Freedom's Progress was a small human colony on the edge of the Terminus systems, located on a cold and remote planet rarely visited by human kind. Shepard wasn't sure what the purpose of the colony had been, but knew that every last occupant of the place had gone missing all at once. She had to privately agree with the Illusive Man that the tactic seemed like something only the Reapers would be capable of.
Almost immediately after Shepard, Miranda, and Jacob disembarked from the shuttle on Freedom's Progress, they were greeted to gunfire from mechs assigned to protect the colony from alien intrusion. Most attacks on human colonies that far into the traverse were carried out by batarian slavers and pirates that frequented the stars of the Terminus systems. Colony mechs weren't supposed to shoot at human targets, but they had clearly malfunctioned.
They took them out with relative ease. Miranda and Jacob were both skilled biotics, and their aim with a gun wasn't bad either. Shepard wasn't sure if she trusted them, but they would at least keep her covered under gunfire. There was no suitable replacement for Garrus, though, or for the combined biotic powers Liara and Kaidan brought together on the field, and she couldn't help but think that Tali would have made even quicker work of the mechs with a simple hack into their systems. She wanted her old squad back.
The colony had an eerie, unsettling feeling to it as they wandered through, searching homes and buildings for any sign of life. There weren't any bodies, and in some homes food sat cold on the table, as though the occupants had just sat down to eat and then disappeared. The only sound as they moved around was the noise of crunching snow beneath their feet. The snow fell in soft, gentle flakes from above, but the cold only made Shepard more apprehensive.
They encountered more mechs as they progressed through the colony; some of them were heavy duty infantry mechs meant for battle, and those proved to be a little harder to take down than the simple LOKI models they'd encountered before. Getting her blood flowing with a battle against mechs helped Shepard get into the right mindset for battle. They may not have been intelligent, like geth, but the enemy felt similar enough that for a moment she could trick herself into thinking it was Liara and Kaidan flanking her with barriers and biotic throws, rather than these two strangers in Cerberus attire.
"What could have happened here?" Jacob asked as they passed through another home and out the other side. Dolls lay on the floor, and snow had been blown in through the open doorway.
"Hopefully we can find some clues," Shepard said. She didn't like it at all. Perhaps the Illusive Man had known how bad it would be here, to play to her sympathies. She hated to think it was working, but the thought came that if he was really looking to stop whatever was doing this, and if it really was the Reapers, it might be worth sticking around with his funding to put an end to it.
Wrex would have told her she was being too soft, if she'd voiced the thought.
They moved across a shared yard into another housing unit. The door was locked, but Shepard bypassed it with a newly received omni-tool. Before they'd left the Cerberus station, Miranda had outfitted her with new armor and weapons. They didn't fit quite like Alliance-issue armor, but they were sturdy enough and the shields were more than sufficient.
When the door slid open, they were greeted to a group of quarians, one of them pointing a gun at them.
"Stop right there, stop or I'll shoot!" the male quarian with the gun shouted.
Shepard put her hands up and her new squad-mates followed suit. One of the other quarians was on the ground looking at something, unperturbed, while the other hopped up.
"Prazza, I told you I would handle any intrusions."
Shepard's heart skipped a beat. The voice was familiar…but was it really her? Her suit had changed, a deeper purple, with new upgrades, but it must be. She wished it was easier to tell quarians apart.
The quarian in question looked up and a gasp escaped her mask. "Shepard…?"
"Tali?" Shepard felt flooded with relief. A friendly face, so to speak, in all this chaos and confusion went a long way in assuaging some of her discomfort.
Tali pushed the other quarian away and stepped forward unsurely. "Shepard, you…it can't be…" she stepped closer and closer. "You were dead…we saw you…we…we heard you die."
"Heard me?" Shepard's skin prickled with goosebumps. Had her comm link been on when the air left her suit? She couldn't remember.
"Garrus had you on the comm link," Tali confirmed. "How are you alive?" She eyed Jacob and Miranda unsurely, noting their Cerberus attire. "What are you doing with Cerberus?" There was an accusation in her tone.
"It's a long story, Tali. It's me, I swear. Remember that shooting contest we had with your drone? And I beat Garrus and I never let him live it down? Or…what about the time we took out a geth armature while you were perched on my shoulder in the mako?" She was trying to think of any instance that might assure Tali that it was really her.
Tali seemed to relax. "I don't know how it's true, but you're really here. How long have you been…alive? …and with Cerberus?"
Shepard laughed. "A few hours, maybe? To answer both questions."
"Have you contacted Garrus? No one's heard from him in ages. He really took your death hard, Shepard. Worse than any of us."
Shepard shook her head. "I don't know how to get in touch with him or where he is."
"You'll find him," Tali assured her. "What's with Cerberus, then?"
"They, um…" Shepard thought of a way to say it that didn't sound crazy, but there was none. It was crazy enough that she was standing in front of someone who had heard her die. "They rebuilt me. Brought me back. I'm investigating this colony with them, since we heard the humans disappeared. What are you doing here?"
"One of our own was here on his Pilgrimage. A man named Veetor. He came here to help the colony, get away from large crowds. He's a little…"
"Unstable," Prazza, the male quarian finished for her.
"We heard about the humans disappearing, but Veetor's suit was still giving readings, though we think it's been damaged. We came to find him, but when he saw us approaching, he ran to the other side of the colony and locked himself inside one of the buildings. We think he programmed the mechs to attack anything that moves," Tali explained.
"Maybe the quarian can tell us what happened here," Miranda suggested.
Shepard nodded. "Let us help you, Tali. We'll get you to Veetor. He can potentially tell us what happened to the people who lived here and you can get him home."
"We won't turn down the help." Tali sighed, "Damn, Shepard, it's so good to see you…alive and breathing…I just can't believe it. Two years…"
"I know. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it."
"Are we moving or not?" Prazza demanded.
"Okay, we'll take out the drones, you make your way through the main yard past the side door here. There's a compound of buildings on the other side where Veetor is hiding," Tali told them.
Shepard beckoned for Miranda and Jacob to follow her. They moved out of the side door and into the expansive yard stretching between the two building compounds.
"Do you really think we should trust the quarians, Shepard?" Miranda asked.
"Tali is the quarian that was with me when I fought Saren. I'd trust her with my life. If you're not comfortable with that, feel free to go back to the shuttle. I'll do this on my own," Shepard replied gruffly.
"No need to get defensive, commander. I was only asking."
"Forgive me if I'm defensive around two strangers who pulled me back from the dead and immediately thrust me into battle," Shepard growled. "It might take me a little while to trust you."
"I rebuilt you from nothing, Shepard. If you should trust anyone, it should be me." Miranda's reply was terse.
"Enough!" Jacob spat. "Let's just focus on the mission."
Shepard could agree with that. They made their way across the yard, the quarians behind them taking out security drones that had been alerted to their presence, but halfway across the yard, a series of LOKI models and larger mechs came flooding from the buildings.
Shepard ducked behind some stairs to take cover and fired on them, too preoccupied to attempt hacking into any of them. Guns fired and missiles flew, smoke clouding the battlefield as they fought. The quarians stepped into the fray, some of them trying to hack the mechs, and others firing on them. Miranda, to Shepard's surprise, put a barrier around Tali while she worked, while Jacob covered both of them with gunfire against the mechs.
From her position, Shepard was at a good vantage point to shoot without being shot at. It provided some good practice for restoring her aim, her arms rusty from two years of disuse…or non-existence. She wasn't completely clear on the full story of how they'd rebuilt her, and she didn't particularly want to know the details.
When the mechs were down and the smoke had cleared, two of the quarians were dead, face down in pools of their own blood, and a few of the others were injured. Thanks to Miranda and Jacob, Tali was unscathed.
Shepard, Jacob, and Miranda helped the quarians carry their wounded into a nearby housing unit on the other side of the yard. Miranda offered Tali some medi-gel, but it would take more than a little assistance for Shepard to trust the woman.
"Go now, Shepard. Veetor should be in one of the buildings behind this one," Tali told her.
"Tali, I'm sorry about your other squad mates. They…" Shepard started.
"Prazza was an idiot. He stormed into the battle unprepared even though I told him to hang back. I'm not saying I wished him dead, but a fool gets what they deserve. Now go on. I'll tend to the wounded here." She urged Shepard onward.
They stepped out of the housing unit and searched the buildings in the rest of the compound until they found one with a locked door, noises issuing from inside. Shepard used her omni-tool to force the lock open and they stepped inside.
A grid of vid screens and terminal interfaces had been placed upon the wall, all the lights were shut off, and a single quarian sat in a seat in front of the vid screens, shaking and holding his arms.
"M-monsters coming back," The quarian quavered. "Have to hide. No monsters. No swarms. No-no-no monsters…no-no swarms…no-no-no-no…"
"Veetor…?" Shepard moved carefully forward.
"No. No Veetor here. Monsters can't find him. No monsters. No swarms…" the quarian shook his head, refusing to look at them.
"Veetor, it's okay. You're safe now. We're here to help you."
"He's useless," Miranda sighed.
Shepard's blood boiled, but it wasn't the time to snap at anyone. She put a hand gently on Veetor's shoulder and he jumped, whirling around and standing up. He relaxed a little when he saw them.
"You're…you're humans. But…the monsters didn't get you?"
"What happened here, Veetor?" Shepard asked gently. "Why was there no sign of a struggle? Why didn't the colonists fight back?"
"The monsters…the swarms…" Veetor shuddered. "They didn't see. The monsters came. They took everyone. They didn't see, but I see everything…" He wandered back to the terminal interface and hit a button. Security footage popped up on the vid screens above.
The footage was blurry and hard to make out, but there was something on the screen. Swarms of bug-like creatures flew buy, and some sort of vehicle…or pod…was being moved past a gate. A creature was walking alongside the pod, difficult to see on the poor-quality footage. It didn't look like anything Shepard had ever seen.
"Oh my God." Miranda moved closer to the screen. "I think that's a Collector."
"What's a Collector?" Shepard asked. She'd never heard the term applied to a lifeform before. "Some kind of alien?"
"They're a species that lives somewhere beyond the Omega 4 relay," Jacob explained. "Only a few people have ever seen them in person."
"Usually they work through intermediaries. Like slavers or mercs," Miranda added. "If they're involved with the Reapers somehow…it could explain how the colonists went missing."
"They have access to advanced technology. It's possible they have something that could incapacitate an entire colony at once," Jacob said.
"The seeker swarms…" Veetor sounded beside the terminal. "No one can hide. No one can hide. The seeker finds you…freezes you…then the monsters take you away. They took all the people, put them onto a ship…took them away. But they'll be back for me. No one escapes…"
Tali emerged in the doorway as Veetor finished. "Veetor, you're still alive!"
"He's in quite a state, Tali, he needs to be looked after," Shepard said.
"We should take him with us." Miranda stepped forward. "He has valuable data."
"Like hell you will," Tali growled. "He's coming home with us."
"Shepard, you can't just let them take him. We need that data," Miranda protested.
"You can take whatever data you want from Veetor's omni-tool, but Veetor comes with us," Tali said. "This isn't negotiable."
"I'm not forcing a traumatized quarian to come with us," Shepard told Miranda and Jacob. "We take the data and we leave."
"Thank you, Shepard." Tali was visibly relieved. "I'm glad someone has their head on in this operation."
"I could use a friend on this squad, Tali," Shepard offered. "Someone I can trust."
She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Shepard, but I have my own mission. It's too important to abandon, even for you. If I'm still alive when it's over…I'll consider it. Cerberus or not, I trust you. Whatever you're doing, I hope it works out. And I hope you find the others. They'll want to know you're alive before they have to hear it on the news."
Miranda pulled the data from Veetor's omni-tool onto hers while Jacob shut down the remaining mech systems through the terminal interface. Tali walked with them back to the shuttle.
"I'm so confused, Tali. I don't know if I'm doing the right thing," Shepard confided. "But it seems like…even though Cerberus is terrible, they want to stop whoever is doing this to the colonies. I think it has something to do with the Reapers. Shouldn't I work with them, use their resources, even if it means having to answer to Cerberus? Shouldn't that price be worth paying to take on the Reapers?"
Tali shrugged. "I can't answer that for you, Shepard. But I know that you're one of the smartest and bravest soldiers I've ever worked with. You gave me confidence in my own abilities, which was worth more than anything I brought back from my pilgrimage. I trust you and I know that whatever choice you make, it will be the right one."
They hugged, and Shepard felt unwelcome tears welling in her eyes. She didn't want to leave Tali behind on Freedom's Progress. She needed a friend, now more than ever.
"Good luck with your task, Tali," she said, wiping her eyes.
"Keelah se'lai, Shepard. I know we'll meet again."
Watching the quarian slowly fade from view as the shuttle pulled away from the colony was one of the hardest things Shepard had ever done. She decided, whatever the Illusive Man's plans, she would work with him, but she was going to have a say in the squad that took on the problem. She wasn't going to take orders, but she couldn't' squander the opportunity to have nearly unlimited funds with which to fight what was very likely the Reaper threat. She would do whatever she had to if it meant putting an end to them.
Back on the Ceberus station, the Illusive Man debriefed with Shepard in the darkened hologram projection room. Shepard agreed to work with him, because she knew what was at stake. He agreed that the Collectors were likely working in conjunction with the Reapers, so the goal was to find out what their purpose was, save the colonists that had been taken, and ultimately stop the Reapers. The Council would never afford Shepard this opportunity, so she had to seize it. Part of her did wonder if she was agreeing to work with Cerberus because she felt indebted to them for bringing her back to life, but it didn't matter what the motivation was. Their end goal was the same.
The Illusive Man had assured Shepard that she would be in charge of building the squad to take on this task. She'd asked yet again about her old squad mates, but he barely addressed the issue. Wrex was on Tuchanka, as he'd planned, and wouldn't be interested in fighting alongside Cerberus anyway. Kaidan would never turn away from the Alliance to fight with Cerberus. As for Garrus and Liara, it was still largely unknown where their exact location was. All he could say about Liara is that she was somewhere on Illium.
"I have a set of dossiers that have been prepared for you," The Illusive Man explained. "These are all skilled individuals with a unique set of abilities that they can bring to the team. They've been painstakingly compiled. Some of them have been informed of the potential contracts, others will require some convincing. I've heard how persuasive you can be, Shepard. You can take as many or as few of these people along with you as you please. I recommend collecting as much help as you can get. You, of all people, know what kind of enemy we're up against. Miranda will provide the dossiers. Remember, Shepard, I'm just giving the direction. What you do with it is up to you, but I trust you'll make the right decision."
"And the Council? Should I tell them I'm alive?" She asked.
"I'm still deciding on what to do about the news. For the time being you may want to avoid the Citadel. Oh, and one more thing, Shepard."
"What's that?" Shepard asked, annoyed with the man. She could read all the dossiers she wanted, skill couldn't replace battle-earned trust.
"I've found a pilot I think you might like."
The hologram communication cut out. Shepard turned around to retreat back up the stairs only to see Joker standing before her in full Cerberus attire. She couldn't formulate any words at the surprise she had when she saw him, so instead she instinctively wrapped her arms around him in a hug.
He smiled. "Glad to see you in one piece, Commander."
"I'm just glad to have a familiar face around here again. But what are you doing with Cerberus?"
"Follow me." He led her back up the stairs and around to a long corridor. "When you died…God it's crazy that you're alive again, by the way. But when you died, everything fell apart. Everything the battle with Sovereign stirred up, the Council just wanted it gone. The team split up, Liara and Garrus took it really hard. And the Alliance grounded me. They took away the only thing I cared about. Cerberus gave me a chance to be a pilot again, so I joined them."
"What do you think, though, Joker? Can we trust the Illusive Man?" Shepard asked, thankful beyond belief to have someone, anyone, she could trust with her.
"Trust him? Nah. I don't trust anyone who makes more than I do. But…I gotta figure, Cerberus aren't all bad. They brought you back, right? And they let me fly again. And of course…there's this."
He opened the door at the end of the corridor and led her into a large hangar. The lights shot on one by one to illuminate the massive ship occupying the space below. Shepard's heart felt like bursting at the sight of it. There she was, her Normandy, better looking and improved, certainly, but there all the same.
"Wait til you see the inside, commander. It's like my baby, but better! We'll have to give her a name, of course."
Shepard smiled. "I can think of a good one."