"More of them? How many guards does the Shadow Broker have?"
"I told you."
They weren't even in the ship for two minutes before more agents opened fire on the trio. It seemed to Kacey that the Shadow Broker had an endless supply of mercenaries.
"Hold your positions." The Shadow Broker said over the intercom, "No matter the cost."
"And Garrus thinks I give out suicidal orders." Kacey said.
The trio darted down the hallway once the last merc went down, encountering more as they turned right around a corner. The close quarters they were fighting in wasn't ideal, but Kacey knew they would have to make do. Once they got Feron and escaped, she would have to continue to prepare for her own suicide mission.
Darting down the halls of the ship and taken out what she assumed was the last of the Shadow Broker's agents was simple affair. For the most part. Despite their superior shields, the mercs inside were lousy shots at close range, which was good for Kacey and Liara, but not so much for Garrus, whose sniper rifle wasn't as effective in the close quarters of the ship as outside.
"Look at the energy flowing through those cables." Liara pointed out as they ran down the hall, "The Broker's threaded his information network through the entire ship! The power to run it must be tremendous."
"Okay, but where are we going, exactly?" Kacey asked, "Because all these halls look the same to me."
"We're headed towards the prison block…and Feron." Liara said, "I've downloaded the ship's layout, so we'll be fine."
It didn't take long for thee trio to reach the prison block and attract the attention of the armed guards. One grenade, two concussive shots and a singularity later and they manged to clear out the prison block. Kacey quickly hacked the door open to find a drell strapped down in some weird-looking chair on the other side of the glass. Liara ran up to the glass, distraught.
"Feron!" she said.
"Liara?" The Feron said weakly as he opened his eyes slowly.
"Hold on, we're getting you out of here!"
Liara ran over to the terminal and started to type away on it. Feron's initial shocked expression was followed by a panicked one as he tried to shout, "No!"
The chair suddenly electrocuted him, causing him to writhe in agony. Kacey widened her eyes at the sight; it now made sense. The Shadow Broker was torturing Feron.
"Feron!" Liara said.
"Are you alright?" Kacey asked, "What the hell is the Broker trying to do to you?"
"The equipment is sensitive to tampering." Feron explained through deep breaths, "This chair plugs into the Broker's info network. You have to shut off the power. Pull me out now and my brain cooks."
"What the hell?" Kaidan said.
"And yet somehow not the most disturbing or fucked up thing we've come across." Garrus mused.
"Do you know where we can cut off the power?" Liara asked.
"It won't be easy." Feron said, "You'll have to go to central operations."
"Easy or not, we're all getting out of here." Kacey said.
"Good." Feron wheezed, "Central operations is just down the hall. You know the Shadow Broker is waiting for you, right?"
"Good." Kacey said, "Makes things more interesting."
"We'll be back for you Feron." Liara said.
"I'll try not to go anywhere."
…
It didn't take long to reach the Shadow Broker's office. As the trio walked in, guns ready, they were greeted with an unusual sight. The Shadow Broker wasn't any type of alien species that Kacey recognised. He was much larger than any krogan, bulkier too. His face was a deep crimson red that looked like some type of cockroach. With ten deep black eyes, black horns and a mouth that split in three directions with several sharp, pointed teeth.
Kacey pointed her pistol at him; she held no fear. If she was able to take down Sovereign, she could handle this.
He remained at his desk; staring blankly at Kacey before turning to face Liara, who like Garrus also had her gun out and pointed at him. He returned his gaze to Kacey, composed as he spoke bluntly.
"Here for the drell?" he asked plainly, with a growling, deep voice, "Reckless, even for you, Commander."
"Reckless? He really thought you storming his base was more reckless than driving a tank through a Mass Relay." Kaidan laughed.
"Clearly." Kacey said, laughing along, "I thought the same thing."
Kacey wanted to laugh; compared to everything else she had done; this was pretty tame. Nuking a facility, letting the rachni queen go, blowing up a science lab…she was capable of more reckless things than this.
"You don't know me." Kacey replied, "And speak for yourself; that bombing on Illium wasn't exactly subtle."
"Extreme, but necessary." The Shadow Broker replied.
"No it wasn't!" Liara countered, "Neither was caging Feron for two years!"
"Doctor T'Soni." The Shadow Broker turned his attention to Liara, "Your interference caused all this. Feron betrayed me when he handed you Shepard's body. The drell is simply paying the price."
"Someone was bound to come after you for working with the Collectors." Kacey said.
"It was a mutually beneficial partnership." The Shadow Broker replied, "Your arrival is convenient. The Collectors' offer still stands."
"Over my dead body."
"Enough talk. My operations are too crucial to be compromised by a traitor."
"You're quite confident for someone with nowhere left to hide." Liara spat.
The Shadow Broker scoffed as he turned his attention towards Garrus, "You travel with fascinating companions, Doctor. It's good that you brought Archangel, T'Soni. Your friend's bounty is still unclaimed."
"You're not putting a hand on anyone!"
"It's pointless to challenge me, asari." The Shadow Broker said, "I know your every secret, while you fumble in the dark."
"Is that right?"
"Matriarch Benezia never told you about your father being part krogan, did she?" The Shadow Broker said, startling Liara before turning his attention to Garrus, "As for you, you and your father verbally clashed on one particular case you were working on while at C-Sec, because your father let the suspect go due to your rule-breaking approach to building up a case. That was the last time you saw your father face to face. He even threatened to lock you up himself."
"How...?" Garrus trailed off.
The Shadow Broker then turned his attention to Kacey, who despite wearing a brave face, was a little nervous.
"And as for you, Commander," The Shadow Broker said, "Your Alliance records are under a tight lock and seal, in the highest levels of classification and in a place we have yet to reach. I must admit it is unusual for the Alliance to hide such records, particularly of their best soldier. No one knows what is in those records but you, Commander Kacey Shepard."
Kacey avoided Liara and Garrus' gaze as she scoffed at the Broker, "That's it? Nothing else? I'm hurt, truly."
"Your confidence is misplaced."
"Is that so?" Liara interjected, "You're a yahg, a pre-spaceflight species quarantined to their homeworld for massacring the Council's first contact teams. This base is older than your planet's discovery, which probably means you killed the original Shadow Broker sixty years ago then took over. I'm guessing you were taken from your world by a trophy hunter who wanted a slave…or a pet. How am I doing?"
The Shadow Broker stood up, showing how tall he really was by towering over the trio. He immediately punched his desk, breaking it in half and throwing it at the trio, knocking Garrus unconscious as Kacey and Liara dodged the table. The Shadow Broker growled as he pulled out his gun and the fight began.
Kacey switched over to her assault rifle and used the disruptor ammo to open fire on the Broker, keeping him busy while Liara checked on Garrus.
"He's unconscious, but alive." Liara confirmed.
"That's now the second time that's happened." Kacey mused as she fired a concussive shot.
Liara's biotics came in handy as they bust through the Broker's shields. Kacey switched over to inferno ammo as she moved around the room, bouncing between cover and the Broker's bullets while firing her own. Once the armour was incinerated, the Broker activated some weird mechanism that coated him in a white, glowing shield. Liara tried to shoot the Broker, but the bullets simply bounced off the shield.
"The shield's kinetically sensitive!" Liara said, "Energy and projectiles are bouncing off!"
"Then we do this the hard way." Kacey said, cracking her knuckles.
She ran up to the Broker and punched him three times in the face, knocking him back. As she ran of to close the gap, he brought out a shield and hit Kacey with it, sending her flying.
"Okay, new plan." Kacey said.
After another round of carefully fired concussive shots, and biotic attacks to work around the infernal shield, Kacey managed to get in close to land another punch before the Broker pulled his shield back up. Kacey rammed into it at full forced, cracking it as she pushed against it. The Broker then sent her flying again, with her landing next to Liara, who was fixated with something on the ceiling.
"Shepard, if you can get him to bring up his shield again, I've got an idea."
"Grenades it is."
Kacey pulled out her grenade launcher, firing it off repeatedly at the Broker while dodging his bullets. The grenades tore through the Broker's shields and blown through the armour and once he was stationary, Kacey ran towards him as he roared, charging towards her with his shield up. As he swung it at her, Kacey rolled underneath, raising it up high."
"Liara! Now!"
Liara used her biotics to crack then pull down the glass, unleashing all of the stored-up lighting on the Broker. With a loud bang, the Broker exploded into nothing more than tiny flakes. Liara walked over to Kacey and offered her hand to pull Kacey up. Once she was on her feet, Garrus groaned as he regained consciousness.
"And now he joins us." Kacey quipped as she walked over to the turian, "Whose pulling whose ass out of the fire now?"
"Oh, ha ha." Garrus said.
As Kacey helped Garrus back onto his feet, she saw Liara looking over at the Shadow Broker's large terminal, as comms started to come through.
"Shadow Broker, this is Operative Murat. We had a momentary connection failure. Can you confirm status?"
"Operative Shora requesting update. Are we still online?"
"Shadow Broker, I've lost our feed. We are online and awaiting instructions."
As more came flooding in, Liara remained transfixed on the screens before approaching and taping on a screen.
"This is the Shadow Broker." Liara said, "The situation is under control. We experienced a power fluctuation while upgrading hardware. It disrupted communications momentarily. However, we are now back online. Resume standard procedures. I want a status report on all operations within the next solar day. Shadow Broker out."
Feron then came through the door, gun raised at Liara before lowering it.
"Goddess of oceans…" Feron said, "It's you. You…how?"
"Well, everyone who's ever seen him is dead, so…" Liara trailed off.
"Is taking over as the Shadow Broker really a good idea?" Kacey said.
"It was either that or lose everything: his contacts, his trading resources. Those will really help us. With the Shadow Broker's information network, I can give you…I can…" Liara trailed off.
"I'll uh, check the power systems." Feron said, leaving quickly.
Once Feron left, Kacey approached Liara, who had tears down her face, "It's over. It's finally…for two years…"
"Hey, its okay." Kacey said, "You did it."
"We did it." Liara corrected, looking over at the terminals.
The trio stood in front of the large terminal as Liara looked through all the settings.
"No safeguards or user restrictions." Liara mused, "It's like he never anticipated anyone but himself being here. And it's all ours."
"What kind of information are talking about?" Kacey asked.
"Aside from personal records and family history." Garrus added.
"I'm not sure." Liara said, "I'll need to go through his files. I'll let you know when I find something. All I wanted was to rescue Feron. But…is it wrong that a part of me wants this? With the Shadow Broker's network, I can help you. Maybe I can turn this operation into something better."
"Maybe." Kacey said.
"Still not a total waste. I finally learned your first name at least." Liara quipped.
"Yeah, I probably should've seen it coming."
"Does anyone else know?"
"Me." Garrus said, "And Joker."
"You both knew?" Liara said.
"Hey, to be fair, Kaidan knew about it longer than all of you." Kacey said.
"Because you play favourites." Garrus mused.
"I really hope I'm around by the time you fall in the love with someone just so I can tease you for it." Kacey said, "You and Joker."
"At least your mood is better."
"I didn't know you were measuring my mood." Kacey teased, "That desk must've hit you hard if you're seeing emotions."
Kacey turned her attention back to Liara, "And hey, don't be a stranger this time."
"I won't. I promise."