MASS EFFECT: ENTANGLED SERIES

CHAPTER 31

THIS TAKES PLACE BETWEEN CHAPTERS 35-38 OF "SOLACE."

Krysta paused in her step as the data collected from her sentry interface visor flooded her visual acuity. There was no detection of enemies within the perimeter of the main building of the Sanctuary facility. Rows of temporary residential pods outside to her right grabbed her attention. She signaled James and Ashley to halt and then held two lateral parallel fingers in the same direction. In her mind, the mission objective may have been altered. If there were civilians miraculously still alive despite the current battle situation between Cerberus and the Reapers, then their primary focus should be on search and rescue despite how she longed to find Kai Leng.

Maneuvering out for further inspection in a direct line formation, Shepard took the lead while James stayed right behind her, and Ash took the rear. The Avenger assault rifle was held firmly against her right shoulder as Krysta used the scope to keep a close eye on any potential ambushes. The atmosphere was chillingly noiseless. Her heart nearly stalled in her chest as the first pod they encountered had the door wide open. Inside the abode were the slain bodies of three humans: A male, a female, and a small male child. "Oh God….," Ash gasped in pure shock, her voice quaked the words out.

James rushed to their sides to assess their vitals. He hung his head solemnly seconds later. "They're gone…fucking bastards. Did Cerberus do this?!" He jerked his head to his commander.

"No idea…possibility," Krysta examined the rest of the pod. "The Reapers are here too. Could be them as well. I bet these people were waiting to get inside and got caught in the crossfire." She moved out and over to the next adjacent pod, with similar results. A slain male turian and asari were riddled with the same bullet wounds. Shepard felt sick to her stomach. There were at least a hundred pods in the vicinity of the compound. Were they all filled with the same? Searching through each one would be extensive and time-consuming. For now, she had to assume that all occupants were casualties of the bloodshed. When the Reapers hit, the entire facility went on lockdown preventing them from going anywhere. That was the only outcome that made logical sense to her. Why would Cerberus just kill them? Her brown eyes painfully looked down at the endless row of pods. There was no sound or visual sight of life. "Search and Rescue is at a pause. We need to get back to finding Kai Leng and see what was going on here."

"I hope those Cerberus bastards inside had the same fate as these poor guys out here," James snarled through tightened teeth.

"Worse," Ash corrected him.

Twenty minutes later after digging deeper into the facility and unveiling Cerberus' mask, Krysta and her team uncovered labs. In their journey, they learned that Cerberus was turning civilians that took refuge into varieties of Reaper ground troops. But why? Why was the Illusive Man doing this? The research staff inside documented long observation reports. None of the staff was alive; their corpses were found everywhere. The newest lab that they found seemed to be in an early stage of the transformation. There were half-human, half-reaper bodies in the protective chambers. All were deceased. This time, there were more turian and asari than humans. Cables and wires protruded sickeningly from their naked craniums and torsos. A few had cabling down their throats; a close resemblance to David's fate by his brother, Dr. Archer. Ashley cringed at their discovery. "I think I'm going to puke."

"Gah, there were more civilians than this! Whole families came here per the data we recovered from the terminals out front. Where are they? Where are the children?" James grumbled in irritation.

While the two were conversing, Shepard continued down to the lower section of the lab where there were warning signs just outside a large incinerator unit. Her knees became weak, and she felt like they would buckle any second. "James..." Her mouth felt dry when she called to him. "I think I know what happened to the rest of the ones not selected…."

"Commander…...don't tell me…is that what I think it is?" Williams whimpered.

"This is pissing me off!" James yelled. "You mean to tell me that Cerberus, a fucking pro-human organization just burns alive those that couldn't be turned into Reapers?!"

Krysta's eyes flickered his way as she regained her composure as much as her heart hurt. "The grim reality is that it's probably a much better fate…I hope Cerberus didn't kill them alive…I'm going to shut this fucking place down." She clenched the holder of her weapon tighter in anger. "Let's move…"

When they exited the labs, their next room was just as empty, but this time there were scattered remains of Reaper ground troops including husks, two marauders, and one dead cannibal. Shepard paused at their bodies. "They were not shot by Cerberus…some had stab wounds and one is cut in half…almost with a knife?"

"Or a sword..." Ashley interjected with narrowed eyes. "Kai Leng?"

Shepard crept near the dead cannibal and inspected the fatal slash mark. Her gloved fingertips trembled just an inch above the distorted flesh. Her mind flashed to Bray. "You think these are from the labs or already reaperfied?" James' question snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Have no idea…given the proximity, my creds would be on civilians…" Shepard stood back and refrained from looking any further at the mutated batarian form. "Miranda is here somewhere. Let's go find her before Kai Leng does."

Alliance Cruiser outside Pax,

"Hey, everyone has been kind of quiet since Thessia...you doing okay?" Rhodes asked as he sat next to Alivia in the briefing room. They were the first ones there from their team.

"I don't think the shock has worn off to fully assess how I do feel," She muttered sadly. "The whole ordeal felt so surreal. Those people…they weren't husks…are we going to face anymore like that?" She sighed heavily. The idea of shooting civilians mind-controlled by the Reapers did not resonate well with her soul. There was no way she could turn a blind eye and pull the trigger. There had to be a way to go into the situation without causing severe injury to them or the troops.

"My old man was a huge reader of ancient Earth literature. He loved the story of Inferno by Dante. The protagonist was led through different layers of Hell by this guy named Virgil. Each layer had some grotesque torture for the offenders. I'm trying to figure out what layer Thessia was. I thought for a sec we would lose Torsk for sure."

"Krogan are tough," She cracked a meek smile. Movement near the doorway caught her eye and her smirk grew. "Speaking of which." They turned their heads to see Ulana and Torsk coming in with Alliance brass in the rear.

The Alliance officer moved to the chair in front of where they sat. "Your results are outstanding."

"We lost many," The turian jabbed. "I wouldn't call it outstanding."

Aliva froze at the tension and wondered if the higher-up would come back with some snarky remark about her transgression. Instead, the older male acknowledged her correction with a brief head nod. "Poor words. The Alliance is impressed by how well your team works together during these rough missions. I'm afraid your next assignment will be tougher and more of a permanent nature."

"Which is?" The Urdnot Clan member snorted.

"All spec ops are being directed to London, Earth. There have been more Reaper ground troops staged there and we believe something soon will happen at that very location. We are losing men by the hundreds daily in the city and its surrounding suburbs. Most of the civilians have been evac, but Anderson is calling for more replenishments and you guys are the closest ones that we have. You will take a shuttle immediately to London and check in with Admiral Anderson for your assignment. With such a huge Reaper presence, you will remain there until the war comes to an end."

Alivia's silver eyes widened by the details. His last words were ominous. There was no end in sight for the war, and yet there was speculation that a huge confrontation was going to take place at one of Earth's most populated capitals. "This is it…," She whispered.

Mindoir,

After they arrived at the Cerberus outpost on Mindoir, Bray was ushered away quickly into a much smaller room than he was stowed away in, clothed only in pants with no shirt or shoes. His wrists and ankles were now bound by electrical holo shackles. An hour later, Jones braggartly waltzed in with a smug sneer. The xenophobic male looked on as Bray rose from where he was seated against the far wall of the room. Both sets of his batarian eyes glared with hatred towards the man. Bray's body still ached as it recovered from his wounds. "Another session?" He bucked at the visit, referring to the other times that Jones came in to have a little "chat" with him to cause intense physical pain through torture. "You get off on this shit, don't you?"

"Welcome to Mindoir, batarian. Your kind must know this place very well," Jones ignored his comment. "I put the message into Shepard. I can't believe she may come to save you…so disgusting."

"I told you before, dipshit. Shepard won't come for me. I'm nothing to her." Bray bared his teeth as a low growl of resentment came up from his throat.

Two more Cerberus operatives walked into the small room with one holding onto a syringe. Bray picked up on the immediate threat instantly and put up his guard as he eyed the trio cautiously. Jones watched on in amusement. "I hope you are wrong. I will enjoy killing you in front of her." He then flagged one of the operatives. That one opened their omni and pressed a button on the screen. Seconds later, an excruciating electrical shock coursed through Bray's arms and legs causing him to cry out and collapse onto his knees. Once he fell over to recover from the attack, the two operatives rushed in at each of his sides. The one on his left wrapped their right arm tightly around his neck to act like a vice while the other moved in with the syringe. Bray's immediate natural reaction was to recover his air passages, so his hands gripped at the man's arm in a desperate struggle. He spied the needle near his skin, and he relaxed a little to regain leverage then used the built-up inertia to tumble the operative holding him into the other making them both collapse onto the floor. He jumped onto his feet and swiftly kicked one as they went for the syringe on the floor. The impact caused them to reel further away, then he turned his attention to the first offender. Using his skull as a weapon, he rammed the guy straight in the chest with his head hard causing them to double over before he used his contained wrists to strike them violently in the head.

All four of his eyes now locked in on Jones who stood motionlessly taking the scene all in. Growling at him, Bray lunged, flinching to ignore the shocking pain from his restraints as one operative managed to utilize the confining trigger. Jones remained still as he looked on with a cocky smirk of triumph on his face. Just as Bray was near, Jones utilized the built-up biotic energy he was harnessing and placed the charging batarian in stasis. "Nice try," The man scoffed before he swiftly kicked Bray hard back to the ground. Storming up and picking up the dropped syringe, Jones kicked Bray again to keep him pinned down. Leaning down, Jones inserted the needle in his upper right bicep without any bedside manners. Bray hissed from the pain as the needle penetrated his skin and muscular tissue. He felt the release of the liquid and then the needle was removed. Unsure what the cocktail was, Bray had to assume he had only seconds left to do what damage he could. Using the unguarded time, he managed to maneuver away and staggered to his feet as he felt his head become heavy and his legs felt like jello. The room started to spin as he tried to fight the feeling of going into an unconscious state. Jones flagged the operatives to stay back as he watched Bray's attempt to strike back in amusement. Shaking his head to fight the sensation, Bray pushed his body to move, but after two steps, his legs gave way and he collapsed to the floor on his knees. He could hear Jones' taunting laughter. "What's the matter, batarian? Having trouble?"

Unable to combat the effects of the concoction any longer, Bray fell onto his back as his body became limp. The last image he saw was Jones standing over him, looking on. "Sweet dreams, four-eyed," The man's voice echoed in his ears until darkness overtook him.

Normandy,

Krysta held her Desert Eagle pistol in her hand as she waited for her selected panels to be set in place. "Partitions set for 7.62 meters," EDI's voice confirmed over the intercom.

The closest set of panels she had for Kai Leng's face was a Cerberus soldier. Extending her arms out as she narrowed her sights, she pulled the trigger and dispersed the first clip into one panel, nailing the intended target dead-on. The onboard shooting range system signaled a chirp for each direct hit. Popping out the clip, she inserted the next one and moved over to the second panel. Lining up, the brief pause allowed her to think about what she recently learned. Soon after she left Omega back in the hands of Aria T'Loak, Cerberus managed to infiltrate the asteroid station again and left with Sh'sk, Avery, and Bray. A brief data mine from Sanctuary revealed that Sh'sk was whisked away as a test subject for Henry Lawson and most likely was the dead cannibal she found outside the lab. Avery and Bray were MIA, but communication from Avery stated that she and Bray were at a Cerberus outpost on Mindoir with Bray severely hurt. Before the message, the Normandy's course was set for the signal from the tracking device that Miranda put on Leng at Sanctuary. Where they would find him, they would find the Illusive Man and put an end to Cerberus' interference once and for all. She lost so much already because of them. However, Avery's message put her in a conundrum. It was a purposeful diversion. The Illusive Man knew she was gaining ground and the bait was set. He knew more about her than she realized, and lives were at stake. If she failed to deviate to Mindoir, then Avery's and Bray's lives were forfeited. If she turned away from the signal now, she could lose their one chance to find Kai Leng and stop Cerberus, which could cost her the war. It was Virmire all over again and the rage inside was seeping out. "Fuck!" She screamed through hot tears as she squeezed the trigger relentlessly against the panel. Despite the clip being empty, she kept pulling the trigger in anguish.

Breaking down, she could hear Kaidan's familiar voice in the back of her mind, "But sometimes the way a thing goes down does matter, Shepard. Later, when you have to live with yourself. Knowing that you acted with integrity—then it matters."

"Kaidan…" She choked out his name through the flood of tears that poured down her cheeks. Gripping the pistol, she yelled out once more and threw the empty weapon right at the panel before initiating the implant in her head to harness dark energy. Her entire body became engulfed with the familiar purple aurora.

"Shepard, using biotics is ill-advised onboard the Normandy," EDI's voice warned over the intercom as the AI detected what she was doing.

"I know," She took a breath to calm herself and dissipated the aurora. Defeated, she moved to the elevator to head back to the solidarity of her cabin. "EDI, set notification one hour from our destination."

"Notification confirmed."

She thought back to the location of where the obvious trap was. Why was Cerberus taking her there? Mindoir was a colony hit hard with batarian slavers in the past. There were few colonists established there left. With the Alliance distracted with Reapers, she figured Cerberus used the opportunity to put a temporary outpost there for operations in the Traverse. With a lack of population, the colony was not targeted by the Reapers so far. Was it a coincidence that the colony location was chosen or was there a more deranged motive in the decision making?