Chapter I: Mars
Shepard walked tiredly around the armory absent-mindedly checking on the equipment around the room. The door opened revealing the muscle-bound frame of James Vega, the ISA soldier.
"Commander!" James shouted. "We can't just leave Anderson and everyone else on Earth! We should stay and fight!"
Shepard didn't pay any attention to the words of the muscular soldier.
"Didn't you hear me, commander? Turn the ship around!"
Shepard replied, "You wanna die, James? Because that's what's gonna happen if we go back. We need to go to the Citadel to get help if we even want a chance of beating the Reapers."
James's mouth worked furiously as he tried to come up with a retort, but when he was unable to, the ISA Soldier just clenched his fists and stomped out of the armory, his boots clanking on the floor.
Suddenly, Shepard received a call from Joker over the speaker, "Commander, we've got an incoming transmission from Admiral Hackett."
Shepard stopped and looked towards the speaker, laid down the equipment, sighed, and made his way towards the terminal nearby, which had Hackett's face on it.
Shepard saluted and said, "Yes sir?"
The face on the screen said, "Shepard, you made… out. That's... We don't… ve a lo… f time and this link isn't w… ing to well."
Shepard thought in his head, "You don't say…" before returning his attention to the screen. Shepard picked up a nearby candy bar, and began chewing on it, while he listened to the rest of Hackett's talk. "No wonder I'm getting soft around the edges," he thought. As Hackett's speech went on, his static became more and more frequent, but managed to pick out that he needed to go to Mars to find something that was replaced by a bunch of static, before the signal was lost. Shepard finished up his candy bar and began preparation for the mission. After heading back to his room to have a shower, James re-entered the armory. "Hey, has anyone seen my candy bar?"
The shuttle ride was bumpy through the storm on the way to the Mars facility. James didn't like it much, but the ISA Soldier didn't want to voice his opinions as no one else seemed to care. "They must be used to these Alliance shuttles," he thought, as being an ISA Soldier, he usually rode around on the Intruder crafts, which for James, was a lot more comfortable and airy, unless they were in space.
After landing, Shepard led the way out as he, James, and Kaidan dropped onto the Martian sand. "Alright, let's make this quick," Shepard commanded. "We'd better disappear before that storm hits."
Along the way to the facility, the team heard some certain faint sounds. It sounded somewhat like gunshots, but it didn't seem possible, as there was still no trouble on Mars. As they approached the valley towards the facility, they found their answer: Cerberus. Everyone Shepard encounters always comes back to visit him, and Cerberus just happened to be one of them. One of them was pointing his gun at one of the soldiers from the facility.
"OMG! They're executing them!" James exclaimed as the Cerberus trooper put a bullet in the soldier's head.
Shepard opened fire on the Cerberus troopers. He got one of them, but the other two managed to get behind some rocks. Usually that would have wasted Shepard's time, as he wouldn't be able to hit them, but right now, they had the higher ground, and James and Kaidan got the other two at the back of their heads, which were sticking out over the rocks.
"Nice shots," Shepard remarked to his fellow teammates.
After that, they continued their way towards the facility.
More guards were around on the way to the facility, but being only normal soldiers, they were taken down easily.
"Not many soldiers, which might infer that they had help from the inside," Kaidan remarked.
Shepard replied, "Yeah, looks that way."
"I wonder what they're doing here," Kaidan said.
"Yeah. We'll probably find out."
"You don't know?"
"How should I know? I haven't spoken to the Illusive man since I turned myself in."
Kaidan and Shepard argued all the way to the entrance of the facility.
"I shouldn't have to explain myself to you, Kaidan," Shepard said as he activated the elevator to the facility. As the elevator ascended, the team started hearing clanking sounds of something hitting metal, and gunshots. The sounds seemed to be coming from a nearby air vent. After a few more seconds, the grill of the air vent suddenly flew open as a familiar looking asari jumped out from it. As Liara T'soni landed on the ground floor, she turned around and immediately launched a singularity at the two Cerberus troopers coming out of the air vent. As they levitated slowly, Liara took out her predator pistol and shot them, and after they fell, made sure that they were dead. Instinctively, James raised his rifle as the team approached her.
"Whoa, easy there, James," Shepard said, while pushing down James's rifle. "She's with us."
Turning around, Liara saw Shepard. "Shepard! You're alive. Sorry about Earth. Is it bad?"
Before Shepard could say anything, Kaidan intercepted the conversation. "Yeah. It was kinda hard to leave."
"Kaidan. I'm sorry."
After a while, Shepard decided he needed to know more answers about why they were here. He asked, "Hackett told us to come here. Do you know what for, Liara?"
"I do, Shepard."
James spoke up, apparently excited. "Yes! Answers! At last!"
Before she decided to give answers, Liara walked towards the window and looked out. "I've found plans for a Prothean device in the archives. It could destroy the Reapers."
"Alright then," Shepard spoke out. "Let's get moving to the archives before Cerberus gets there."
Before anymore could be said, one of the doors nearby started sparking. Cerberus was coming.
"We've got company," Shepard said, removing his avenger rifle from his back. "James, we need you to cover our exits, just in case Cerberus beats us to the archives. Get back to the shuttle."
James retorted, "But I don't know how to use your Alliance space crafts."
"Now, Lieutenant."
After hesitating for a bit, James ran towards the elevator and began his descend back to the Alliance shuttle. Shepard and the rest of the team waited, and when the doors flew open, they let a barrage of bullets fly at the enemy, and took out a bunch of them straight away. A few more came in, but Liara got them with a singularity as Kaidan and Shepard riddled them with bullets. After the gun fight, the team progressed through the facility, eliminating a few more Cerberus troopers along the way. Eventually, they got to a security room, where Liara tried to get into the video feeds, while Shepard tried to get the pedway unlocked. As they attempted to unlock things, Kaidan noticed something on one of the screens.
"Hey, who's that?"
"Oh, that's Dr. Eva Core," Liara responded. "She got here about a week ago. Shepard, any luck?"
"Nope. All locked."
"Looks like we'll have to take the construction route there."
Finishing their business, Shepard and his team left for the construction area, which was outside. Shepard didn't really like to put on his helmet, as it obstructed others from seeing of his face, but he'd rather lose facial exposure to dying, any day. The storm was getting stronger, but the team still managed to get to the other side of the facility externally unharmed. As they approached the other side, Liara noticed something odd.
"These doors shouldn't be open."
As they walked in, they had to turn on their flashlights, as it was almost pitch black. As Kaidan turned his lights on, he noticed the bodies on the floor and jumped back a few steps.
"This is brutal, even for Cerberus standards," Liara stated. "They must have had help from the inside to unlock the doors."
As they walked down a staircase, they heard Cerberus chatter coming from behind some glass in front of them.
"Flashlights!" Liara shouted.
The others got the message and switched off their lights as the Cerberus troopers opened the blinds of the windows. Before anything extra happened, Shepard, Kaidan, and Liara took out one soldier each with one bullet each. Going through the now shattered window, the team found the depressurizing station. Shepard was internally happy after Liara depressurized the room, as he could now take off his helmet. After seeing movement on a screen, the team directed their attention to it. To their shock and dismay, there on the LCD display, was Dr. Eva Core, shooting the guards, and opening the doors, killing everyone in the room.
"Well," Shepard said. "At least we know how Cerberus got in."
"I should have realized it when I met her," Liara spoke.
"Come on. We should go. Talking will just waste time as Cerberus gets to the archives," Kaidan urged.
After the short talk, the team heads out through one of the doors to get to the tram station. Gunning down waves of Cerberus soldiers on the way there, the trio soon arrived at the door to the tram station. Before they opened the door to the tram station, Liara held out an arm, stopping them.
"There's an automated gun turret in the next room. When we open the door, it'll start shooting at us."
"How do you know it's active?" Shepard asked in amazement.
"Well," Liara began to say. "It's because…"
Kaidan interrupted. "Alright, alright. Talk later. I'll go first, and if I die, don't follow me."
The door hissed open, and Kaidan charged to the first piece of cover he saw, an outcropping of wall, expecting a hail of bullets. When nothing happened, the major carefully peeked around the wall.
The gun turret was there, alright, but it wasn't shooting at them. The command console was open, indicating that the turret mainframe had been recently accessed. Liara examined the screen carefully, but there was no record of who had accessed the mainframe before them. The Asari tapped a few buttons, and the turret came back online again. Shepard and Kaidan joined Liara at the console.
"Strange," Liara muttered. "Who could have done this?"
Shepard opened his mouth to give a suggestion, but was interrupted by the sight of Cerberus troops approaching in a tram. There was no way they could take them all easily. The commander's mind thought quickly.
"Liara," he said. "I've got an idea…"
As the Cerberus soldiers began to march through the airlock to the tram bay, they began to feel a sense of unease. Everything was still, no hostiles to be seen. So why was there such a feeling of dread in the air? Everything was exactly as they had left it, from the barrels of thermal energy to the boxes to the gun turret on the ceiling.
The gun turret that was pointing directly at them.
It took aim, the laser sights locking onto the captain.
"Oh…" he was all he said before his body was torn apart by a barrage of bullets. The rest of his troops dived for cover, but they were all mowed down by the relentless barricade of bullets as they tried to duck and cover.
Once the last Cerberus trooper fell down dead, Shepard, Liara, and Kaidan poked their heads out from behind a crate on the top floor. The commander and Kaidan bumped fists.
"Good thinking, commander. Now, let's get on that tram."
After getting on the tram and putting their helmets on again, Shepard and his friends headed, at long last, towards the Prothean Archives. A bomb stalled them, but all they did was hop onto a Cerberus tram that was sent to stop them. After killing the soldiers off, Shepard activated the tram and the team continued their journey to the archives.
"A good amount of Cerberus troops is probably waiting for us at the other end," Shepard said. "Be ready."
As the tram docked at the archive station, Kaidan stayed in the tram and unleashed a fury of bullets at the Cerberus troops, while Shepard and Liara ran out to flank the remaining soldiers. The plan almost worked well, and all that was left standing in their way were two Cerberus centurions and a Cerberus guardian. Singularity wouldn't work on the centurions, as they had their energy shielding up, so Shepard would have to go with the old fashion way here. He shot a few bullets at one of them as he ran for the second. He dodged just about every bullet that flew at him after using his adrenaline rush. His bullets hit a centurion in its body, and sent in flying from the force of the bullets, while he got his omni-blade ready for the second. As soon as he reached the second centurion, he thrust his energy weapon forward, and the centurion fell almost instantly. The second centurion was still down and all Shepard had to do was finish him off. The guardian was a little harder for Shepard. Normal bullets and omni-blades won't get through the shield, he was holding, and the guardian was smart, backing himself into the corner, so that he wouldn't get hit from behind. All it took to defeat him was a singularity from Liara, which worked on these types of Cerberus soldiers. Kaidan came out and finished the guardian with an overload to the face. Finally finishing the fire fight with the Cerberus troops, Shepard and his team headed towards the main room of the archives to get what they came for.
"Kaidan, scout around," Shepard ordered.
The Major went off to the side to check things out. Shepard and Liara took a good look at the screen, while taking off their helmet items. Before either of them could do anything, a holographic projection appeared behind them. Out stepped a familiar figure, one that Shepard knew too well.
"Shepard," the figure said, his robotic eyes gleaming.
Liara turned around swiftly, predator drawn; disappointed that it was only a hologram. "Illusive Man," she said, putting her predator back.
"Fascinating, these Protheans. They left us all this to discover, but we've squandered it," Illusive Man stated. "Nothing has been done about this information until now."
"I don't know what you want in all this, but we won't let you win!" Shepard stated angrily. "But we'll stop it. After we destroy the Reapers, we're coming for you."
Listening to that, the Illusive Man just chuckled to himself, and took a drag of his cigarette. "That might have scared me, if I was still the old Cerberus. You've gotten stronger Shepard, and so have I. I give you the new Cerberus!"
As he stretched his arms out, three slightly distorted figures walked into the hologram projector's range. The one on the far left was a little chubby, and wore a military fur coat-like outfit. He had a scar running down his face, and a thick moustache. The one in the middle had a long trench coat, long hair, sunglasses, and also a moustache. The one on the right also had a trench coat and sunglasses, but he was clean shaven, except for his hair, and had eyes that glowed through his sunglasses.
"Meet my new friends, Shepard," The Illusive Man grinned, taking another smoke of his cigarette. "I don't think you'll be able to take us down as easily as you hoped. With their help, Cerberus is as strong as ever!"
Shepard didn't recognize the figures, but he could tell they were trouble, except for the chubby one on the left. That one didn't really look intimidating.
"So Shepard," The Illusive Man spoke once again. "I'll leave you with this question. Why don't you join us again Shepard. After all, I gave your life back. With our new found strength, we'll find a way to control the Reapers once and for all!"
"We'll still stop you," Shepard said aggressively. "Liara."
Liara knew what to do and started looking for the Prothean plans.
"Don't interfere with my plans, Shepard," Illusive Man warned. "I won't warn you again."
Shepard ignored him, but an exclamation from Liara drew his attention. "Shepard! The files; they're being erased."
The Illusive Man grinned as he walked away from the hologram screen. As he sat down, he smoked his cigarette and said, "Goodbye Shepard."
"How is he doing it?" Shepard asked.
"It's local," Liara exclaimed. "Someone's uploading them."
As Kaidan was walking around, he heard computing noises, and went to investigate, his gun held in front of him in case it was something dangerous. In one of the nearby rooms, a woman was bent over a console, frantically tapping away at the keys.
"Hey!" Kaidan shouted to her. "Step away from the console!"
The woman stepped back and lashed out with her foot, knocking Kaidan down. After that, she smashed the console with her omni-tool, and made a dash for the exit.
"She's got the data!"
Shepard and Liara saw the woman run off, and gave chase. Shepard lead the chase, as they ran after the strange woman through the facility. The chase led outside, and Shepard grumbled as he put on his helmet once more. The woman didn't even slow down to put on a helmet, which Shepard found strange as he continued the run. Once in a while, she would turn back and shoot an incineration tech at them, but Shepard easily dodged them with his adrenaline rush. He didn't dare turn around to see how his teammates were doing, as he might slow down, or run into something. The chase led up some slopes, and down some slopes, as the woman tried many different tactics to try and slow Shepard and his team down. The chase eventually led to a landing pad, where the woman seemed cornered as the path stopped there. Shepard grinned, as he thought he has won, but suddenly, out of nowhere, a Cerberus Kodiak appeared, and the woman immediately jumped in through an open door. Shepard stopped in his tracks and stared at the craft, knowing that he couldn't shoot it down with the weapons he had right now.
"I see you, Mason!" A voice shouted from a platform somewhere under Shepard. Shepard decided to take a look, and there stood a baldish man with a beard, holding a rocket launcher. Two more ugly men came up to the platform and joined their friend.
"Strange people," Shepard thought to himself. They too were not wearing helmets. Very strange indeed.
Bringing his attention back to the Cerberus Kodiak as it began its ascend to the sky, Shepard spoke out on his comm link. "Normandy. James. Anyone?"
Shepard saw something else in the sky. It was approaching them. It was the Alliance shuttle.
"James here. This one's mine!" James said, as he flew the shuttle towards the Cerberus Kodiak.
The ISA soldier rushed his craft at the Cerberus Kodiak at breakneck speed. Just before the aircrafts made contact, James's shuttle suddenly spun to the right, missing the Cerberus shuttle completely.
"I can't control it!" James yelled on the radio. "Lousy Alliance crafts!"
Shepard winced as he saw the Alliance shuttle smash into the three ugly, bald men he saw earlier, killing them instantly.
"James is going to get in so much trouble for that," Shepard thought, but thoughts of James's eventually demotion were forced out of his head by the sight of Dr. Core's shuttle escaping into the sky. Shepard raised his gun and decided to open fire on it, although he knew it wouldn't do any good. Suddenly, at the corner of Shepard's eye, there was a glimmer of something shiny. Then there was an explosion, sending the Cerberus shuttle in a downward spiral. Shepard and his team jumped out of the way just in time as the shuttle ploughed into the ground where they had just been standing, sending out sparks, fire, and chunks of metal.
Kaidan coughed as he picked himself off the ground. "What was that?" He asked.
Shepard returned his attention to where the shiny glimmer had been before the shuttle crash. There, standing silhouetted against the sun, on a nearby walkway, was a lone man with a rocket launcher, although not one that Shepard had seen, or used before. He too was not wearing a helmet, but he had a scarf wrapped around his head. The man made his way towards Shepard and his crew, pulling the scarf off, revealing a shaven crown. The man surveyed the damage and stowed his rocket launcher over his back.
"Who are you?" Shepard asked.
The man extended a hand as he introduced himself. "Darius Mason, of the Red Faction."
Shepard questioned Mason for a bit. He asked about where he came from, and why he wasn't wearing a helmet. Mason just told him that he came from underground, and his people had adapted to Martian life, so he didn't have to wear a helmet on the surface.
"Sorry about the guys that James killed," Shepard told him. "I'll see to it that he gets demoted."
Mason waved a hand dismissively. "Nah, it's ok. If he didn't kill those guys, I would have killed them myself. Saved me the trouble."
"Who were they, anyway?" Shepard asked, looking at the remains of the ugly, bald men.
Mason opened his mouth to explain, but before any words left it, there was a sudden banging noise from the shuttle. Everyone looked at the destroyed Cerberus Kodiak as the door was blown off its hinges from some great internal force. There stood Dr. Core, only now she looked a little different. A little more like a robot. Then it hit them. Dr. Core had never been a human to begin with. The android stood there in the flaming wreckage of the shuttle, completely undamaged. Kaidan pushed Liara away as he pulled out his predator pistol and opened fire on the robot. The robot ran to the major and grabbed his helmet, unwavered by the gunfire.
"Kaidan!" Shepard shouted as he ran near the robot, predator drawn.
Touching an earpiece, the robot spoke. "Orders?" Most likely to the Illusive Man.
A voice buzzed out of the speaker, "Finish him."
The robot, obeying the order, turned around and walked towards the damaged shuttle, holding Kaidan by the helmet.
"No!" Shepard shouted as the robot smashed Kaidan against the shuttle twice, and then letting him fall to the floor. After that, it charged at Shepard. Shepard got ready to fire, but there was a sudden 'thunk' noise as the robot flew backwards at a terrific speed, crunching against the ruins of the Cerberus shuttle, and knocking out all its electronics.
Shepard turned around to see it was Mason who shot at it. "Thanks," Shepard said.
Joker's voice suddenly buzzed in Shepard's helmet. "Shepard! We've got Reaper signatures in orbit!"
James, who had climbed out of the Alliance shuttle, joined the party. "Dumb Alliance crafts," He grumbled. Give me an ISA Intruder anyday."
Shepard ran to the body of the major. "Take that robot with us!" He commanded James, as he picked up the major. As Shepard turned around and walked back to his teammates, the Normandy was arriving, ready to pick them up. As Reaper forced started descending on the planet, Shepard and his team got on the Normandy.
"You can't stay here, Mason. Not with the Reapers coming." Shepard said. "Come with us."
Mason nodded and climbed aboard. After everyone got on, the Normandy took off and got out of there before anything could stop them. Shepard wished they could have brought the shuttle too, as it didn't look too badly damaged. James thought otherwise. As Shepard brought Kaidan down to the med bay, the Normandy plotted a course for the Citadel.
Project Eel - Mars