"Shepard, do you hear me? Get out of that bed now...this facility is under attack!"
Kacey opened her eyes weakly, closing them again at the blinding light above her. She heard another bang as the entire room shook, causing her to wake up properly this time. She instinctively touched her sore jaw as she slowly sat up, running her fingers across the side of her left cheek, where she felt the indentation of newly formed scars.
"Shepard," the woman's voice continued, slightly frustrated, "your scars aren't healed yet, but I need you to get moving. This facility is under attack."
She sounded so calm, so matter-of-factly when she said that over the intercom. Kacey looked about, confused. 'Facility? How did I...?'
She didn't have time to finish that thought as she clutched her right side as a sharp pain forced its way up the side of her body. As her vision cleared, she saw energy blasts and bullets being fired from the other side of the glass as she saw that the room on the other side had caught fire, and had spread rapidly. Smoke filled the room on the other side of the glass. The facility shook again as Kacey questioned where she was. The last thing she could remember was...the Normandy being...destroyed? She looked over towards a nearby terminal as she finally realised roughly where she was. By the looks of things, it appears she was in some sort of med-bay, with a bunch of odd lab equipment strewn about the room.
"There's a pistol in the locker on the other side of the room. Hurry!"
The voice screeched down the intercom. Kacey simply rolled her eyes as she tried to ignore the pain as she stood up. A small wave of nausea hit her as she walked slowly towards the weapons locker on the other side.
"You don't have time to wait around, Shepard! Grab your weapons and armour!"
"Yeah yeah I get it!" Kacey mumbled to herself as she tried to put on her cobalt blue armour as fast as possible. Once she was dressed, she picked up the gun, only to find it empty.
"Uh, this pistol doesn't have a thermal clip," Kacey pointed out, holding the empty gun in one hand.
"It's a med bay. We'll get you a clip from...damn it!"
Kacey quickly slid behind a large piece of machinery as the door blew open and flames begin to spill into the room. Once everything had calmed down a bit, Kacey carefully peered over her makeshift cover and saw that the coast was clear. She ran out of the room as the voice spoke again.
"Someone's hacking security trying to kill you."
"And what? She just blatantly said that out loud?!" Kaidan said in disbelief.
"Yeah, I was pretty much standing there thinking 'thanks for the reassurance there voice!'" Kacey laughed, "But regardless, once I walked through I found a thermal clip. Only thirty three shots but it was better than nothing..."
Kacey loaded her pistol quickly and held it up, just as the previously locked door unlocked itself. Noticing it was clear, Kacey continued to go forward.
"Looks like they set up a barricade to try holding the mechs off." the voice mused to itself.
"Wait a minute." Kacey said, Mechs? What mechs?"
The voice didn't respond to Kacey's question, instead as the commander vaulted over the barricade the voice simply shouted, "Look out!"
Just like that, the dead bodies that littered the dark room finally made sense to Kacey as she quickly dived into cover to avoid the mech's barrage of bullets. It took three shoots to take the mech down. Once again, after checking if the coast was clear, Kacey moved forward, only to stop as she looked at insignia plastered onto the window.
"It was at that moment when I realised exactly where I was. I saw their symbol on the window. I saw it on the mech. And I saw it above the stairs..."
"Cerberus." Kacey growled under her breath. Why was she here? What did they want? And more importantly...what did they do to her?
She didn't have time to dwell on it as the voice spoke once again.
"Keep moving. We need to get you to the shuttles."
Kacey decided to continue, after all she could get her answers later once she was off this space station. She quickly swiped a few thermal clips from the ground as she briskly walked up the stairs, keeping her eyes peeled for any more mechs. Once she went through the door, she found herself in an 'observation' room, with a burst pipe along the right hand side of the ceiling, currently on fire.
"Shepard! Security mechs are closing in on your position. Take cover."
"Thanks for the heads up!" Kacey shouted, unaware if the person could hear her or not. She quickly dived behind a glass railing, only hit her back hard enough against it that the sharp pain from before suddenly got a lot worse.
"Agh! Shit..." She mumbled in pain as the door in front of her opened and a mech clambered on through. She quickly took the mech down by shooting it directly in the head, just as another came from the door on the left. It took two shots to destroy the mech and by that point, Kacey just felt that she had enough of this nonsense.
Another three mechs piled on through, keeping Kacey on her toes. She repeatedly shot all three until they went down, and Kacey breathed a sigh of relief.
"Nice work, Shepard." the voice spoke again, "Coast is clear."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Kacey sighed as she pulled herself up with the railing. She tried her absolute hardest to ignore the pain that thundered through the left side of her rib cage, but at some points, it was becoming almost unbearable.
She pushed herself on through the door, walking down a dark hallway with only the view of a room on fire on the other side of some glass as a light source. She picked up another thermal clip as the deafening silence began to haunt her. As she turned the corner, she saw the Cerberus symbol painted on the ground, and a dead body lying next to the wall. Kacey sighed again as she opened the door in front of her again, trying her best to fight the pain. As she entered the next room, she noticed a grenade launcher on the ground next to a dead officer.
"More reinforcements heading your way."
"Relax, I've got this." Kacey said as she picked up the grenade launcher.
Kacey stood dead centre in front of the door, gun aimed at the door below. As four mechs piled in through the door, Kacey fired the grenade launcher, which blew up all four mechs, and a nearby pipe. The flames blocked the path the mechs had came from.
"Take the elevator down one floor, Shepard."
Kacey darted to the small elevator and rode it down to the level the mechs were on.
"Hurry! Get to the door! Run!"
Kacey ran right through the fire, something her sore ribs wouldn't let her get away with. Despite the increase in pain, she still powered on through. She walked down another all and, as she turned the corner, static began to screech through the intercom.
"You're doing...-Shepard. Head to...-meet you..."
"Uh hello?" Kacey said, trying to make out what the women was saying.
"Shepard? -read me? I've got...-closing in...-on position."
By this point, Kacey had already walked into another room, where she saw a window that lead into a room with loads of different machines. She opened the door that lead into the room, only to find a broken mech crawling its way towards her. She quickly backed up, and shot it in the head before moving on. She walked towards the desk in front of her, where a laptop was left open on the desk.
"It works? Huh," Kacey muttered to herself as she she began to play the recording on the laptop.
In the recording she saw a young woman with dark hair talking directly to the screen, with the same voice that spoke of the intercom.
"Progress is slow, but the subject shows signs of recovery. Major organs are again functional, and there are signs of rudimentary neurological activity. In an effort to accelerate the process, we've moved from simple organic reconstruction of the subject to bio-synthetic fusion. Initial results show promise"
However, before she could continue, the recording cut out. Kacey sighed before investigating the rest of the room, only to find another laptop on a bookshelf.
"Odd place for a laptop but sure." She muttered as she played the next recording of a man's voice.
"The cost of this project is astronomical-over four billion credits so far. But nobody seems to care that we've gone over budget. I don't know where the boss gets all his money...maybe it's better if I don't know. I just wish he'd kick a little more in my direction once in a while."
The recording ended there leaving Kacey with more questions than answers. Kacey the left the room, turned left and continued down the hallway and up the stairs on her right, where she could hear the increasing whirring sound drill into her ears.
As she reached the top of the stairs, she heard someone call on her. She quickly wheeled round to see someone on the other side of the glass, in a room filled with smoke. Before she could do anything, however, an even larger mech appeared and killed the man outright. Kacey watched the robot walk away as she darted to the nearby public terminal, where that man's voice from before rang out.
"Log update: I can't figure Miranda out. As project director, she should be ecstatic at all the progress we've made. But she's the same old ice queen. Maybe she's worried Shepard might become the new favourite. Or maybe she's just a pure, cold-hearted bitch."
Once again, Kacey was left with more questions than answers but regardless decided to press on. As she entered the next room, smoke engulfed her as she saw a man in cover shooting at the mechs on the other side of the room.
"Shepard? What the hell...?" The man trailed off. This initially caught Kacey by surprise, but she decided to join him in cover behind the nearby glass railing.
'Maybe he can give me some answers.'
"What are you doing here?" He asked, "I thought you were still a work in progress."
"Who are you?" Kacey asked, "Are you with Miranda?"
"Yeah. Sorry I forgot this is all new to you right now. I'm Jacob Taylor. I was stationed here-"
He was cut off by a bullet only to fire one back at his attacker.
"Things must be worse than I thought if Miranda's got you running around. I'll fill you in, but we better get you to the shuttle first."
"Look, I know this isn't the best time, but I'm sick of stumbling around when I don't know what's going on." Kacey replied.
"Fair enough," Jacob said, "I'll give you the quick version. You and your ship were attacked and destroyed. You were killed. Dead as dead can be when they brought you here. Our scientists spent the last two years putting you back together. You've been comatose, or worse, that whole time. Welcome back to your life."
All Kacey could do, was sit there...in shock.
"So, if I'm getting this right," Kaidan asked, "you were dead...but they somehow brought you back to life?!"
"Yeah pretty much." Kacey replied, solemnly, "They spent two years trying to revive me, and they succeeded."
"In a way, I'm happy that they did."
"I know, but still...at the time, I just couldn't understand it. How do you process the fact that you've been dead for two years?"
"And I thought we had it bad." Kaidan sighed.
"You did, we all did,"
"That's...sorry I can't wrap my head around that." Kacey replied, shaking her head.
"Yeah I can imagine. The Alliance declared you dead. The whole galaxy thinks you're dead. And if we don't get to those shuttles, they'll be right."
"Wait, what about the crew?" Kacey asked, "Were there any survivors?"
"I'll tell you what," Jacob said, "you help me finish of those mechs, and I'll play twenty questions with you all day."
"I'll hold you to that," Kacey smirked, as she began to open fire on the robots.
Jacob pulled the robots up into the air as Kacey shot each one in the head. Once all the robots had either fled or been destroyed, Jacob stood and turned towards Kacey.
"Okay. I promised I'd answer your questions. What do you want to know?"
"And just like that, he spilled the beans?" Kaidan asked in disbelief.
"To the best of his knowledge, yes." Kacey replied.
"So, they spent two years rebuilding me?" Kacey said, unable to grasp the concept, "How bad were my injuries?"
Jacob sighed, "I'm no doctor, but it was bad. When I first saw you, you were nothing but meat and tubes."
"Geez thanks," Kacey replied, crossing her arms.
"Hey, anywhere else they'd have put you in a coffin. But Project Lazarus was different. Cutting-edge technology."
"What do you mean? Cloning? Cybernetics?"
"I don't know the details. You'll have to ask the scientists. Although, I'm pretty sure you're not a clone. They wanted to bring you back exactly as you were, You're still you...just with a few extra bits and pieces."
"And this Project, were their any other test subjects or was it just me?"
"Project Lazarus only had one test subject. The whole point was to bring you back. Just you. Even that was just a challenge. Two years. All the top scientists and the best technology money could buy."
"And this attack, who's behind it? What are they after?"
"Dammed if I know. I was getting ready for some shut-eye...then bam! Bunch of explosions. Next thing I know every damn mech in this place starts shooting...at us! I'm guessing it had to be an inside job. You need top security access to hack all the mechs."
"Now back to my previous question," Kacey replied, "The Normandy. Did anyone else make it?"
"Just about everybody survived. A few servicemen from the lower decks didn't make it. Navigator Pressly died by an explosion. But everyone else, including the non Alliance crew, they all made out alive."
"Oh thank god," Kacey sighed in relief.
"I take it you were really worried about us, huh?" Kaidan said.
"Of course I was! I was worried about all of you. I'd rather die if it meant all of you survived."
"Let's try to make sure that it doesn't happen again, Commander."
"Where are they now?"
"I couldn't tell you Commander. It's been two years. They've moved on. Left the Alliance. Could be anywhere."
"Well I want to find them," Kacey replied.
"Maybe you can track them down after we get off this station. If we get off this station."
"And what about you? What's your job here?"
"Depends on who you ask. Technically I'm Miranda's top lieutenant but I'm just a solider. Speaking of, Miranda is the one in charge of Project Lazarus."
"That's explains a lot." Kacey mused, "Although I did lose contact with her."
"Could you tell what was happening before you lost contact?" Jacob asked, concerned.
"Well, it didn't sound good. There was an explosion and some gunfire before I lost her." Kacey replied truthfully.
"She knows how to take care of herself, but I hope she's okay. Is there anything else?"
"Nope! That about covers it." Kacey replied, "Let's get going."
"Yeah, the quickest way is-"
"Check. Check. Anyone on this frequency? Anybody still alive out there? Hello?"
Another voice rang through Jacob's ommi-tool. Jacob was quick to answer it.
"Wilson? This is Jacob. I'm here with Commander Shepard. Just took out a wave of mechs over in D Wing."
"Shepard's alive? How the hell-never mind. You need to get her out of here. Get to the service tunnels and head for the network control room."
"Roger that Wilson. Stay on this frequency."
"I think I remember seeing Wilson when I woke up one time." Kacey mused.
"Yeah he's chief of medical tech. Answers directly to Miranda. Come on, this way."
Before following Jacob, Kacey found a small datapad lying on one of the chairs. Once she tapped the screen another recording began to play.
"The Lazarus Project is about enter the final phase. It's taken nearly two years but we did it! Commander Shepard is alive! This is the most amazing medical achievement in recorded history. Maybe now Miranda will finally show me some appreciation for everything I've done."
"Is that Wilson?" Kacey questioned.
"Yeah," Jacob replied, "he's sounds rather bitter, makes me wonder what the hell was going on in the lab."
"Me too, Jacob. Me too."