The sun had set on Haestrom and it was now safe for Shepard and his team to get back to work. It had been three days since they had encountered Tali.. since she had killed EDI, they had been in too much shock that night to carry on and investigate the Cerberus base. A decision they had regretted the following night when they found that Haestrom's sun had seared shut the now unshielded entrance to the base. They had spent the last two nights cutting through the blast door with Geth mining lasers, it had been a slow job, they were not cut out to cut through such thick metal but they had managed to break through in the early hours of the morning.
The team had been mostly quiet the past few days, none of them knew what to say. They were all trying to make sense of it in thier heads, and no more so then Shepard. But he refused to believe that, that Quarian, was his Tali.. "Tali would never hurt a fly.. not like that.." He thought, he could only conclude that Tali was not acting on her own free will. Or atleast he hoped she wasn't..
Joker hadn't said a word to them since EDI died, he had taken EDIs body back to the ship and sealed himself away in one of the rooms. They had taken turns sitting by the door each night trying to talk to him, but it was no use, he was too deep in grief. Shepard had sent a message to the Alliance about what happened and they were sending a ship to extract them, "Which should be here in a few more days."He thought.
Tonight it was Ashleys turn to stay with Joker as Shepard, Garrus and Liara headed to the base, weapons at the ready. They doubted they would find anyone left in the base, they would of either left on the Normandy or been burnt to a crisp while trapped inside the base. They moved slowly through the base, searching each room as they went along, but each one of them told the same story, anything Cerberus hadn't destroyed themselfs or taken with them, the sun had fried. Untill they reached the heart of the base.
The main room had nothing in itself of significance, but to the rear was a blast door that had been locked down. Liara moved over to the door controls and began hacking away. There was a akward silence in the room, none of them had said much apart from the occasional comment on the base.
"This should only take a few more minutes" Liara said, "And this should also be the last room, unless there's anything beyond here."
Shepard sighed and said, "Theres gotta be something here that says why Cerberus.. Tali was here" Both Garrus and Liara exchanged looks with each other. "What do you guys think? Honestly."
"Shepard. I know what we saw is hard to believe, I've know Tali for as long as you have. We've all been through alot together, Tali would never do something like this." Garrus said placing a hand on Shepards shoulder.
"He's right Shepard, Tali is one of the sweetest people in the galaxy. She cares deeply for you, untill we have proof otherwise, I'll be inclined to believe Cerberus are behind her new behaviour.." Liara added, she looked at Garrus, despite what they both told Shepard, parts of them deep down both believed that just maybe Tali did it on her own will. It was a dark thought, one they both couldn't shake.
The door controls buzzed, they were in. The door opened and light filled the new room, it had no light source of it's own and the only light came from the room adjacent. The room itself was small, and for the most part empty. Shepard's heart sank as he saw what was in the room, the only thing in the room was a small table in the middle where the light fell, and on that table was Tali's old mask.
Liara and Garrus stayed where they were, they didn't like where this was heading or what it could mean. Shepard walked slowly towards the table and picked up her mask, his fingers stroked the cracks that were along the visor. "Oh Tali... what did they do to you.." He thought to himself, he looked down to see a data disk that had been under the mask. A note was stuck to it. "To my lover."
. . . . .
They had returned from the base not long after finding Tali's mask and data disk. Shepard had decided that whatever was on this disk, the whole team should see, Ashley had joined them in the cockpit. Shepard inserted the disk into the flight terminal and started to load it up onto the main view screen. Joker had left his room and was hanging around the back, no one had saw him arrive.
There was only 1 file on the disk, a video recording that was over 200 hours long. Shepard loaded it up only to be greeted by a familiar unpleasant face, The Illusive Man.
"Shepard." He said, pausing to smoke his cigarette. "I have no doubt that if you are watching this now, our mutual friend has accomplished her mission." There was another pause, "And no doubt you have questions you want answers too, and what kind of human would I be, if I held back information regarding someone who is close to your heart." He paused to smoke again. "Well Tali'Zorah has joined me after let's say, a intensive recruitment drive, she took.. a fair bit of convincing, but in the end, I'm glad to say she did see the light. But knowing you Shepard, you're going to want proof. I hope what you are about to see.. brings you closure."
The Illusive Mans message ended, the video now showed a bright white lab filled with surgical instruments and machines. In the middle of all this, strapped to a surgical table was Tali. The Illusive Man and Operative were with Tali in the room, Operative was by a console while The Illusive Man stood over Tali. A voice came from the video, from The Illusive Mans mouth, one that didn't belong to him but they all recognized it has Harbingers., "ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL!" It had said.
"By the goddess..." Liara gasped.
The lab then filled with Tali's screams as they tortured her, Operative sending shocks through her while Harbinger removed Tali's mask, his hands had grasped either side of Talis and leaned close as he said stuff to her. Tali was struggling against his grip but she couldnt escape, they were unable to hear what Harbinger was saying. Even his deep loud voice was illegible over Talis screaming.
"Those bastards!" Garrus said as Liara took comfort in his arms, unable to watch.
"I'll kill them... Cerberus... I'm going to wipe out every last fucking one." Shepard said quietly in a pained angry voice.
Ashley moved forward and put a hand on Shepard. "We'll find her" She said softly.
He skipped the scenes, every last one showed the same basic thing. Tali being tortured as her screams echoed around the room, some of them showed her hooked up to dozens of tubes as they pumped substances into her body. Alot of these devices Shepard could remember seeing on Horizon when Cerberus was experimenting with indoctrination.
"Wow.. that's just.. how did she survive all that?" Joker had finally spoken up, drawing everyones attention to him.
Shepard looked at him, then looked back at the feed. "If Cerberus can spend limitless amounts of resources bringing a dead man back to life... Im sure keeping a Quarian alive to endure.. this.. is no challenge to them... they didn't even give her the mercy of letting her die..." He said as he stopped the video.
Shepard sunk into a nearby chair, his head in the palm of his hands as Talis screams repeated over and over in his mind.
. . . . .
"Things are moving faster then expected." The Illusive Man said. "Opportunities have arisen that will heavily benefit our cause, and we have you to thank personally for it Tali'Zorah."
"Thank you sir" Tali replied.
"And now I have a job for you both, we have located more data that needs recovering on dark energy. It's in the hands of the Alliance. Its situated at Admiralty Headquarters, on Earth." The Illusive Man told them, both Tali and Operative looked at each other. "We've learnt its in a secured network thats only accessible from Admiral Hacketts office."
"Which brings me back to one of those opportunitys, it would seem that a memeber of the Quarian Admiralty Board, Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib Qwib.." He stated, unamused. "Is heading to meet with Admiral Hackett over the disappearance of one of thier own." He looked a Tali.
"What are your orders Sir?" Operative asked.
"You are to take the Normandy and intercept the Qwib Qwib. Kill Zaal'Koris, Tali and take his place in the meeting. You are to then retrieve the data, do what you will with Hackett." He then turned to face Operative. "Operative, you are to ensure security is left none the wiser. We have acquired identity documents that will get you past as an Alliance Rear Admiral." He stopped to have a smoke, "Alliance command has shifted so much recently, they will have no reason not to believe your documents even if they dont recognize you."
"Yes Sir." They both replied.
"Failure is not a option."
. . . . .
The Qwib Qwib had just finished refuelling in the Pax system and had resumed course for the Sol system. Zaal'Koris was not happy, the Alliance had taken weeks to inform the Admiralty Board that Tali'Zorah had been kidnapped. In the past he may of not been too fond of Tali, but the retake of thier homeworld was down to no small part to her. They owed her alot. He was then knocked of his feet as the ship rocked violently.
"What the hell was that?" Zaal'Koris demanded
"Were under attack sir!" Said one Quarian at a flight console, the ships alarms started to sound.
The ship rocked hard again "How the hell did we not detect it?" Zaal'Koris shouted at his crew.
"The heat emissions were hidden! It's the Normandy!"
"The Normandy? Cerberus!" Zaal moved to the intercom, "All marines prepare for..." He was cut off as a explosion ripped through a lower deck, a console blew not far from him. Throwing him back and killing two nearby crew members. The ship shuddered to a standstill as the engines went offline. A loud grinding noise viberated against the hull, the sound of docking clamps grapperling the ship. Not long after that the sound of a airlock being blown echoed throughout the deck.
As Zaal tried to prob himself up against the wall, heard marines shouting orders to each other. "Take cover!", "Cerberus troops!", "Fall back!" Were just some of the things he could hear over the gunshots as they grew closer. The bridge door blew open, a Quarian marine fell through the door way dead as Cerberus troops entered the bridge, executing the brdige crew.
Zaal watched as a Human female entered the bridge and inspected the scene, she turned to the Cerberus forces and told them to start immediate repairs. She turned to look right at Zaal, then she looked over at the bridge entrance, a Quarian in a jet black suit slowly strided onto the bridge.
"Over there." The Human said to the Quarian. The Quarian looked right at Zaal and slowly headed over to him.
"Good to see you again.. Admiral Zaal'Koris" Tali said.
"Tali? What the blazing hell is going on here?" Zaal demanded to know.
"I am.. relieving you of command" Tali said coldly, she raised a pistol up to Zaal. "Keelah se'lai" She fired her pistol several times.