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Shiver ME Relays	By : TScorpi1701 Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 6254 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: All characters and settings of Mass Effect are the property of Bioware. I make no profit from this.

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Shiver ME Relays
Whoever can surprise well must conquer!
John Paul Jones
Ch.2 Grand Theft Starship
MSV Rules of Acquisition
On the small bridge of the Rules Captain Michael Shepard stared out through the small holographic image of his son's commando team’s destination on the holo-tank. A large space station which orbited a nameless gas giant in an equally nameless star system in the Hour Glass Nebula. It amazed the Alliance Navy reservist what resources Cerberus was able to call upon. To be able to build such a large facility in the middle of nowhere and practically underneath the Citadel races collective noses.
His comm. specialist got his attention. “They’ve queried us, sir.”
Captain Shepard nodded. “Transmit the recording, and make sure that it’s distorted enough to make it sound like we have a bad transmitter.”
The comm. specialist nodded and the transmission began. “Clearance Code: 4, 7, Alpha, Tango. Cerberus Kowloon-class transport Helena carrying supplies for Minuteman Station,” said a recording of a tired sounding Cerberus Captain, and Captain Shepard couldn’t help but shudder.
“Now comes the moment of truth,” the Captain mused to himself as several tense moments began to pass. “Helm, maintain a slow approach and keep you hand on the FTL accelerator. If you hear their weapons locking on to us...”
“I’ll get us out of here before they can even blink!” replied the helmsman as he tensed slightly.
Thirty tense seconds later a reply came. “Clearance code verified. We’ve been eagerly anticipating your arrival, Helena. You are cleared to dock in bay 02.”
Everyone breathed a great sigh of relief. “That was just the easy part. Do I want to know how you got that Cerberus captain to say that?” Captain Shepard asked his son John who was wearing a distinctly different form of dress than normal. A set of “liberated” Cerberus Assault Armour in full colours, black and white with gold trim and the cursed emblem.
“Probably not. SpecOps is not for the faint hearted,” said Commander John Shepard as he shifted slightly in the heavy armour. It had been adjusted for him by the Alliance armoury team on the Citadel, but it still didn’t feel right. “I just know that I’ll only be comfortable once I’m back in my regular armour, or I get this thing repainted.”
Captain Shepard chuckled slightly at his son’s discomfort, but soon he was beginning to feel his own discomfort rise as his ship began approaching one of Minuteman Station’s many cavernous docking bays. He keyed the ship’s intercom. “All hands, we’re five minutes away from docking. Action Stations!” At that an alarm sounded. Alliance marines began to take up their positions within the Rules corridors and loading bays. “You’d better get down to the forward loading bay. Your team’s waiting for you. I just hope that the moles you have inside the base have done their jobs.”
John merely smirked. “Don’t worry. One is consummate professional, and the other is highly motivated. Trust me dad.”
Captain Shepard snorted at his son’s assertion. “No plan survives contact with the enemy, Johnny,” he fired back as John left the bridge who growled back, “Don’t call me...” just before the doors slammed shut in his face.
A rumbling laugh sounded throughout the bridge from the back. “Seems like at least one thing is universal, no matter the species. Parents can always wind up their kids,” said Okeer between laughs before he looked back to his console.
((((((((((Shiver ME Relays))))))))))
Minuteman Station
Operations Centre
In the operations centre of the large space station it was all business as usual. It was a quiet and peaceful morning and Alpha shift was only half way through when a beautiful woman with raven black hair entered. She wore a personalized Cerberus uniform which showed off her natural curves and a generous set of D-cup sized breasts, she looked more like a fashion model than a serious director. While most of the woman on base would kill to have a body like hers, her eyes however conveyed only the frigidness of a harsh taskmistress who expected only the best from her people.
“Status report!” she demanded.
The officer on duty, a balding middle aged man who was barely keeping his eyes above her neckline, replied, “All is normal, Director Lawson. The supply ship Helena has finally arrived. We just cleared it to dock.”
Lawson’s heart soared, but she kept her frosty exterior and added a little extra. “Very good Wilson. I’ll be down in the SR-2 dock if you need me, but don’t call me, unless it’s something critical!”
Not even waiting for Wilson’s acknowledgement she turned on her heel and walked out of the Operations Centre. As soon as she cleared the armoured doors and out of sight of the two armed guards guarding the entrance she activated her omni-tool and activated an encrypted chat line.
MLaw: All units, Condition Kobiyashi Maru! Acknowledge?”
JT: Acknowledged, all units will be informed.
KDon: Time to kick TIM right in the daddy bagsJ
GabD: Cool it Kenneth! My team is ready ma’am.
Miranda closed down her omni-tool and continued on to the dry-dock in the lower levels. All cool and collected, but with a slight spring in her step which a dark skinned Hope Lilium who was passing by her noticed.
“What’s gotten the ice-queen so happy?” she mused as she began to follow.
((((((((((Shiver ME Relays))))))))))
MSV Rules of Acquisition
Shepard waited patiently as the ship entered the docking bay. Behind him were several crates where his assault team was waiting for the signal. The krogan were all grumbling with impatience and most of the marines were very intimidated, except for one.
“Stay cool big guy. In just another few minutes we’ll be cracking some Cerberus heads,” said a smirking Lieutenant James Vega, a recent N6 graduate who was up for selection into the N7 program, though he didn’t know that yet.
Wrex grumbled a little more before he settled into doing one final check on his weapons. The first was a massive krogan shotgun called the Graal Spike Thrower. It was used primarily for hunting thresher maws, and Vega didn’t want to think what such a weapon could do to a human. Wrex then placed it back on the magnetic strip on his back and began checking over his light machinegun, an M-76 Revenant. The result was he became much calmer.
Meanwhile Garrus had taken up a sniper’s perch on top of a large crate and hidden behind a pair of smaller crates with a small gap in between them and laid down on his belly, priming his M-97 Viper sniper rifle. He quietly chuckled to himself over the krogans impatience.
“Hey Shepard, bet I can get more kills than you!” said Garrus.
Shepard chuckled back. “Dream on, Vakarian.”
“Everyone knows I’m the one who’s going to be the one who gets the most kills!” rumbled Wrex as he finished checking over his Revenant and replaced it with his Graal.
“Maybe the bloodiest kills,” Garrus conceded. “I’ve seen what flechette rounds do to people. Not a pretty sight.”
“Ha, ha. Afraid of a little friendly fire?” Wrex asked.
“Not from you, but maybe your brother Wreav. On the other hand he will have to worry about return fire since my shields will at least protect me from at least one shot from that beast.”
Wreav growled at the turian’s remark. “Mark my words, Wrex. After this job is done I’m hunting that turian bastard down!”
Wrex only chuckled at his brood-brother’s words. “If you can. I’ll be surprised and a little disappointed if he isn’t able to kill you if you try.”
Beside Shepard stood a currently uncloaked Kasumi who was giggling a little at the boys smack talk. “I don’t think I’ve ever been surrounded by so much testosterone.”
Shepard smirked back, but then became serious. “Remember the plan Kasumi. You go in cloaked and infiltrate the station. Get into their server room and download all of their databases then wipe the local copy and set our little surprise.”
“Don’t worry Shepard, this isn’t my first time,” she chirped back before a slight shudder went through the ship as it landed. As soon as the ramp began to lower she engaged her tactical cloak and disappeared from sight.
As soon as the ramp was down Shepard trooped out into the docking bay and surveyed it. There were a large number of crates of various sizes. Plenty of cover for his team. Soon enough he was quickly met by the bay’s dock master, a middle aged human with a ridiculously large moustache which gave him the appearance of a walrus, and two security guards in light armour could be seen by the main entrance into the station proper. His beady eyes narrowed as he took in Shepard’s appearance.
“Why are you in full assault armour?” the walrus asked as he rested his left hand on his own pistol, an M-3 Predator.
“Had a little trouble with some batarian slavers looking for a quick score not long after we left the Mass Relay. Since then myself and my crew have been in full armour, just in case,” said Shepard with an unseen grin behind the dark tinted visor of his helmet and a slightly distorted voice. He checked his HUD’s radar and saw that there were only a few dock workers besides the dock master and guards.
The walrus snorted. “Bloody slavers.” He activated his omni-tool and brought up a large manifest. “Well, you’re safe enough here, but let’s get your cargo offloaded quickly. The Cell’s director here has been anxiously waiting for this shipment.”
“I know. The head office got a little bit short with me when I was delayed at Illium, some sort of accident with a volus cargo ship’s drive core. Grounded me for three days, and as a result I had to push my ship’s engines pretty hard,” said Shepard with a quick eye movement he deactivated his helmet’s external speakers and activated a private channel. “Hurry up Okeer, I don’t know how long I can stall these guys.”
“Keep your seals on, boy, just thirty more seconds. Cerberus didn’t skimp on security,” came Okeer’s rumbling voice over the radio.
Another eye flick and his helmet’s speakers were back on. “I’ll need your signature on this,” said Shepard as he presented a pad and pen to the dock master.
The walrus snorted at that, which made his moustache twitch wildly. “More paperwork?”
Shepard merely shrugged. “I just transport the cargo. The head office wants everything done to the letter.”
With a growl that reminded Shepard of an annoyed krogan the walrus plucked the pad and pen out of Shepard’s hands and began signing the various places the form required, which seemed to double every time he thought he had completed it.
“Just five more seconds,” said Okeer, just as the walrus’s patience finally came to an end.
“What the hell kind of form is this?” he said as he pushed it back in Shepard’s hands. “You’re not Cerberus. You’re stalling!” he exclaimed.
“I’m in!”
Suddenly the cargo bay went pitch black. “Sorry about this.” Shepard’s helmet HUD instantly went to night vision and he drew his pair of M-6s from the quick-draw-holsters on his hips and shot the walrus in the head, blasting a big hole in his forehead and an even bigger one out the back before he dove for cover.
The flash of the gunshot instantly got the two guards attention, but one got impaled through the gut with a flechette round and was stuck firmly to the wall while the other got a sniper round through his skull before they could react. Out from the transport four krogan and twenty four marines came bounding down the ramp shooting at anything that moved. Within moments the bay was secured. They had their beachhead.
Seconds later Vega came running up with the rest of Shepard’s weaponry, a modified M-96 Mattock and an N7 Crusader. “Good to have these back,” said Shepard as he quickly put his M-6s back in their holsters and put the folded up Mattock on his back and unfolded the Crusader. “Fan out and shoot every single Cerberus goon you find, except those with red SR-2 crests on their left upper arms, is that understood?”
“Sir, yes sir,” replied the marines.
“Yeah, yeah, we remember the briefing!” grumbled Wrex as he fired another blast from his Graal that sliced through a trooper and impaled itself into an unlucky Centurion who collapsed in a heap, horrifying the Cerberus defence squad that just entered the bay. One of the marines lobbed a frag grenade into the survivors midst which moments later detonated and threw the enemy squad around like rag dolls.
“Forward!” yelled Shepard as he let off a couple of rounds from his Crusader as he bounded down the hallway and into the station proper. His new ride was waiting for him.
((((((((((Shiver ME Relays))))))))))
Primary Server Room
With practiced ease Kasumi had stealthily navigated the maze of corridors and was now in a massive room that served as the home for the station’s server farm.
“Impressive,” she said with a smirk as she now understood why she was lugging around a ten kilo pack full of C12 plastic explosives. She quickly found a working console connected directly to the servers and made a connection through her omni-tool to the Rules own massive server farm module, a recently installed and temporary addition to the Shepard family’s mobile home.
I hope there’s enough storage space for all this data, she thought to herself as she began the download and automatic deletion. She made sure the connection was stable before she began setting the explosives around the servers, and cloaked herself just in case someone noticed the download and came to investigate, though with any luck Okeer was keeping Cerberus blind, deaf and stupid.
Suddenly a loud bang and brilliant flash erupted from the server room’s entrance. Someone had triggered the laser tripwire she had wired to a flashbang grenade.
“Kuso,” she exclaimed as she remembered the Murphy’s Law. Cerberus had reacted faster than she expected.
She ran as fast and as quietly as she could to speed up the dissemination of her party favours, placing them in as difficult to see and reach places as she could. She thanked kami that her graybox implant granted her night vision since the place was now pitch black and her pursuers were now on alert and wearing helmets with night vision functions as well, though that wouldn’t help against her cloak.
As soon as the last charge was laid she doubled back towards the door, which had a pair of troopers alert and ready for anything. She smiled as she drew her twin wakizashi short swords from their sheaths mounted to the small of her back.
The two troopers left to guard the door were on alert for anything, but all they heard was the quick swish of the two blades cutting through the air and through the soft neck joint in their armour, slicing cleanly through their jugulars, throats and spines before they sliced all the way out the back, and her cloak disengaged from the fast motion she just performed and watched with cool detachment as their heads fell with blood spurting out of their necks as their hearts pumped for a few more seconds.
Her omni-tool alerted her that the download was complete and she started running down the corridors away from the server room as fast as her nimble legs could carry her. When she felt relatively safe she keyed in a single command on her omni-tool.
“Fire in the hole!” she warned on the assault team’s general frequency, and three seconds later several C12 powered explosions tore apart server room and shook the entire station.
((((((((((Shiver ME Relays))))))))))
SR-2 Dock
Director Lawson and several techs and Cerberus Commandoes had made their way to the dock. The prototype frigate was almost finished and certainly space worthy, but a lot of the interior spaces still needed to be finished. Only a week ago had the drive core been tested to full power and had worked beyond anyone’s expectations. The ship’s improved stealth had also been tested and found to be able to hide the ship’s signature emissions when exiting FTL.
She smiled at the memory of her success after Minuteman Cell’s years of failure to reproduce and improve upon the Normandy-class as she began organizing the squads of troopers that had converged on the dry dock.
“All troopers, I want all of you in defensive positions around all the main and secondary points of access. Keep the Alliance out of here at all costs.” At that moment the station shook as if it had been hit by a dreadnought round. The little thief’s handiwork she suspected. “What the hell was that?” she demanded.
“Director Lawson, this is Wilson. The primary server room just got taken out. We’ve already switched to the backups, but we’ve been infiltrated and several squads of marines backed up by krogan mercs are heading for the Operations Centre,” her frantic subordinate reported as gunfire could be heard in the background.
“Alright Wilson, set the station’s self destruct then begin the evacuation. The station’s lost to us now,” she said with a bitter tone, though on the inside she was elated.
“What about the prototype? The Illusive Man isn’t going to like it that we lost his latest favourite toy,” said Wilson with a slight quiver in his voice, and Miranda revelled in the little toady’s fear.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got most of the design and construction team onboard the SR-2, and she’s fully space worthy. We’ll use it as our escape vehicle, assuming we can get the doors open. If not, well at least we’ll make sure it doesn’t fall into the Alliance’s hands,” said Miranda as she cut transmission.
“You’re not going to leave without me, are you?” asked a cultured woman’s voice with a British accent from behind her. The former director of the Minuteman Cell could prove to be the main wrinkle in Miranda’s plan.
“Of course not Miss Lilium. I assume you’ve been keeping up with your combat training?” she said as she turned to face her fellow operative who was wearing a black with gold trim Cerberus cat suit, much like her own white and black she used to wear.
Miss Lilium smiled as she brought up a shotgun, an M-22 Eviscerator, from behind her back and with a few flicks of her fingers she showed her combat tech was ready for deployment. “I’m always prepared!”
Miranda nodded and set off for the Normandy, with Miss Lilium following right behind her. They quickly entered through the primary airlock and turned left towards the bridge. “Hawthorne, what’s our status?” she asked the pilot, a younger man in his mid-twenties.
“Drive Core seems to be purring like a kitten and main thrusters are in standby mode and manoeuvring thrusters are set to idle at the moment, plus we also have a pair of Javelin torpedoes aboard, so if the techs can’t get the doors open we can blast our way out,” he reported.
“The ship is armed?” Miss Lilium exclaimed. “I thought the SR-2s weapons were scheduled to be installed and tested a week from now?”
“The launchers were installed yesterday, and we picked up a few torpedoes from the armoury in the fighter bay when this started,” said Hawthorne nervously. Former Director Lilium wasn’t part of the escape plan.
Lilium’s eyes narrowed as she rested her hands on her shotgun and surreptitiously unfolded it. “What are you talking about? This ship was my project before Lawson took over, and I know for a fact that torpedoes from a fighter won’t fit into the Javelin launchers on this ship, so what’s going on?” she demanded as she pressed the muzzle of her shotgun up against the back of Miranda’s skull.
Though her heart was going a mile a second she was outwardly calm and composed. “I ordered the installation of the launchers a week ago, just after the Drive Core and stealth tests. We were going to do another stealth test with the launchers tomorrow, as well as test launch a few torpedoes, so I had a few Javelin’s moved to the nearby armoury. Now put that weapon down!”
She heard Lilium flick the safety of her shotgun off. “Don’t lie to me! I don’t have the full picture yet, but I still have one more important piece of the puzzle left to figure out. What is ‘Condition Kobiyashi Maru’?”
An interesting reflection in the forward viewport caused Miranda to smile. “How much do you know about 20^th century science fiction?”
Out of all the replies Lilium expected, this wasn’t one of them. “What?”
“Then I assume that you are unfamiliar with Star Trek?” Miranda queried as her smile deepened.
“Heard of it, yes, but never saw any of it. What does that have to do with this?” Lilium demanded as she pushed the barrel of her shotgun deeper into Miranda’s neck.
“Everything!” she replied as Hope Lilium’s world suddenly went black.
As soon as the pressure was off her neck Miranda elegantly turned on her heel and saw who had saved her. “Thank you Miss Chambers,” she purred as she saw the blushing petite red head standing over Lilium with a Predator pistol in her hand.
Kelly merely shrugged. “I may be a sweet girl most of the time, but I’ve always wanted to do that. That arrogant little bitch was always lying about herself in our sessions. She’s Cerberus to the core!”
Miranda nodded at Kelly’s observation. “Goldstein, Patel, take Miss Lilium down to the port cargo hold and strip search her, and don’t use omni-cuffs. She’s an expert hacker.”
Both female crewmembers nodded with big grins on their faces as they began dragging the hated former Minuteman Cell’s Director into the main lift. “Don’t worry, ma’am. I’m sure there are some cargo straps in the hold,” said Goldstein.
“Mind if I join them? In addition to my psychology degree Cerberus also trained me in interrogation techniques,” said Kelly with a big grin and barely kept herself from rubbing her hands together.
Miranda thought it over for a moment. “Very well, just make sure she’s sedated while she’s being stripped!”
“Got it,” chirped Kelly as she followed after the duo with their prisoner down the portside stairwell. Another design oversight Miranda had corrected. It used to be that the central lift and the service crawlspaces were the only way up or down the ship. Now between the second and fourth decks there was a circular staircase for ease of movement between decks.
Miranda then turned her attention to another tech who was sitting in the chair next to Hawthorn. “Hadley, how did the installation of the GARDIAN lasers go?”
The tech smiled back. “They went in smoothly. Just a word of warning though, they haven’t been tested yet and are not properly calibrated.”
“And the targeting systems?”
This made Hadley fidget a little. “Well, the sensors are installed, but as I said the system hasn’t been calibrated. We may be able to hit the broadside of a barn, but definitely not a moving target.”
This made Miranda’s eyes tighten. “Very well. Luckily the plan only requires that the ship is space worthy. Keep working!” she ordered as she turned back and headed towards CIC proper.
((((((((((Shiver ME Relays))))))))))
Just outside SR-2 Dock
The staccato of rapid fire assault rifles and booms of shotguns reverberated throughout the corridors as Shepard and his core team, Garrus, Wrex and Vega, fought their way to their destination. All along the corridor several removable armoured panels had been popped open and used by the Cerberus troopers as cover, slowing down their progress.
“I’m getting real sick of those damned panels!” said Vega as he pumped a couple of rounds from his Piranha shotgun into a trooper who instantly caught fire and panicked, jumping straight into Shepard’s field of fire who ended the poor bastard’s life with a Crusader’s heavy slug to the brain.
Shepard snorted at the lieutenant’s irritation. “They may be annoying, but they’re also useful for us as well,” he said as he slid behind one of the panels, only for it to lower back into the floor. “Or not.” In reflex he fired off several shots from his shotgun, blasting several enemy troopers off their feet with massive holes in their chests. One of them had his omni-tool active. A few more troopers tried to take advantage of his weakness, only to be cut down by a laughing Wrex with his Revenant.
“Ha, ha, ha. You always end up in the most interesting situations, and as usual I have to pull your ass out of the fire,” said Wrex as he suppressed the incoming enemy troops.
“That’s the second time that’s happened today,” Shepard growled as he picked himself up and switched to his Mattock and toggled the weapon’s setting, auto-fire with incendiary rounds.
The loud boom of a sniper rifle interrupted all conversation as an armour piercing round sliced through first a pair of troopers before hitting a centurion in the head, causing it to explode in a storm of blood, skull fragments and grey matter. “Scoped and dropped,” Garrus crowed.
“Nice shot,” said Vega as he blasted the last trooper in the corridor.
Garrus caressed his weapon. “I love this rifle.”
Shepard consulted his omni-tool. “We’re not far from our primary objective. If our moles have done their jobs right every door between us and the dock should be unlocked and every route elsewhere except the Operations Centre should be sealed off. We’ll only have to deal with what few Cerberus loyalists we find in the hangar.”
Vega whistled. “Damn Commander, where did you find these people?”
Vega could hear the smirk underneath the commander’s helmet. “It’s amazing what you can pick up in a bar on Ilium.”
They moved on at a fast march pace. The corridors were all the same and only the bulkhead ID numbers told you where you were if you had a map, which Shepard periodically checked on his omni-tool which was synced up to his suit’s combat radar. He was now glad for the soldier augmentations he had gotten as part of the basic Alliance genetic augmentation package. If he had been anything else he was sure he’d be exhausted wearing this heavy armour.
They soon came upon a large door guarded by a couple squads worth of Cerberus troopers, guardians and led by a pair of centurions.
“Incoming!” one of the troopers called out and everyone ducked for cover followed by a massive barrage of rifle and sub-machinegun fire. Several grenades were thrown at the assault team, only for Wrex to grin as he caught a few that were heading for Shepard and Vega, while letting a few of them land near himself and Garrus.
“Ha, ha, free party favours,” crowed Wrex as he threw the grenades back, just before the ones that landed at his feet detonated and the shrapnel and pressure waves washed over him, while the grenades he threw back caused total chaos in the enemy ranks.
Meanwhile Garrus had thrown himself bodily away from the grenades that landed in front of him, dropping his sniper rifle in the process while he barely got away from the kill zone. He growled to himself as he drew his assault rifle, an M-15 Vindicator, and started coolly executing tight groupings of headshots.
“That. Was. A. Very. Good. Rifle!” said Garrus between each burst and six troopers either lost their shields or heads.
As the dust settled it revealed a still grinning Wrex with a fully deployed biotic barrier enhancing his shields as he raised his Revenant LMG. “My turn.” The LMG spat out a torrent of bullets, catching out the remaining troopers and forced the two centurions to take cover, while the guardians were pushed back from the sheer mass of fire impacting their heavy combat shield.
They were now at a rough stalemate as the krogan, turian and two humans relentlessly poured heavy fire on the centurions and three surviving guardians.
“We need to break this stalemate!” said Vega through his radio, the cacophony of weapons fire would drown out anything he said through his helmet’s voice module.
“Agreed. Grenades?” Shepard asked.
Vega grinned. “Nope, something a little more fun.” He stepped out of cover and launched a massive red projectile from his shotgun, a Carnage shot. It impacted heavily with one of the guardian’s shields and cracked it slightly. Seeing this Shepard opened up with his Mattock on full auto and emptied the full thirty six rounds in his clip into the shield and it failed spectacularly as it cracked open and the last three bullets tore through the guardian’s chest armour and fell dead.
Shepard and Vega stepped back into cover as the two remaining guardians opened fire with what looked to be small shotguns that began to pepper the corridor. Garrus tried to snipe one of them through the mail slot, but the burst fire mode of the Vindicator made it difficult to get an accurate shot so he stepped back into cover as well. He then reset the rifle to single shot and tried again. This time he was rewarded with a collapsing guardian with a newly ventilated head. “Head shot!” he crowed.
Shepard then tossed a grenade behind the centurions which drained their shields and pushed them out of cover. He quickly dispatched the two of them with rifle fire while he unleashed a concussive round on the final guardian. The heavy weight of the shield plus the heavy concussive round combined to bowl over the hapless guardian and before he could recover Wrex fired a warp field at him which tore his armour apart and mangled his chest beyond recognition.
Silence reigned for a few seconds before a faint crackle of static sounded. “Wow, talk about overkill,” said a newly revealed Kasumi as she stepped forward to examine the mangled corpse of the last guardian.
Wrex merely grinned. “Nothing like a good old fashioned warp field to ruin a Cerberus goon’s day, ha, ha, ha!”
Kasumi gulped at the krogan’s bloodthirstiness. “I’ve managed to access the internal security cameras,” she said as she brought up a large holographic screen. It showed a rather large force of Cerberus commandoes, troopers and two new types of Cerberus soldiers in light armour, both were made up of only women, in a large hangar bay.
“Those are new. Have you identified them?” Shepard asked.
Kasumi nodded. “The ones with the sniper rifles are codenamed Nemesis while the ones with the swords are called Phantoms. The Nemeses purpose is pretty clear, but watch the Phantoms carefully.” She zoomed in on one of them and a few seconds later it vanished with a similar wave of electrical distortion as Kasumi’s tactical cloak.
“That looks suspiciously familiar,” said Shepard.
Kasumi’s eyes became slits. “Yes. They stole the tech from my family. I may not practice all of our arts, but that tech is the property of my late grandfather. Only my clan is supposed to have that tech!” she explained.
“Asari have similar tech for their huntresses, maybe Cerberus stole it from them,” said Wrex as he shrugged. “Either way they’re going to be a pain in the ass.”
Shepard smirked. “Then let’s give them a surprise of their own. Vega, ready that grenade launcher of yours.”
Vega nodded as he brought the heavy weapon to bear on the door. “Ready!”
“Stack up!” Shepard ordered as his small team took cover on either side of the door while Vega found a piece of surviving defilade in front of the door and hunkered down. Kasumi stood ready by the door controls.
“Hit it!”
Kasumi did just that, turning the red hologram to green and the door opened with a heavy groan of gears turning. Almost instantly Kasumi’s swords flashed and a scream elicited from a rapidly uncloaking Phantom whom had lost her sword arm and was writhing in pain on the deck. To put the disarmed woman out of her misery Kasumi pulled out her pistol, an M-5 Phalanx, and put a pair of bullets into the Phantom’s brainpan before she cloaked once again.
At the same time Vega opened fire with his grenade launcher, launching three incendiaries in quick succession. Massive fireballs engulfed the enemy defilade before they even had a chance to react and a large number of troopers died screaming as they burned. The Nemeses were a little further back and protected from the initial fireballs, but their view of the enemy was blocked, so they moved to other vantage points.
Seconds later one of them lost their head and fell to the deck, but none of the others noticed as they focused on the enemy. They each activated their targeting lasers and picked their targets, only to come under counter-sniper fire from Garrus who had retrieved his sniper rifle, thankful that it had survived the enemy grenades. The Nemeses pulled back into cover, but one of them noticed that one of their number was missing their head, and it wasn’t lost by rifle fire.
Before she could sound a warning a small kunai dagger lodged itself into her throat and blood spurted out, leaving her to die gurgling in a pool of her own blood. The last two noticed their comrades plight, but before they could move Kasumi appeared and unleashed a torrent of shots from her M-9 Tempest sub-machinegun, quickly draining one Nemesis’s shields and the light rounds easily tore through her light armour, while the other died from a sniper round from Garrus.
Kasumi didn’t relax however as she sensed more than saw her surroundings. With electrical distortions two rapidly moving Phantoms with fully powered biotic barriers uncloaked and attacked her with straight single edged mono-molecular short swords. With a quick mental command through her graybox Kasumi activated her suit’s tech armour, appearing as blue floating strips of panels that covered her arms, legs, upper torso and wrapped around her head, which she used to stop the blades cold. She smirked as she took in the two Phantoms shocked stances.
“Surprise!” she said as she unleashed a powerful electric discharge through her tech armour and revelled in the shocked screams of her two opponents. The two Phantoms barriers faded away as they lost focus for a second and Kasumi took advantage by shooting the pair of them before they could recover. With a smirk she cloaked again.
The rest of the team took advantage of the chaos and stormed in with guns blazing. Several commandoes tried to put up a fight, but were quickly overwhelmed. The last surviving commando activated his omni-tool and punched in a few commands before Shepard found him. He tried to go for his shotgun, but Shepard’s rifle was already up. One finger twitched and a hole was drilled through the commando’s head. As the Commando fell dead a series of armoured doors opened and thunderous footsteps were heard.
Shepard spun around and saw that the last commando in death had the last laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding me?!”
Four YMIR heavy mechs were stomping their way out of their alcoves along with a small army of LOKI security mechs. “Hostiles detected. Engaging.” With that all of the LOKIs opened up with sub-machinegun fire, forcing everyone into cover. One of the YMIRs opened up its left arm and launched a rocket at Wrex’s cover. With a krogan yelp he was thrown from cover and his barrier started flickering for a moment before it stabilized. With a roar he launched a warp at the offending YMIR, knocking it back for a moment as the biotic energies ate away at its shields, but they held and it straightened itself.
Suddenly multiple explosions rocked the enemy ranks followed almost instantly by bright blue beams, the after-effects of a set of GARDIAN lasers firing, which devastated the lumbering YMIRs which exploded spectacularly when their power-cores detonated, taking with them a large portion of the LOKIs.
Shepard and Vega grinned to each other and watched the SR-2, still in its docking cradle, retract one of its laser turrets back underneath a false panel. To Shepard’s eyes the SR-2 was beautiful. It was almost half again as long and had half again the height and wingspan as the original Normandy SR-1 and its unpainted hull a blank canvas for him to customize, he already had a colour scheme in mind even as the bullets from the LOKIs still flew over his head. He shook himself out of his reverie and returned his focus upon the enemy.
((((((((((Shiver ME Relays))))))))))
SR-2 CIC, a few minutes earlier
Miranda and a couple of techs worked at a feverish pace to bring at least one of the GARDIAN laser batteries under manual control. While the guns were installed, a lot of the final system installation had yet to be completed, and it was with quiet desperation the three of them made the final temporary connection with one of the batteries and powered it up. It was little more than a crude patch, but it was good enough to target anything within visual range, such as four heavy mechs that were converging on her ticket out of Cerberus.
“Watch the heat sinks. If they go into the red we may have a catastrophic overload on our hands!” Miranda ordered shortly as she activated the crudely patched targeting system. It took a few seconds for the system to lock onto her four primary targets, but she finally got the lock on signal and fired. Less than a second later four beams of concentrated infrared energy lanced out from the forward port GARDIAN battery, leaving behind a wake of blue-shifted air particles that lasted a second longer than the beams.
Near instantly the four heavies blew up spectacularly as the beams penetrated their power cores, causing Miranda to let slip a small smile. It didn’t last though. “Status?”
“Heat sinks are still in the green, but a large number of those LOKIs are outside of that GARDIAN battery’s engagement envelope,” reported one of the technicians.
Miranda let out a tired sigh. “Very well, power it down and retract it. LOKIs are small fry anyway. It shouldn’t take Shepard long to finish them off,” she said as she leaned back into her appropriated chair and watched the show, admiring the team Shepard had put together for this operation. They had quickly and methodically destroyed what Cerberus forces remained after she ordered the evacuation and self-destruct of the station, not that she had any intention of doing such a thing until after Shepard was aboard and they were long gone from the station.
As she suspected between the human master-thief and two soldiers, the turian infiltrator and krogan battle master, they quickly dispatched what remained of the dock’s mech forces, which were unfortunately no longer under her control due to the destruction of the primary servers.
A loud bang from the airlock door announced their guests and spooked the hell out of the techs and bridge crew. Hawthorne even let out a girlish scream at the first bang. “Uh, ma’am, there’s someone at the airlock,” said Hawthorne over the comm. with a racing heartbeat.
Miranda chuckled. “Relax Mister Hawthorne, it’s just our tickets out of here. Open the airlock!”
With great reluctance Hawthorne did as he was told. To his horror a grinning krogan in red armour and toting a very large shotgun came stomping in, followed by an equally intimidating turian with an assault rifle levelled at his head. The two aliens eyes quickly looked over their target and soon lowered their weapons.
“Bridge is clear Shepard,” reported the turian as he and the krogan moved on to the CIC.
Three more entered through the airlock. This time to Hawthorne’s relief their guests were human, but to his horror one of them was wearing Cerberus Assault armour.
Seeing the terror on the helmsman’s face Shepard decided to alleviate it. He released his suit’s helmet pressure seals and with a slight tug he pulled it off his head and gave the helmsman a reassuring smile. “Permission to come aboard?”
Hawthorne visibly relaxed and his heartbeat came back down. “Permission granted. It’s an honour to have you aboard, sir,” he said quickly as he stood up to attention and saluted, which Shepard smartly returned.
“Where’s Miss Lawson?” Shepard asked.
“She’s in the CIC, sir,” he replied as he sat back down.
Shepard nodded. “Carry on.” The trio moved on along the corridor that connected the bridge to the CIC. He quickly noticed that the interior was only half finished with open wall panels and wiring all over the place. CIC was no better with only delta shaped central holo-tank and stations in full working order. A large hologram of the SR-2 was currently being projected into the air that displayed the ship’s status and critical systems. Behind the SR-2 hologram was a galaxy-map interface and a pair of crew stations flanking it.
Garrus and Wrex were currently standing by the lift and keeping watch over the CIC while a pair of women, Miranda Lawson and a petite and curvaceous red headed woman stood at a crew station and were chatting quietly under their breath. Garrus grunted at Miranda and threw a glance Shepard’s way. She quickly left the red head behind and approached the Commander.
“Welcome aboard the SR-2, Commander Shepard,” greeted Miranda warmly as she held out her hand.
“Miranda,” Shepard returned as he firmly grasped her proffered hand then suddenly pulled her towards him and kissed her fiercely, surprising all the former Cerberus personnel in the CIC as they watched the normally ice cold Miranda Lawson, Director of the Minuteman Cell, practically melt into this man’s arms.
She seemed to struggle for a moment before she relaxed and returned the kiss. Both ran their hands across their clothed bodies for a few moments before they separated from each other, breathing heavily, and everyone watched stunned.
“Shepard, you dog,” said Kasumi teasingly as she made a half circuit around Miranda, inspecting every available inch of the woman. “Now how did you get a body like that? Definitely not natural selection, but without a more thorough inspection I can’t tell if you’ve had any work done. I am so jealous, ‘cause wow!”
Miranda took in the little thief’s appearance and made a few of her own private observations. “Kasumi Goto, I presume? A pleasure to finally meet you face to face,” she said politely, still wrapped up in Shepard’s arms. “I assume that Shepard agreed to your price?”
“It’s one of the reasons I’m here,” said Kasumi with a tiny smirk.
Garrus shook himself out of his shocked stupor then directed a pointed look at Miranda. “Shepard, how do you know this, woman?”
Miranda returned the look with a touch of frost. “I was the last operative Cerberus sent to recruit Commander Shepard.” Garrus and Wrex’s jaws dropped to the deck while Kasumi’s smirk grew. Miranda merely shrugged at their reactions. “The Illusive Man thought that someone with a pretty face and a sharp mind could seduce him to our side. The first time Cerberus tried to recruit him, the recruiter ended up as an entree for the vorcha on Omega.”
Wrex rumbled with a barely contained chuckle, while Garrus simply commented, “Pretty harsh, Commander, but since it was a Cerberus recruiter I guess this former C-Sec Detective can forgive you.”
Shepard smiled back, but then his focus returned to Miranda. “Where’s Kaidan?”
“He’s in engineering, helping the team get the ship ready for launch. He’ll be along in a moment,” said Miranda.
“Excellent. Hold our departure until my team is all aboard, then set the station’s self-destruct,” said Shepard to Miranda’s delight.
“Yes Commander,” Miranda purred, sending a shiver down Shepard’s back.
((((((((((Shiver ME Relays))))))))))
Minuteman Station;
Operations Centre
The Ops Centre was a hive of activity as Cerberus personnel ran around and began deleting and destroying all of the computers, except for the one that controlled basic functions. Wilson was barking out orders to his underlings to shoot the consoles, when a heavy knock at the main entrance sounded. All activity stopped at the first knock, which groaned as it settled back down into place. Another knock and a huge dent in the metal appeared and snapped everyone out of their stupor.
“Defensive positions!” yelled Wilson as he dove behind one of the larger consoles for cover, pulling a Predator pistol from his holster and took aim at the door. “Techs, scramble the doors lock codes!”
The closest tech nodded and with a few keystrokes of his omni-tool the doors engaged their security locks with an audible clank. Moments later the door began to creak and seemed to ripple, as if it was slowly being turned into a liquid. Moments later a spark of blue revealed that someone was using Warp on the door, someone very powerful. With a rippling glow the door failed spectacularly when it exploded with wisps of biotic energy and fire from a C12 explosive satchel. Small grenades were tossed in and massive concussive waves of light and sound bombarded anyone not in proper cover and smoke billowed forth from a couple which obscured the defenders line of sight.
They could all hear the thundering footsteps of something big walking in. Out of the smoke came the hulking form of a krogan in full silver painted Mercenary heavy armour and totting a massive M-300 Claymore shotgun. “Knock, knock,” the krogan said with an unseen grin and proceeded to blast away with his shotgun as the Cerberus defenders opened fire with only pistols and a couple with M-8 Avenger assault rifles. He laughed openly as their weak weapons only did minimal damage to his shields while each blast from his shotgun belched out instant death for every poor bastard he targeted.
Wilson tried to use Overload to take out the krogan’s shields, but got shot in the shoulder for his trouble by a marine’s assault rifle, downing him instantly. More marines came pouring in and secured the Ops Centre in seconds as they shot the leftovers from the krogan’s breach and enter. Silence reigned for a moment after the last Cerberus goon was put down. Only the moans of the wounded remained and the krogan put his left hand up to the left side of head.
“Wrex, this is Skarr, we have control of the Operations Centre.” Skarr then poked at an injured Wilson. “We also seem to have caught ourselves a rather large fish, judging by this one’s uniform.”
“Good work Skarr. Wreav and his team have taken the main armoury and your brood brother, Charr, is clearing out the remaining enemy troops, though calling them soldiers is certainly stretching it. How did your humans fare?” Wrex asked.
Skarr smiled underneath his helmet. “They’re not asari, but they make up for it with team work and numbers, and they’re much easier to work with than the turians.”
“Good. Rendezvous at the dock as planned. The boss is going to blow this place sky high, and I do not want any of our people on it when it goes. Well, except for Wreav, but then he was also a nuisance,” said Wrex.
“Understood,” replied Skarr then he bellowed at the humans. “Pick up your little prizes and let’s get out of here. The place is about to blow!”
This made the marines double their efforts and soon enough everyone was running for either the SR-2 or the Rules as fast as their legs could carry them. Wilson got dragged by the legs and hit his head against a door and everything went dark for him.
((((((((((Shiver ME Relays))))))))))
SR-2; CIC,
Ten minutes later
The ship was a hive of activity as the krogan and Alliance Navy personnel helped get the SR-2 ready for launch. Wreav had arrived a few minutes ago with several crates worth of various munitions from the station’s primary armoury, including a few extra spare parts for the ship’s primary weapon. Skarr had returned with his prisoner to the Rules along with the majority of the marine assault team.
Shepard oversaw everything from the raised platform of the galaxy map interface and used it to read up on his ship. So far he was very impressed, except for one thing.
“Miranda, has Cerberus named this ship?” he asked.
“Not yet. All it has is a registration number and class name, the SR-2 destroyer, but I heard the Illusive Man wanted to name the ship for the Battle of Carthage,” said Miranda, much to Shepard’s distaste.
“Not exactly a bad name, but it doesn’t exactly fit,” said Shepard in though. “I think we should call it...”
“Sir, all personnel are aboard and accounted for. All Cerberus prisoners, except for Miss Lilium, have been transferred to the Rules, and we’re set to depart,” said Lieutenant Vega, breaking Shepard’s train of thought.
“Very well Lieutenant,” grunted Shepard as he accessed the galaxy map and inputted their destination.
“Aye sir, setting course for the Asgard System. ETA, twelve hours,” reported Hawthorne from the bridge as the docking bay doors opened.
The ship’s docking clamps released with an audible clang and with a burst of manoeuvring jets the SR-2 left dock and slid smoothly into open space. The MSV Rules of Acquisition followed suit and the two ships entered FTL. Seconds later several large explosions rippled through Minuteman Station, gutting the internal structure. The next to detonate was the station’s fusion reactor plant which destroyed whatever was left, leaving behind only a small amount of debris.
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Shiver ME Relays