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From: Kate Shepard
To: Steven Hackett
Subject: O-4R
Time for some payback. The Collectors boarded the Normandy, took Dr. Chakwas + Joker's crew. We're getting them back right now. Going through the relay in less than two hours.
Just thought I'd let you know before you see it on the vids.
Katie
From: Steven Hackett
To: Kate Shepard
Subject: Be Careful
Come back alive. That's an order.
Dad
From: Kate Shepard
To: Steven Hackett
Subject: Success!
Collectors: 0; Me: 2
Katie
"To Jacob Taylor!" Kate said as she stood on top of the bar in the lounge. "A damn fine soldier and a friend we'll sorely miss."
"To Jacob!" the crew chimed in as they downed their whiskey.
They'd done it. They'd hit the Collectors and everyone had lived to tell about it. Well, almost everyone. Jacob was dead; he'd gone down fighting while getting Dr. Chakwas and the crew back to the Normandy. But the doctor and Joker's entire crew had made it because of him, so he'd died a hero in Kate's book.
And now they were free from Cerberus. First, Miranda had surprised the hell out of everyone when she tendered her resignation to the Illusive Man right there in the Collector base. Then the second they were safe on the other side of the relay, Kate had told him to go to hell. We might be free for the moment, but damn if payback isn't going to be a bitch in the long run, Kate thought as she watched her crew mingling together.
Now she just had to figure out how much time she had left until she had to go to Earth. And what to do with her crew when she did. She'd be damned if she was going to let the Alliance get their hands on them, though she knew she wouldn't have a choice in taking Joker. There was also a damn good chance they were going to strip her ship... Joker's ship. She may be the captain of the damn thing, but it was his ship. And he was gonna be pissed.
Project Overlord proved to be a good distraction from her impending incarceration. Or a distraction, at least. There was nothing good about what they'd found at that place. Kate had seen a lot of evil in her time, but the torture Dr. Archer had put his own brother through, just to be able to talk to the fucking geth? Sonofabitch was lucky to still be standing. If she'd had her way, she'd have put a bullet in the doc's brain and left him to rot. But she'd had more important things to think about, like getting David as far away from his brother as quickly as possible. That proved to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. She dropped him off at Grissom Academy. But during the trip, Jack had taken a shine to the kid, so Kate left her there as well. One down, oh so many to go.
Miranda, Mordin, Samara and Kasumi disappeared somewhere on Illium after the Normandy stopped there for one last party. A stop on Tuchanka meant the loss of Garrus and Grunt, though Kate knew the turian wouldn't stay long. He'd be off to Palaven at some point to visit his family.
That only left the remainder of the humans and Thane.
At Thane's suggestion, they headed once more for the Citadel.