Location: General Oleg Petrovsky's Office—Cerberus Frigate 'Albatross'—Orbiting Newton System in stealth mode.
Petrovsky admired the Karpov line of pistols. Not that there was anything wrong with the Cerberus issued Harpy or Cobra models, but the intimidating size of the Karpov's muzzle always made its victims die with an astonished wide-eyed expression. That same look would be appropriate for Armistan Banes.
The Pistol hummed to life as the charge engaged. Setting the bullets to anti-personnel rounds, Petrovsky flicked the safety off and moved for the door.
"Please tell me you won't do something you will regret, Oleg."
Petrovsky froze. He forgot all about putting his wife on hold. The sudden streak of murder gave him tunnel vision. Being locked up on the bridge gave him time to consider all the ways of making Armistan pay, the classic beat them all. "I will have to call you back."
"If you're planning to use that gun on the madman, don't bother," Galena replied sternly. The woman could be severe in her disapproval but that never stopped him from doing what was right. Yet this time, her eyes showed that she was ready to fight this out if necessary. "We are expecting you at your grandson's party, Oleg. That will not happen if you are disgraced."
"Nikolai is dead." Petrovsky faced his vid screen, trying to keep his nerve as her green eyes probed him. "If I do not punish this man, the rest will lose faith in me, Galena."
"They need you to be strong and rational, my love," she argued, though her voice lowered in common understanding. "I know how much it hurts to lose a colleague, but striking this monster down is not your job. You cannot risk humanity's future on a personal vendetta."
Petrovsky fumed. She was right and wrong at the same time. Nikolai was a good soldier, just like everyone else on this god forsaken ship that held their futures hostage. These brave souls risked everything when they defected from their homeland. They deserved more than to go out like lab rats.
Taking a seat, he faced his wife and tried to rid his mind of the gory images. Nikolai didn't look human anymore, his body just a charred piece of meat covered with a thick matrix of black veins. According to Miranda the change happened in seconds. How was he supposed to protect his people against something that moved this fast?
"Stop that," Galena requested, as a wane smile made it to her lips. "Think of the good, Oleg. In a few hours you will see a little boy who looks up to you. Do not disappoint him."
Petrovsky rubbed his tired eyes and sighed deeply. True, seeing his grandson would be nice, but there was another reason he was going to the citadel and judging from Galena's expression, she didn't want that mission to interfere with the celebration.
"I wouldn't dream of it," he replied, smiling at the image of what awaited him. Most of all, just seeing his wife and family in person was enough of an incentive to put the gun back in its drawer. "Tell me, what does he want most this Christmas?"
Galena's smile grew and for a moment Oleg felt the galaxy of responsibilities drift from his head. All that mattered at this moment was family, if this was all he had then he wanted to enjoy it.
o~O~o
Location: Makeshift Morgue 'meat room'—Climate controlled warehouse—Ontarom.
Clouds of dust filled the air with each body bag Gianna unzipped. The sweltering heat held the stench of death hostage. There were so many victims from the apartment assault that the Alliance morgue was overcrowded. So some geek had the bright idea to dump all of them into a nearby warehouse and mix the victims with corpses of the asari kidnapping suspects. Now they were on their fourth hour of a never-ending scavenger hunt, trying to locate the bodies they needed.
Liam squat down and unzipped a bag at the far end of the facility. It's contents made him gag. The little boy, identified as Timmy by his tag, stared at him with dull gray eyes. The sweltering conditions aided in his decomposition. Maggots were gorging on open wounds the size of baseballs, crawling in and out of his mouth and feasting on his body. No one bothered to care of him in death, the kid was just another statistic in a landfill of lost lives.
"Found something?" His fingers twitched towards his gun, only to go limp when Parasini sidled close. "Ah, the youngest victim."
"Yeah," Liam replied, placing a gloved hand over the kids eyes and shutting them for good. "Not who we need though. Any luck on your end?"
He felt her gaze on him as he zipped the bag and faced her. "No. There's only the row at the back left now. If they're not there, you owe me dinner." She winked and got up. Liam smiled, remembering how much she doubted there would be anything left for them to find. But he couldn't justify an entire corporation pulling stunts like this for no gain, the bodies were here. Then again, what did he know about corporate politics?
"Why do you think they're playing you?" Liam asked, moving onto the next body while Gianna took the one across from him.
"Because this entire situation sounds like bullshit," Gianna stated bluntly. Unlike the Captain, there was a smugness about her that would give the wrong people the impression of arrogance. But luckily for him, he had a front row seat to the cold logic that backed her words. "Look at it this way, Heyuan Genomics owns the majority of Alliance-backed research contracts. That's more than any other civilian contractor on Ontarom. They wouldn't risk their position with a stunt like this."
Liam nodded thoughtfully. He never cared for the bigger picture, but having it laid out like this put a new perspective on the mission. "So you think another company framed them?"
"Another company, disgruntled workers, a terrorist group, I don't know yet," Gianna replied, sneezing when sand plumed into a mushroom cloud as she zipped the latest bag. "Any of them look familiar?"
"Nope." Liam closed the bag and saw that she was on the second last one herself. Deciding not to go through what she's already checked, he stepped over to the last one beside her.
The same lifeless result stared back at him. None of these bodies were the suspects he brought in.
Gianna stilled. Her eyes darted to the nametag then back to the face of the body in the bag. Something seemed to click and Liam shuffled closer to take a look. The man in the bag was same one he remembered shooting through the skull. The perfect symmetrical hole in his forehead proved as much, but still didn't explain how Gianna knew him.
"They changed the tags," she said, showing him the white label on the body bag. "This man is listed as Adam Tavos, of apartment number 12E but I know his as Neil Wright, mid-level management for ExoGeni. He couldn't live in that apartment because ExoGeni has their own residential program in the city center of Endeavor."
Liam shuffled to the body bags she passed on the way to Neil's and looked in. The faces were definitely the ones of those he brought in, but they were all listed as apartment dwellers. It was all too careful to be a mix up. "I don't get it," Liam said, unzipping the other body bags. "Why not steal the bodies and erase the evidence?"
Gianna shook her head and bit her lip in a pitying glance. "You don't know?"
"Know what?" He asked, not sure if he wanted answers.
Her eyes swept over the dead. "These bodies are scheduled for a mass cremation."
Liam frowned. It wasn't enough that they all died a horrible death, now they couldn't be released to their family members for a proper burial? "How do you know that? Who authorized this?"
"I may have poked around your base's communications. It's your colonel's intention." Gianna got up, but that look of concern stayed with her. "You okay?"
"Perfect," Shepard muttered, standing to move aside.
Gianna didn't buy it and watched him intently as they headed for the exit. "You had no idea?"
"I'm not exactly on his friend's list," Liam said, putting the pieces together in his head. No wonder the colony of Endeavor was hell bent on seeking Alliance blood. No wonder Brock was being slaughtered in the media. The asshole wanted to incinerate innocent people just to bolster his ego.
"Well before you do anything stupid, you should know that he has good reasons." Liam stopped and glared at her as she continued. "A few of the bodies showed signs of some sort of corruption. They were cremated, but Brock doesn't want it to spread so he's cremating everyone else as a precaution."
"That's weak. If he knew there was a mass infection he should have informed the public, informed us!"
"And cause mass panic?" Gianna challenged, ripping her gloves and shedding her bio suit. "Look, these bodies don't show signs of infection just yet so I'm thankful we even got to see them."
Liam did the same and threw his suit to the ground in a scattered heap.
"I'm going to go see what I can find on Neil and his team," Gianna announced over her shoulder. "Keep in touch."
o~O~o
Location: Briefing room—Cerberus Frigate 'Albatross'—Orbiting Newton System in stealth mode.
"Everything is under control," Miranda assured, knowing how ridiculous that would have sounded to any Alliance officer. Thankfully the Illusive Man knew exactly what type of control she was talking about. "Banes gained insight into indoctrination by re-creating one of his old designs."
"Does he need another rachnii sample?"
"Not at the moment," Miranda replied, thinking back to how relieved she was to find that Banes' was acting within the Illusive Man's mandate. Nikolai's death was horrific, but after seeing how indoctrination works, sacrifices in an effort to end it seem necessary.
The Illusive Man took a puff from his cigarette and let it dangle from nimble hands. "And how is Lieutenant-General Petrovsky handling this?"
"Considering his limited oversight of the project, not well," Miranda replied, remembering the murderous intent she saw in his eye after she released the bridge crew. Loyalty to Cerberus held him back, but it seemed clear that the general was a walking time bomb. "The best we can do is focus on finding Elena Flores' research data."
"Agreed." The Illusive Man nodded. "Don't forget, this is just one priority. The Alliance secured Selina York, we need to make sure they don't get another graybox."
"Yes," Miranda replied, "intel puts Jin Xiang on the Citadel. I've already sent a freelancer to smoke her out, force her to make mistakes. We will be arriving shortly."
"Very good," The Illusive Man praised before taking another drag. "Keep me posted."
"Of course."
The projection disappeared and Miranda was left in the cold darkness of the conference room. Blood still lined the floor from where Banes first grabbed Nikolai. Apparently Nikolai had the correct genetic makeup to resist indoctrination, at least in theory. According to all present, the fight broke out here. Armed soldiers who fought back only sustained minor injuries, a mercy coming from Banes.
Claps sounded behind her and she didn't have to turn around to see who it was. "Still think highly of your Illusive Man, Miranda?"
"You should have told me," she said, keeping her voice even.
"And now you know why I didn't," Banes replied, glancing to the holo-projection where the Illusive Man once stood. "If you had joined me though, it would have been different."
She couldn't deny that it pissed her off to be in the dark, but she knew it was The Illusive Man's way of keeping her on Petrovsky's good side. "We need to get moving on Jin Xiang," Miranda ordered, commanding her omni-tool to pull a hologram of the Citadel above the conference room table.
"All business, Lawson?" Banes stepped from the shadows and joined her at the table. "I suppose I should be used to it by now."
Her grip dug into the leather upholstery of the chair before her. She couldn't find it in herself to sit down or do anything other than stare at the map intently. "Jin was last spotted in level 23 wards around the fish food factories. We will setup down there, while an assassin I sent out before us has orders to force her out of hiding."
Banes didn't look the least bit interested in the points she was mapping out. Instead, his hand found her shoulder as his eyes narrowed in concern. "What is it?"
As if he didn't know. But despite how much she wanted to chew him up for this little covert operation that went over her head, she couldn't. The mission came first and everyone knew it. Everyone that is, except Banes who seemed to be in it for his own reasons. Ones she couldn't raise with the Illusive Man when Banes watching from afar. It was pretty clear that at some point he, like Nikolai, underwent the a similar process. This meant that Banes was either a success or a ticking time bomb, ready to disintegrate like Nikolai if he ever lost control.
Burying her feelings and focusing on the task at hand was becoming second nature as she faced him. "You have to promise me that you can control indoctrination."
That took him by surprise as she felt his grip slacken. "You know I can."
"Promise me," she persisted, leaving no room for argument as she waited him out.
It took a moment but eventually he nodded slowly and ran a comforting hand over her shoulder. Neither of them moved or dared to look away as the ramifications of what they were dealing with weighed heavily on their minds.
o~O~o
Location: En-route to Depot Sigma-23—Batarian State Merchant Frigate—Orbiting Gorgon System.
Mark shoved the last unconscious batarian into the waiting emergency pod and sealed the door shut. Elena entered the commands which ejected the capsule into deep space. The two of them watched as it grew smaller, carrying the unconscious skeleton crew that ran the cargo ship.
Her omni-tool announced that they were nearing their destination. Mark's gaze was still affiliated on the retreating capsule. "I think a bullet to the head would've been a safer bet."
"Yes, but we have enough blood on our hands," Elena replied as she started to walk back towards the cockpit. The ship was the size of two football fields and stuffed to the brim with cargo. Someone would be missing it and that's when suspicion would begin. If the batarian state was going to search the galaxy for their ship, the last thing they needed was to give them an excuse to shoot them on sight. Sparing the crew would at least buy them some time.
Elena looked back to see Mark hadn't moved. His arms were crossed as he watched the glimmer of lights just beyond the launch bay window. It was then she realized just how long it must have been since he had been in space.
She smirked and walked back.
Mark looked over to her and smiled. "Didn't realize it was so beautiful up here."
"It's something else," she agreed, watching as debris flew turned to shooting stars in the distance. The pod finally disappeared from view, leaving a picture perfect view of space.
"I never lied to you," his voice echoed through the cavernous cargo bay. "Everything I'm doing is to protect you."
"Don't tell me that," Elena said, not looking away from the window.
"It wasn't easy for me, El. I knew these people for a long time," Mark continued, "Jeremy and I have been through everything in the engineering corps. He was like a brother to me. Selina, a little sister. And Jin," he turned to her, "I know you didn't like her much, but she saved my ass more times than I deserve. More importantly she was loyal to the team."
"She was loyal to Cerberus," Elena corrected, "we all were."
"What I'm trying to say is that this didn't come easy for me," Mark said, glancing to her, "but I would do it again for you."
"No!" Elena rounded on him and got right into his personal space. "You risked everything. Cerberus could have killed you so don't tell me that it was for me." Her voice softened, she didn't want to argue. "Okay?"
Mark nodded in understanding and gave her a sideways glance. "I still don't regret what I did."
Her brain wanted to challenge him, call him out on the bullshit, but that would lead nowhere. He was so convinced that he was doing the right thing that it was impossible to make him see otherwise. So she pat his shoulder and stepped back, avoiding another useless fight. "We're twenty minutes out. I'm going to go prep for docking."
She walked away, leaving him to answer the vast world of space alone.