Chapter 9.
Liara woke up. A strange feeling came over her, the one she hasn't felt in a very long time. She got up from her bed, put on her gown and walked downstairs towards the large windows of her apartment, it was raining heavily outside. Liara stood in front of the windows looking up towards the sky, Illium reminded Liara of Thessia in times like these. She couldn't help but shiver at the look of the downpour, even though the inside of the apartment was warm. Liara's thoughts drifted towards Shepard, the last two years have not been easy for her, but she did the best she could, she learned to sacrifice, to be more efficient, the old naive Liara was all but gone. Still the thoughts of happiness, brought back some of the old asari archaeologist, who was rescued by the brave human commander and swept off her feet on a journey through the galaxy. It was brief but she was happy, it was enough. Her grief still felt strong, but there were no tears, she has mourned and buried Shepard, everyone has. She turned around and walked back upstairs to her bed, but sleep would not take her. She tossed and turned for a while, closing her eyes, trying to force herself to sleep, but all that did was make her more restless, thoughts of Shepard brought back some painful memories. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, Liara got up and walked over to her terminal, she scanned through her messages, when suddenly she noticed the date, it has been exactly two years since she handed Shepard's body to Cerberus.
"Goddess, has it really been that long? I miss you so much Shepard."
Shepard could hear voices, they were muffled, "What is going on? Where am I? Who are these people?"
"...told you that your estimates were off." said the female voice, sounding very irritated.
"It's no good Miranda, he's waking up, it's too early!" answered the male voice.
Shepard opened his eyes, he couldn't tell where he was, the lights were bright and his vision was not adjusting. He tried to move but he could not feel anything, his arms and legs were not responding. Someone came over him and looked at him, he could not tell who it was, he did not recognize them.
"His pulse is skyrocketing, brain activity is off the charts! We're gonna lose him!" the male's voice was sounding desperate.
"Don't try to move Shepard." spoke a female voice above him, "Give him the sedative."
"It's not working!" the male voice yelled.
"Double the dosage." the female voice said calmly.
Shepard's vision started to fade, darkness encroaching from the sides.
"Pulse is stabilizing, brain activity returning to normal, heart rate dropping. That was too close." the male voice spoke with relief.
"Go run your calculations again, I'm going to report this to the Illusive Man."
"What happened to me? The last thing I remember is... Normandy, completely obliterated... crew running for the escape pods... Liara... then getting to Joker, pulling him into the escape pod... then the explosion and floating space… air running out, everything going cold."
"Shepard! Wake up Shepard!" the voice echoed in the comm. system, John opened his eyes and saw the white ceiling, pain resonating throughout his face and most parts of his body was the first thing that came to him. "I know your scars have not completely healed, but you got to get out of here, this station is under attack!" the voice was familiar, John heard it before.
"Who are you and where am I?" he asked, as he stood up from what looked like an operating table.
"There is no time for questions right now Shepard, someone reprogrammed the mechs on this station, they are after you, you've got to get to the shuttle bay, I will answer your questions after we get off this facility, now get moving! There is a pistol right next to you, grab it and go!"
Shepard had a million question circulating in his head, his body ached and moving was making it worse. He heard distant screaming, shots being fired, explosions? Questions would have to wait, he grabbed the pistol and examined it quickly. It was not a model he was familiar with, it did not have a built in heat removal system. Instead it was outfitted with a clip of disposable heat sinks. Probably rather wasteful but more efficient in combat and that's what mattered. He picked up a thermal clip and loaded it into the pistol, his combat training starting to come back to him.
The first few mechs were disposed off with a few precise shots, but before Shepard had a chance to reload, another mech came around the corner, John was out in the open, shields were down, the only thought was to use a biotic blast on it. Before he knew what happened, his body responded by itself as if it memorized this from many times before, an aura of biotic energy covered his entirety, a mass effect field surrounded Shepard. As the mass effect field peaked Shepard instinctively tensed his legs and jumped forward. The rapidly collapsing mass effect fields propelling him forward at a great speed, slamming into the mech with tremendous force. On impact, the field surrounding Shepard detonated tearing through the unfortunate mech, leaving only pieces.
"That was new." Shepard spoke out loud. He had pretty good control of biotics with his L3 implants before, but this was on a whole new level. He wondered if this level of control could come close to that of an asari commando. But now was not the time for experimentation and Shepard moved on.
After a bit of target practice with his new biotic implants Shepard came around another corner of the facility into a large open space, there was a bridge crossing to the other side of this large room, and a platform on the left side of the room parallel to the bridge. There were several mechs on the platform and more coming out from the door. The mechs were aiming at a soldier, they had him pinned down. Shepard ran and slid into cover next to him.
"Shepard? I thought you were still in recovery!" said the dark skinned soldier in a black uniform, with a very familiar insignia.
"I just woke up, what's going on in here?" John replied while taking a peak at the mechs.
"Someone reprogrammed the mechs, the whole station is overrun, we need to get to the shuttle bay. By the way my name is Jacob Taylor, pleased to meet you Commander." the soldier replied.
"Likewise Jacob, now what do you say we send these mechs to the junkyard?"
"Ready when you are Commander, I'm a biotic, jet let me know when to hit them with the good stuff."
"So am I, can you pull them? I'll finish them off."
"Sure thing Commander!" said Jacob and quickly stood up throwing a blast of biotic energy towards the mechs, it hit two mechs head on and they quickly started to elevate into the air. With a combination of gunfire and biotics the duo quickly dispatched the group of mechs and moved on.
"Problem solved." Shepard smiled and looked at Jacob. "You know your way around Jacob, I'll follow you."
"This way commander, let's hope we find more survivors."
As they moved through the station, they had a few more fire fights with the mechs, and ran into the medical officer Wilson.
"I recognize your voice Wilson, you were there when I just woke up." Shepard stated as he was applying the medigel to his injured leg. The wound was strange, it could not have been a wound from a mech shot, the angle was wrong, but he decided to keep this to himself for now.
"Yep, that was me, thanks Shepard, you saved my life, I guess that makes us even then." he smiled faintly. "We better start moving, we need to get to the shuttle bay."
"Let's hope Miranda meets us there." answered Jacob, obviously worried about her.
"Is she the one who woke me up?" John asked both of them.
"She led the project, in fact she practically put you back together by hand." Jacob replied.
"We can talk about this later, let's get a move on." Wilson quipped.
"Wait, before we move on, just tell me, who owns this station, who funded this project?" John asked. Both men looked at each other for a second, then Wilson looked somewhere to the side and Jacob lowered his eyes.
"It was Cerberus." Jacob finally answered. "Cerberus recovered your body and funded this project."
"It's your ass, Jacob, the Illusive man won't be happy about this." Wilson replied.
"I don't care." Jacob stated. "The Commander deserves to know."
That was certainly unexpected, several painful memories quickly came rushing back to Shepard's mind. Akuze and Toombs being the brightest of them.
"It doesn't matter right now, let's get going." John answered.
Between the three of them, there was no trouble fighting the mechs, and after moving through several more rooms and corridors they were at the shuttle bay doors.
"Finally we can get out of here, hold on let me get the door." said Wilson and walked up to the holographic interface, but before he could touch it, the door opened. I woman walked out of the shuttle bay, she was wearing a skin tight white nano-weave suit, that underlined her forms quiet well, she had long black hair, full lips and brown eyes.
"Miranda... how did you..." Wilson started to speak, but before he could say anything else, Miranda's face filled with disgust, she quickly raised her pistol and shot Wilson in the head. He had no chance, death was instant.
"What the hell are you doing Miranda?" Jacob yelled out.
"My job." Miranda answered calmly.
"He could have been useful." John stated.
"He is the one who sabotaged the station Shepard, he tried to kill you already, what makes you think he wouldn't have done it again? Now if you don't mind I would like us to get off this station."
John shook his head, he was not fine with blatant murder, regardless if the victim was guilty or not. But this is Cerberus, this kind of behavior did not surprise him in the least. Deciding to let the matter go Shepard asked:
"Before we go, I'd like you to answer a couple of my questions Miranda."
"Can't it wait? The station will be overrun shortly." Miranda quipped.
"I think I deserve at least some answers before I fly off in a shuttle with people I don't know." John stated, crossing his arms.
Miranda let out a sigh. "Very well Shepard, what do you need to know?"
"Tell me why did the Cerberus recover my body?" Shepard asked, awaiting the reaction.
"Ah, Jacob.." she turned to him. "I knew your conscience would get the better of you." she quipped.
"The Commander needed to know, Miranda, having him in the dark is not going to help out the mission." Jacob replied defensively.
"Shepard, the Illusive man will tell you everything you need to know, for now let's just get off this station before it blows up or something."
Hearing an explosion not too far from their location Shepard figured agreed with Miranda "Fine, I think I've had enough of this station to last me a lifetime." John said and started to walk towards the shuttle.
"Or two in your case." said Miranda with a smile.
During the flight Miranda decided to finish up on the tests that they were running to confirm that Shepard was functioning according to his old standards. Jacob wasn't too fond of it, however,
"Come on Miranda, more tests? Shepard took down those mechs without any trouble. That has to be good enough." said Jacob.
Miranda replied, "It's been two years since the attack. The Illusive man needs to know that Shepard's personality and memories are intact. Ask the questions."
But before Jacob could proceed, Shepard interrupted, "Did you say two years? I've been gone that long?"
Jacob nodded, "Two years and twelve days. And you were on an operating table for most of it."
"The sooner we start, the sooner we can be done. Start with personal history." Miranda quipped.
Jacob nodded and turned to Shepard, "Okay, record shows you grew up on earth, tough environment, no parents. After you enlisted, you were the only survivor of the thresher maw attack on your team. Do you remember that?"
Shepard's expression changed for a second as he recalled the painful memories, however that memory was quickly followed by his and Liara's first meld and how she helped him cope with his past, "I've lost a lot of friends that day. Going through something like that changes you. It can even break you, if you let it."
"I've read the report, fifty marines died on Akuze, you were the only one who lived." Jacob replied, then turned to Miranda, "Satisfied Miranda?"
Miranda nodded, "Almost, let's try something more recent. Virmire, where you destroyed Saren's cloning facility. You had to leave one of your squad to die in the blast."
Jacob picked up, "Staff Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko was killed in action. It was your call, why did you leave him behind?"
Shepard leaned forward, slightly irritated by the question, "I left a friend to die that day, and I didn't do it casually. But I had to save as many people as I could. Kaidan gave his life for the rest of the team. Without him, I couldn't have stopped Saren. He died a hero."
"I understand Commander, and I wasn't judging your decision. Everybody at Cerberus knows that cloning facility had to be stopped." Jacob replied.
Miranda continued the quiz, "Shepard, think back to the Citadel, after the Alliance saved the Destiny Ascension, and you killed Saren. What happened next?"
Shepard leaned back in his seat, "Humanity was offered a spot on the Council. I recommended Captain Anderson for the position."
Miranda nodded, "Yes. Captain Anderson is now Councilor Anderson. Though from what I hear, he preferred the life in the military."
"Still, good to know that the human Council member is not going to put politics ahead of defense.' Jacob added.
"Your memory seems solid. There are other tests we really should run..." said Miranda, but Jacob interrupted.
"Come on Miranda, enough with the quizzes. The memories are there, and I can vouch for Shepard's combat skills personally."
Miranda finally gave in, "I suppose you're right. We have to hope that the Illusive man accepts our little field test as evidence enough."
The com came alive and the Cerberus pilot spoke, "Five minutes till arrival miss Lawson."
The holographic scanners started to work their way from the floor to the ceiling, looks like this will be a transmission and not a face to face conversation as Shepard expected. The scanning was complete and he could now observe the massive room that was projected to him. It had no roof and no walls, or so it seemed, the massive displays covered them up neatly, there is no way somebody visiting could tell the location. The displays were showing a planet or perhaps a star, its molten surface was moving and swirling rapidly. The star was of John's favorite color, sky blue. Shepard's attention focused on the man sitting in the chair, what an interesting room for an office. The man spun around to face John. He was a middle aged man, with gray hair and very peculiar glowing blue eyes, ocular implants perhaps. He was dressed in a suit and was smoking a cigar.
"Shepard." he broke the silence. "I'm glad you've made it in one piece."
"Illusive man I presume." John answered.
"Yes."
John decided to get straight to the point, "Tell me why you brought me back?"
"We are at war Shepard, the Alliance and the Council don't want to admit it. Hell they don't even want to do anything about it. They just prefer to deny the enemy we are about to face."
"The Reapers..." The memory of Sovereign's doomsday promise came to Shepard.
"Yes, they are yet to arrive into our galaxy, but their agents are already at work. Somebody has been abducting human colonies in the Terminus systems."
John raised an eyebrow, "Pirates, slavers, mercenaries. There are many reasons why colonies might be under attack."
"No Shepard, the colonies remain untouched, it's the colonists themselves. They just disappear, no signs of struggle. We need you to investigate these disappearances, we think they are connected to the Reapers."
"Why would I help you? After all that Cerberus has done... After Akuze..." John frowned.
"Shepard, I know how you feel about Cerberus, however you do know that Cerberus's rule on conduct is "humans first" don't you? Entire colonies of humans are disappearing. And Alliance is not doing a damn thing about it. We are their only hope for survival."
"Fine I'll help you, not because you asked me, but because I want to help people, and not just humans."
"That's fine by me Shepard, I know how you work, you bring results, and that's what matters to me. You should go to Freedom's Progress. We lost all contact with it several hours ago. It's a good place to start. Go, see for yourself, if you find no evidence of the Reaper involvement then you are free to go. Officer Taylor and Officer Lawson will assist you on this mission. Good luck Shepard, you'll need it."
The hologram powered down and John exited the room. "He sure gave me a lot to think about. I hope this is not just a pointless ghost chase."
"We are heading out." John told both Miranda and Jacob as he passed them towards the hangar.
Freedom's Progress mission was a success in more ways than one. Shepard and his team found out who was taking the colonists, the Collectors, a group of enigmatic aliens who specialize in trading other species for technology. They also ran into a group of quarians, Tali was among them. There was a lot of tension at first and Shepard could see why, walking around with a Cerberus insignia tells enough about him unless people know him personally. Luckily, he was able to convince Tali that it was him, he told her about the geth data they recovered when they were chasing Saren, and the copy she took for her pilgrimage. She convinced the other quarians to stand down and help Shepard find the only survivor of the Collector attack. When they recovered the data from the wounded quarian on his pilgrimage, they parted ways. It was hard for Shepard to just leave, he wished Tali could come with him.
The mission report was brief, yet it was clear that the Illusive man already knew about the Collectors, he just wanted to get John's interest in the mission, and he took the bait. Nevertheless, the colonists need help, and he is not going to stand by and do nothing. The simple fact that neither the Alliance nor the Citadel were doing anything was both alarming and disappointing.
"Here are the dossiers of some people you should consider picking up Shepard." said the illusive man, typing something in his console, a list of people appeared in front of John.
"Keep your list, I had a crew I could trust." John replied.
Illusive man sighed, "Shepard, it's been two years, most of them moved on."
But John would not give up so easily, "Just tell me where I can find them."
"Fine, ask away."
"Where is Liara T'Soni?" John tried to sound as calm as possible, but the tone of his voice made it obvious, and the Illusive man noticed it.
"We have reports that Dr. T'Soni is working as an information broker on Illium, she is not to be trusted."
"I will make those judgments." John quipped, "Where is Garrus Vakarian?"
"The turian disappeared several months ago, we were not able to track him down."
"That sure sounds like Garrus." John smiled, "Where is Urdnot Wrex?"
"The krogan returned to his home planet of Tuchanka two years ago, he hasn't left the planet since."
"Where is Ashley Williams?"
"Gunnery Chief Williams is still with the Alliance military, her file is surprisingly classified."
"Well, what about Tali? We met her on Freedom's Progress." John asked.
Illusive man nodded, "Yes, that was unexpected, I will have to get back to you on the quarian."
John finally gave up, "Fine I get it, they are not available."
"Good. Listen Shepard, I want you to figure out a way to enter the Omega 4 relay that Collectors use. I have a dossier of a brilliant salarian scientist, you should start with him, he's on Omega. You can pick up the rest of your squad as you go, I've uploaded the list to your omnitool."
John nodded, as he was about to leave, Illusive man spoke up again, "Also there is someone I want you to see right now." Illusive man let out a puff of smoke from his cigar. "He's a pilot, one of the best, I think you better go meet him."
As the hologram powered down Shepard heard a voice behind him, "It's been a while Commander." he turned around and saw Joker. "Damn Commander, you're one tough son of a bitch, I saw you get spaced." he said with a half-smile.
"Got lucky, with a lot of strings attached." Shepard joked.
As they walked through the Cerberus facility Joker told John everything that happened in the past two years.
"Everything just fell apart after you were gone Commander, you were the glue that held it all together. The Alliance grounded me, so hell yeah I joined Cerberus! But enough about that, you've got to see this Commander, they just told me yesterday."
They walked up to the facility hangar, the shutters on the hangar overlook opened up and the lamps in the hangar started to power up, revealing a ship, that looked very familiar. Inside the hangar stood the Normandy, or at least that's what John thought from the first look. It was a larger ship, with a modified design.
"What are we going to call her Commander?"
"I can think of one." John smiled.
Thus the Normandy SR-2 came into Shepard's possession.