Shepard and his team entered the ship with their guns drawn, they where currently near the area where Feron was tortured when Shepard first arrived and they had, so far, encountered no resistance or any explosives but they knew that that would change soon.
"Shepard, are you sure that EDI was correct about Cerberus agents being on board the ship? I mean yeah it's an AI but they aren't right all the time." Andrea asked glancing around the ship.
"I'll be sure to mention that to Legion when we rejoin Team 2." Drakus grinned and Andrea rolled her eyes at that, Shepard was about to respond before he heard pain filled screams coming from the area where Feron was tortured. "You where saying?"
"No comment." Andrea said as they followed Shepard to the room, they saw three male humans in Cerberus gear torturing a fourth human, a female, using the device used on Feron when Shepard, Liara and Garrus found him, they made their way to the room keeping their guns drawn on the three Cerberus agents.
"Come on lady, all you need to tell us is your password to the Asari bitches' databases and all the pain will end." The leader spoke coldly.
"Go to hell." The woman spat accompanying the harsh words with a well timed spit in the Cerberus officer's face.
"Crank it all the way up, it's obvious we aint getting anything else out of..." The leader was cut off by a gunshot to the head from Andrea's Mattock, the other two agents turned around but quickly surrendered when they saw how outnumbered they were.
"Free her and we'll let you live." Shepard warned the two agents, the shorter of the two went to work freeing her whilst the taller of the two removed his helmet revealing a mess of dirty blonde hair.
"I never thought I'd thank a traitor to humanity's cause for anything." The man said with a gruff English accent. "But thanks for killing that asshole, he was a bit too torture happy for my tastes."
"Wait, Devon?" Ashley blinked upon recognising him, Shepard and the others gave her a funny look. "When the hell did you join Cerberus?"
"When the hell did you get along with aliens?" Devon retorted with a scoff. "For the rest of you, the name's Devon Radcliffe, Ex-Alliance soldier turned Cerberus operative."
"And you call Shepard a traitor?" Andrea was quick to point out; Devon rolled his eyes at that whilst behind him the other operative freed the woman.
"Don't speak of things you know nothing about." Devon growled before turning to Shepard. "We fulfilled our end of the bargain, are we free to go?"
"Not yet, we need to know how many other operatives are on the inside and where are the explosives?" Shepard asked.
"I can't help ya sorry to disappoint." Devon said as he started to leave, Drakus stepped in frount of them with his shotgun drawn.
"Can't, or won't?" Drakus said in a intimidating tone of voice, Devon narrowed his eyes at the much bigger Krogan and sighed.
"You know what? I'll throw you a bone." Devon said with a grunt before pointing to the other side of the room. "First explosive is over there, there's two more in the next room and the final ones are on the outside." Shepard turned to Tali who walked over to the explosive. "Watch yourself Shepard, that damn pickpocket might steal every credit you..." Drakus growled and kneed him in the stomach, Devon groaned in pain before he doubled over clutching his stomach in pain.
"I haven't known her for very but I won't let her be insulted, just be glad I chose to injure you and not take your head off with the shotgun." Drakus warned him.
"You're nothing but a typical Krogan brute." Devon said through gritted teeth. "Why do you care?"
"That's none of your damn business." Drakus said with hatred clear in his eyes. "Now stop insulting my intelligence and tell Shepard what he needs to know before I lose my patience, you have ten minutes before that happens." Drakus said pointing his shotgun at Devon's head.
"Ugh fine." Devon grunted turning to Shepard. "There's two more operatives in the next room, the rest of them are battling the current Shadow Broker, though if all goes to plan she won't be The Shadow Broker for much longer." Drakus holstered his gun and turned away from him.
"Was that so difficult? The Krogan mocked. "You two had better get out of here before I lose my patience." He warned the remaining Cerberus operatives and they quickly left.
"Shepard, the explosive is defused." Tali said approaching them glaring at the Cerberus operatives as they left. "And thank you Drakus for putting that boshtet in his place."
"Think nothing of it." Drakus said dismissively as the woman got to her feet. "Are you injured?" Drakus asked turning to the woman, a blonde woman with shoulder length hair and blue eyes.
"I'll live." The woman said with a grunt. "Thanks for rescuing me; I wasn't exactly the first Shadow Broker operative to be interrogated by them." She said motioning to a previously unnoticed pile of dead bodies in the corner. "Who are you?"
"I'm Commander Shepard; I'm a friend of Liara's." Shepard said stepping forward. "What happened here?"
"It all happened so fast, me and the rest of my squad where patrolling the ship when those Cerberus operatives boarded, they where lead by an Australian man, around your height with dark hair." She said pointing to Shepard. "I didn't need to listen to him talk to know that he was insane, whilst he kept us captive he kept ranting about how the galaxy rightfully belonged to humanity with him as the sole leader, it was obvious that his subordinates disagreed with him but they didn't want to risk pissing him off so they said nothing." The woman said shaking her head. "He also said that the first step to what he called a "perfect galaxy" was to install himself as the Shadow Broker."
"We get it; he was nuttier than a fruitcake and had a lust for power." Kasumi said. "We overheard them say that they wanted access to the databases, please tell me "Go to Hell" wasn't the password."
"No, truth is only Liara knows the password but those idiots didn't listen." She shook her head. "I'm just glad that Turian Spectre managed to get away." She added causing everyone else to do a double take.
"Turian Spectre?" Shepard blinked as the information went through his brain. "Liara has a Spectre on her side?"
"Yeah, Tidosis Mirani, she helps out Liara with getting information and in return she helps her with missions." The woman said leaning against a bulkhead. "She's one of the best sniper's I've ever seen and a damn good shot at that."
"I appreciate the complement Susan." A female Turian voice came from behind them; Shepard and his squad turned around and saw a female Turian with greyish scales. "Commander Shepard, what an unexpected honour to meet the hero of the Citadel." Tidoses said extending a hand out to the Commander who accepted it with some hesitation. "Sorry I couldn't get here sooner Susan, I had to battle my way through several Cerberus agents." Susan shook her head and Tidoses turned to Shepard. "Liara is well aware of the Reaper invasion Commander, she is willing to help in as many ways as she can and so am I for that matter."
"That's good to know but I have a question, how did you and Liara meet?" Shepard asked, before Tidoses could answer a squad of Cerberus agents entered the room with their guns drawn.
"Tell you what Commander; we'll play 20 questions when the excitement's over." Tidoses said drawing her Widow Sniper Rifle.
"That sounds good to me." Shepard said before turning to Susan. "Susan, get to cover now." He ordered, Susan didn't need to be told twice and hid behind the chair as the Cerberus operatives opened fire, Shepard and his squad returned fire with assistance from Tidoses and after a gruelling battle Shepard and his squad won despite some minor injuries. "So, what do we do now?"
"When I last sure Liara she was fighting off Cerberus operatives with Feron in the main chambers, I would've stayed to help her but the Ship's scanners detected the Normandy approaching and she told me to help you in any way I can, so here I am." Tidoses explained. "And before you ask I won't betray you like Tela did on Ilium, she may of been a talented biotic but she wasn't above selling her ethics to the highest bidder."
"So I noticed." Shepard said standing up. "Anyone injured?" Everyone else shook their heads and Shepard turned to Andrea. "Andrea, I need you to accompany Tali to the room over there, based on Devon's description it can't be that big."
"No offence Shep but I don't think he's the most trustworthy guy in the galaxy." Andrea pointed out.
"Neither do I but it's better than nothing, we'll cover you." Shepard reassured her and Andrea motioned for Tali to follow her.
"So Tali, how long have you known the Commander for?" Andrea asked once they where away from the rest of the squad.
"Since I served on the original Normandy, he helped me complete my pilgrimage and defeat a charge of treason from the Migrant Fleet, if I had been found guilty as I originally asked him I would've been exiled but instead he put the admiralty board in their place." Tali said as the two women approached the room.
"It sounds like the Commander takes care of his crew." Andrea commented as she started hacking the door. "Think he could do a similar favour for me?" Andrea asked and Tali shrugged.
"I wouldn't put it past him, why do you ask?" Tali asked and this time it was Andrea's turn to shrug her shoulders.
"No reason." Andrea lied, this wasn't something she liked discussing in public, the doors opened and she drew her mattock. "Ready when you are." Andrea said as Tali drew her Geth Plasma Shotgun.
"Let's do it." Tali nodded as she entered the room, there where Cerberus agents in there but there was one detail that Devon neglected to mention: hostages, two in total an Asari and a Salarian, Andrea and Tali pointed their guns at the Cerberus agents. "Let them go." She warned.
"Or what will you do? Nag me to death?" One of the Cerberus agents said shortly before panicking. "Crap, where did I put my ammo?" Andrea just stood there with a look of disbelief on her face.
"How long have you been without any ammo?" The other agent asked.
"Err, since we arrived." The agent said and Andrea facepalmed.
"And you somehow took two people who I'm assuming are armed." Andrea muttered, she didn't let him finish as she turned to his partner. "Would he be missed if we gunned him down?" The other agent shook his head and Andrea took the dumb one out with a gunshot wound to the head whilst Tali gunned down the other. "Tali pass the word around when we get back that I'll be drinking to forget his stupidity."
"I think I may join you." Tali responded with a nod as she started disarming the bomb whilst Andrea untied the Salarian and the Asari.
"You guys okay?" Andrea asked the two of them as Tali finished disarming the first bomb and moved towards the other bomb.
"We're fine, thank you." The Salarian answered. "They were going to interrogate me next but I'm guessing they never finished off Susan." Andrea nodded and the Salarian sighed in relief.
"Unfortunately we didn't arrive in time to save the others." Tali told them as she disarmed the last bomb.
"I had the feeling that was the case." The Asari sighed as Andrea helped her up followed by the Salarian. "Who else is left?"
"Tidoses, Susan and whoever Liara has with her in the control room." Tali said as the Salarian stroked his chin.
"That would be Feron and a small squad of Shadow Broker agents, she should be in good hands but they'll need your help, we'd help but they took our weapons and I have no idea where they are." The Salarian said.
"Let's go, I'm sure the Commander will think of something." Andrea said to Tali and the two Shadow Broker agents and the four of them returned to Shepard. "Commander, the explosives in that room are defused but what Devon didn't mention was that they where keeping Shadow Broker agents in there."
"Are you two injured?" Shepard asked the two Shadow Broker agents who shook their heads. "What about you two?" He asked turning to Tali and Andrea.
"Considering one of the agents was dumb enough to forget to bring his ammo?" Andrea asked and she could've sworn that she had heard Drakus facepalming.
"You're not kidding, aren't you?" Shepard asked and the two women shook their heads. "Regardless we should assist Liara and whoever she has left with her, can you three hold down the fort here?"
"I'm still a bit weak from the interrogation but I'll live." Susan said and the Salarian and Asari grabbed the guns from two of the dead Shadow Broker agents.
"See you on the other side." The Salarian said as Shepard and his team made their way to the control room, when they entered Liara and Feron where fighting a squad of Shadow Broker agents, they grabbed behind the overturned desk that Liara and Feron where using as their cover.
"Shepard, I would ask what you are doing here but we need all the help we can get." Liara said once she saw him.
"Can you tell me what happened?" Shepard asked.
"Liara was giving orders to the Shadow Broker agents when the alarms went off, we identified it as a Cerberus vessel and initially we thought it was you, obviously that isn't the case." Feron said before firing on the Cerberus agents. "We've been fighting for our lives ever since."
"We were however able to identify the leader." Liara said pointing to a man at the front of the crowd of Cerberus agents. "Jack Hastings, he's a Cerberus cell leader with delusions of grandeur."
"We figured that part ourselves." Tidoses said but before anyone could say anything else a massive explosion rocked the ship.
"What the hell was that?" Andrea said out loud.