Chapter 70 – Very Good Friends

0730, April 13th, 2211 — Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega

SSV Excalibur, Deck 4, Crew Quarters

(Spectre Operative Cade Kitiarian)

Cade barely stirred as an alarm clock sitting on the small nightstand beside his desk sent its soft chimes echoing through the cramped sleeping quarter. He remained in the position that he'd been holding for the past three hours – seated in a small chair huddled over a data terminal, pouring over a holo-screen.

The alarm clock's gentle appeal halted suddenly amidst a chorus of soft moans. Still, Cade did not stir. It wasn't until a set of arms had wrapped themselves around his shoulders and a pair of lips had pressed themselves against his right mandible that Cade finally came to life. "How'd you sleep, dear?"

"Good, mijo," Camilla replied. The engineer tried to blink away the last vestiges of sleep. Her brow was furrowed in a way that Cade found ridiculously cute and her hair was a wild, tangled mess. "Did you sleep at all?"

"Some," Cade lied. He was actually quite experienced at pulling an all-nighter in front of a holo-screen, though the reason usually had to do with Galaxy of Fantasy and not the work that he'd been up to.

"Here," Cade said. He leaned over to one side so that Camilla could get a look at what he had been working on.

His girlfriend rubbed her eyes one last time and then bent over to get a closer look at his holo-screen, one hand on Cade's shoulder and the other on the small desk that the terminal sat on. Cade did his duty of course and copped an admiring look.

"Whoa, you sure I should be seeing this?" Camilla teased.

"It's fine." Well, technically it wasn't. Cade had now officially breached operational security for a woman he was involved with.

Camilla raised an eyebrow. "Is this—,"

"—The Spectre database? Yes," Cade answered immediately. "Her name was Martha Killian, born on July 19th, 2153. She was a Staff Commander in the Systems Alliance Navy, with an N5 designation. Served on a number of ships, notably the SSV Tokyo and the SSV Kilimanjaro. She was honourably discharged in 2183 shortly after the battle of the Citadel. The reasons were listed as personal, but if I had to guess she must have been…"

"Yeah, I mean that's as good a reason as any, right?" Camilla agreed. "Is that what you've been doing all night?

"Basically," Cade admitted. He rubbed his eyes. "And I don't know why. I just… I just want to understand. I want to understand just exactly what is going on in his head right now. I want to understand what he must be feeling, you know? If I can understand him then maybe I can… I don't know. Do something."

Camilla sat down on the bed beside him and began to rub his back. "So what have you found?"

Cade threw up his hands. "Nothing. Just his mother's service career and his father's." He stared at the picture of the woman on the screen. Unlike Cloud she had yellow hair, but even Cade could spot the similarities between the two. They shared the same nose, the same mouth – essentially the same face. Except Cloud had his father's colouring. Both in terms of eyes and hair.

"Nothing about when he was born? Or his name?"

"No, and the Spectre databases wouldn't have that information either," Cade replied. "That information would have been in the possession of whichever medical station or hospital he was born at, and that won't be easy to find – if it even still exists. The best I could do was find some an old census of London, Earth from just before the war and some missing persons lists, but there are too many people with the name Killian on it and not enough information left for me to narrow that list down."

"I see," Camilla said. She scratched her hair with her other hand and sighed. "What about the orphanage he grew up in?"

"Couldn't find it. Cloud didn't ever really talk about it all that much either, so all I've got to go on are some off-hand comments from him and Elektra over the years. Best I can guess, they were first sent off to the Citadel during the war, and then to Terra Nova for a few years, and then back to the Citadel. To be honest, I think its possible that it was even the same orphanage, just rebranded or reconstituted, given that they kept a lot of the orphans together. Still, I can't find them. I can't even find anyone else with a weird number-birthday, earth-culture name."

The two of them sat silently for a while. Eventually, Cam's hand fell away. Cade's mood plummeted even further.

"What are you afraid of, Cade?"

Cade dropped his head into his hands. "I don't know Cam. Honest."

"Are you?" she pressed. "Honest I mean?"

Cade frowned. "What? Yes, I suppose."

"Has he ever told you about how he felt about his mother? Or his father?"

"Not…in so many words," Cade said, hesitatingly. "First of all, we're guys. We don't talk much about this stuff even on our best days. Cloud was the worst of us, which was something Percival and I had always accepted and understood, given his past. But there were signs – signs that we had picked up along the years. Signs that we eventually could not ignore."

"What kind of signs?"

A frustrated breath escaped Cade's lips. "Signs like his… his pathological need to play the hero for women, or how strongly he'd feel whenever a woman was hurt or injured on his watch. When we were younger Percival and I just chalked it up to him being – you know, young. To him being forced to become a Spectre with all of the responsibilities that role has without having any military training or real experience in life-or-death situations."

"But it never let up, not even once," Cade shook his head. "It got so bad to the point where it was irrational or illogical. It was like he was some…. video game or cartoon character. Remember Dr. Sarah Messner? From the Hippocrates?"

"Yes, she was a researcher. I remember her. She and her husband were stationed on the Hippocrates. Both of them were killed, right?"

"Yes. Well, Cloud knew her for a grand total of maybe six hours, and when she was killed it gutted him. And you know, it was disheartening to me too. I'm not a psychopath – I get upset when civilians lose their lives. But for Cloud it was like he had lost someone he had known his whole life. Did you know he basically adopted her son afterwards and attacked Dr. Messner's ex-husband who was trying to claim custody?"

Camilla gasped. "No."

"Well, he did!" Cade grunted. "Every time a female civilian dies, he either goes off on a rampage, spirals, or he reacts way too emotionally. And… and I think it's because he sees his mother in each and every single one of them. Dr. Messner, that Project scientist from Anhur, and dozens of others that have been killed over the years. He won't admit it to himself but I think he hates himself. I think he hates that he couldn't save his mother, even though he couldn't have been more than a little kid at the time. I think that every time he loses someone he feels like he's losing his mother again, and he thinks its his fault – again. He's just reliving her loss over and over and over again, and the anger that he feels for himself just mounts and mounts and mounts."

"He's been carrying around all this anger inside of him for years and years and he's been letting it out at people that he thinks deserves it, but it hasn't ever done anything to help him move on. Because it's not just anger he's been carrying all these years Cam, but grief. Even though he barely knew her and she's been gone for the last twenty-five years of his life, he misses his mother. Grieves for her. He's never had a chance to address that."

Cade ran both hands through his fringe. What could he do? "And now he's in the wind. Spirits, I'm his best friend. I should have helped him Cam!

"So, what are you afraid of?" Camilla asked one, final time.

A voice inside of Cade spoke up, unbidden. It whispered words that Cade was too afraid to say in real life, out of a fear that saying them would make them real. "I don't know," Cade answered again. He would keep lying then. He would keep lying if it had even the slightest chance of making his what he feared less likely to be true.

"Okay then," Camilla finally relented. "Then tell me why have you spent the entire night searching up his past?"

Cade slumped down onto the desk and buried his face in his hands. It sounded stupid now to Cade. "I… I thought if I could find out his real name then maybe… maybe I could get him to come back. Maybe that would be enough of her that he wouldn't…Maybe that would be enough for him."

Camilla let out a soft chuckle. She cupped Cade's face and lifted him gently back up. Her lips brushed Cade's.

When they finally broke apart she was smiling at him, and Cade could see his own reflection in her brown eyes. "You really would do anything for your friends. I love that about you, you know that?"

Cade wrapped his arms around her waist. He would never abandon his friends. He wasn't his father. "One of my thousands of desirable traits, and a real pain-in-the-ass one sometimes," Cade purred. "You know, neither Cloud or I wanted to be Spectres all that much. Neither of us were very… 'duty-driven' shall we say. When we were both inducted we decided that we wouldn't be like other Spectres. We'd decided that our story together was just going to be a story about three idiot friends visiting different planets, getting into wacky situations and stopping bad guys."

"You'll need to tell me that story some time. How was it that you two met again?"

"I'll try dear, but you know me. I'm not the best storyteller," Cade whispered, leaning in for another kiss. "Basically he was inadvertently part of a plan to kill the Council."

Cade immediately jerked his head off to the side. "Wait, actually I might not be allowed to tell you what happened." Looks like he had breached operational security twice in ten minutes after a spotless record. What had this woman done to him?

His omni-tool suddenly buzzed, interrupting their moment together. Cade sighed and tapped open the call invitation.

"What's up, Perc? Be advised, I'm with Cam right now."

"Get down to CIC. The Project has attacked Omega."

Cade immediately shifted Cam aside and got up. He fished around the cramped dormitory, searching for his trousers. The abrupt movements sent a stab of pain through his still-healing wounds.

"Spirits, where did they hit?" Cade asked. He had one pant leg on and was hoping around trying to get his other leg in.

"They hit Afterlife, and both the Eclipse and the Blue Suns headquarters."

Cade cursed again. The mood in the room had shifted dramatically. He put on the rest of his clothes and buckled on his utility belt. Beside him Camilla was also quickly getting dressed.

"Decapitation strikes?"

"That's what we're thinking," Percival agreed. "Damn it, how many troops did they manage to get in ahead of their fleet?"

Should he get kitted out first? Shepard had put out a moratorium on all ground action following their meeting a day and a half ago, but Cade wondered if this would change things. "For them to assault the headquarters of three of the biggest players in the Terminus Systems they must have a few companies at least, right?"

"More like battalion-strength, judging by the chatter we're picking up on the merc channels. Get here as soon as possible Cade. Percival out."

The channel cut out just as Cade finished lacing up his boots. The Project must have hijacked another freighter or something if they managed to sneak in enough troops to pull this off.

He gave Camilla one last kiss. "I've got to go. I'm sure everyone is going to be called to battle stations soon, so I won't keep you."

"Yeah," Camilla agreed. She tied her hair up in a bun and finished smoothing out her uniform. "Cade, please be careful."

But Cade was already out the door before Camilla could finish her sentence.

0747, April 13th, 2211 — Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega

SSV Excalibur, Deck 2, Briefing Room

(Spectre Operative Cade Kitiarian)

Percival was already in the briefing room, fully-armored and standing with his arms crossed in front of the holo-table. His head had been wrapped in fresh gauze and his fellow Spectre had a frown plastered on his face. That seemed to be Percival's default expression nowadays. Around the holo-table were also all six members of the Normandy crew, Captain Murgen, Revak, and Elektra.

There was an open comm. channel linked to the table and Cade had walked in towards the tail-end of a profanity-laden tirade. Cade could hear gunfire and explosions in the background. "Get down here, Shepard. Don't make me repeat myself," a voice finished menacingly. It was Aria T'Loak.

The channel shut off. Shepard pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh. Garrus set a hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry I'm late," Cade said sheepishly. "What's the situation on Omega?"

"The Project has launched an attack against Afterlife as well as the Eclipse and the Blue Suns' headquarters in the Sinbad District and Gozu Districts," Garrus said. "Eclipse command is more or less intact, for now, but the Blue Suns have lost a few Chapter captains. Aria T'Loak's taken the worst of it. Most of her guards are dead and she's currently pinned down in her safe-room."

A brief interlude of silence followed, which puzzled Cade. "Well, what's the plan then? We're going to help, right?" Cade demanded.

"Yes, Cade," Murgen nodded. "We can't afford not to. They knew or they guessed that we were going to rally the mercenary fleets. They launched these attacks to try and take out their leadership. If they do, the fleets will be in disarray and we wont stand any chance at stopping the Exeter from hitting the Omega-4 relay."

It was a classic decapitation strike, and effective given the circumstances. "So what's the problem?"

"The problem is we've been doing nothing but reacting ever since the Project left Anhur," Shepard said with a sigh. "Admiral Octavian is out-maneuvering us. He knows we're only one ship, and I don't want to spread the Excalibur's ground complement across too many combat zones."

"Well, we don't have a choice," Percival grunted. He opened up a map of Omega and highlighted the three districts under attack. "Revak, you and Elektra take the Blue Suns and help secure the Gozu District. We'll split the remainder of the Jaegers and the specialists. I'll take Lieutenant Burton's squad along with the specialists and I'll help Aria. Captain Murgen, the rest of your platoon can assist the Eclipse. Commander Shepard – you and the Normandy crew stay aboard the Excalibur for now. We don't have a better rapid reaction force than—,"

"Hold on a minute," Cade held up a hand. "Percival, there's no way I'm letting you go down there in your condition. I'll go instead."

"You really think you're in better shape than I am? Your gizzards haven't even healed yet, you stupid bird."

"I know I am," Cade scoffed. "And head wounds are way more serious, you hairless ape. Besides, I'm a sniper at heart. I won't have to do any moving."

Percival rolled his eyes, "Damn it, Cade. Let's not fight. We'll both go, okay?"

"Fine," Cade acquiesced. "We'll both go."

"You two should just kiss already," Elektra muttered under her breath. Cade flipped her off. Garrus looked like he was about ready to shoot all three of them.

"Well, it looks like we have no choice," Shepard said. "We'll go with your plan, Lieutenant Commander."

"Alright," Percival nodded. "Then let's gear up and get down there asap. Those mercenaries won't last long against the Ninth and their commandos."

Captain Murgen and the Normandy crew departed to their respective stations. Revak whispered a few words to Elektra and then left as well.

Percival, Cade and Elektra all headed down to the Spectre armory together. Cade could feel the electricity racing through the air. After almost two weeks of relative calm they were going back into fray against the Project. The Excalibur was bursting with activity as Jaeger marines and Blue Suns troopers moved throughout the ship to join up with their respective units. The engineering teams were working around the clock, preparing the Excalibur for the fight ahead. Cade spotted Camilla directing a pair of junior drive core technicians, but they only managed to share a brief glance and a smile before duty drove them apart.

"What happens if we can't stop the Exeter from hitting the Omega-4 relay?" Elektra asked.

"Not sure to be honest," Percival shrugged. "Not even Shepard knows why they're going back there. There must be something on Erebus that they're looking for."

The Spectre armory was a repurposed storage room just off of the Hangar bay. A Jaeger team and a few Blue Suns troopers were already in the Bay, loading equipment onto the four Kodiaks. Cade noticed that nearly every Blue Suns trooper there either gave Elektra a respectful, little nod or said a few words to her. No more catcalls or whistling or uncalled commentary. Elektra replied to each and every single one of them.

Percival keyed in the storage code and they entered the armory. His and Elektra's combat armor were hung up on two of the four armor stands in the rear of the room. Percival already had his on. A fourth set hung on the final stand.

Electra and Cade began to suit up quietly while Percival grabbed weapons and equipment. The silence was, oddly enough, making Cade a bit anxious. "The mercs have really taken a shining to you, haven't they?"

Elektra slipped on her last vambrace. She gestured for him to help her attach her last pauldron and Cade begrudgingly obliged. She must have still been feeling the gunshots she took from the commandos back on Anhur. "What can I say? The effect that I have on men is a phenomenon in and of itself."

Cade scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You're real humble too, you know that?"

His fellow Spectre clipped a predator pistol to her thigh and her Scimitar shotgun to its usual spot on her lower back. "The Blue Suns aren't Hierarchy or Alliance troops. They don't care about rank or status. Mostly just strength and power. They've seen me fight. I may not be on the same level as the three of you, but I can hold my own. Besides, while you were off chasing after your boyfriend I was fighting alongside them in New Thebes. Saved a couple of them."

"You can fight, you harpy. I'll give you that much," Cade muttered. Elektra was a damn good close-range biotic fighter, probably on par with an asari commando albeit with maybe half of the stamina, being only human and all. What she lacked in stamina she made up for with her close-range gunplay. A biotic punch was great and all but a Scimitar slug from point-blank range often had the same result.

Elektra suddenly threw her arms around Cade's neck and pulled him in close, until their faces were inches apart. Cade could see his own startled reflection in her honey-brown eyes. "Careful Kitiarian, keep talking like that and I just might fall in love with you," she said softly.

Cade cheeks burned and his mandibles drew so tight to his jaw that he thought they were going to snap off. "Spirits, get off of me!" he pushed himself away. Elektra laughed and let him go. "You know, I can be your sad, little, biotic human bff if you want." She put both hands behind her back and started twisting in place.

Cade stammered and Elektra laughed even harder. She left him to pick up what was left of his dignity and went to go grab a few biotic grenades. "Perc, what are you looking at?" Cade demanded.

His friend had a stupid, goofy smile plastered on his face. "Oh nothing. I'm just so glad that you two are finally getting along."

Cade shook his head as he slid his Black Widow rifle over his shoulder. "I'm going to shoot you one day. Both of you. In the ass, just like I did Cloud."

"So touchy, Kitiarian," Elektra pouted. The sound of his name however had shattered her façade, and Elektra glanced at the final suit of armor in the room. "You boys think he's okay?"

Cade and Percival shared a look. "I don't know Ellie," Percival finally said. Elektra jumped, not used to hearing herself being called that by anyone but Cloud. "He's probably going through a lot right now. You've known him the longest. What do you think he's thinking?"

Elektra sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Cloud…. He think's he's a hard guy. An emotionless guy, but he isn't. He runs off a lot when things are bad, not because he's scared but because he thinks he's found a way to fix things. Maybe… maybe he thinks he can fix things? Maybe he's found a different way of beating the Project?"

"Maybe," Cade echoed. His armor being there almost made it seem like Cloud was there with them too. Cade could almost picture him there, standing with his arms crossed and glaring at the three of them.

But Cloud wasn't there. Instead, Cloud's armor was sitting lifelessly on its stand.

The three finished gearing up in silence. Cade gave the armor one final glance as they departed for their Kodiaks.

Elektra splintered off, heading towards a cluster of Blue Suns troopers milling around one of the Kodiaks. Revak was there, towering nearly head and shoulders over everyone else. The Kodiak had begun powering on, running its pre-flight.

"Alright boys. You two watch out for one another, okay?" she waved at them.

"Yes mom," Percival and Cade both echoed simultaneously. When they realized what they had done they both grinned at one another. "Nice," they both said again. They slapped their hands together and giggled to one another like a pair of schoolgirls.

Elektra was already standing in the bay of her Kodiak, one hand on the safety rail. "I am torn between 'wow, do not call me mom' and 'I will bend the both of you over my knee'."

"You know, both work for me," Cade grinned back at her. Him and Percival were now in the bay of their Kodiak, looking over at their fellow Spectre. Around them Accer and their team were loading up.

"Keep an eye on the Suns, alright Ellie?"

"Take care of yourself, Harpy."

"You too boys… you too..."

0825, April 13th, 2211 — Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega

SSV Excalibur, Deck 2, Flight Deck

(Flight Lieutenant Valeria Fyordinarova)

"Thanks to his recon force, Admiral Octavian by now will know that the turian fleet has not yet arrived in the system. Therefore, it would be safe to assume that he knows that that there is nothing in this system that can stand against the combined power of all three of his dreadnoughts."

Val could hardly tear her eyes away from her newest crewmate. The Systems Alliance utilized VI's and sometimes even used VI's installed in synthetic, robot bodies to accomplish simple tasks like loading or basic security, but they had nothing like this. EDI, or the Normandy crew had called her, was apparently a bona-fide artificial intelligence. The way she talked and moved and interacted with the crew was unlike anything Val had ever seen. If Val didn't know better she would have thought that there was a human mind trapped inside that synthetic body.

And that body… whomever designed it must have been a man. Probably a team of men.

"And? What's that mean?" Shepard asked. The Commander had one arm casually draped atop the headrest of Val's chair and had the rest of her body turned to face EDI, who was seated temporarily in the navigator's chair. Val was so star-stricken she could hardly breathe.

"It means he will likely bring in all three of them as his vanguard simultaneously and then use them to establish a foothold in Sahrabarik until he can bring in the rest of his fleet through the relay, just like he did in the Kotor System in 2199, the Gunthel System in 2201 and the Vermillion System in 2203."

Shepard scratched her head. "Then…,"

"Then you need to spread out your ships. Those dreadnoughts can appear anywhere within more than four-billion cubic kilometers of the relay."

EDI pressed a few buttons and out popped a hologram of the Sahrabarik relay and the immediate, surrounding space. She pointed at a tight cluster of blue lights situated a short distance away.

"For some reason you have clustered the majority of your ships into an enveloping-wedge formation within an area of only about a few million square cubic kilometers facing the relay. You're not in command of a squadron of old earth tanks or cavalry on flat land. Dreadnought cannons fire rounds at a speed of nearly five-thousand kilometers per second. It will be like shooting fish in a barrel. Clustering your ships so close together may look intimidating but it gives you less room to maneuver and it just makes it easier for their targeting systems to track you. Really Shepard, I would have thought that you would have accounted for relay drift, targeting capabilities, and basic 3-D space."

Val never thought that she'd end up feeling bad for the legendary Commander Shepard. "Alright EDI, you've made your point," Shepard raised both hands. "What do you suggest we do then, Admiral?"

"Fleet Admiral," EDI sniffed. "I recommend you spread out your ships completely, across a wider area. Perhaps like this." The synthetic opened up a new hologram on her display. The cluster of blue lights representing the mercenary ships had been almost completely dispersed into a wide sphere formation around the Sahrabarik relay, with large gaps of space between each ship. "Increasing the space between your ships will give each ship much more room to maneuver and correspondingly make it much harder for their targeting systems to track you. You will also have overlapping fields of fire. Being overwhelmed by hunter-killer flotillas are a worry, but by my calculation it will take Admiral Octavian nearly seven full minutes to transfer all four-hundred or so of his remaining ships. You will need to hit him hard and keep him from spreading out into the system."

"Fine, I'll get in touch with the merc leaders, if any of them are still alive in the next few hours. Where should the Excalibur be positioned?"

EDI opened up the larger system map. She pointed again. "Here."

Shepard moved closer towards EDI's chair and squinted at the display. "Omega? Why? Out of the three main points of interest I thought Omega was the least-effective place to station the Excalibur. Why not at either of the relays?"

"Because Admiral Octavian has a secondary objective that is nearly as important as his first one. This ship. Us, to be more specific. You're thinking like you used to back during the War, but this isn't the War and the Project aren't the Reapers. Admiral Octavian and the Project know they aren't invincible. They know that the next best thing they can do aside from reaching Erebus is destroy this ship, because its crew is currently the greatest threat to their plans. I understand why you recalled everyone to the ship. You want to everyone to be ready to go after them together at a moment's notice, just like you used to do during the War. Shepard, that is a mistake."

Shepard pursed her lips. She looked as if she were about to speak out a few times. "You're… right EDI," Shepard eventually sighed. "As always."

"I know Shepard. Position the Excalibur close to Omega and wait for your moment. Stay out of the fighting as much as possible and use it as a shield—my guess is that Admiral Octavian won't risk harming the civilians."

"Are you sure about that EDI? You saw the footage of Anhur and the Hippocrates," a new voice said. The one that the others called Miranda slipped onto the flight deck. Every time Val saw her she was wearing that trademark black and white cat-suit. Was it always the same one or did she just had several of them? Seeing Miranda also always made Val feel self-conscious about herself.

EDI blinked. "The report of Spectre 04272182 say that they released that Reaper core on both Anhur and the Hippocrates to test the effects of modified Cerberus Revival Strains on Cris'paii DNA. Given that the Project left the core on Anhur and are headed directly back to Erebus, it is likely that they achieved whatever test goals they had in mind."

EDI turned back to Shepard. "They'll likely try to minimize civilian casualties – at least, until they finish with Erebus."

"That's fair guess," Shepard mused. She ruffled her hair with both hands and let out another frustrated sigh. "Damn it. I don't like this EDI, but I can see where you're coming from. Flight Lieutenant, can you set a course for EDI's coordinates?"

"Yes Commander." Val inputted the coordinates and set it to auto-pilot. They were close to it anyways.

"Thanks. Miri – something you couldn't tell me over text? What's the news?"

Miranda crossed her arms and blew a strand of hair away from her face. "I just needed a break from it all." Val gulped and wondered if she ought to be here listening to all of this, but none of the Normandy crew seemed to mind her presence. "The news is bad, Shepard. The Project has more sympathizers than we thought. They've released news on of what they're trying to do on the Extranet. They've also even claimed responsibility for the events on Anhur and the Hippocrates. And people… people are cheering for them. They're protesting on Terra Nova… Thessia…. Interest groups are even sending envoys to the Council to call for them to support the Project."

"What!?" Shepard exclaimed. "Are these people out of their mind?"

"We underestimated the grief of an entire generation," Miranda shook her head. "And to be fair, they're also claiming that they had no idea that the Reaper Cores would create those creatures and are acting contrite about it. And the people are lapping it up."

"Organics will always believe whatever narrative benefits them the most," EDI pointed out.

"Okay, then what are the governments doing? Has Parliament announced anything? The asari?"

"Based on Liara's intel it sounds like none of the governments have openly announced their support yet, but you can be sure there are Project sympathizers getting ready to act. The one thing that the governments are trying to do is have all existing Reaper cores moved to safe locations, but they're running into some trouble from protest groups who are picketing the cores."

EDI palmed her face. "Great. So not only are people congregating at ground zeroes for the Phenomenon, if the Project does manage to find a way to disseminate the Strain to all of the cores and accidentally trigger a mass infection event, then there are going to be numerous suitable hosts already within range. Every time I think I have organics all figured out, I find myself surprised."

"The Project must be desperate," Miranda said.

"Yes," EDI agreed.

"What makes you say that?" Shepard asked the two of them.

"They're going public because they need help and probably because they're not sure they can accomplish what they're trying to do," Miranda explained. "When it comes down to it, they're just a rogue Systems Alliance fleet with a few auxiliaries and maybe a few sympathizers in each government, chasing a technological miracle. The turians could wipe out the Project in a manner of days in a conventional war – all Vakarian would have to do is snap his fingers. They need help. They took a risk going public but it's paid off. They're getting support, putting pressure on galactic governments, and encouraging other scientists to weigh in."

Val's was reeling from what she was hearing in this impromptu war council. The crew had been swapping rumors that the Normandy were up to something ever since they had arrived in Sahrabarik, and it turns out that something was galaxy-wide damage control. That would explain why they had left the ground-work to the rest of the crew. Damn it, shouldn't Percival or Cade or even Elektra be here to hear all of this instead? She was just a simple pilot.

"What do you think, EDI? Of their chances of pulling this off I mean," Shepard asked her friend.

EDI stayed silent for a while, then turned back to face Shepard and Miranda. "Twenty years ago, those chances were nearly zero. Insignificant. The Cris'paii DNA was a curiosity to be studied with the potential to become something far worse. Now… based on what happened on the Hippocrates and on Anhur and what we now know about the Cris'paii and the Cerberus Revival Strain… I do not know Shepard. But if I had to give an estimate… given more time and resources there is very real, non-zero chance that they do manage to find a way to restore the organic consciousness' that the Reapers harvested to physical forms. Probably the same non-zero chance that Cerberus had of bringing you back from death."

"Non-zero," Shepard repeated EDI's turn of phrase. "I don't suppose you've calculated a percentage? Doesn't the smart guy in the group always cook up a percentage in the holo-films?"

"I haven't and I can't, Shepard. This isn't a holo-film. If I did give you a number I would be 'pulling it out of my ass' – as Jeff would put it. I can tell you what I think will likely happen."

"Okay, and what is that?"

EDI turned back to face the navigator's holo-display. "Space cyber-zombies, Shepard. Space cyber-zombies."

Shepard looked down sullenly. Eventually Miranda clapped her hands together, breaking the silence that followed. "Well, ladies this has truly been a fun and welcome break. I think I am going to go back and help Liara figure out a way to convince a couple billion people that the Project's idea is absolutely insane and is going to get us all killed. Goodbye." The woman turned and walked away. How did she manage to wear heels all the time?

"Miranda wait! I'll come with you. There's a couple of things I want to go over with Liara as well," Shepard called out. The commander followed her friend off of the flight deck.

The two departed, leaving just Val and EDI alone on the flight deck.

"EDI, I'm going to go do some ship-to-ship combat simulations down on the training deck. The course is set so just ping me if you need anything."

"Sure, Flight Lieut – hang on, I have an unmarked shuttle on approach. Its registered as a private vessel. Civilian."

Val turned back and stared at the navigation display. "A civilian craft?" Why would a civilian craft be headed towards the Excalibur? She took a step back towards her seat. "Should we go to battle stations, EDI?"

A new message popped up on the navigator's display. "I'm getting an authorization code. It's Spectre 04272182. He is requesting permission to dock."

Val's heart leapt in her chest. "It's Cloud?" The Spectre had returned.

EDI's fingers danced across the holo-terminal. "I've let Shepard know."

"Let him in."

The intelligence paused. "Flight Lieutenant?"

"Let him in," Val repeated, doing her best to hide the tremor in her voice. "He's a Spectre and he's the one officially in command of this ship, EDI. You can alert Shepard and the rest of the Normandy crew if you want, but don't interfere with whatever his mission is."

She had never seen a synthetic shrug before. "If you say so, Flight Lieutenant. Alerting medical and fire control. As a precaution."

Val spun and ran for the elevators. This would be the second time that Val had dashed down the ship in an attempt to reach this man — an almost embarrassing notion for a girl her age. Damn it, what was wrong with her?

A dingy, old civilian shuttle was parked in the otherwise empty hangar bay, its doors wide open. The rest of the support squads had already left. Val searched, but she couldn't see him.

She heard rustling coming from the makeshift Spectre armory. Val keyed in the old storage room code and the doors slid open.

The lights were off. Pieces of gray combat armor were scattered around the armory, casting shadows on the floor. In the rear of the room standing in the dark was a man with his back turned to her. It was Cloud. He was wearing only the bottom half of a combat undersuit and doing something to his combat armor.

Val's eyes traced their way up the Spectre's back, following the natural lines etched there. There was a new set of scars across his mid-back where it looked like he'd fallen, and somehow he looked even leaner than when they had been fighting on Anhur. The skin around the biotic implant at the base of his neck looked like it had been burned recently.

"Cloud?"

Cloud turned around and Val gasped. His eyes – usually a lightning-blue hue – now looked unnaturally bright to the point where they were almost glowing. The skin around his eyes had grown black. Across his chest right over his heart there was another small patch of blackened skin. Was there a bit of blue there as well?

"Cloud… are you okay? Should I call Rentea?" Val asked nervously. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She trembled and took a step towards the Spectre.

Cloud grabbed the top half of his undersuit off of a nearby bench and slipped it on. He zipped it up, obscuring his chest.

"I'm fine Flight Lieutenant Fyordinarova." He gave her a wry smile. "Tired as usual but what can I do? A war is about to break out."

His words weren't out of the ordinary but something was different. Something was off. It was his tone, Val decided after a moments thought. Cloud's tone was usually flat – even a bit downcast. Now he sounded happier. He almost sounded cheerful.

Cloud began to pull parts of his armor off of the stand behind him and began to attach them onto his undersuit. Val had never seen him put on his armor before. It was almost hypnotizing to watch.

"Flight Lieutenant?" he asked. "You okay?"

Val blinked. "Yeah – Yeah I'm fine," she stammered. "Just thinking. Are you going somewhere?" she gestured at the armor.

When he was finished putting on his armor, Cloud grabbed his two Talon knives and slide them into a pair of sheaths strapped to his lower back. "Yeah, back to Omega. I just came to pick up a few things. I still have a mission to complete after all."

Yeah, his tone had definitely changed. He sounded more confident. Cocky almost. "Did you tell Cade and Percival you were coming back?"

The Spectre paused. "No… no I didn't." He slid a Predator pistol into a holster at his hip.

"They were pretty upset when you disappeared yet again. Maybe you should reach out to them?"

Cloud chuckled. He grabbed several ammunition blocks from a nearby tray and began to slot them into his utility belt. "Yeah, I bet Cade was pissed. Can't blame either of them, and I'm sure I'll hear all about it sooner or later," he said almost flippantly.

He grabbed grenades and a few other devices as well. "Still, they'll understand once I tell them everything. Cade and Percival are Spectres. They know what's really important."

"And what is that?"

Cloud finished by holstering an old M-8 Avenger and his sniper rifle on his back. He approached Val, stopping when he was just a few inches away. Val's face burned. He was taller than she thought. It took all the willpower she had to maintain eye contact with the Spectre.

"I can stop this, Val. I can stop all of this," he said quietly. "I'll make sure the Project never hurts anyone else ever again. I can save everyone, Val. I'm going to save everyone."

Val swallowed. He smelled like ozone, metal and soap. Her heart was beating so fast and loud she was afraid that he could hear it. There was a part of her that wanted to run and a part of her that never wanted to leave.

He set his hand gently on her shoulder. "Listen Val, the Ninth and the Exeter will be here in a matter of hours. It's going to be the first full-scale naval battle this galaxy has seen since the Palaven Rebellion. I'm trusting you to keep this crew safe. Got it?"

Val nodded dumbly. "You've got it. You can count on me Cloud."

Cloud smiled and gave her a light, playful tap on the cheek with his fist. "Thanks Val. Keep an eye out for Percival and Cade too. God knows I can't trust Elektra with that."

He let go of her shoulder and moved past her. Val brushed to spot where he had touched her face with her fingers. She turned to watch him depart.

Cloud stuck a hand over his shoulder. "Oh, and there's probably going to be a quarian girl who will be joining the crew," he called out. "Has a giant, robot cat with her. Take care of her as well for me, will you?"