"The squad was now focused, and the ship was upgraded. Our weapons and armour were upgraded. So it was time to get that IFF."

When she reached the CIC, Kacey didn't expect to be jostled from right to left. She struggled to walk on the CIC much less the bridge towards Joker. As she staggered towards the wisecracking pilot, she could hear alarms blaring as Joker struggled to keep the Normandy steady.

"What's with all the chop, Joker?" Kacey asked as she finally grabbed a hold of the pilot's chair.

"Doing my best." Joker replied, "The wind's gusting to five hundred kph."

"Wonderful." Kacey sighed.

"There's a second ship alongside the Reaper." Joker said, "It's not transmitting any IFF, but the ladar paints its silhouette as geth."

"I guess we know why the science team stopped reporting in."

The ship continued to rock violently as it approached the derelict Reaper. The moment the Reaper was within sight, the violent rocking stopped in an instant; Kacey gripped the chair tightly as she regained her balance.

"What just happened?" Kacey asked.

"The Reaper's mass effect fields are still active." Joker explained, "We just passed through their envelope. Eye of the hurricane, huh?"

"No shit." Kacey mused, "Tell Garrus and Tali to head down to the shuttle bay."

…

The place was deadly silent; the white metallic hall was blanketed in shadow as the singular while light barely lit the entrance hallway. Inside the Cerberus base was no different. Kacey opened the door and found a lone corpse lying near the wall, charred. It didn't bode well, and Kacey had a feeling that her suspicions were right; the team didn't survive.

"No one here to welcome us. That's not good." Tali mused.

Kacey walked down the steps carefully, mindful of the lack of light in the area that was making it harder to see. Thick layers of dust coated the equipment, indicating that the team had been gone for a long time. Kacey watched as Tali played around with one of the terminals, causing the machine to whir to life and a video to play:

"The airlock has been installed at the far end of the holed section. We have begun pressurisation for shirtsleeves work. The crew is edgy, I reassure them it is mere nerves. A superstitious reaction to what this hulk represents—the corpse of a vast, ancient life form. Privately I can't deny the atmosphere. The angles of the walls seem to press down on you. I find myself clenching my teeth."

"That doesn't sound good." Garrus mused.

"Okay, let's make this quick." Kacey said as she moved further in, "I think we all know where this is going and I don't want to be around long enough for that to happen."

"Agreed." Tali replied as Garrus nodded, "Hold on, there's another one."

"We finished cataloguing specimens A203 to B016. No evidence of active nanotechnology noted. Doctor Chandana believes they would have decayed over the last 37 million years. There's not enough data to support his claim. He asserts that the truth is 'patently obvious'. I am…concerned. Chandana has been staring at the samples for hours. He says he's 'listening to them'.

"Yeah, they're fucked." Kacey mused, "Let's go."

Kacey led her squad down the hall near the entrance. This was starting to worry her; why the Illusive Man thought this was a good idea was beyond her. This was one of those times where Kacey wasn't so keen to take the risk. Indoctrination was not something that she wanted to mess around with, having already seen the effects on Saren and Benezia beforehand.

She reached the airlock at the other end; upon opening the door a large bang rippled through the base and shook it violently.

"Was I not supposed to open the door?" Kacey quipped.

"Normandy to shore party!" Joker said via the comms.

"What just happened?" Kacey asked.

"The Reaper put up kinetic barriers. I don't think we can get through from our side."

"As curious as I am about Reapers I'd rather not be stuck inside one." Tali mused.

"Or indoctrinated for that matter." Garrus added, "I'd like to keep myself intact thanks."

"I don't suppose those Thanix Cannons of yours can take that barrier down?" Kacey asked.

"It would blast us out into space, not just take the barrier down."

"Okay so does anyone have an idea where the generators are so we can take them down?"

"At the moment of activation, I detected a heat spike in what is likely the wreck's mass effect core. Sending the coordinates now. Be advised; this core is also maintaining the Reaper's altitude."

"No offence, but the Reaper's altitude is the least of our problems right now." Kacey replied, "Joker, make sure Chambers is ready to see us after this, assuming we don't end up crazy or dead."

"Are you sure you can get out of there quick enough?" Joker asked.

"We will. And I know you can get us out of here just as fast, Joker." Kacey replied, "Stand by."

"Aye, aye Commander."

Kacey opened the door that led to the inside of the Reaper; it was deadly silent, eerie and dark. Brown blood stains were splattered across the platforms alongside more charred and decayed bodies. Large, bumpy cables were strung up across the ceiling, and an eerie fog lingered in the back crevasses of the Reaper. Faint white lights lit up the path ahead, and Kacey couldn't help but feel the need to leave. Tali walked over to another terminal, turning it on and playing another work log;

"You're married? You never mentioned that."

"Katy had anger management issues. When my brother got married, the best man tried to hit on her. She kicked him down the church steps"

"Wh–? Katy's my wife! I must have told you the story."

"No. I know my wife. I remember—that day was the only time I saw her wear stockings"

"Yeah. The kind with seams up the back. That's what I remember too."

"The Reaper must be affecting their minds." Garrus mused.

"They must be indoctrinated." Kacey mused, "Or—"

She was cut off by the sound of husks slowly crawling up the side of the platforms. Kacey fired a concussive shot, knocking a few back. She hated fighting these things; their tendency to swarm them was the main reason. Kacey fired another concussive shot to push the horde away from her before opening fire, aiming squarely at their heads. Garrus opted to knock them off the platform, while Tali sent her combat drone to distract them.

"I still can't believe you agreed to do that." Kaidan said.

"To be fair, I didn't have much of a choice." Kacey replied, "If we didn't get that IFF, we weren't going to survive going through the Omega 4 Relay."

"Looks like we found what happened to the science team." Kacey mused.

"Looks like it." Garrus mused as they moved forward, "Sniper!"

Two shots cleaved their way through the skulls of two husks, shooting them dead. Kacey looked around, but saw nothing but darkness.

"I couldn't make out who it was, but it's clear someone else is here." Garrus mused.

"Maybe a survivor from the science team." Tali suggested.

"Maybe. Let's get going." Kacey replied.

Kacey wasn't sure what to think; Joker mentioned that a geth signature was being picked up on the Normandy's scanners. She didn't exactly want to fight geth on top of husks and abomanations.

She turned the corner, a lone scion lurking down the bottom. Several sniper shots took the thing out before it got the chance to attack them. Kacey could then see something in the back of the area; tall spikes with humans impaled on them. A sight all too familiar to her. It was exactly how the geth made the husks on Eden Prime and the Citadel.

"We've seen these before, your people call them Dragon's Teeth." Garrus mused.

"See how the room's arranged?" Kacey said, looking around, "They treated this thing like some kind of altar."

"That doesn't seem right." Tali mused, "No one in their right mind would…"

"You heard the logs, Tali. They were seeing things. Hearing things. They were being indoctrinated. So let's take a step back from the weird alien impaling devices and grab that IFF."

"Agreed." Garrus said.

Kacey headed towards the next door, hoping that they'd reach the IFF and the drive core soon, before they ended up stuck here, permanently.