The soft, soothing music of the eternity bar was playing in air and thin layer of mist covered the room. Dozens could be seen ordering drinks and chatting away at the tables going about their daily lives. Included among the crowd were the former Cerberus officers Miranda Lawson and Jacob Taylor, casually sharing laughs while sharing a few drinks.

"-And then he ordered the mystery drink! he was puking all the way back to the ship! you should have seen it!" Miranda said trying to hold back her laughter.

Jacob was pounding his fist on the table, suffocating from laughter. Miranda too joined in and both were so loud that the Asari bartender couldn't help but smile. "Haven't seen a lovely couple like that in a while," the Asari Matriarch, Atheyta, thought to herself.

Jacob finally regained his composure and lifted his glass. "Well, what do you say? To Shepard?"

Miranda did the same and replied, "To Shepard, and to every time he drinks something not meant for a human."

Miranda smiled and Jacob chuckled as they tapped glasses. Miranda was about to take a sip but was distracted. Overhearing the conversation of a Turian and Quarian sitting at a nearby table.

"So...seeing anyone right now?" The Turian asked his Quarian friend modestly.

"Oh, not right now. Still trying to blow off steam from the ex. Why?" The Quarian female replied.

"Well I was just wondering...maybe... you'd like to-" he was interrupted by the beeping of her omni-tool.

"Aw sorry, that's the ex. Just a sec." The Quarian woman tapped a couple of times on her omni-tool to take the call.

"What do you want... No, we can't talk about this... You know damn well why... Because I die if I take it off Bosh'tet... forget it, we're through!" She tapped a button on her omni-tool, closing the call connection, and gazed back at her Turian friend.

"Sorry about that. What were you saying?" she asked.

"Um... I need to use the restroom." He got up from his table and walked past Miranda. She stopped him.

"Giving her hints won't get you anywhere." Miranda said with a smirk. The Turian seemed surprised as he turned to her and then proceeded to scratch the back of his neck.

"I-I was getting around to it." He replied. Miranda crossed her arms and leaned forward over the table.

"Unless you come straight out with it you'll continue to be a shadow to her." Miranda's smile faded and she leaned back in her chair. The Turian looked over at his Quarian companion still sitting where he left her and then back at Miranda.

"You're right! It's time I show some quad. Thanks lady!" He said happily as he ran back over to the table.

Miranda watched as Jacob downed his drink in one swig then peaked over her shoulder at the couple once more.

"Jacob... What happened to us?" She said with innocence. Jacob gathered himself and looked at her puzzled.

"Us?"

Miranda stiffened. "You know...us..."

Jacob was silent for a moment and looked down at his empty glass. "I dunno. Maybe...maybe work with Cerberus took too much priority at the time..." Again he was quiet.

Miranda gazed down at the table for a second before looking back up at Jacob. "Do you regret it?"

Jacob replied quicker than she expected. "Not at all."

This brought a smile to her face. Gaining confidence, she lifted her head and said "Well... Do you think it would have worked?"

Jacob grew a look of disappointment and paused for a few seconds then replied, "I really should be getting back. Talk to you later."

Miranda could only watch as he left the bar rather quickly. She felt embarrassed and wondered why she didn't just keep her mouth shut. Fiddling with her glass she looked up to gaze at the sky. She felt envious of the love Shepard and Tali shared. "You're lucky Tali, I wish I could feel what you feel..."

"How's it coming Tali?" asked Shepard.

"Almost finished. Those Cerberus bosh'tets use very complex encryption methods." she replied. Tali was hacking a door to grant them access into the Bermuda. Shepard and Garrus stood with their backs facing her and their weapons drawn.

"Alright we have access." The door swung open revealing a large security station. Normally there would have been guards to greet them. but the room appeared deserted and the lights were flickering on and off. A desk sat at the far corner of the room with windows leading to small offices on all sides.

"Keelah... What happened here?" Tali spoke nervously as she scanned the room.

"Signs of small arms fire everywhere. Not looking good." Garrus said pointing his M-97 sniper-rifle at a glass window filled with holes.

"OK people, we didn't come here on a field trip. Move out, three-meter spread." Shepard commanded.

On the Spectre's order, Tali, Garrus, and Mordin all fell in a single file line and moved through a damaged door barely half way open. As they slipped through Shepard immediately noticed several bodies and damaged LOKI mechs lying about the room.

"This doesn't look good." said Shepard. They all stopped to examine the room. A catwalk loomed overhead with the corpse of a human slumped over the railing, dripping blood down to the floor below. Mordin briskly walked over to a body that lay against the wall with its eyes bulging and it's arms laid out over the floor. He knelt down and held his arm over the corpse while tapping away at his omni-tool. A layout of the dead man's anatomy appeared showing his vitals and internal damage.

"Cerberus scientist. Single shot to shin..." He leaned in closer and opened the collar of the dead man; "Cause of death, strangulation...Unfortunate..."

"The rest look like they were gunned down. And the mechs aren't looking much better." Shepard replied as he surveyed the rest of the room.

"Looks like they were attacked." Garrus remarked. Tali immediately joined in on the examination.

"That doesn't seem likely..." The rest of the team turned to the Quarian to see her accessing a small terminal.

"The logs don't show any record of an attack. However, there are reports of mechs malfunctioning all over the ship. It looks like someone reprogrammed them."

Tali continued to tap away at the controls. "Bosh'tet! the rest of the data is encrypted. It will take days to decrypt all of it."

"Forward the data to EDI. We'll look at it later." Shepard said walking over to Tali's side.

"Done. Ready to move." Tali replied. Shepard waved a hand motioning for the team to follow as they made their way through several long access corridors. When they came to a fork in the tunnel Shepard held his arm up and clenched his fist, signaling for his team to hold position.

"We need to get to the bridge, Tali?" Shepard looked in her direction as if hinting to something and Tali activated a 3D map of the ship that appeared over her omni-tool.

"The corridor splits off into two routes. This one leads to a service elevator that will take us to the ships core. The other will take us to the tram station. It should be easy to gain access to the bridge from there." She said while pointing at each of the tunnels.

"Alright, we split up then. Tali, Mordin, you two get to the core and restore main power to the ship. Garrus and I will check out the bridge and find out what happened here." Immediately following Shepard's order, Tali protested.

"Shepard if it's all the same to you, my place is by your side." She said. Shepard looked into her eyes reassuringly.

"The bridge will likely have much more resistance if there are any mechs still standing. Besides I need an a good engineer that can show a reactor as much love as she does me." Shepard winked causing Tali to blush under her face mask.

"Trying to butter me up? You're such a sweat Bosh'tet." she said trying to hold back a giggle.

"Is it working?" Shepard said smiling and tilting his head to the side.

Tali sighed, "Unfortunately, yes" she teased.

Garrus cut in. "Next time you take me into the meat-grinder I expect to hear something similar" he said looking at Shepard.

"I figured you enjoyed a good fight Garrus. Not getting squishy on me are you?" he replied.

"Not a Hanar's chance in hell!" The Turian replied.

"Alright, lets move out. Good luck you two." said Shepard looking to Tali and Mordin.

"And to you Shepard. Please be careful" Tali replied. As Shepard watched Tali and Modin walk down the hall of the southern corridor, he turned to Garrus and motioned with his head for him to follow and they began to make their way to the tram station.

...

"My lord...What is your will?" The shadowy figure said as he looked in to the surveillance footage to see a Human, Turian, Salarian, and Quarian. There was a brief silence.

"Yes my lord. I will carry out thy bidding. I will smite these sinners in your name..." The man tapped a few controls on the console in front of him.

...

Shepard and Garrus had come to a very large room. Storage crates were everywhere. A magnetic crane could be seen hanging from the ceiling and the tram station controls could be seen in a small booth 20 meters ahead.

"This room rings a certain bell Shepard. But somethings missing..." Just as Garrus finished his sentence, doors on the left and right sides of the room opened and LOKI mechs in pairs of two stepped out from each door. The mechs seemed to not even notice the Human and Turian and stood completely motionless. A memory flashed in the mind of the Turian. He remembered when Shepard helped him hunt down Harkin through the Citadel's factory district.

"Ah yeah, now it definitely rings a bell." the Turian concluded. Just then the mechs suddenly all turned and pointed their weapons at the two. Shepard and Garrus shared a quick gaze of shock at each other and then dove for cover behind the large crate in front of them.

Swarms of heated lasers flew overheard and around the crates. Both drew their weapons just as an explosion rocked the ground in front of the crate they used as cover causing them both to wince then stare at each other.

"Next time keep your Turian mouth shut." Shepard yelled over the buzzing over the lasers.

"My bad." Garrus replied. The two winced again as another explosion was set off even closer. Shepard reacted by blindly firing a burst from his M-8 Avenger assault rifle over his shoulder, not knowing if any of the shots actually hit anything.

"I don't think these crates were made to withstand forty millimeter grenades Shepard!" Garrus exclaimed. Shepard looked around the room trying to think of a tactic. A plan came to mind when he noticed a set of stairs leading to a balcony overhead.

"Garrus I need you to take up a sniping position in that balcony." Shepard then grabbed a grenade from his belt. "I'll cover you! Get ready!"

Shepard punched a button on the thermal grenade and then shouted "GO!" With that, Garrus flew out of cover toward the stair case just as Shepard leaned out to toss his grenade. It flew over toward two mechs who stared at it as it flew in their direction.

"Warning, incoming explosive, initiate retrea-" Before the mechs could finish their sentences, the grenade went off obliterating them and sending their synthetic limbs flying in all directions. The debris of an arm managed to slam into another mech causing its head to fall out of socket and dangle from the rest of its body as its metal husk wobbled around aimlessly. Garrus had finally reached the balcony and drew his Sniper rifle.

"SAY HELLO TO MY WITTLE FWIEND!" Garrus yelled as he popped a mech in the head with a single slug. The mech fell to the ground, crackled with electricity and then exploded as Garrus shot another one in the leg causing it to drop its weapon. Shepard finished it off with a short burst from his rifle. As Garrus sighted down the scope of his weapon he noticed a single LOKI mech at the back of the room holding a M-100 Grenade launcher. It took aim at Garrus and the Turian panicked for a split second, firing a single sniper round into its arm causing it to stagger, point its weapon at the ground and accidentally fire, destroying itself. The Turian broke away from his scope for a moment to grin triumphantly at the unexpected kill. Garrus sighted down his scope again, but he didn't hear the large door behind him hiss open. He heard the heavy metal footsteps and quickly broke away from his scope to turn around only to be greeted by a YMIR heavy mech.

"Dammit!" He shouted as he attempted to aim at the heavy mech's head. Before he could make the kill, the YMIR swung its heavy arm knocking Garrus off the balcony. Shepard noticed him fall and yelled during the brief time Garrus was in the air.

"Garrus!" Garrus ended up landing on one of the remaining LOKI mechs, smashing it under his back. He winced and groaned in pain for a second before Shepard ran over to help him to his feet.

Just as Shepard gripped his hand, Garrus pointed up at the balcony. "Look out!" Shepard looked up at the the YMIR heavy mech leaning over the balcony gazing down at them and quickly pulled Garrus from the pile of metal just as the heavy mech jumped down and landed on the pile of scrap that was once a LOKI mech. Keeping hold of Garrus' hand, Shepard was sprinting towards cover just as the YMIR mech held out its arm and fired a single rocket in their direction. Shepard and Garrus leaped forward to dodge the rocket causing it to impact with the last LOKI mech in the room. The two quickly dove behind another set of large crates for cover.

"Damn!"

...

Meanwhile, Tali and Mordin strode down a hallway. Continuing towards the ships core. "Shepard... Shepard do you copy?" No response.

"Shepard! It's Tali! please respond!" Again, she was greeted with silence.

Mordin shifted his head to Tali as they continued their pace. "Must focus on task Tali'Zorah. Activate core. Restore main power."

Tali clenched her fists and halted. "So your saying I shouldn't be worried that he hasn't responded to my voice since we split up?" She yelled.

"No offense intended Miss Zorah. Know you care deeply for Shepard, but mind must be on mission. Personal attachment a burden when emotions not controlled."

Tali looked down at her feet and began to wring her hands nervously. "I...I'm sorry Mordin. You're right. The mission comes first..."

Mordin walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Understandable. Concern for loved ones hard to manage when in danger. No need for apology."

Tali dropped her hands to her sides. "It's just...what if he's hurt... Or worse, what if he ran into-" Before she could finish small hatches along the hallway in front of them slowly opened revealing several LOKI mechs. Mordin jaw dropped and Tali took a step back.

"Oh Keelah..."

"Oh dear..." They both said simultaneously.