Whilst Shepard's team explored the inside of the ship the team led by Miranda exited the Hammerhead ready for their part of the mission, some team members (namely Jenny) were unhappy about being on the outside of the ship due to the weather but they knew that there was no use in complaining as they had their orders.
"Legion, do your scanners pick up any explosives?" Miranda asked as she led the team, behind her where Marcus and Jacob with Jenny just behind them alongside Legion and Mordin with Samara and Grunt bringing up the rear.
"Negative Operative Lawson, however the adverse weather conditions are having negative effects on this unit's sensors." Legion said electing an audible groan from Jenny.
"Yeah just what I needed, yet another reason for me too hate the weather." Jenny moaned before shaking her head. "Can you work around it?"
"Affirmative, but it will take time." Legion answered as the team of eight advanced, around five seconds later a pair of combat drones appeared.
"Combat drones, they must think we're debris from the storm." Miranda said as she overloaded one of them and Legion finished off the other. "Stay alert; things can only get more difficult from here." Miranda ordered as she led the team.
"God, why the hell did Jack order us up here? It's not like anyone will be dumb enough to attempt to enter the ship from here." They overheard a male Cerberus agent moan to his companion as they rounded a corner.
"Actually we're dumb enough to enter from the outside...wait let me rephrase that." Jenny answered; the others pointed their guns at the Cerberus agents who pointed their guns back at them.
"Don't come any closer or we'll..." The Cerberus agent started but Miranda cut him off with a gunshot to the head.
"Do you want to try your luck?" She asked turning to the Cerberus agent's companion, he fired once but the shot bounced off of Miranda's shields and Marcus put him down with a shotgun blast. "Legion over here, I've found an explosive." Miranda said as she spotted an explosive near a lightning rod, Legion pushed through the crowd and started defusing the bomb.
"I heard gunshots coming from over here." Another Cerberus agent called out and the rest of the squad turned around to see a squad of ten Cerberus agents approaching them.
"I knew this was too easy." Miranda muttered. "Don't let them get close to Legion, take them out as quickly as possible." Those were the only instructions Miranda gave to the rest of the squadmates and that was all the orders they needed as they were quick to grab whatever cover they could as did the Cerberus agents, Miranda's crew where less concerned about killing the agents as they were more concerned with buying Legion enough time to defuse the bomb. "McKansa, there's a Cerberus agent approaching on your right."
"I see him." Jenny said firing up her biotics and firing a charge at the Cerberus agent sending him flying back, Jenny didn't give him a chance to recover as she fired a shot from her Mattock that connected with the top of the agent's head, the remaining agents fired at her but her shields absorbed the shots that made contact before she was able to return to her cover, Marcus fired upon the other agents and they ducked behind cover, Jenny followed it up with a shockwave forcibly bringing two of the agents out of cover, Samara suspended them with her biotics allowing Marcus to pick them off easily, Grunt came out of cover and charged the remaining agents once he was behind their cover knocking over three of them, Grunt took two of the Cerberus agents' heads off with shotgun blasts before the remaining one tried a cheapshot, however he didn't count on Grunt's fortification power and Grunt fired his shotgun into his abdomen sending him flying back before landing against the wall, he was dead soon afterwards and the four remaining Cerberus agents tried firing at him but made the mistake of standing up to do so leaving them open to fire from the rest of the squad, the remaining Cerberus agents where dead and the squad stood up.
"The explosive has been defused." Legion announced standing up, they heard the sounds of more gunfire from just ahead of their current location and Miranda motioned for the rest to follow her, they located the source of the gunshots and saw three Shadow Broker agents, an Asari, a Krogan and a human male with black hair and blue eyes hid behind cover as they were fired upon by Cerberus agents, Miranda's team soon joined them and the Asari breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank the goddess, I never thought backup would arrive...wait your not Shadow Broker agents." The Asari realized.
"No but we're mutual friends, let's put it that way." Marcus said firing upon the Cerberus agents. "What's the quickest route to the inside of the ship?"
"It's behind those agents; to make matters worse they've planted a big bomb on the side of the ship." The Krogan answered motioning to the agents and the bomb. "Thomas here tried to disarm it remotely but he ran into a complication."
"That's an understatement." The human spoke up. "The bomb's rigged to go off automatically if anyone tries to disarm it; I think the only way we could get past it is if we had a Quarian on our side."
"What about a Geth will that do?" Miranda asked motioning to Legion.
"I guess it could work." Thomas said stroking his chin. "However even with a Geth it would take a significant amount of time."
"Then we'd better buy him some time." The Krogan said firing upon the Cerberus agents as Legion started hacking away at the bomb being as careful as a Geth could be to not set it off, things were going well until...
"There is a problem." Legion said about ten minutes into the battle, the Cerberus agents had been reduced to a small handful that where near the bomb and the squad turned to Legion.
"I just know I'm going to regret asking this but what kind of..." Jenny started but was cut off by the bomb going off taking the Cerberus agents with it, "Me and my big mouth."
"EDI, we need a damage report on the Shadow Broker base." Miranda shouted into her earpiece.
"The explosion caused significant damage to the hull off the ship; it will crash in about ten minutes." EDI said and everyone shared a look.
"Everyone get inside the ship, we must regroup with Shepard and get the hell out of here." Miranda said standing up, as the group made its way to the entrance Miranda put a hand to her earpiece. "Shepard, its Miranda one of the bombs on the outside of the ship has gone off we are coming to meet up with your team." Miranda informed Shepard as they entered the ship, the inside of the ship wasn't in that good a condition either and they saw the corpses of the Salarian broker agent, the Asari broker agent and Susan undoubtedly caught in the blast, they rejoined Shepard's squad just as the remaining Cerberus Agents made a run for it. "Shepard, I don't think I need to tell you how valuable the information contained on this base is."
"Agreed, EDI start downloading all the information in the Shadow Broker's database, we're getting out of here." Shepard said standing up as he did.
"Shepard, there won't be enough time to download all the information, at most I can recover 60 percent of the information." EDI announced and Shepard frowned.
"That'll have to do." Shepard said...just as the Cerberus agents returned with backup. "It's never that simple is it."
"KILL THEM! DON'T LET THEM STEAL WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY MINE!" Jack shouted at the other Cerberus agents, at that point Thomas, the surviving Asari and the Krogan turned to Shepard.
"You go, we'll hold down the fort here." Thomas said and the other two agents nodded in agreement, Shepard could tell that there wasn't going to be anyway to convince them otherwise and he, Liara, Tidoses, Feron and both teams made a break for the hanger, the Cerberus agents tried firing at them but the three Shadow Broker agents fired suppressing fire at them, soon Shepard's squad plus Liara, Tidoses and Feron reached the ship.
"Joker, get us out of here now." Shepard ordered the pilot who didn't need to be told twice as he detached the Normandy from the crashing ship and flew away from the planet. Shepard and the squad watched as the ship crashed. "EDI, tell us how much data where you able to save?"
"I'm afraid that I was only able to save 40 percent of the data." The AI said and Liara's eyes widened in shock.
"All that data, century's worth of intel, information that could topple governments in the wrong hands, gone in an instant." Liara said clearly shocked. "I will be able to reconstruct the data bur it will take time, even with every Shadow Broker agent in my employ working around the clock." Liara added turning to Tidoses and Feron before turning to Shepard. "If it's okay with you I want Feron and Tidoses with me on the Normandy Shepard."
"That's fine, I have a call to make in the meantime, Miranda I need you to show them around the ship whilst I'm making this call." Shepard commanded, Miranda did so and Shepard made his way to the briefing room. "Patch the Illusive Man through Joker."
"But you said..." Joker started.
"Do it." Shepard said plainly, he was soon patched through to the Illusive Man and the enigmatic leader of Cerberus didn't look to happy.
"Shepard, do you have any idea what you have done?" The Illusive Man asked him as he took a whiff of his cigarette.
"I was about to ask you the same thing, thanks to you we have lost the majority of the Shadow Broker's intel and now the fight against the Reapers will be much more difficult." Shepard said, The Illusive Man stood up and marched towards Shepard.
"No, it's because of you, if we had a human Shadow Broker on our side then there's no telling what humanity could've accomplished." The Illusive Man said assertively and Shepard narrowed his eyes. "But still, the fact that you where able to save most of the data is a good sign."
"We have the Shadow Broker on our side already, not only that but she is someone I can trust, your idea of the ideal Shadow Broker was a delusional madman." Shepard growled. "But I guess that's an improvement over an Alien in your eyes."
"Cerberus is doing whatever it can to make sure that those stuck on Earth get the help they need against the Reapers, it's not easy but we are doing what we can." The Illusive Man said taking another whiff. "Speaking of the Reapers, your new crew members' are going to need to have potential issues dealt with."
"More loyalty missions in other words." Shepard said narrowing his eyes. "For once we agree but for now my focus is on building a team and if you interfere with my friends again I'll hunt you down to the ends of the galaxy."
"Is that a threat?" The Illusive Man asked angrily.
"No, it's a warning." Shepard said before cutting the connection. "Joker, set a course for Tuchanka." Shepard ordered.
"You got it Commander." Joker responded, Shepard left the briefing room and sighed, he was angry at The Illusive Man for interfering but he was right, he needed to make sure that the new crewmembers had their unfinished business dealt with.