Disclaimer: I do no own Mass Effect, I do not claim to own Mass Effect, I am only doing this for fun.
Author Notes: And now back to our regularly scheduled intrigue!
Episode 18: The Twelfth Labor [Part I]
It may have been day on Horizon, but the daily cycle on the Normandy was still the standard Earth twenty-four. Hiking a combined six kilometers to the cave and back took the energy out of everyone. Shepard retreated to her quarters so she could work on her report at her private terminal. It was rather slow going; she could feel exhaustion creeping up. Still, she knew that there was no way for her sleep until she figured out how to explain Legion, and while she knew she would not finish the report now, she wanted to jot down a few notes, maybe finish some basics, while her memory was fresh.
Horizon being the third planet in the system, they had to make a detour to Prospect, the second, to vent the heat from the IES and discharge the static buildup in the Tantalus drive. The Normandy was currently on its way to the outer reaches of the Iera system, to the mass relay which orbited out beyond the system's last planet.
There was a ping from her terminal and a few seconds later a scratch over the intercom, "Ugh… Commander, EDI just got a message for you over a secure channel."
Shepard flicked screens and brought up the message EDI had sent straight to her terminal. "Thanks you two," she replied. A recorded message was somewhat atypical. If this was orders, she normally got them as close as it got to face-to-face.
"I have a bad feeling," he said.
When Shepard saw the origin of the message, she understood why. "I think I'll join that club." She murmured.
There was another scratch as the link disconnected, and Shepard pressed play. There was an instant burst of static and grain on the recording.
"Shepard, this is Admiral Kahoku. I found out who set that trap for my men. Damn I hope you get this message."
Shepard frowned, the admiral sounded tense and harried. He almost whispered into the recording device, as if he was not sure if he was alone wherever he made the recording.
"It was a group called Cerberus. An Alliance black ops organization. Top secret, highest-level security clearance."
Shepard's bad feeling turned from merely a sort of buzz into a full-blown warning alarm. She was not exactly low clearance herself. N7s tended to range, their clearance based on where they were deployed and for whom. Some were little more than highly specialized soldiers, but others were real ghosts, spies with high levels of access. Still, as black as ICT graduates got, they were apparently not the blackest of black ops.
"They vanished a few months ago. Dropped right off the grid. Nobody knew where they went or what they were up to." The admiral paused for a brief moment, with only the grain of the recording to show that it had not cut out. "They've gone completely rogue, Shepard. They're conducting illegal genetics experiments, trying to create some kind of super soldier."
Shepard blinked, stunned. The Admiral's tension morphed into outright barely-contained anger, and she could understand why. Illegal genetic experiments probably meant they were not using volunteers. That left a few possibilities, none of them good. There were laws against genetic modification. Even military gene therapy packages already skirted the grey zone of legality, and most of them only fixed issues like predisposition to various medical conditions, they did not bestow new capabilities.
"I don't have any proof, but I found the location for one of their research labs. I'm uploading the coordinates with this message."
Shepard brought up the text portion of the message, and noticed there were designations and numbers and nothing else, these must be the coordinates.
"They're completely out of control. Somebody needs to stop them. I've done my part. Now, it's up to you."
Even if this Cerberus bunch was not breaking Alliance law, they were still murderers. Shepard knew she would do everything she could to bring them in.
"This is… this is probably the last you'll hear from me. They're after me now. I need to disappear before they find me."
Shepard stood up and tapped a command to send the location to Joker. "EDI, patch me through to the bridge."
"Yes, Commander."
"Hey Commander, what's the damage?" Joker asked.
"We have a change of plans and a situation. Get us to the coordinates I sent you as fast as the Normandy can go."
"That bad? Aye, aye, ma'am!"
"EDI, could you notify Nihlus, Alenko, Williams, Jenkins, and Wrex that I want to see them in the OD in the morning? You can tell them that there has been an update on the Edolus case."
"Of course, Commander." EDI replied.
She pondered whether to bring Legion along as well, because she wanted to get a reading on what the geth was capable of, but decided that this was a rather sensitive matter. It was neither the time nor place to bring in an unknown factor.
To say she was worried would be an understatement. If Rear Admiral Kahoku was convinced that these rogue agents would come after him, he probably had grounds for it. Why had he not contacted Admiral Hackett? Or had he? If he had, she ought to have been contacted, right? There were so many questions she wanted to ask, something denied to her by a pre-recorded message of this sort. She honestly hoped that the admiral was wrong, but she knew that hope rarely led anywhere. The case stank of corruption and shadow-plays from the get-go. If this was some rogue black ops cell, they seemed to have plenty of reach, and that did not bode well.
It took fifteen hours to reach the Voyager Cluster's Yangtze system, FTL hop included, as the relay was in the Amazon system. Currently the Normandy was making a stealthy bee-line toward the system's second planet, Binthu, the planet identified by Rear Admiral Kahoku's coordinates. Shepard was seated on the OD couch, working on routine paperwork.
The OD door opened and the marines filed in, followed by Nihlus, and Wrex trailing in the rear.
"What's going on, Shepard?" Wrex wondered.
"I received a message from Rear Admiral Kahoku, directing us here. There's been a rather… disturbing break in the Edolus case. I'll play the message." Shepard explained.
The marines took their seats on the couch, and Shepard tapped a few keys to play the recording for all to hear. As it played, she watched their reactions. Kaidan's was immediate on the mere mention of experiments; it was like a storm had drawn in. Ashley's rage peaked more slowly, but the word 'experiments' had its effect, Shepard could see it in the way her fists closed, and her eyes narrowed. Richard sat there utterly stupefied.
The most curious expression crossed Nihlus' face, his mandibles flicked almost rhythmically, and then when their gazes locked the twitch stopped, they drew up tight to his jaw. Shepard suspected there was something on his mind. So was that minute flicker agitation, or was it something else?
Shepard stopped the message short of the final line; she did not need everyone to hear the fear and vulnerability in the admiral's tone. "The coordinates lead us to Binthu, and we will make orbit soon."
"Cerberus, I've heard that name before," Kaidan spoke up. "Back in 2165, the attack on the SSV Geneva. The only attacker to survive mentioned Cerberus when he was interrogated."
"That was eighteen years ago, can't be the same organization, can it?" Richard wondered.
"Also we're talking a rogue black ops unit here. How does that fit in?" Ashley added.
"Both very good questions," Shepard said. She had her thoughts on the matter, but could not go too far with then. There were too few facts to base anything on. "I'd say some sort of shadowy organization smoke-screening itself as black ops would explain the anomalies. The stonewalled official investigation, the resources to lay that trap on Edolus…" she trailed off there, because to go on was to go into that territory of suppositions not based on fact.
"Sounds to me like they deserve a good stomping," Wrex volunteered.
"They're in for it," Shepard replied.
The krogan smiled.
Shepard turned back to the others, "As for Binthu... The planet's atmosphere has lots of chlorine and sulfur-dioxide. Expect hot temperatures and frequent acid rain. The Kodiak can take the rain, but our suits are less shielded. We will have to limit direct exposure." Shepard knew what that meant, she needed EDI to conduct high resolution scans, they needed to know the location of every rock before they went down there and had to deal with sulfuric acid falling out of the sky. "That's about the only thing I have right now, we need to wait on EDI's scans."
"You worry too much, Shepard. I can handle a bit of acid rain." Wrex noted.
"Be that as it may, we do our prep and do this right. Take your time to consider what you need; we will have to meet a second time when EDI has our scans. Meantime, let's adjourn." She said as she glanced at the people gathered.
The room largely emptied after that. The marines were first to leave, with Wrex trailing behind them, but Nihlus remained. Shepard raised an eyebrow, which he returned with one of his grins. "Something tells me you know something."
"Are you sure you are not Asari?" he wondered.
Shepard chuckled, "I'm sure I'm human. You get that look in your eyes… the one that says 'I know something you don't, and I want you to pry it out of me'. You're a book, Nihlus."
He chuckled, "There is a reason Wrex likes you. You are both full of yourselves."
"Coming from you? Pot calling the kettle black," Shepard replied as she picked up her pad to return to her half-finished report.
"I never understood where that saying came from."
Shepard noted that he never actually denied being full of himself. "Funny enough, most humans don't either. I'm surprised you know as many as you do. Don't think that your deflections will work. What is on your mind?"
"Ruining my fun, huh?" He sat down on the extension of the couch and stared out toward the door. "Alright. I did not want to say this in front of the others, clearance issues, but Cerberus crossed Spectre sources."
"They have?" Shepard asked.
"If there is such an organization, there is no pattern to their operations. Alenko mentioned an attack on a ship, now we are looking at potential genetic experiments and shadowy special operations units. Spectre sources do not get any clearer."
"They seem to do a bit of everything," Shepard mused.
"Precisely. That complicates any attempt to trace them. For all we know, there is no Cerberus, and the name is little more than a symbol for disparate groups to identify with."
"Valid point," Shepard hummed.
"There is another possibility though. If there is a single group, then they use this chaotic irregularity to conceal themselves. It is as you said; they seem to have resources, too many to be a disorganized, disparate gathering of individual groups. The Council does not publicize this, but if they are a single group, they would be deemed to be a terrorist organization."
"So if we can confirm anything…"
"I will have to report to the Council." Nihlus replied. "Do not worry, I will give my protégé due credit."
Shepard rolled her eyes. Due credit was the last thing she worried about.
"I think I will leave you to whatever it is," Nihlus said as he motioned to the pad in her hands as he got up from his seat.
Shepard did not say anything more as he left the room; the report had to be finished. Now it had to be finished much sooner than later. It looked like she might have to work on a second, even longer, and more bothersome one before long.
Hours later, the details were hashed out. The planet was truly a barren wasteland, so finding signs of habitation did not prove difficult. EDI's scans found three separate facilities spread over the planet's surface. To make matters worse, the labs had external defenses that EDI had to disable, as they did not have a Mako to handle things the quickest way.
Shepard decided to hit the smallest of the three installations first, to test what sort of internal defenses might be in place. EDI was also to get into the communications and disable the ability of the labs to contact each other; they would hit them in series, but ensure that the first they hit could not forewarn the other two.
Thus they readied the Kodiak with extra ammo, medical supplies, and some edibles for a longer mission. The Kodiak took off with Joker on standby in the event that he might have to send the second Kodiak or respond to the arrival of a ship in orbit. Shepard was taking no chances on anything, bad enough they had to face unknown odds in the labs.
Nihlus made atmospheric entry far away from the labs that they would not be immediately noticed. Binthu's atmosphere was an oddity, the sky looked blue, but it was almost permanently overcast with ugly mustard yellow clouds that carried equal amounts of sulfur and rain-water, usually merged into a highly corrosive soup ready to fall. The planet's large moon hung pale and sickly in the sky. Even the ground was a desolate, acid-eaten shade of rust-orange that was toxic to the point that absolutely nothing grew in it.
EDI worked on disabling the turrets as they made final approach to the smallest of the labs. Only when EDI had control did Shepard tell Nihlus to land. He set the Kodiak down right in front of the compound's main entrance. After performing final seal checks and ensuring that EDI would not lose control of the turrets, Shepard gave the okay for the team to make entrance. Once again, she was in the lead, Sin drawn. Wrex was right behind her, his shotgun at a ready. It was a quick dash from the shuttle to the main airlock entryway.
The first sign that their target was unwary was that when Shepard tapped at the control console, the airlock opened before she could even fire up her decryption program. They filed in and the airlock cycled without needing to be given instructions. Shepard was first to make entrance, drawing Dex.
They entered a small antechamber, which was typical prefabricated, half-buried structure. There were no guards here, another oversight, but good considering that they were yet to scout what odds they were facing. Shepard made her way toward the door in the back and tapped its console, the panel flashed green, and the doors slid open.
Shepard glanced around the doorjamb. The next chamber was a much larger rectangular space. She could see equipment taking up nearly every square centimeter. At the back of the room she spotted a single lab technician working at his console, and hovering nearby were three very armed men. All of them wore rather non-descript black armor and full helmets with opaque visors.
"Three guards, one lab-rat. I'm seeing assault rifles and shotguns. There's very limited viable cover." Shepard announced. Having their helmets on with comm she did not have to whisper to conceal a conversation and still allow the rest of the team to hear.
"You want any one of them still breathing?" Wrex wondered.
"Ideally, yes. But I get the feeling they're not going to go quietly." Not without her getting a little creative.
"No need to get complicated. We walk in there, they do something stupid, and we teach them the last lesson they ever learn." Wrex volunteered.
Shepard was honestly surprised with how macabre Wrex' sense of humor ran, but he was right. They did not need get elaborate; there were three armed men and six of them. She motioned with her hand and Wrex shifted to the other side of the door and cocked his gun. She tapped her helmet to open her external sound. On a flick of her fingers she made entry with Wrex and Nihlus on her six. "Stop, nobody move!" she called. Perhaps a little cop-like, but in her defense Spectres had the authority to arrest, even if she got that authority indirectly from Nihlus. The lab technician looked up, shocked, the three troopers reached for their assault rifles. "I said stop! Final warning!" she shouted.
The closest of the armed men fired, Shepard ducked behind a pillar, the rapport of bullets barely missed.
"There's that something stupid," Wrex rumbled.
"Feel free to educate them." Shepard replied as another rapport of bullets flew past her head.
"Gladly!" Wrex called and swung around the pillar.
Shepard glanced at Nihlus who had taken cover behind some metal cabinets with his rifle out.
There was another assault rifle rapport, and Shepard heard the deep thudding footsteps of a Krogan. There was a whomp followed by a scream, and one of the troopers went flying. Nihlus raised his rifle and opened fire, the bullets ripped through the flying trooper's shields; he was dead before his body hit the ground.
Shepard peeked around her cover, the lab technician was skirting around the room, and Wrex was engaged with the two other troopers. She glanced back at the lab technician, at that moment there was a thunderous crack she recognized as Wrex' shotgun, followed by a thud she knew had to be a body.
"I need to get that lab-coat."
"Go, we got this," Nihlus said.
Shepard moved out from behind cover, and there was another burst of assault rifle fire and a whomp. Something hit the floor with a great metallic crash. Shepard followed the lab technician. Another burst of assault rifle fire followed by a thunderous crack of an overpowered shotgun. Something exploded, a scream followed, and then a burst of assault rifle and the sound died.
A growl echoed across her comm, "That was mine, turian." Wrex said.
"We need this place mostly intact, krogan." Nihlus replied.
The lab technician had reached a closed door in the back of the lab, but Shepard was right on his heels. She watched as he tried to enter a code. Panicked as he was, his finger slipped and the console flashed red. His fingers danced again, but Shepard grabbed him by the lab coat and yanked back before he could hit the final key.
The lab technician whirled and swung, his fist collided with the side of her helmet and the man recoiled as if shot. Shepard slammed him into the wall, forearm pressed against his neck. "I have questions."
"I won't tell you anything." The lab technician replied.
"You don't have a choice," Shepard replied.
"Go to hell." The lab technician hissed and spat, splattering saliva on her face shield.
Shepard baulked and reached up to swipe the fingers of her free hand across her visor and in that moment she saw his tongue poke in his cheek, his jaw opened and closed, she heard something crack between his teeth. "Oh no you don't!" she hissed. The lab technician smiled. Shepard came down with her weight on his throat, hoping to prevent him swallowing, but her reaction was late, he already seized up and a moment later was frothing at the mouth. Shepard stepped back as the lab technician slid to the floor, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, convulsing ever worse for ten long seconds, and then he stilled.
"Commander?" Kaidan asked.
"He committed suicide." Shepard replied, numbed. What was it with fanatics and killing themselves? Did they really think they were accomplishing anything with that? She had the whole lab to search. Physical evidence was more important than anything he could have said, making his death a waste. She could not let it go that far again. Next time she would adjust her approach. Now she knew that if she wanted to apprehend, she had to knock them out first. Judging by what she saw, the drug was probably concealed in the crown of a tooth. That could readily be extracted once they were out cold.
"Cowardly bastard." Ashley noted.
Shepard turned and found the others had gathered about. "We search the lab," she announced coolly.
The team spread out after that as Shepard walked over to where the lab technician had been working. She was not surprised that Nihlus followed her, his rifle still drawn. The console had gone into standby; Shepard tapped it, which brought up the last thing the lab technician had been working on. The contents of the computers had been packaged and the lab technician had tried to transmit it all, but EDI's hack had shut down the communication array. A few taps of the keys brought up the last files accessed; one of them was an itemized inventory, with things listed by catalogue numbers and brief clinical descriptions. "This lab dealt with what appears to be cloned tissues. I'm seeing a lot of organs and pieces of things."
"There's are freezers here full of pieces of things alright." Ashley said. "I recognize thresher maw parts and vials of acid. There are racks of blood samples… the hand-writing is too squiggly to really make it out."
"There's an inventory log here, I got what I need." Shepard replied as she reached into a small pocket on her webbing and pulled out an OSD.
"What are those?" Jenkins asked.
Shepard turned to look, the corporal stood in front of a large freezer that contained more parts of something. The door of the unit was glass, but the light inside was faint, just enough to reveal the contents of the unit at close inspection. Shepard could not hope to make heads or tails of it at a distance.
She watched as Ashley approached the unit and peered at the little laminated tags attached to the racks.
"I think these are… Rachni." Ashley said.
"Rachni?" Wrex rumbled, his voice deepening.
Shepard turned back to the inventory list.
"There's some chitin, some vials of acid and blood, and a few brains… at least I think those are brains." Ashley explained.
Shepard heard Wrex walk toward the coolers; everyone could have heard him stomping. "I heard Rachni acid is second only to a maw's in terms of how quickly it can eat through something," Shepard offered. She knew Wrex would have some sort of reaction at the mere mention of the Rachni.
"You heard right," Wrex replied.
"All of this looks like study and test materials," Kaidan spoke up.
"Those bastards better not be cloning Rachni for more than just… parts." Wrex rumbled, ever more irritated.
"If they are, that's one more reason to pursue them. I am… not fond of shady organizations that orchestrate conspiracies and whose workers would rather die than be taken in for questioning. The ideology of such groups is rarely palatable." Shepard noted. "I am copying the work files on this terminal, when that is done we can move on. Kaidan could you sweep the place with your helmet camera? We could use video evidence."
"Yes, ma'am." He replied.
Two hours later the Kodiak was making approach on the second lab installation EDI identified. Once again they took control of the external defenses and communications before making entry. The second installation looked to be larger than the first, and Shepard would be lying if she said she wanted to see what horrors awaited them in there. The external airlock had been closed this time, but in yielded to a military-grade decryption program readily enough.
The first difference was that the airlock was connected to the antechamber by a passage that descended deeper underground. Shepard took the point with Wrex right behind her and Nihlus a few steps behind him. She stopped in front of the door at the end of the passage and drew Sin. A moment later she tapped the console and slipped inside the second the door was ajar wide enough for her. A quick sweep of the antechamber showed a pair of guards sitting at a table. Both looked up when the door opened, Shepard fired, hitting one in the head as the other grabbed for his rifle.
A thunderous crack resounded through the room and the guard was down on the ground in an instant. The damage Wrex's Claymore caused essentially obliterated armor, leaving behind a gory mess.
Suddenly klaxons blared and the emergency lights set into the walls began to flash red. The door leading deeper into the lab opened and another guard appeared. Shepard raised her gun but Nihlus was there, assault rifle barking disruptor rounds which tore through shields and this guard went down. His body slumped across the doorframe, preventing the door from shutting again. Shepard barely got a moment to inhale with how quickly the guards were going down.
It left her with a peculiar feeling of almost guilt. This whole situation felt wrong. No one, not even the hired guns of a rogue organization ought to die half this quick. Some part of her wanted to think that maybe they were just doing their jobs; maybe they would stand down if told what they were protecting. They had no time for first thoughts, never mind seconds. She had to remind herself that they were hired guns; they probably knew what they signed up for, if it needed guarding. Shepard shook her head and consciously chose to step over the body holding the door open and into the lab.
She heard the guns whine and instantly ducked behind the nearest metal cabinet, "there are at least three more guards here." A bullet pinged against the metal near her head, Shepard barely flinched, "One sniper." She added.
Wrex made his entrance with fanfare, glowing like a light-bulb with his biotics. He did not even bother taking cover and instead rushed down the middle of the room. The guards opened fire, and Shepard whirled, Sin at a ready, it was then she realized with some shock that the krogan's biotic barrier rippled with the impact of bullets, but it held.
One of the guards had stepped too far out of cover, but Wrex was looking in the other direction, she whipped Sin around the corner, aligned on the unwary guard's head, and fired. His shields flared, the man jumped, but she fired again, this time the shields gave way and the bullet went through his helmet and into his skull.
An assault rifle somewhere on her left came to life, the bullets peppered her hiding spot, Shepard ducked. Wrex's shotgun gave a crack in the back of the room, followed closely by a burst of assault rifle she recognized as belonging to one of the marines from somewhere on her left.
"I got the bastard that was sneaking up on you, Skipper." Ashley announced.
"I got the so-called sniper," Wrex added, "but there are two more pyjacks hiding somewhere."
Shepard looked around, two more guards. The lab was similar to the previous, except a little bit bigger. Then she heard footsteps somewhere on her right and tilted her head to listen. Whoever it was, they were trying to mute their paces. Suddenly she heard a ping and a scoff, a metallic disk-like object came flying around the cabinet where she was hiding and began to ping in an unmistakable rising pitch and frequency. "Grenade!" she shouted as she dove around the cabinet she had been using for cover and scrambled to get clear.
The explosive blew, and the shockwave threw her to the ground. Her head hit the floor hard as the front of her armor scraped along. An assault rifle burst, and another replied. There was ringing in her ears, and a sudden burning sensation in her left leg. The assault rifles traded back and forth, and suddenly a third joined the dance, and two others followed. It was as if the grenade had been some sort of signal, the opening notes of a new cacophony.
There was a momentary pause, reloads? Shepard could not be sure. Then a single rifle staccato opened again and one replied. Suddenly she heard an unmistakable biotic whomp followed something hitting the wall hard and a crack of Wrex' shotgun. Shadows moved over her, cast by the lights on the wall. The burning in her leg only got worse, but there was a growing cooling sensation as well, her suit had deployed Medi-gel.
"We got them, Commander." Richard announced.
"That was a frag. There's shrapnel everywhere." Wrex murmured.
"I think I got hit…" Shepard replied. "Medi-gel's deployed." She shifted, tried to rise to her knees, but as soon as she moved her left leg the pain seared. Then there was a hand pressing her back down, Shepard turned her head to see Nihlus' boots at her side.
"Do not move," he said. "You have a piece of the grenade's casing in your left thigh."
"It will have to come out for the gel to form a full seal." Kaidan said as he kneeled on the other side.
Shepard groaned. "Alright." What a place to get a nasty rapture. This planet's atmosphere was too toxic to go without a helmet, but with her undersuit now perforated she was in for some exposure. They also had a third lab to bust. She got careless, and got hurt.
She heard Kaidan open the pouches on his webbing where he kept his field medical supplies, followed by the squishing of a soft Medi-gel pack and the snap of the top coming off. "This will hurt, Commander. I'm sorry."
That was all the warning she got before she felt the piece of shrapnel move. Shepard hissed and tensed, but the sensation was gone in a split second, replaced by the cooling sensation of more Medi-gel. "You're in luck," Kaidan announced. "It's a relatively straight piece, went into the muscle." She heard the chunk clutter as Kaidan tossed it aside.
The major blood vessels were essentially covered by the ceramic plating of her leg guards. Had the shrapnel hit the plates, it would not have gone through, so this piece got lucky to fly at areas of exposed undersuit.
"Alright, show's over. The Commander's alright. C'mon Jenkins, let's go see what other gruesome specimen jars we can find." Ashley said.
"Yay!" Richard dead-panned. "I mean yay that the commander's alright… but you know sarcastic yay about the jars." He explained.
"Careful corporal or 'yay' might end up your call sign." Shepard murmured.
"Aye, aye, ma'am. Will be careful, ma'am!"
Shepard thought she had waited long enough for the Medi-gel to do its job and tried to rise to her hands and knees. She winced in the initial move. The goop poured over the wound hardened into a plug, like a large scab. The second layer thickened the plug, and apparently Kaidan had poured it right over the rip in her undersuit too, as she felt it tug in ways it should not. At the very least it would now keep the environment out of her suit. Assuming her limp was not too bad, they could continue with the mission without her having to bail out. Delays for petty injuries were not a good idea at this point. She might have to hang back though, let Wrex take point. He seemed more than able and willing to handle these hired guns.
She climbed to her feet slowly, wincing with every movement. The injured muscle positively screamed in protest, but Shepard had worse. She had been shot in the calf during her time in ICT, had the bullet extracted without any pain killers, and walked on it, albeit with a stick as a crutch, to the ex-fil coordinates. She was stubborn enough that if she wanted something, she got it, whatever it took. Right now she wanted to kick Cerberus' collective posteriors all over the four quadrants.
Now that they were not being shot at, she had the luxury of inspecting the lab. It was a big open space subdivided into work areas. There were tables, consoles, and equipment of a number of types. Familiar glass-door cases stood in one corner of the room. She hobbled over to the closest console and tapped at the keyboard. The station came online, but it required a password. Standing next to it was a framed holo-photo, which showed a family; the scientist that worked at this station had a wife and three kids, all of them primary school age.
Shepard brought up her omni-tool and fired up her decryption program. Just because this scientist was a family man would not stop her. Whether he thought he was acting out of some perceived fear for his loved ones did not absolve him of the crimes Cerberus committed. A box appeared on the terminal's screen, scrolling code as the decryption program worked. Then suddenly it blinked, and she was past the log in screen and in the system.
"Commander, I think there's a second level to this compound." Kaidan called over the link.
"We will go scope it out." Ashley added.
"I'll go with them." Wrex volunteered.
Shepard did not say anything, but she heard a door open somewhere on the opposite side of the room. Nihlus was nearby, leaning on a metal cabinet of supplies, watching her. "You're not going down there as well?" she wondered.
He tilted his head and remained standing where he was. It was as if that tilt should have been an answer on its own.
Shepard turned back to the console and pulled out another OSD to copy everything on the system. Perhaps there might be repeat data, but she was not taking chances. She would ask EDI to run preliminary sorting, weed out the obvious duplicate data. This was another time that Shepard was glad to have EDI. Without her, sorting would have had to be done manually, or with the assistance of a VI which she would first have to program. Just programming a VI might take hours; doing this by hand would take hours longer.
"Oh my God…" Ashley whispered over the comm.
"What's wrong?" Shepard asked.
"There are cells down here, Skipper. These data-pads by the doors show they're test subjects. No names… just numbers. It's barbaric." Ashley went on.
Shepard straightened like a pole and winced as her thigh muscle protested. "Bodies?" she asked.
"Five cells, three occupied." Kaidan said, trying his best to sound calm, but he still sounded rattled. "All the occupants are deceased. There's a turian male, barefaced, he's wearing what looks like the remnants of Blue Suns armor. There's also a Salarian, male, in civvies. The third is human, also male."
Shepard gripped the edge of the desk she was using as support as at that moment she had to contain the rage that threatened to erupt. Exploding would not help the situation, and yet her mind reeled, her thigh burned as if it had been stabbed anew, and the revulsion seethed in her gut like burning acid. How could people do this? What sort of person could justify an experiment on another living being? If conspiracy, murder, and experiments on cloned tissue of dubious origins, up to and including Rachni, was not bad enough, now she had evidence that Cerberus was experimenting on people they had probably abducted. Even Blue Suns mercenaries, and some of them could be outright bastards, did not deserve this. She looked at the holo-photo of the man and his family. How did he sleep at night? What justification would allow someone to sleep after spending the day doing unethical experiments on sapient beings? "Are you recording all of this, Kaidan?" she wondered.
"I am. If my recordings help bring these bastards down, I will record everything."
Shepard glanced at the Spectre, "Nihlus, will video be enough evidence for you to present to the Council?" she asked.
"Not quite. I need the information on those terminals to confirm that this is a Cerberus installation, in so many words." He replied.
"We are reporting this to the Council?" Ashley asked.
Nihlus crossed his arms and spared Shepard a sort of 'look what you've done' glance, to which she merely raised an eyebrow. Did he think she would keep their talk under her hat in the face of this?
"The Council does not approve of unethical experiments or forcing people to be test subjects. Based on evidence here, there are grounds to condemn Cerberus as a criminal organization at least, a terrorist organization at most. Once that is done, they will have fewer places to hide or resources to pull. Just association with them will become a criminal offense." Nihlus explained.
Shepard's eyebrows climbed to her hair line. Nihlus had effectively dodged admitting to everyone present that the Council already knew something about Cerberus. Still, the Council had heard rumors. This was something a little more substantial. With this proof, official designation as a terrorist organization would hopefully grease some wheels. Spectres would now have the carte blanche to pursue Cerberus. Shepard was not entirely sure they would, what with it being a human organization and all, but who knows, right? At the very least, she would pursue them, Spectre or not.
"There will be a witch hunt," Kaidan murmured.
Shepard hummed. Kaidan had a point, but it was also unavoidable. She also knew that some would see Cerberus as heroes, so there would be an uptick in recruitment among the xenophobic crazy people. However as a whole the group would entrench, and reach out to the most loyal and ardent supporters they had. The job of hunting them down will not be easy or quick by any stretch of the imagination. "Whatever may be, thus far silence has only served these bastards. Time to make noise."
"You're right," Kaidan conceded.
Shepard did not say more as there was no need. She glanced at Nihlus again. He was watching her now. She shook her head and turned back to the console to start copying the data.
There was still one more lab left, and Shepard well and truly did not want to know what they would find there. Lab two already had the dead test subjects, how much worse could Cerberus get? Did she want to know?
Two hours later the Kodiak was making an approach to what Shepard hoped would be the last den of torture and evil. Due to her injury she could not comfortably sit, the seats pressed up against the wound. She could not move as quickly and as silently either, but the pain medication numbing the area was adequate to keep discomfort to a manageable level. Nevertheless she wanted this to be over, she wanted off this planet and out of her armor, and she had no luxury to voice any of her restlessness.
Thus as EDI worked to disable the turrets, Shepard found herself trying to pull herself together for one last push. One more base, she had to give her team a hundred and ten, no less. When the shuttle landed and the team disembarked, Shepard took point as they approached the airlock. Her decryption program was already up and running, ready to do its work. The airlock door yielded readily after that.
Once past the double doors, Shepard carefully led the way down a corridor descending deeper into the installation. It seemed to be similar in size to the previous base, so probably two levels, with more cells. She well and truly did not want to know, but orders were orders, and Cerberus would not get away with their nonsense just because she felt a little squeamish.
At the end of the corridor was another door which required bypassing, Shepard worked the decryption while Wrex cocked his shotgun. As soon as the door opened wide enough, the Krogan burst in, glowing with his biotics. Nihlus followed, sweeping the space with his assault rifle.
The alarm that blared was wholly expected. An assault rifle came to life, its rounds peppering the doorframe. Shepard saw Wrex's biotics flare as he slung his arm, the blast of dark energy that he released let off a loud whomp as it flew across the lab. There was a crash, something heavy and metallic, and a human groan, and then silence. Wrex did not stop as he stomped deeper into the room.
Another assault rifle, more rounds peppering the doorframe, and Nihlus swung his own and fired a quick suppressing burst as he side-stepped toward cover behind another of the cabinets. There was no thud of a body hitting the floor. "One human, left of your position, he has a clear shot on the doorframe. Stay where you are." Nihlus said.
Shepard knew better than to argue, right now she could not move fast enough to get into cover. She glanced at the others and nodded.
There was another assault rifle burst somewhere deeper in the lab, followed by the crack of a Claymore, and the sound died. Shepard heard a very distinct deep chuckle over the comm, it sounded like Wrex was having fun somewhere. He might double back on the guard pinning them in the doorway, but she would not call for him to do so, not against one man. She would let Wrex do what he did at his pace; he knew what he was doing.
The assault rifle on their left barked another burst, as if urging them to leave the safety of their doorframe. Shepard cocked Sin as she pondered how many bullets her shields could absorb, and whether that would be enough time for her to fire the two shots she needed to kill the soldier. She did not know exactly where on her left the guard was hiding, there would be delay. Nihlus was right; she could not stick her head out. Right now she was too hampered by injury, and she hated it. She glanced at the Spectre, he had his head turned, probably listening for the guard to make a mistake.
Movement out of the corner of her eye caught Shepard's attention. There was a shadow slinking along the wall on the other side, "Nihlus, incoming on your left," she warned.
Nihlus turned, raised his rifle, and fired. At that moment Shepard stepped around the doorframe and raised Sin. A pincer flank, classic, but predictable. The first guard used Nihlus' distraction with the other to poke out of cover, intending to shoot the Spectre in the back. Shepard pulled the trigger, the guard's shields flared. A body hit the floor somewhere behind her. Suddenly there was a hand on her shoulder and all the hair on the back of her neck stood on end as a familiar surge of energy seemingly enveloped her whole body. The first guard fired, but too late, a periwinkle glow erupted right in front of her, the bullets bounced off the biotic barrier. Nihlus whirled and fired in reply. Another body hit the floor with a thud.
Shepard glanced over her shoulder at Kaidan who was right behind her; his left hand on her left shoulder, his right arm still raised over her right, his fingers spread, still flickering with dark energy. "Thanks, Kaidan." She said. He smiled a little and pulled back.
"Wow, didn't know you could do that." Ashley noted.
"Basic barrier extension," Kaidan murmured. "Are you alright, Commander? I'm sorry if I… overstepped my bounds."
Shepard's eyebrow rose, but he would not be able to see her expression because of the helmet. "Don't worry about it," she replied.
"I really wish I was a biotic," Jenkins said. "That was so cool! Very-"
Kaidan turned sharply, and the corporal swallowed the rest of whatever he had almost said.
It was then that Shepard noticed the silence in the lab. The sort of silence that meant either something had gone wrong, or everything was glorious. "Wrex?" She called over the comm.
"I'm here. The lab is clear." He replied.
"Thanks, Wrex."
"Don't thank me yet. I found another body, looks like another… test subject. He's wearing an Alliance uniform." Wrex replied.
Shepard was instantly alarmed. "Fatigues or officer?"
"Which is the blue and gold one?"
Officer's blues, this did not bode well. A horrible, horrible sinking feeling instantly formed and settled in her gut. "That's officer's. Stay where you are, I need to see this."
It was not difficult to spot a towering krogan in red armor in a relatively open space. Shepard walked toward Wrex as fast as she could, no longer caring to disguise the limp in her step. He must have heard her because he stepped aside and let her see whom he was towering over.
Shepard froze and the sinking feeling in her gut instantly coalesced into pure horror. Seated in an executive chair in front of a console, head lulled forward, was Rear Admiral Kahoku. His wrists were tied to the arms of the chair with plastic ties, his ankles similarly bound to the leg of the chair. Shepard activated her omni-tool and fired up her medical scanned. Within a second her worst fear came true. He was not breathing, his heart was not beating, and his body temperature had already achieved equilibrium with the room.
"Is that Kahoku?" Nihlus asked somewhere behind her.
"Yes," Shepard breathed, numbed as if all her nerves suddenly stopped transmitting. Her mind reeled with questions. How did this happen? How did Cerberus get him so fast? She got his message less than a day ago.
The admiral's uniform was filthy; the blue was smeared in places with what looked like oil, the gold piping ripped up, and there was a tear in the left sleeve. The Jacket toggles were undone, showing an equally dirty formerly white shirt. She kneeled in front of the body, ignoring the pain in her thigh as she did. What was that injury to this? The sleeves of the shirt visible under the thicker sleeves of the officer's jacket were flecked with rust-like substance. It took a moment for Shepard to realize it was not rust, but dried blood. The admiral had struggled with his wrist bonds to the point of injuring himself. There were a few more flecks around the neck. Shepard tipped her head a little and what she saw made her positively sick. There were needle marks on his neck. "This… he was tortured."
She reached out and slowly moved the admiral's hand. Postmortem lividity had already appeared as a bluish discoloration on the underside of the wrists and hands, but rigor mortis had only begun to set in. Mentally she ran the math. Assuming a base body temperature of thirty-six-point-five and a rate of cooling of one and a half degree a Terran hour, it would take six to seven hours to reach the room's twenty-seven degrees. With the initial temperature being a benchmark, and the likelihood of the interference of chemical agents, she would call time of death at five to seven hours ago.
That figure effectively stunned her. A sudden realization hit her like a sledgehammer. Had her decision to attack the bases according to size allowed this to happen? If she had chosen to attack this lab first, would they have been in time to save Kahoku?
"Commander?" Ashley asked.
"I…" Shepard stopped. How was she to explain this? She shook her head and moved to get back to her feet. Her thigh burned, stiffened by crouching on the injury, and when she moved, her knee folded, she faltered, only the exoframe prevented her from toppling backward. It took a second try, but she got back to her feet and straightened. "I think... I made a mistake. We should have attacked this lab first…"
"What?" Ashley asked.
"The Admiral's time of death," Shepard explained as she looked at the others, "Five to seven hours ago… do the math." With that said, she turned away. Shepard did not want to see their dawning realization. Though it felt wrong, disrespectful even, she moved past the chair toward the console. She could not bear to look at her team right now, even though she would not see any of their expressions. She failed and someone had died. Her planning and careful reconnaissance wasted time.
"It was not your fault, Commander." Kaidan breached. "Five to seven hours… we deployed seven hours ago. There is no way you could have known."
Shepard did not reply. She knew Kaidan was trying to make her feel better; he was always the one to try and keep the peace. However this time he was wrong, there was a way she could have known. She could have had EDI hack into the base security cameras rather than the external defenses and communications. Had she ordered EDI to hack into the cameras, EDI would have spotted and recognized Admiral Kahoku. They might have had time to storm this place in force and prevent his death. Kahoku's death was on her, and only on her.
"Shepard, whatever you are thinking right now. Stop it." Nihlus cut in. "It is more likely that your time estimation is wrong. The only assumption we can make here is that they knew we were coming, and they wanted you to find Kahoku like this."
Shepard did not turn around. She wanted to believe Nihlus. She wanted to latch onto his theory with all her might. Yet if she was to do it, she would have to lie to herself. She knew her math was sound. She messed up, and this time there would be no sugar-coating it. Still, if Nihlus was concerned, she needed to pull herself together. The team could not see her come apart. Nihlus was right on the matter in what else he said, the sick bastards wanted her to find the body like that. They wanted her to fall apart. "Alright. Same protocols, we record what we found and take whatever data there is on this lab's systems. Anything can be a clue that will lead us to whoever is in charge of this operation and where they went."
Footsteps scattered across the room, the marines sprung to action. Shepard never looked away form the console. She needed a mental shift of tracks. Confession of sins would have to come later. She had to look at the other facts, and there were such facts to look at. They faced one lab technician, but there were enough consoles in the three labs for a team of ten scientists. Said monsters in lab coats were not here, so they must have been evacuated. If Admiral Kahoku had been captured, she could assume they knew he leaked the location of the bases, so the move made sense.
Beyond that there was a natural progression to things. There must be another location somewhere else, a fourth lab. It could not be on this planet as EDI would have detected it. If there was any lead on this fourth location, it would have to be in the data she collected from the three labs. Staff movement, records of supply shipments, even a loose invoice for food deliveries, anything and everything could point them to this other location.
Meantime, her mind was already creating a checklist of everything else that needed to be done in the background. She needed to tell Admiral Hackett about all of this. He would probably find someone he could trust to send here to do the mop work. There was other evidence to secure which could not be collected by her or her crew. They did not have a resident medical examiner on hand. They did not have a science team to run the battery of tests that would stand up to ACIS standards. She had to come clean about her suspicions regarding ACIS and ask Admiral Hackett to bring in only those people he could absolutely trust. She would need him to put a hold on any further missions; this one would get her complete and undivided attention. That last item on her list was probably going to be the easiest; she doubted Admiral Hackett would pull her off this mess now.
Her train of thought derailed when Nihlus appeared in the corner of her eye. He laid his hands on the table and leaned down to be more her eye level. Shepard opened her omni-tool and brought up her decryption program. The terminal in front of her was password protected as well. As the program ran, she reached into her webbing for another OSD.
"Shepard."
"Nihlus," she replied as the terminal moved past the password screen and into the interface.
"You are still blaming yourself."
Shepard would have glared him down, would it have been effective. Helmets were evil like that. "You were right, they staged the death, and the chair is a message too. But I do not think my math is off. I am never off with such rudimentary things. I made a mistake, Nihlus. I might have been here in time if I wasn't so-"
"Over-cautious? Slow? Wasteful with time?" Nihlus volunteered.
Shepard turned her head and was surprised to see the Spectre had moved so close to her that when he tipped his head lower still, his face shield was almost right up next to hers. It effectively silenced any snap she could have come up with. In weeks of working together, barring that one stint on Omega when she helped him limp back to the Normandy, a stint she did not count, this was the closest to contact they ever came.
"Shepard, you have always been meticulous in your executions. That brain of yours foresees possibilities and then devises a plan for each one. At first I thought you were obsessive-compulsive. It even annoyed me a little." Shepard frowned, but Nihlus went on, "but when I look at the results, especially our running record of only minor injuries… It is beyond me how easily you maintain control. You make the most difficult of jobs seem routine and predictable. Now I simply think that you do not surprise easily. Still, there is no way to avoid surprises entirely. I understand how you feel, but do not let it shake your control. Given the circumstances, you did absolutely everything that you could. Know that and let the rest go."
Shepard sighed. He was right, as much as she loathed admitting it to his face. "I remember that one time you said something about my speech. Pot and kettle, Nihlus. But for being a Pot, you're right."
"Of course I am, Kettle. I am never wrong."
Shepard snorted and slapped a hand against the front of his cowl to push him away. "Alright, back to work." She said as she turned back to the console to start copying data. Nihlus chuckled quietly, but not too quietly that his comm failed to transmit it.
The Normandy stayed in orbit around Binthu for hours. After Shepard secured the information, there were many things to do.
First, she stopped by the medbay to get treatment for her puncture wound. A quick call to Admiral Hackett had caused a variable storm of activity. He sent the SSV Lexington, Concord, and Yorktown. The three frigates normally tagged behind the cruiser SSV Philadelphia, forming one of the Kilimanjaro's escort groups. Their orders were to descend to the surface and deploy teams to secure evidence from the labs. The choice of ships was telling, the Kilimanjaro's escort flotillas were almost sacred, a circle of highly trusted, reliable officers. Shepard had to prepare some information for them.
After that was done, she turned to the vast body of files she took from the lab computers. EDI was running algorithms and search patterns over it, but Shepard still wanted to browse and familiarize herself with what the lab was actually doing, even if she only understood the basics.
With how things happened, she knew there was no keeping this mess under her hat forever. Too many people on board could put two and two together. Thus she was not surprised when Garrus came up to the OD, concerned for her well-being. Nihlus was already there, perusing the data himself. Shepard decided to read Garrus into the full details. The three of them ended up buried up their eyeballs in files looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack.
Three hours later Shepard was preparing tea, but really stretching her injured leg, when her terminal pinged.
"Commander, I may have found something. I flagged the file on your terminal." EDI announced.
Nihlus shifted to sit at her terminal; Shepard watched as he brought the file up, copied it to his omni-tool, and ran it through his translation program. A moment later his mandibles widened in that triumphant grin he sometimes got when he was making like the cat who ate the canary. "This is an internal memo; it talks about a potential security compromise. Vital research materials are to be moved to the Nepheron facility," he announced.
Shepard moved across the OD, sat down on the couch, and pulled the terminal toward her as she peered at the file and took a sip of her tea. It was an official looking memo alright, complete with a letterhead that included an emblem, an abstract oblong sort-of-diamond with a slit in the bottom, flanked by a detached line on either side. "Nepheron..." She said. "Where is that, EDI?"
"A planet designated Nepheron is found in the Voyager Cluster, Columbia System." EDI replied.
Shepard blinked, stunned. That was practically right down the street, in galactic terms. "Alright, that's our next destination."
"Should I notify Flight Lieutenant Moreau?" EDI wondered.
"Yes."
"Right away, Commander." EDI replied.
Shepard stared at the memo. There was something else in the file that got her interest. The memo was sighed from the director of Project Cadmus, initials A.B., nothing else. The signature made her skin crawl. Given the horrors they had seen down on Binthu, whatever this Project Cadmus was, it could not be allowed go ahead.
Author Notes: This was quite possibly the choppiest piece of writing I have ever done. Yet the material involved was so disjointed that I just couldn't figure out a way to really tie it up. I could only lay it out, knowing I can easily expand on it later, and brace for impact. We are officially moving into the second half of this arc, and things are about to get interesting.
General Notes:
Shockingly… none.
Chapter Notes:
Shockingly… none.