Mass Effect, its characters, locations, and other references are property of Bioware/Electronic Arts

Mass Effect created by Preston Watamaniuk, Drew Karpyshyn and Casey Hudson

No money was exchanged for the creation or distribution of this work.

Please support the official release.

Normandy Command Deck, Conference Room, QEC call with The Illusive Man

"What do you have for us?" Captain Shepard asked.

"We intercepted a distress call from a Turian flotilla. They claim to have crippled a Collector vessel, but not before they were decimated."

Shepard wondered, "Which flotilla?"

The Illusive Man was not forthcoming, "The important thing here is that we have the advantage. Let's not forget, the Collectors have taken tens of thousands of Human colonists."

Jane flatly told him, "Don't lie to me in an attempt at motivation. You know this is a trap as much as I do."

His holographic effigy remained unaffected, "I've already forwarded the coordinates to your pilot. Good hunting, Shepard."

As the point-to-point system shut down and brought back the normal lighting, Shepard turned to exit, "EDI, shut off all wireless transceivers. Ship-wide."

Normandy Command Deck, Galaxy Map

Jane tapped a button on the console to signal attention in every room of the ship, "All hands, this is Shepard. Joker, head for the assignment. EDI, when we are one half-hour from the final Relay, notify everyone to rig for total stealth. The internal wireless network is offline, and all external communications will remain inactive until this sortie is over. That is all."

Shepard looked up at one of the cameras she knew was always recording and said aloud, "I resent being lied to."

Kelly Chambers said aloud, "I'm gonna go get a nutri-cola, or maybe a nutri-coffee. Yeah." With that, she wandered off.

Meanwhile, Jane gathered her squadmates into the Conference room, "He didn't believe the message he discovered was real, either. That's what I'm angry about."

Mordin noted, "Lied to us. To you. To ensure operation would happen."

Jacob Taylor said to Shepard, "I expect he has a reason. Everything he does is calculated. Just like any advertisement by a corporation."

Garrus spoke, "A businessman trying to fight a war."

Zaeed grunted in Miranda's general direction, "No wonder Cerberus operations tend to go sideways faster than expected." When everyone looked in his direction, the Consummate Mercenary clarified, "He knows how to be covert, but he didn't totally memorize Sun Tzu's Art of War."

Captain Shepard exhaled, "So. We're approaching our target vehicle like a hole in space. We watch everything about it. I don't care if it's a pre-eminant particle of matter. Make note of anything you find."

Kasumi brought up the images of the Collector vessel, "This has got to be a trap. I'd bet a fortune the Normandy and all of us are their target. Obviously, they may not know we're here until our hands are in their pockets."

Jane hit a button on her omnitool, "Joker. Decelerate to five hundred kph. Let's try not to alert the predator."

"I copy."

The assembled members began sifting through what little could be gleaned with only passive detection methods. Zaeed spoke first, "They think they have a plan. Capture whoever goes in, then what? Cripple the ship and take over?"

Shepard asked Jacob, "Are the new turrets running?"

He nodded, "Their spread of fire is finer than we predicted. It may be possible to adapt them to lay down a wall of projectiles against fighters. Gabby and Ken already replaced the personnel cannons on the shuttles, Ma'am."

Looking over the few places on the massive vessel to bring in a shuttle, Shepard picked out one that seemed to indicate a path further inside, "Garrus will follow along cloaked, while Jack, Miranda, and myself will go in." Jane looked at those assembled as she called out names, "Zaeed, Samara, and Grunt will hold the landing site. Everyone else, keep your eyes peeled. We'll all be linked via our micro QEC units."

Collector Vessel, the Chasm

Miranda and Jack caught up to Jane Shepard, as she took in the expansive inner chamber of the Collector vessel, "Holy shit."

Lawson stared off into the abyss, "They could take every Human in the Terminus Systems, all half a billion of them, and not make a dent."

EDI noted, "I calculate at least twenty billion pods lining the surfaces I can see."

When the squad arrived at a command terminal, Jane looked over the controls and chuckled.

Miranda flatly asked, "What's so damn funny?"

"Someone knew we would have to look over this interface, but they didn't account for anyone being able to read Prothean writing."

Observing various camera feeds in the Normandy, Tali remained skeptical, "I have a hard time believing they would be that stupid. This could be intentional."

Under her helmet, Captain Shepard held a grin, "That's rich. They expected we would have to link our ship's computer to theirs to mine data. There's a reference here to a QEC protocol and an EMP device."

EDI predicted, "To disable the ship physically and functionally."

Jack walked up to stand beside Jane, "So where do these fuckers call home?"

After she flipped through several screens, Shepard said, "There's reference to an IFF for the Relay network. Ah, EDI, these are trajectory calculations. Use the Omega-4 Relay as a point of origin."

"Interesting. I project a point near the galactic core."

Zaeed alerted the team, "Eyes up! You have some unfriendlies coming."

About one half-hour later, trying to exit the Collector vessel

Between biotic explosions and gunfire, Captain Shepard asked, "Zaeed? Sit-rep."

Samara answered, "We're reenacting one of your zombie survival games. Repelling a horde with excessive firepower."

Anyone paying attention could hear the grin Zaeed had, "These Gatling guns were a goddamn good idea."

"I see the wall of gunfire. We're about to exit at that tunnel."

"Roger that," the mercenary said.

Joker warned, "That massive ship is coming online, guys. Time to go!"

Jack blasted a hole through the corner, leading the squad back to the shuttle.

The Normandy ripped across the larger ship's hull, escaping along the axis of the engines and avoiding possibly taking fire from the main weapon.

Normandy Command Deck, Conference Room

The holographic Illusive Man sat on a holographic chair smoking a holographic cigarette, "What did you discover?"

Shepard took a long drink from a huge water bottle before answering, "We'll need a Reaper transponder. Telemetry from the Collector ship indicated it triggers the Omega-4 Relay to use a more accurate protocol for deceleration… at the galactic core." She brought up the holographic image for him to see, "My team agrees that a safe zone must exist at the Relay there, but without an ultra-high precision decel at the other end, well…"

"Indeed," he said, putting out his cigarette. "I see you had EDI disable the wireless network, even while you were over in the other vessel."

Shepard nodded, "We used a network of Micro-QEC devices. It turns out that the Collectors were not expecting that level of data security when they planned this trap. EDI has been instrumental with our analysis of all the footage of our trek." She took another gulp from her huge water bottle, "In about four hours, we'll be hitting the Relays back to the Citadel."

"Shepard. I'm sorry I doubted you." He seemed honest enough, "I was concerned that if anyone listened in on our conversation, you could have been intercepted." When Jane didn't answer him, he actually apologized, "I'm sorry I lied to you. Yes, I knew the distress signal wasn't actually sent by the Turians, but the Collectors instead."

Jane finally accepted his apology, "Thank you." She didn't let him retreat yet, "You understand if I still don't trust you. Cerberus' reputation is pretty far from honorable."

"This organization gets things done. Public relations be damned. You wouldn't be walking and talking if it wasn't for Cerberus."

"You and Miranda brought me back to answer a question nobody else is qualified to ask. Tell me, if I wasn't walking and talking, how would Cerberus unite a galaxy to overcome the threat of the Reapers' galactic annihilation?"

T.I.M. retrieved another cigarette from a thin metallic case hidden in his suit jacket pocket, "Conveniently enough, you are here. We don't have to play out hypotheticals."

After lighting his new cigarette and taking a long, thoughtful pull from it, Captain Shepard derailed his train of misdirection, "You've seen me play Shogi, Chess, and an Asari game I can't remember how to pronounce?"

Exhaling the cloud of smoke, T.I.M. nodded.

"Then you know I won't talk strategy." Jane went over to a small terminal beside the door to the conference room to get herself a nutri-bar, "Cerberus, though, always remains ethically ambiguous. Your operations always get a bit sloppy. All for the sake of getting things done as fast as possible, and hopefully without leaving a trace."

He pointed his cigarette at Shepard, "An interesting observation, at the least. I would counter by pointing out that you're amongst the living, again."

"In the end, I almost wasn't." She grabbed the nutri-bar, but didn't open it, "Miranda's assistant. He was a ticking time bomb. I bet you called it a, "calculated risk.""

A notification sphere beeped a blue pulse of light into existence on the armrest of T.I.M.'s chair, "Shepard, I do need to take this call. I would be amenable to continuing this conversation at our mutually earliest convenience."

Jane nodded in agreement and the room began returning to its normal look. She began consuming sustenance while making for her cabin for a needed shower.

Citadel, Alliance Docks, Normandy, docking ramp

With an annoyed tone, Miranda asked Garrus, "I hope you're done calibrating that shiny, new, untested cannon?"

"I don't think C-SEC would appreciate us test firing that thing so close to civilization," Garrus quipped.

Jack commented as she walked, specifically passing close to Lawson, "Good idea. Switch teams for the mission, Commander Cheerleader!"

Miranda crossed her arms over her Alliance blue jumpsuit before heading on into the station.

While the squad and crew went on in for shore leave, Jane had gone to the end of the dock arm to take in the sight of the Citadel.

After a few moments, Kelly Chambers stepped up beside her, "Beautiful, if a bit sad."

Shepard guessed about Kelly's word choice, "The Reapers?"

Chambers nodded, "I know this galaxy is full of resilient people…"

"Well. Either we'll overcome the Reapers, or our efforts will be a bunch of smoking ruins for the next cycle to wonder about."

Definitely done with staring off into the sea of ships and stars, Kelly gathered Jane's left arm and lead her towards the elevators, "In that case, I need a drink."

Shepard teased, "I'm guessing the tab is all mine?"

Chambers teased back, playing her part perfectly, "Thanks, Captain. That's so nice of you!"