"Shepard, What can I do for you?"
The Illusive Man sat in his chair and as usual, smoking his cigarette. Shepard stood in his holographic form, arms crossed and frown on his scarred face. "I need information on a Cerberus colony called Aviation."
Illusive Man's mechanical blue eyes narrowed on the Commander as he tapped the cigarette on the arm of his chair.
"Where did you hear of this colony?"
Shepard shifted his weight to the other foot, still keeping his defensive position. "Just came across my desk."
The Illusive Man hummed thoughtfully , standing in his chamber,"Aviation was on one of the lowest branches of Cerberus, but they lost contact. Or so I assumed. Once they stopped reporting in I sent in a squad to check up on them, but they never returned. I only guessed that they either broke off or were shut down by Alliance forces. They weren't incredibly valuable. Their work was...expendable."
Shepard fought down the anger he felt when someone referred to life as something that could be used and replaced,"What was their work?"
The other male's face changed to slight annoyance,"As far as I know simple testing on the vegetation on the planet they were stationed on. What they did after that is not my liability anymore."
"Would you be able to find any leads, maybe we can take them down. Randomly breaking off seems like bad rep to have for Cerberus",Shepard waved his hand in the air aimlessly,"When I got to the facility it was barren, clearly not taken over or attacked."
He sauntered back over to his chair, crossing his ankle over his knee. "You may be on to something, Shepard. It's good to know that you're beginning to think of what's best for Cerberus. I'll do some research. See what I can find out. I'll have EDI set up a meeting once I find anything helpful. Until then."
The Illusive Man's holographic body dissolved, the platform bringing Shepard back into the normal conference room. He gave a small shrug to himself before heading down to Engineering on Deck 4.
The elevator doors opened with a small beep and Shepard stepped out. He took the door to his left with unhurried steps, passing through a second door. He gave a brief nod to engineers Donnelly and Daniels as he passed them and looked down the walkway to the Drive core. Sure enough, Lani stood there, elbows resting on the metal guard rail.
She peeked over her shoulder when she heard his boots clanking on the walk, giving a simple"Shepard" in greeting. "Lani",he offered back, noticing that she was very close to the drive core's console and wondering briefly if he should be concerned for his ship or not.
"Was there something you needed?" She asked, now fully standing and facing the Commander.
"Have a few minutes to talk?", He needed to know what she was after. Was he just helping a woman do something completely wrong to a harmless facility, Cerberus or not they may not deserve being double-crossed.
"Of course, I was actually hoping you'd come down. I may have not been incredibly clear about what I needed to be done" ,She stared bashfully down at her feet, shifting slightly. Shepard nodded,"You did leave a few blanks."
The pale girl started pacing back and forth on the narrow path, hands motioning to this and that as she spoke,"Well, a few years ago...er more than that. It was when I was about 16 actually. A Cerberus group called Aviation ransacked my colony. They took us to their facility. Their front is harmless testing on poisons and such. Which is true, to an extent. They tested the effects of the vegetation on us. I escaped with a little internal bleeding and brief nausea, but the rest of my colony wasn't so lucky. I know the group is still out there, making more people suffer. And I want to stop them."
Shepard felt the familiar disgust for the organization well up inside, "Did you have family in there?"
Lani paused in her tracks, looking into his eyes with sorrow,"My mother and two sisters. There's no way they lived. It's been years. And the planet was filled with fatal poisons. Even if they could be reversed, the Cerberus guys wouldn't have helped them. There's always more colonies to use."
A small growl left Shepard,"No any more. It's bad enough with the Collectors. I spoke with the Illusive Man, made him think that it was for the best if we eliminated Aviation. No guarantee it'll work but I think our chances are good. We'll take them down Lani."
"You have no idea how much it'd mean to me, Thank you Shepard..", She grabbed the rail and bowed her head for a moment.
Shepard, Garrus, and Jacob had just returned to the Normandy with Jack in tow. He took his helmet off with a deep inhale of relief. 'Convict..Check', He thought with an eye roll. At least the mission was relatively easy, despite the warden trying to take him as a prisoner and sell him off.
"Welcome to the Normandy, Jack. I'm Miranda Lawson, Shepard's Second-in-Command. On this ship, we follow orders",the Cerberus agent started. Jack , of course, retaliated negatively. Shepard broke in before any fighting could ensue, "Miranda will give you full access to Cerberus data banks."
Jack gave another witty jab at Miranda before they both left, Miranda a little more pissed than when she had entered.
Shepard sighed before moving to leave, but a metallic voice interrupted his movements.
"Commander Shepard. The Illusive Man wishes to speak to you."
"Shepard, One of my teams has found a clue as to where Aviation may have went.", As always The Illusive Man sat comfortably in his chair, smoking -yet another- cigarette.
Shepard waited for the information silently, hands on his hips.
"We searched the galaxy for planets with high amounts of poisonous plants on them. It looks as though they settle down on a planet for a year or so. We managed to track them to the Prioxios System, you could have EDI scan the planets to detect the exact planet. And then you are free to stop the facility."
"We'll get there as soon as we can.", Shepard said dutifully, dropping the call once he received a nod in response.
Once he was lifted back up, he left the conference room, headed to the main room of the CIC.
He walked in through the Tech Lab, after stopping by for a brief chat with Mordin and being dismissed by him because of his important project, and walked with purpose toward the Galaxy Map. "You have unread messages at your private terminal, Commander", Kelly reminded him.
He promptly ignored the comment, telling himself he'd do that when he returned from this mission. Deciding that he should probably recruit at least one more person before taking down Aviation with Lani.
He sighed leaning down again and flicking through recruits. 'Krogan...Still no..Master Thief? Why not.'
A/N- Figured 2 chapters to start us off wouldn't hurt. And I hope I'm doing okay. I'm getting better at my chapter lengths, compared to my other stories at least. I really want to work on this one. And maybe even get another story after this one for Mass Effect 3. But In order for me to finish I need some motivation! So, if anyone wants this story to continue , I'm gonna need some brave soul to cheer me on XP And hopefully said soul will read over Chapter 3 for me and help me out...I need a Beta-reader3 Please Review or Message me if you're interested or have anything to say.
-TS