing his revenant up and shooting back at Shepard.

Shepard's shields took a few hits, so he quickly made a dash to find some cover. A trail of gunfire followed behind Shepard as the Batarian kept shooting, but the former Spectre was quick enough to avoid a hit. As he ran, Shepard held out his sub machine gun with one arm and fired a quick burst at the Batarian, but the Blue Sun was fast enough to drop to the ground.

The Blitz hero leapt over a white metallic crate and ducked for cover. Shepard panted from the run, but then inspiration struck. He placed his sub machine gun on his side and then reached over and pulled out his grenade launcher.

"Time to end this." Shepard muttered to himself below his breath.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard saw Warden Kuril aim his own revenant at the former Spectre.

"Crap!" Shepard cursed.

Shepard jumped over his cover and made a dead sprint across the battlefield as Warden shot at him.

"Gotcha now!" The Batarian laughed maniacally when he saw his chance to kill the Blitz hero in a crossfire.

But Shepard was smart and quick enough to shoot a grenade at the Batarian in front of him.

The Blue Sun Batarian Commander's four eyes lit up when he saw the grenade coming at him. He tried to leap back, but the grenade detonated at the ground before him.

*Boom!*

"Ahhh!" The Batarian screamed as he fell to the floor, bloody and severely wounded. His armor took the brunt of the attack, but he was far too hurt to get back up.

Shepard kept with his sprint as the trail of eezo rounds exploded behind from the Warden's revenant. He then jumped over the down Batarian Commander, only for him to hear the four eyed alien to scream as the Warden sacrificed own troop to kill the former Spectre. Shepard then ran for cover behind a crate.

"He's got great aim, I will give him that." The N7 marine thought to himself, while he let his shields recharge.

"You won't make it off this prison alive, Shepard! I..." Warden hollered.

Suddenly the blue circle shields around Warden Kuril flickered and then shut off, causing the Turian bareface to panic.

"No!" Warden shouted.

Shepard then heard Miranda's voice over the radio.

"The shield generator's have been destroyed. Warden is vulnerable."

Miranda Lawson's POV

The Cerberus officer threw up a biotic shield to protect herself as two Blue Suns shot their assault rifles. A hail of eezo rounds hit the biotic shield, but they did not penetrate. A smug smirk stretched across on Miranda's vibrant face as she casually walked towards the two guards, with her biotic shield still up.

The two troopers started to get worried and confused at the Cerberus woman's actions, so they kept shooting at her. The guards grew ever more fearful as Miranda still held up her shield and kept walking towards them. Her glowing body and heels made a frightening clacking sound against the floor, sent more cold shivers down their spines With her body glowing blue with biotics, and her heels making a frightening clanking sound against the floor, sent more cold shivers down their spines.

"I'm out!" One of the Blue Suns panicked, as he shook his gun.

"Me too!" The other guard shouted while he searched over his body to look for more heat sinks, only to find none.

What completely caught the two troopers off guard was that the Cerberus officer let down her biotic shield.

The guards looked at each other nervously and then back at Miranda. A few micro seconds went by, but to the two Blue Suns it must had felt like hours in silence.

One guard let out a battle cry as he charged at Miranda. The Blue Sun sent a right hook towards Miranda's face, but the Cerberus officer simply moved her head further to the right to dodge the attack, with a smirk still clear on her beautiful face. The guard tried with a left hand punch only for Miranda to step back with such grace and speed.

The Blue Sun got furious at his failed attempts to even hit the Cerberus officer, and so he launched another sloppy right hook. Miranda caught the arm by the wrist, and then spun around behind the Blue Sun, twisting his arm in a painful process, earning a screeching yelp from the human guard. Miranda placed her black heels on the back of the guard and thrust her leg into his spine, forcing the guard to crumple to his knees.

"Ahhhh!" The other Blue Sun yelled as he ran at Miranda with his gun raised above his head to try to slam it on her head.

Once more, Miss Lawson's body emitted a blue glow and stopped the guard in his tracks as she lifted him in the air with her biotics. Miranda turned and faced the guard who was held in the air. With a forward motion of her glowing arm, Miranda threw the guard at the generator. She threw the Blue Sun with enough force that he crashed through the pillar like shield generator, destroying it in the process.

Miranda glanced at the burnt and bent corpse of the Blue Sun she just threw with her biotics, and then directed her attention to Warden's position atop the cell block. The orb shields blinked a few times, and then went off around the barefaced Turian.

"Hmph." Miranda scoffed at her job well done.

"Ugh..." The Cerberus heard from behind that sounded of a wounded man.

Then with lightning speed and grace, the Cerberus officer pulled out her heavy pistol, turned and shot the guard straight in the head that she once threw down with her heel. The barrel of her gun let out a small trail of smoke.

"The shield generator's have been destroyed. Warden Kuril is vulnerable." Miranda said in her thick Australian accent over the radio.

Master Chief's POV

"She is right, Chief. Now would be a great time to take out that Turian!" Cortana exclaimed.

Master Chief looked ahead and saw that there were two Blue Sun, guarding the Elite-like alien. He knew that he would have to take out the duo of troopers before he could get to the Turian.

"That Turian seems to be focusing on Shepard. You shouldn't have too much trouble getting to him, once you get past his two lackeys." Cortana informed.

The Spartan super soldier holstered the covenant carbine on his back in exchange for the plasma repeater. He also reached to his side and pulled out a plasma grenade.

"Betcha can't stick it." Cortana challenged to her longest friend.

John-117 smirked under his helmet.

"You're on."

Chief primed the grenade where it emitted a bright blue light on his palm. He then tossed the explosive weapon where it landed on the chest of a Blue Sun.

At first the guard tried to simply brush the grenade off as if it was dirt on his armor, but it was to no avail. The Blue Sun started to panic.

"Shit! Get it off! Get it off!" The pinned guard cried.

The other Blue Sun reached his arm out to pull the glowing contraption off, but...

*BOOM!*

The guard was too late. As the grenade detonated, where it vaporized them both in a blinding, bright blue explosion.

Warden Kuril's POV

The loud noise and eruption caught the attention of Warden from his attempts at killing Shepard.

"Rrraaahhh! What now?!" Warden roared with fury.

The barefaced Turian's grey eyes scanned the area where he heard the explosion, but he did not see anything, not even the dead bodies of the guards. Warden let out a low growl under his breath, his mandibles rapidly twitching from his anger.

It was a second too late for Warden to see the super heated plasma rounds slam into his chestpiece, burning right past his shields. The barefaced Turian stumbled back a couple of steps from the hit. He looked down to his chest and could see that his armor was burnt and partially melted. He wasn't too hurt as his shields and tech armor took the brunt of the attack, but he was in shock to see that his armor was actually melting.

Then Warden was struck by a couple more rounds in the shoulder.

"Ahhh!" Warden screamed in agony as the plasma burned past his armor and into his shoulder.

The Turian tried to clutch his arm, but his melted shoulder piece was scorching hot.

Suddenly Warden felt that he was knocked off his feet, and this time he recognized that he was hit by a biotic Warp attack. The Blue Sun was thrown right off the cell he once stood on. It was a twelve foot fall, before he landed on the hard ground with his back.

"Ooohhh. By the Spirits." Warden groaned from the rough fall.

The barefaced Turian knew that he had several broken bones, despite a Turian's tough exoskeleton.

*Cough! Cough!*

Warden started to violently cough up dark blue blood, no doubt from his recent injuries. He tried to get back up, but due to his severe wounds all he was able to do was lean on his good arm. His dark blue blood left a trail from his mandibles, his armor was dented and partially melted, and several chips of his own armor laid out on the floor. Warden's breathing was harsh and rapid, soon followed by violent coughs.

With hazy grey eyes, Warden looked around for his revenant gun. It didn't take long for him to spot the weapon on the ground, which was surprisngly in decent condition. Warden started to crawl and drag his broken body towards his revenant, with much strain and effort. Just when he was in arm's reach of his gun, a plasma bolt shot his weapon. His eyes widen in horror as the revenant was thrown across the floor, where the gun started to melt, just like his armor.

It was then that Warden heard heavy metallic footsteps, headed towards him. His grey eyes shot to where he heard the terrifying steps.

"Y...YOU!" Warden Kuril shouted when he spotted the dark green armored behemoth.

The dark green armored menace walked up to Warden. Each heavy footstep the goliath made, struck fear into the barefaced Turian's heart. The thing stared for a few moments, like if it was studying or was in deep thought.

Warden tried to look past the visor on his armored foe, but all he saw was a pathetic golden reflection of himself.

"Wha... What are you?" The barefaced Turian asked in between exhausted breaths.

As soon as he asked that question, Warden heard the clanking footsteps of heels against the floor. Warden looked up and saw the Cerberus officer female, walk up behind the the dark green armored stranger with her hands on her hips. He looked between the two and made a mental comparison.

"Heh heh heh. No you are... not with Cerberus, no no no. Cerberus is far too proud to not have their emblem on their products." Warden said with a clever deduction, though it earned him an agitated look from the Cerberus officer.

"No... you are... something else. You are too... alive, to be a mech. Alliance? Hmmm maybe. But we would had known if the Alliance wanted a prisoner." Warden continued, while he secretly reached for a M-3 Predator on his side.

Normal POV

"You are a bloody fool. You could have made this out alive if you trusted Cerberus and didn't let your greed blind you." Miranda insulted as she looked at the dying Turian.

"You... would have done same... in my position. Anyone would... have done the same." Warden added while he gripped his pistol.

"No. I wouldn't." Miranda scorned when she thought of her tyrant father.

"Chief, he is reaching for a gun!" Cortana warned inside the Spartan's helmet.

Master Chief spotted the pistol, and quickly raised his plasma repeater and shot Warden in the head, ending his life for good.

Miranda Lawson was startled at first, but she soon spotted the pistol in the Turian's grip and then connected the dots. She and Master Chief shared a look between each other.

"Twice. Twice he has already saved me." Miranda thought to herself.

The Cerberus officer reached her hand up to her face and pinched herself between her dimples from disbelief.

*Sigh.* "Tha..."

"Chief, Miranda look at the window! We found Jack!"

The squad looked up at the window docking bay that they had come in through, and saw Jack running.

Two guards stood in front of her, the same guards that stopped Shepard and asked for his weapons when they first walked in the prison.

With Jack

"Stop!" A Turian Blue Sun shouted with his hand held out.

But the Turian's command fell on deaf ears as Jack sprinted up to them with her body flowing with biotics. She picked up a Batarian with her powers and then threw a punch to slam him into the bulletproof window. There was enough strength in the punch that it actually cracked the glass and killed the Batarian.

Subject Zero immediately turned around and violently threw the Turian into the wall behind him, snapping his spine.

Jack took a moment to look around to see if there were any ships she could hijack. Her wild eyes then spotted a frigate, but stopped when she saw the black and yellow diamond emblem.

"Cerberus!" She spat with venom etched in her voice.

She began pacing back and forth frantically, throwing crazy punches at the air like an insane person. Her hate knew no bounds for Cerbereus for what they had done to her, the life they had stolen from her.

Unbeknownst to Jack a Batarian guard slowly and silently crept up behind her with an avenger in his arms.

Suddenly a gunshot went off. Jack turned and saw a dead Batarian on the floor behind her with a bullet hole on the back of his head.

Jack then found herself facing a Turian, and three humans. One of them was seven foot tall and clad in strange dark green armor with a reflective golden visor. While another one was a male with a shaved head in black and red N7 armor and had a pistol that was just shot with smoke emitting from the barrel. She assumed the one with the pistol had shot the sneaky Batarian. Another was a slender female with black hair and blue eyes, in tight clothes that bore Cerberus emblem.

Subject Zero clenched her fists together, biotic energy circling around her tightened hands.

"Cerberus." Jack hissed between gritted teeth.

"What the hell do you want?" she angrily demanded. Normally she would of killed them, but since one killed the Batarian that tried to sneak up on her she thought she would show a little gratitude in her own way.

The man in N7 amour who had killed the guard set his pistol aside.

"You're in a bad situation, and I'm going to get you out of here."

"Shit, you sound like a pussy. I'm not going anywhere with you. You're with Cerberus."

The man suddenly seemed a little confused.

"Why does it matter if I'm with Cerberus?"

Jack growled a little.

"They've been on my ass for years, and any time I get free, they put a huge bounty on me. That's why Warden Kuril figured he'd struck gold when he caught me." She finished with a smirk.

"She's destroyed Cerberus property and killed Cerberus people, hence the bounty." The Cerberus woman pointed out, not wanting to taint her work's reputation any further.

"You die first." Jack threatened with her eyes sending daggers at the woman.

"I'm Commander Shepard and I'm here to ask for your help." The man said.

"You show up in a Cerberus frigate to take me away somewhere. You think I'm stupid?" Jack spat not trusting him.

"This ship is going down in flames. We can get you to safety, and we're asking for your help." He then said with logic in his words.

"Look, you want me to come with you? Make it worth my while."

"Join my team and I'll do what I can for you." Shepard assured her.

"Don't make promises you can't keep." Jack warned.

The words the convict spoke made Chief and Cortana widen their eyes a little. Both remembered that Cortana said that to Chief when he had to leave her on the Flood infected High Charity. Dr Halsey also said those words to John on occasions.

"I bet your ship's got lots of Cerberus databases. I want to look at those files and see what Cerberus has got on me. You want me on your team? Let me go through those databases." Jack told him with her arms crossed, making her terms clear.

"I'll give you full access." Shepard then said to her sealing a deal.

The woman's eyes widen at Shepard's remark.

"Shepard, you're not authorized to do that!" The Cerberus officer behind him objected.

"Oooh, it upsets the cheerleader, even better." Looking at Shepard again, she warned him "You better be straight up with me."

To which he nodded.

"So why the hell are we standing here?"she demanded

They finally completed the mission. Four of them started to walk back to where they could board the Normandy, but one remained.

Before she would get back on the Normandy, Miranda Lawson noticed a terminal against the wall. A devious idea formed inside her head.

"Hello." Miranda mused to herself.

The Cerberus officer walked up to the terminal and activated her own omni-tool to hack into the computer. After spending a few seconds and a few careful hacks, Miranda found what she was looking for.

"Miranda, where are you at? We need to leave." Shepard asked over the radio.

"In a minute, Shepard." The Cerberus officer replied as she watched her omni-tool download the footage from the surveillance cameras on the Purgatory. Specifically the videos of the Spartan fighting in combat.

Finally done. Next is the rewritten version of chapter 5.