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Slaves of Cerberus	By : NakedOwlMan Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 138070 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Mass Effect and all the characters in it are owned by people that are not me. I have not made a cent off this work of fiction

Chapter List
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"Checkmate," he said, moving his pawn into position and leaning back in his chair with a satisfied smirk. "A wonderful game, isn't it? Where in the end even a lowly pawn can defeat a king."

She leaned forward in her chair, scrutinized the board with narrowed eyes. "Dammit," she finally muttered. "Can't believe you pulled that off. After all the pieces you sacrificed..."

"It's an important lesson to learn, my dear, in chess and in life: there is no victory without sacrifice. And sometimes the best way to win, is to make your enemy believe that they have already beaten you."

She laughed. "Is that what you're doing now, then? Pretending to be beaten? Waiting to pull one last trick out of your sleeve, Oleg?"

Oleg Petrovsky frowned at his chess partner, but his tone remained civil. "Not this time, I'm afraid. Since Omega, I'm afraid my sleeves contain nothing but a pair of tired old arms. Ones much better suited for directing pawns then bearing weapons. But then, we've been through all this before. Haven't we, Miss Lawson?"

Miranda Lawson leaned her chin on her palm, fixing Petrovsky with a scrutinizing stare. "Perhaps," Miranda said. "But then, circumstances have changed recently, haven't they?"

"Circumstances out there, maybe," Petrovsky said, waving his arm up to the ceiling and the sky that lay above it. "But here on Ontarom, nothing has changed for me. I sit, I consider the mistakes I have made in my life to get me to this point, and I play chess," he said as he pressed a button at the side of the chessboard, the holographic pieces shimmering and moving back to their starting positions. "Another?"

"No. It appears that I'm more distracted than I realized," Miranda said. Standing up from her seat, she walked over to the window to Oleg's room. Outside, rocky hills and crags surrounded the facility. Miranda stared out at them apprehensively, her eyes locking on the series of AA turrets jutting out at regular intervals around the area. "I'm surprised you aren't more worried yourself. After all, both of us are traitors to Cerberus."

A sour look came to Petrovsky's face. "Please, Miss Lawson. Those people out there aren't Cerberus. They can drape themselves in the colors and standards of our former organization as much as they wish, but they are little more than pretenders to the throne. And regardless... even if they were out to settle old grudges, this facility is well-protected. Keeping any intruders out, and keeping... heh, 'dangerous' individuals like myself from ever escaping."

"Honestly, Oleg. You should be happy the Alliance afforded you this much freedom," Miranda looked away from the window. "I certainly didn't want you here. If it had been up to me, you'd be in an Alliance cell right now. But I guess you were able to charm enough high-ranking officials to convince them to give you the freedom to join this project."

"Freedom, yes," Petrovsky said sarcastically. "The illustrious Restoration Initiative, where former Cerberus operatives join together to make amends for their past deeds and assist the galaxy in rebuilding. I still remember all the grand talk of what we would accomplish together. So tell me, Miss Lawson: what was the last major contribution we made to the rebuilding effort? What positive effect have we had on the galactic community in the past year?" When Miranda didn't answer, Petrovsky smirked in grim satisfaction. "You and I both know the truth. This isn't a research facility. It's a glorified prison. All the talk the Alliance fed me and my former comrades, 'Get the chip, and you'll be absolved of all of your crimes.' But if I went to my jailers... oh, pardon me, I mean 'the Alliance security forces,' if I went to them today and asked for a shuttle to take me off-world, do you suppose they would provide it? You say you want me in an Alliance cell, Miss Lawson?" He gestured outward to the spacious room. "Well, here I am. Perhaps not as small as you would have liked for me, but a cell nonetheless."

"Still more than you deserve," Miranda said to him. "The things you did on Omega..."

"...are no worse than many of the other actions Cerberus had taken for the betterment of humanity, Miss Lawson," Petrovsky countered. "Actions that, up until a few years ago, you were just as much a party to as myself. But I suppose you 'saw the light' just a bit sooner than I did. You, I'm sure, could get a shuttle off this planet any time you wished. But still you remain. I can't help but wonder why. Do you honestly still believe this project will ever accomplish anything? Or is it just that I'm that engaging a chess partner?"

Miranda scoffed. "Please. If there was anybody halfway decent at the game in this facility besides you, I'd be happy to spend my time elsewhere. I've tried teaching the game to Ori, but she doesn't have the patience to learn anything beyond the basics."

"Ah, yes. The lovely young Oriana," Petrovsky said. "I feel for your sister, Miss Lawson, having to live her life in a place like this. A lady at her age, spending her time staring at the same walls day after day. When she should be seeing the world, broadening her horizons, instead she remains here."

Miranda turned back to the window to hide the emotions on her face. "It's... better this way. Ori will be safe here."

"Safe? Safe from whom, exactly?" Petrovsky prodded her. "Your father is dead. Cerberus was dead, too, until recently. Don't tell me you've kept your sister cooped up in this facility all this time, just on the off-chance somebody might try to settle the Illusive Man's old grudges and target you and your sister."

"I... she doesn't need to..."

Petrovsky placed a finger at the side of his temple. "I think I understand it now. Why you've chosen to remain here. It's not just to protect your sister... it's to keep her tied down. Keep her squarely held under your watchful eye. Because if she were to ever leave... if she were to break away from you and find her own life somewhere out among the stars... well, whatever would you do, Miss Lawson? You'd have nobody to protect. Nobody to care for. Nobody in your life at all... isn't that right?"

Miranda looked at Petrovsky with a sneer. "Don't presume that you know all about me. You don't."

Petrovsky shrugged. "You could be correct. But regardless, I'm quite sure you don't need to keep constant watch out that window. Even if this organization calling itself Cerberus knew about this facility, knew how to get past the security measures and reach us here, I severely doubt they would waste their time. Not much here to interest them, I'm sure."

"Really?" Miranda asked. "Not even their brilliant former general, just waiting for the chance to reclaim his former glory?"

He let out a bitter laugh. "Even if that were the case... I would have no interest in the position. No, I'm afraid my days of commanding the armies of outlaw terrorist organizations are finished. As much as I may throw myself against my prison walls, Miss Lawson, part of me is quite happy that they hold fast."

Miranda looked out the window again, searching the sky for any incoming ships. After seeing nothing, she finally turned back and sat down at the table across from Petrovsky. "Fine, then. Another."

"Shall we invite your sister to join us?" Petrovsky suggested. "Perhaps watching two masters play might ignite her interest in the game."

"I doubt it," Miranda said. "And besides, Ori is busy with her studies right now. Wouldn't want to disturb her when she's got her nose buried deep in her books."

* * *

"Oh, Ori! Keep going, Ori!" the black-haired woman moaned, reaching a hand down to stroke the hair of the head wedged between her legs. "Damn, where'd you learn to do that?"

"Practice makes perfect, I guess" Oriana Lawson removed her mouth from her lover's snatch long enough to remark, before diving back in to the woman's glistening pussy. She didn't want to admit that her "practice" came from watching lots of extranet porn, and practicing the tongue movements she saw in those filthy videos on a sex toy she'd bribed one of the supply ship captains to find for her.

The woman sitting on the end of Ori's bed, a middle-aged woman with light scars on her face and a dark thick muff that was currently tickling Ori's nose, was Elena Franklin. One of the fifty or so former Cerberus operatives who made their homes in the Restoration Initiative facility. Ori wasn't sure what role Elena had played in Cerberus, or how far up in their hierarchy she had been. But from the wistful way she talked about her days in that organization, it made Ori doubt her claims that she had been indoctrinated into service.

She was exactly the sort of person Miranda would want Ori to have nothing to do with. Which only made the taste of her cunt on Ori's tongue that much sweeter.

"Your sister isn't going to be coming back anytime soon, is she?" Elena said, glancing at the door to Ori's bedroom.

"Don't worry about my sister," Ori said with a smile. "She'll be gone for at least an hour. She thinks I'm busy studying for my midterms right now."

Elena gave Ori a saucy grin. "Oh, my. I hope I'm not interfering with your education, young lady."

"What does it matter?" Ori said, working her fingers down into Elena's pussy and fingering her as she spoke. "As long as I'm stuck here on Ontarom, what's the point of working toward a degree? Miri wants me to keep up with my colony development studies, but that sort of work actually requires, you know, going to places where you can develop colonies. Not being stuck at some top-secret Alliance facility for who knows how long." She let out a loud sigh. "I love my sister to death, I really do. She protected me for a long time. But I wish she'd realize that I don't need her constantly watching over me anymore. I'm not a teenager anymore; I'm almost 22! Why she feels like she has to mother me all the time..."

"Not for me to butt in, I guess, but ain't nothing stopping you from leaving," Elena observed. "You ain't former Cerberus. Ain't got a chip in you like the rest of us poor saps. Next supply shuttle that comes in, I'm sure they'd let you hitch a ride."

Ori sighed. "Miri would freak out, though. Probably think that this new Cerberus grabbed me up or something. And if I told her I wanted to leave... she'd never allow it. No, for now it's better I stay here anyway. All this crazy stuff going on in the galaxy right now... it's safe here."

Pulling her sopping fingers from Elena's snatch and standing up from her kneeling position on the floor, Ori climbed on top of Elena on the bed. She loved the feel of the older woman's warm, naked body against hers. "And besides... you'd miss me, wouldn't you?" she asked, leaning down to plant a fierce kiss on Elena's lips.

"Maybe," Elena said after Ori broke the kiss, hand running up Ori's side and moving to cup one of the younger woman's smallish breasts. "Miss a couple things about you, I suppose," she said, before pushing Ori slightly up and back off her prone body. Leaning up, Elena ran her tongue along the sensitive flesh of Ori's breast, leaving a glistening trail of saliva as she moved tauntingly close to Ori's swollen nipple. Ori whimpered in pent-up desire, reaching down between their two bodies and pressing her fingers down between her legs. She soon found her rhythm, moving her fingers along her clit in the same pattern as Elena's tongue trailing around her nipple, feeling herself shiver as pleasure filled her entire body.

She still remembered the first time: two months ago, she had been in the mess hall, Miranda chatting with her about some project or another, Ori pretending to listen. And then she had locked eyes with Elena across the mess hall. The dangerous looking woman had stared openly at her, and Ori had been afraid of her penetrating glare at first. Finishing up her food quickly and excusing herself, Ori had reached the door to their room, only to hear someone let out a whistle. Before she knew it, Elena was there: "You look bored, hon," she had said, giving Ori a crooked smile. "I'm pretty bored, too. You ever feel like fucking, I'm in room 28."

It was lewd and sick. Ori had never had anyone talk to her like that before. And it had been all she could think about for the entire next day. Her studies went untouched as she ran Elena's words in her mind over and over again: "You ever feel like fucking..."

Ori wasn't a virgin, of course; an awkward, unsatisfying teenage encounter with a sandy-haired boy from her astronomy course had handled that problem. But Elena was so different: not just that she was a woman, but she was older, more experienced. And had a dangerous air to her that bizarrely made her vulgar invitation all the more tempting.

Eventually, Ori couldn't take it anymore. Making some excuse about "taking a walk" to Miranda, Ori had gone to Elena's room that night. "Take it slow," she told herself as she stepped into the room, Elena giving her a hungry look as she entered. "Don't let her force you to do anything you're not comfortable with," was what she was thinking just before Elena yanked off Ori's dress, shoved her into the bedroom, and spent the next few hours helping Ori release years of pent-up sexual frustration, all in one evening. By the end of the night, Ori had lost count of how many times the older woman's fingers, lips, and tongue had gotten her off. Once it was over, Ori was almost too drained to even walk back to her and Miranda's quarters, Ori immediately jumping in the shower before Miri could notice the smell of sex all over her.

After that night, Ori took a lot more late night walks.

"Ooh," Ori closed her eyes and moaned in approval, as Elena's lips locked around her areola and her teeth lightly nipped at Ori's nipple. Goodness, what would Miri think if she walked in and found her little sister like this: letting some fiendish former Cerberus operative ravish her poor innocent body. A vivid image formed in her mind of Miranda standing at her bedroom door, jaw dropped halfway to the floor as she got a good peek at Ori draped over the body of another woman, fingers frantically stroking at her own cunt. As Ori and Elena shifted on the bed, Ori turning herself around to plant her crotch down into the older woman's face, Ori half-expected to see Miranda standing there, the image had been so vivid.

But she wasn't, of course. Leaving Ori free to enjoy the feel of Elena's tongue expertly teasing the most sensitive parts of her.

Closing her eyes in ecstasy as Elena brought her off, Oriana missed a perfect view out of her bedroom window, of a shuttlecraft descending from orbit off in the distance and steering directly towards the Restoration Initiative base.

* * *

If it were up to him, Lieutenant Garrison Caldwell would nuke the entire fucking site, and every last piece of Cerberus scum who lived there.

He'd fought in the war against the Reapers. Fought alongside turians, salarians, asari and krogan. Even had his neck saved by a damn batarian, of all people. Men and women of all species, struggling and bleeding together, fighting to save the galaxy. It had been an eye-opening experience, and it had made him hate the sort of bigoted assholes who would join Cerberus all the more.

He didn't buy all this talk of indoctrination. Just excuses, that's all. If he had to guess, almost all these people joined up with Cerberus knowingly and willingly. Only falling back on the "I couldn't help myself" excuse after the war was over, and they were the losers. They didn't deserve clemency, deserved nothing less than a bullet in the head.

Regardless, though, he was here to keep watch over them. As security chief for the Restoration Initiative, he had to put aside whatever hatreds he had for these anti-alien shitbirds and do the job he was assigned to do. Not that it was much of a challenge to him. This facility was top-secret, located in an otherwise uninhabited segment of Ontarom. The only thing around them was rocks and more rocks, and the only shuttles that ever came out this way were their periodic supply drops.

A nice, boring posting, just the sort of thing he should enjoy after the chaos and death of the war.

So when he got a call from his second-in-command, telling him that something was up, Caldwell wasted no time hustling his way to the security room.

"What have we got, Wallace?" Caldwell asked, staring out the large window that faced the main courtyard of the building. The Restoration Initative facility was laid out in a U-shape, the comms room they were in near the end of one of the large building's "arms," with a beautiful courtyard garden set up in the inside of the curve. Caldwell felt disgusted every time he saw it: the Alliance going to all the trouble to make this place look inviting, and for what? A bunch of Cerberus traitors who got lucky enough to be granted clemency. Even had a goddamn fountain right in front of the door leading into the main entrance hall. Un-fucking-believable.

"Got a shuttle coming in from the east, sir," Wallace reported, pointing to a blip on the radar screen in front of him. "Been trying to hail it, but it's not answering."

Caldwell stared at the small triangle designating the shuttlecraft, heading straight in their direction. "When's the next supply drop due?" he asked Wallace.

"Not for another week, sir," Wallace said. "You want to prep the AA guns?"

"Leave them on standby for now," Caldwell instructed. Grabbing up the communications mic from Wallace's console, he pressed the send button. "To the unidentified shuttlecraft on heading 283. You are entering a restricted area. Please alter course or we will be forced to take action against you."

There was no response, and the blip on the radar continued on its course without wavering.

Caldwell looked at Wallace, who nodded and pressed a button on his console. Outside, the AA guns activated, pointing upward from their normal idle position and tracking the heading of the incoming shuttlecraft. Just one shot from the massive cannons would be enough to reduce most shuttles to little more than a thimbleful of dust, and whoever was flying this shuttle had twelve of them pointing in their direction and ready to fire.

"I repeat," Caldwell sternly spoke into the microphone. "This is a restricted Alliance facility. If you do not change course, we will open fire on your vessel. This is your last warning."

After a moment's pause, a woman's voice came in through the communications system. "Come in. This is Ensign Sinon. I've got an emergency shipment of weapons coming in for this facility."

Wallace looked at Caldwell, both of them confused. "We haven't heard anything about a weapons shipment," Caldwell said into the mic.

"Last minute orders, sir. We've gotten a report from one of our ships that Cerberus might attempt to attack this facility," the shuttle pilot said. "Want to make sure you're prepared if there's a fight."

Caldwell passed the mic down to Wallace. "Check their clearance," he instructed Wallace.

"Incoming shuttle, please confirm your authorization code," Wallace said into the mic, as he called up another screen on his terminal with the code for the day.

A short pause, then "Authorization code Alpha-Sierra-Oscar-Alpha-Papa One-Two-Four-Three-Six."

Wallace looked up at Caldwell and nodded. "Stand down the guns," Caldwell instructed. "Let 'em through."

"Shuttlecraft, you are clear for landing. Continue on present course and land your shuttle on pad number one," Wallace told the shuttle pilot. Outside, the AA guns deactivated and returned to idle position. Stupid thought, but Caldwell thought they almost looked disappointed, missing out on a chance to actually be put to use for the first time.

Watching out the window for the arrival of the shuttle, Caldwell frowned. "Cerberus attacking here?" he said to himself. "How would they even found us? This facility is so damn secret I can't even send a message to my kid without having it routed through five different comm relays to mask the signal."

"Cerberus used to have a lot of spies, right?" Wallace offered. "Maybe somebody leaked about this place."

Caldwell didn't want to believe it. That somebody would betray the Alliance and willingly work with Cerberus. Commander Shepard was one thing: Caldwell had come to the conclusion that whatever had happened to that woman in that Crucible device had fucked with her head, enough for her to eventually go crazy and switch sides to Cerberus. But that was just the thing: you had to be crazy to want to work with Cerberus willingly. Had to be.

Through the window out into the courtyard, Caldwell watched as the shuttlecraft hovered in from the distance, directing its course in the direction of the shuttlepad. "Wallace, send a call down to the barracks, have a team go down to help unload the weapons," Caldwell instructed. "Better get this stuff stowed away before any of our 'tenants' get the bright idea to hijack the shipment and go rejoin their old buddies."

"Roger that," Wallace said, picking up the microphone in preparation to make the call. His finger hovered above the transmission button, however, as his eyes locked outside the window. "What's it doing, sir?"

Caldwell wasn't sure. The shuttle was hovering in place just above the courtyard, nowhere near the shuttle pad it was supposed to be landing on. "Shuttlecraft, is there a problem?" Wallace said as he reconnected with the shuttle pilot. All that greeted him on the other end was static. He turned around to face Caldwell. "Sir, what do you..."

"Goddamnit!" Caldwell yelled out, as the shuttlecraft turned in the air, pointed itself directly at a section of the building opposite the comms room, and engaged all of its thrusters at once. "Get down!" he warned Wallace, grabbing the ensign and pulling him to the floor just before the shuttlecraft made impact with the side of the building, the window in front of them shattering from the shockwave.

* * *

Miranda had been in the middle of contemplating her next move, when suddenly a loud crashing sound filled the room. Jolting up to her feet, Miranda stared in the direction of the booming sound. "What in the name of..." she said, as alarms started to blare across the base.

"This is Lieutenant Caldwell," called out the voice of the base commander over the PA system. "All residents, please remain calm. A shuttle has lost control and crashed into the facility. We are working to deal with the situation and will let you know when it is safe for you to leave your quarters. Until the situation is contained, I am initiating emergency lockdown on all rooms. Thank you for your understanding." As the last of Caldwell's announcement faded, Miranda and Petrovsky watched as the lock on the door leading out into the hall switched from green to red.

"A shuttle crash?" Miranda said, looking at Petrovsky in confusion. "We weren't even supposed to have any shuttles arriving for at least a week."

"Lieutenant Caldwell sounds a bit shaken," Petrovsky observed. "Somehow I think something else is happening. Something a bit more serious than pilot error."

Miranda stared at the door in frustration. "Goddamnit. I need to get to Ori," she said. Concentrating, she directed a bolt of biotic force against the door out to the hallway. The mental projection bounced against the door with no effect. Cursing, Miranda pounded her fist against the door in anger.

"Not as enjoyable when the cell is keeping you in as well, is it, Miss Lawson?" Oleg said.

"How the hell are you so calm?" Miranda snapped at him. "You know what's going on, don't you, Oleg?"

Oleg shook his head. "I suppose I'm just simply a fatalist, Miss Lawson. What will happen will happen. At this point, any action I take will have little consequence one way or the other."

Groaning in frustration, Miranda turned back to the secured door. "Ori, please be safe," she said to herself, as she stared at the locked door and tried to will it to open.

* * *

"They hit the barracks," Caldwell said to Wallace, as the two of them dashed down the hall towards the shuttle impact site. "Dammit, how many men did we have off-duty in there?"

"Twenty-four sir," Wallace said. "More than two-thirds of our garrison."

Caldwell cursed, then activated his ear communicator. "Anybody who can still hear me, head to the barracks immediately. I want all fires extinguished and any survivors accounted for." Disconnecting, he looked over at Wallace with a troubled look. "This wasn't an accident. That pilot deliberately piloted the shuttle into the barracks. They know the layout of this base and were trying to take as many of our people out as they could."

"You think Cerberus is behind this?" Wallace asked his commander.

"I don't know," Caldwell said, as they turned the corner down into the hallway leading to the barracks. "But if that pilot is still alive, I'm going to get some damn answers out of her. One way or another."

Several of the Alliance soldiers assigned to the facility joined Caldwell and Wallace as they opened the door into the barracks. Smoke gushed out of the door as soon as it slid open, and the men covered their mouths as they charged into the devastated room. The crashed shuttle had embedded itself halfway inside of the building, but otherwise looked mostly intact. The barracks, however, were in a terrible state, and Caldwell cursed as he saw the bodies of several of his men crushed under the shuttle and pieces of rubble that had fallen away from the impact area.

"Get extinguishers over there and over there," Caldwell commanded the men. "You two, over there! Looks like we might have some survivors, see if they can get on their feet and help us with these fires." As his men carried out his instructions, Caldwell gestured to Wallace. "You're with me," Caldwell said as he withdrew his service pistol from his hip. "Let's see if the pilot is still kicking."

"Yes sir," Wallace said, as the two of them carefully made their way through the crumbled debris and small blazes that were burning around the room. Weapons at the ready, they reached the side of the shuttle.

Caldwell pointed down at the side of the crashed ship. "Wallace, what's that say on the side of the ship? Wipe off that shit."

Wallace reached out to run a hand against the soot and dust that had clung to the ship after the impact. "Says... says 'Haverdean,' sir. What the hell does that mean?"

"Means this isn't an Alliance supply ship, that's all I know," Caldwell said. "Open up the side hatch, let's go in."

Wallace hit the emergency access switch on the side of the shuttle, and the damaged door let out a teeth-grating metallic scrape before finally swinging open. Caldwell and Wallace pointed their guns into the ship, the lights on their service weapons revealing a nearly empty interior.

Caldwell pivoted his light down to a large crate in the center of the main passenger area of the shuttle. "I'm going to see what we've got here. Wallace, check the cockpit."

Wallace nodded, moving cautiously as he opened the door between the passenger section of the shuttle and the cockpit. "Sir, it's..." Caldwell heard Wallace say, as Caldwell crouched down by the crate. "There's nobody in here."

"Nobody... shit, it was being remotely piloted," Caldwell said. "But the radio..."

"There's a repeater device attached to the console in here," Wallace said. "They must have been broadcasting from somewhere else."

Caldwell started to say something else, but then he heard something. "Shh, quiet," he instructed Wallace. "What's that sound?"

"Sounds like... something beeping," Wallace said. "Is it coming from the crate?"

Reaching forward, Caldwell triggered the lock on the large crate and sprung it open. Inside was about one hundred pounds of high-grade explosives.

And a small electronic device with a bright red display placed on the top of the massive stockpile. Counting 0:07... 0:06... 0:05...

"Wallace," Caldwell quietly said, staring down at the display and taking one last long breath. "It's been an honor and a privilege to serve with you."

0:01... 0:00... and the whole world went white.

* * *

The second shockwave was much more powerful than the first, Ori tumbling off her feet in the middle of putting on her pants.

"What's going on?" Ori frantically cried at Elena, yelling to be heard over the blaring alarms. "Are we under attack?"

"How the hell should I know?" Elena snapped at her, banging a fist against the locked door to Miranda and Ori's shared living space. "Goddamnit, open this fucking door up!"

"Miri..." Ori moaned, tossing on the last of her clothes. "We've got to get to her."

Elena turned away from the secure door and nodded. "Sounds fine to me. May not have any guns in this place, but with your sister's biotics, we might actually stand a chance against whatever the fuck is going on out there."

Ori wrung her hands, images of her sister being caught and killed by whoever was attacking flooding through her head. Dammit, she should be with Miranda right now, not trapped like a caged rat here.

"Fucking Alliance assholes!" Elena yelled, angrily pounding her fists on the door. "We're sitting ducks in here!" She looked over her shoulder. "Ori, you... Ori?"

Ori had drifted back into her bedroom, staring out the window as a ship slowly cruised in the direction of the base. "An Alliance shuttle," she said, starting to feel hopeful. "Maybe somebody's coming to help."

"Trusting the Alliance to help," Elena said scornfully. "That's a habit I broke myself of a while ago."

* * *

Staring down at the carnage through the cockpit window, the Shepard clone grinned and wickedly chuckled. "Beware of Trojans bearing gifts, and shuttles bearing a shitload of explosives."

"I don't see anybody moving down there," Erin said as she banked them around to the shuttle pad. "Would have thought at least some of the residents would be gutsy enough to come out and see what happened."

"I imagine Lieutenant Caldwell initiated a lockdown when the shuttle first hit, trying to keep the inmates out of the way while he cleaned up," Brooks said from the co-pilot's seat. "His psych profile did mention a severe distrust of anyone associated with Cerberus, after all."

Leaning down against Brooks's chair, the clone laid a wet kiss on her cheek. "Aw, how could anybody not like Cerberus? We're all so lovable," she said, her earlier anger at Brooks already forgotten with the sight of the carnage below.

The shuttle slowly came to a rest on the pad, and Shepard opened the door leading to the back section. Inside, Morgan and twelve Phantoms readied themselves. "Alright, here's the plan," the clone called out, bringing up her omnitool and displaying the building schematic they had pulled from the Shadow Broker's archive. "Brooks will be taking two of you in through the comm room window, make sure nobody got off any distress calls before we got here. Lezayen, take two with you in through the impact site, make sure the blast didn't leave any survivors. The rest of you will come with me through the front door. We split off in twos from there, go room to room. You all know who we're looking for... and who we're not. Any questions?"

"Ma'am, no, ma'am," the Phantoms barked out in unison. The shuttle shook slightly as it touched down, and the side door opened.

"Alright, then," the clone said, as she readied her shotgun. "Let's show the old guard how the new Cerberus operates."

The Phantoms piled out of the shuttle. Erin looked over at Brooks as she got up from the co-pilot's seat. "You sure you don't want me to stay here, ma'am?" she asked.

"No, I want you up in the air," Brooks said. "This facility is far enough away from anything else that nobody should come sniffing around about those explosions, but we don't want to take any chances. Run a wide perimeter around the base, and if you see any other ships, you radio us right away."

"Should I engage, ma'am?"

"If it's a civilian ship, something you can shoot down without too much trouble, knock yourself out," Brooks instructed her. "But if it's Alliance, just stay out of sight, radio us with a warning, and let them come to us." She pointed out the cockpit window at the garden area, and the large array of waist-high concrete planters and benches. "This courtyard is the perfect spot for an ambush, and we can wipe them all out as soon as they set foot on the shuttle pad."

"Roger that, ma'am," Erin said, as Brooks stepped out of the cockpit and disembarked. Once Brooks had joined the rest of the team on the pad, the shuttle lifted off and flew into the distance.

"Aw, isn't it lovely?" Rena said with a sneer, running an armored hand along the leaves of a small sapling sprouting out of one of the many rectangular concrete planters. In a flash, she whipped her sword off her back and sliced the tree in half, laughing as the top half of the bisected plant tumbled and fell limply to the ground.

"Alright, you know your orders," the clone said. "Let's move!" She paused to give a hard, rough kiss to Brooks before the two of them split into their separate teams.

Brooks headed west, to the shattered window of the comm room looking out onto the courtyard. Hoisting herself up into the room, Brooks headed over to one of the control panels. "No distress signal, but... I was right. Caldwell locked down the doors for all the resident quarters."

"We could open them one-by-one," the Phantom to Brooks's left suggested. "Keep things from getting too out of control."

Brooks looked at the Phantom and gave her a playful smile. "Ah, but out of control is so much more fun," she said. "And we are in a bit of a rush."

Pressing a series of buttons, Brooks disabled the locks on all the doors.

* * *

Miranda let out a surprised gasp, as the door in front of her suddenly unlocked and slid open. "Thank God," she said. She turned to Oleg, who still sat calmly at the chessboard. "I'm going to find my sister. You coming with me?"

Oleg shook his head. "I'm quite alright here, Miss Lawson. But I do wish you luck."

Turning away from him in disgust, Miranda stepped out into the hallway. Several of the other residents had also noticed their doors had been opened, and Miranda looked around to see them filtering out into the halls.

"Miranda, what's going on?" said Dr. Andrew Bochenski, one of the former Cerberus biology researchers who had joined the project. "The security chief said something about a shuttle crash?"

"I'm afraid I know as much as the rest of you do," Miranda said, as several more of the residents gathered around her. All of them looking to her, the former high-ranking Cerberus official, for guidance. "Why don't you all head to the comms room? Somebody there should know what's going on. I'm going to go find my sister."

Dr. Bochenski gave her a nervous smile. "Not to contradict you, ma'am, but if this is some sort of attack... your biotics are pretty much the only weapon we've got. I'm sticking with you."

Several of the project members murmured in agreement. Finally, Ian and Helen Feinberg stepped forward. "Helen and I will check the comms room," Ian said. "Somebody from the Alliance should still be there, after all."

"Thanks," Miranda said. The rest of them gathered around her as she started walking the opposite way.

Please be alright, Ori, Miranda thought. She managed to force a look of supreme confidence onto her face, for the benefit of the others around her, depending on her to be strong. But inside, she was a nervous wreck. I can't lose you.

* * *

Elena let out a cry of triumph as the door to the Lawsons' room slid open. "There we go!" she turned to Ori. "Come on, let's get moving."

"We need to find Miranda," Ori said, as Elena grabbed her by the hand and led her out into the hallway. "Something might have happened to her."

They looked both ways down the hallway, alarm klaxons still going off as lights flashed up and down the corridor. "The barracks are that way," Elena pointed. "Hopefully there's still some Alliance guys here without their heads up their asses that can tell us what's going on."

"But Oleg's room is the other way!" Ori said, trying to resist Elena's pull on her arm in the direction of the barracks. "Elena, please!"

Elena stopped in her tracks, giving Ori an aggravated look. "We'll find your damn sister, okay?" she snapped at Ori, pointing a finger in the direction of the barracks door. "But if this is more than just a simple shuttle crash, I ain't charging into the fray without a gun, or something to..."

The two of them froze as the door to the barracks slid open, a gust of black smoke pouring out of the archway. As Ori watched in terror, several armored figures stepped out of the haze, turning and walking in their direction. They carried swords, and Ori recognized them from her time held captive by her father and Cerberus. "Phantoms," she gasped. Now she was tugging at Elena's arm. "We have to get out of here!"

"Go," Elena said. "Go find your sister, kiddo. I'll hold them off."

"No, Elena! Come with me!" Ori grabbed Elena's hand with both of hers, but Elena held fast.

"It's okay," Elena said, her voice low and firm. "Just get moving. I'll catch up to you."

Ori finally gave up the struggle, as the Phantoms were getting closer. "Elena, I..." she started to say, then turned and ran before finishing.

As the Phantoms moved closer, the one in front whipped off her helmet, revealing a stern face and long blond hair. Once Ori was out of sight, Elena gave her a genial smile. "Hey, about time you people showed up!" she cheerfully said. "When I heard the reports about Cerberus starting up again, I figured you'd show your faces around here eventually. Can't wait to start working with Shepard and the rest of you," She pointed a thumb over her shoulder, towards the turn in the hallway where Ori had run. "And hey, don't worry about the girl, okay? She might freak out a little when she finds out what's really going on here, but I'll help smooth things over."

The blond Phantom said nothing, simply stared at Elena with a blank expression.

"Hey, you new? Don't think I remember you from back in the day," Elena said. She extended a hand towards the Phantom, who was now only a few feet away. "Name's Elena Franklin. Looking forward to working with..."

The sound of an impossibly-sharp blade slicing the air, and in a split second Elena's hand went from extended in friendship, to tumbling onto the floor in a pool of blood. She opened her mouth to scream, only for the blade to strike again, driving into her mouth and up and out the back of her head. She was dead in an instant.

Putting a boot against Elena's chest and yanking her sword out of the corpse's skull, Morgan looked back at her Phantom underlings. "Petrovsky and the Lawsons live," she called out. "Everyone else dies."

The rest of them withdrew their blades, as more of the Restoration Initiative members started looking out of their rooms. Screams mixed with the loud alarm klaxons as the residents spotted the bloody corpse on the floor, the defenseless scientists scrambling out of their rooms and running in the opposite direction.

"Alright, ladies," Morgan said with a smirk. "Let's go hunt us some filthy fucking traitors."

* * *

It was just as Miranda and her group rounded the corner and neared the main entrance hall, that they heard screams ahead of them. The frightened group hesitated, as frantic cries and pleas for mercy echoed throughout the corridor.

"Oh, God!" whimpered Bochenski. "What's happening, Miranda? Who is this? Why are they doing this?"

"I don't..." Miranda's words died in her throat, as she saw a familiar figure step through the main entrance of the facility. Red hair blowing behind her, green eyes turning to lock in her direction. And a confident smile on her face.

"Hello, Miranda," Shepard said. "Sorry about all the fuss, but you know me: I always like to make an entrance."

Miranda blinked. Even after seeing all the news reports, the videos of her proclaiming her new allegiance... it seemed completely unreal. But there was Shepard, proudly wearing Cerberus armor. Miranda tensed as she saw a group of about ten Cerberus Phantoms follow her former commander into the building. Swords at the ready, hands extended and trained at the group of defected Cerberus members surrounding Miranda.

"Keep her alive," Shepard said, pointing at Miranda. "The rest of them... the opposite of that."

"No!" Miranda focused her mind, sending out a biotic pulse directed right at Shepard. Two of the Phantoms slid forward and extended their hands, biotic barriers absorbing the force of Miranda's attack. Before Miranda could summon the energy for another strike, the rest of the Phantoms opened fire. Miranda was surrounded by screams as the defenseless scientists were ripped to shreds.

"Run! Fall back!" somebody yelled out from behind her, as the surviving members of her group turned and fled. She heard two more of them cry out in pain as shots from the palms of the Phantoms found their marks, before the rest fled around the corner and out of sight.

As shots continued to whoosh past her, and bodies piled up at her feet, Miranda watched in horror as Shepard and the Phantoms pressed forward. Left with no other option, Miranda forced herself to turn around, running after the rest of her group back the way they came.

"Into the comms room!" she heard someone yell out in front of her, and she caught sight of the group dashing into the Alliance communications room ahead of her. Just as she neared the door, there was suddenly a loud cracking sound, and a body tumbled out of the door onto the hallway floor.

"No!" Miranda heard Helen scream in horror, falling to the floor to cradle the limp form of her husband. "Ian, no..." she cried, holding his bleeding head to her chest and sobbing. She looked up in time to see a pistol pointed at her head from above. "Please. Please, just..."

A shot echoed across the corridor, and Helen slumped to the floor next to her husband, a smoking hole in her forehead. The executioner stepped through the door, and Miranda was confronted with another familiar face.

"Miss Lawson," said Hope Lilium, the dark-skinned woman giving her a friendly smile that looked ghastly in these circumstances. As she stepped out into the hallway, Miranda heard terrified screams from the comms room, screams that one-by-one were cut off. It was only a minute later that two Phantoms followed behind Hope, blades dripping with blood.

"Stop!" Miranda yelled out, gathering up her willpower for another biotic strike. "Don't take another step!"

"Or what?" Hope snidely replied. "You'll think at me hard?" she glanced to her sides at the two Phantoms, who had their hands ready to bring up biotic barriers. "I don't want to make this painful for you, but if you resist... well, my people have instructions to take you alive, but not necessarily unharmed."

Miranda took a step back, knowing she had no chance unarmed against the trio of Cerberus operatives. "You'll never get away with this," Miranda told Hope. "The Alliance doesn't take attacks on its facilities lightly."

"Oh, dear, I'm so terribly worried," Hope said mockingly. "That might have been a fearsome threat a few years ago, Miss Lawson. But today? The Alliance can barely keep the peace on one planet, much less police the entire galaxy. By the time they muster their forces to deal with this, we'll be long gone."

"And you'll have accomplished what, exactly?" Miranda asked her, taking another step back as Hope continued advancing. "Revenge against us traitors to the cause? Slaughtering a bunch of helpless scientists?"

Hope gave a casual shrug. "Well, that is a nice bonus, yes. But that's not the only reason we came here." She came to a stop, then turned her head slightly to the right as she kept her eyes locked on Miranda. "Isn't that right, General?"

Miranda bared her teeth as Oleg Petrovsky stepped out of his quarters. Having changed out of his casual clothing and into his old Cerberus uniform. "I should hope not," Oleg said, as he moved to stand beside Hope and crossed his arms. "I'd worry about the priorities of this new Cerberus operation quite a bit if killing these people was the extent of your goals."

"You son of a bitch!" Miranda yelled at him. "You knew this was coming the whole time!"

Oleg shook his head. "If I'm being honest with you, Miss Lawson... I didn't. But I can't say I'm surprised, either," he said. Turning to Hope, he raised his arm up in a salute. "Good to see you, Miss Lillum."

"You as well, General," Hope said, returning the salute. "Actually, though, it's Miss Brooks now. Maya Brooks. The old name... got a little boring."

"Well, by any name, you always struck me as a force to be reckoned with," Oleg said, lowering his arm. "Seeing you here now, I'm glad to be proven right about your potential. I always thought the Illusive Man was wasting your talents, having you scrounge up alien scum for Shepard's Collector mission."

"A mistake, General, that we don't intend to repeat," said a voice from behind them. Miranda turned to see Shepard walking up to them, her Phantom contingent trailing behind her.

Oleg gave Shepard a scrutinizing look, then turned to Brooks with an arched eyebrow. "Ah. I see you woke up the spare."

"Hey!" Shepard yelled out. "The name's Shepard! Commander Anna Shepard!"

"Calm down, love," Brooks said, stepping past Miranda and laying a hand on Shepard's shoulder. Turning back to Oleg, she gave him a quizzical look. "How did you know?"

"You thought I wasn't made aware?" Oleg said. "Of course the Illusive Man told me about his backup parts supply. As a matter of fact, he and I once contemplated taking the same actions as yourself: reviving the clone to be used as a weapon against the real Shepard after she broke with Cerberus. Ultimately, we determined that there was too much chance of failure for it to be worth the effort."

Miranda turned to look at the clone of Shepard, a seething expression on the clone's face that Miranda could never have imagined seeing on the real Shepard. Strange that the Illusive Man hadn't told her about the creation of a clone, especially considering she had been in charge of the Lazarus Project. But of course, the things she had discovered during the Reaper war had educated her on just how many secrets her former boss had kept from even her.

"Well, guess the joke's on you," the Shepard clone snarled at Oleg. "Because I ended up winning after all."

Brooks patted the clone on the shoulder. "We ended up winning, love. Give me at least some of the credit for helping you defeat your lackluster doppelganger."

"Ah," Oleg said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "So the real Shepard is dead, then?"

"For the last goddamn time, the real Shepard is standing right in fucking front of you," the clone snapped. "Standing here, in charge of the organization that you failed!"

Oleg let out a disbelieving sound. "You put it in charge?" he asked Brooks. "Miss Lilium, or Miss Brooks... whatever you wish to call yourself, I hope this is some sort of joke. This... thing may wear the face of Commander Shepard, it may even believe itself to be the real Commander Shepard. But it is nothing more than a creation. An object of science, not a true human like you and I. Cerberus is an organization that represents humanity... not walking and talking organ banks."

Miranda turned to see the clone begin glowing with biotic force. "I'll kill you, you..." the clone barked at him.

"Enough!" Brooks raised her voice, standing in front of the furious clone. "Keep calm," she whispered. Turning to Oleg, Brooks gave him a bashful look. "Perhaps you're right, General. Perhaps Cerberus hasn't been operating to its full potential. After all, we may have achieved a few minor victories up to this point, but I'm quite sure we'll be able to accomplish so much more with that valuable asset of yours," she pointed a finger at her temple. "So, are you ready to say goodbye to this place, General?"

"A moment, if I may," Oleg said, glancing at the door to his room. "I have a few sentimental items I would like to..."

As soon as Oleg broke eye contact with her, Brooks shoved past Miranda, pressed her fingers to her palm to activate her omni-tool, and drove a glowing blade directly into Oleg's stomach.

"Aggggghhhh," Oleg grunted as the blade slid effortlessly inside him, before letting out a cough that send blood spurting past his lips. He stared at Brooks with wide, shocked eyes as she twisted the omni-blade in his wound.

"So sorry, General," Brooks sneeringly said to Oleg. "But right now, you're worth much more to Cerberus dead than alive. Oh, but thank you so much for the advice. I'll be sure to consider it carefully after I piss on your corpse, you traitorous fuck."

Oleg let out a choking cry of pain, as Brooks dragged her omni-blade around inside his body and blood splattered out of his now-gaping wound onto the floor. When Oleg's head finally lolled forward, eyes blank and dead, Brooks shoved his lifeless body down to the floor.

"Now who's a real human and who's not, you fuck?" the clone said, moving past Miranda to approach Oleg's body. "Bet you didn't see that coming, you..."

"Look out!" Brooks yelled to the clone, but too late. As she passed Miranda, barely paying her any mind, Miranda's hand snaked out and snatched up the pistol at the clone's hip. Before anyone could react, Miranda had the pistol pressed against the back of the clone's head.

"Anybody makes a move, and your leader dies," Miranda yelled out, as the Phantoms tensed and trained their hand cannons on Miranda. "Everyone put their hands at their sides, right now! Do I look like I'm fucking joking?"

Brooks watched this all play out with an unconcerned expression. "Seriously, Miss Lawson? Do you really think you're going to escape us? Even if you make it out of the building, the desert extends for fifty miles in every direction. Even for a genetically perfect specimen like yourself, that's quite a jog."

"I'm not walking anywhere," Miranda said, as she pushed the clone in the direction of the comms room. "You're going to call back the shuttle that brought you here, and I'm going to take it to the nearest Alliance base. Meanwhile, you all can sit here and wait to be taken into custody."

"A nice plan," Brooks said, as she glanced down the hallway with a confident smile. "But aren't you forgetting someone, Miss Lawson?"

Miranda heard a sharp cry behind her, and all of her thoughts of escape went out the window. "Miri!"

Keeping her gun trained on the clone's head, Miranda whipped her head around to see Oriana in the clutches of a helmetless Phantom. The bulky, blond-haired Cerberus operative held her sword to Ori's throat with one hand, while using the other to hold her in place. "Drop the gun, sexy," the Phantom commanded her. "Unless you're at all curious to see what the inside of your sister's esophagus looks like."

"Miri, don't do it!" Ori cried, tears falling down her cheeks as she struggled against the Phantom's powerful grip. "Just save yourself!"

But it was already over the moment they put the blade to Ori's throat. Angrily, she tossed the gun aside, staring down at the floor and waiting for what was to come next. After a few seconds, she felt something cold against her neck, a biotic inhibitor collar locking into place.

"Get Crooks on the radio, Maya," the clone said as she grabbed up her pistol from the ground. Standing back up, she got eye-to-eye with Miranda and smirked. "Tell her the Lawson bitches are secure."

* * *

"Dammit... doesn't it piss you off?"

Morgan looked over at Rena as the two of them casually strolled out of the front entrance to the Restoration Initiative building. "Does what piss me off?"

"I mean, look at what we've done here," Rena said, whipping off her helmet and dropping it on one of the concrete planters. She reached into a side pouch and retrieved a joint. "Look at what we pulled off. Striking at a damn top secret Alliance facility, taking these fuckers completely by surprise, and just slaughtering every last one of them. Never even saw us coming."

As Rena lit up, Morgan gave her an odd look. "Not sure how that's supposed to piss me off. Ask me, that's a pretty good day's work."

"But that's just it," Rena exclaimed, jabbing her joint out at the other Phantoms that were currently hard at work in the courtyard. Some of them arranged the corpses of the Alliance troops and Cerberus traitors, while others were painting symbols on the walls of the building with their blood. "All the shit we pulled off today was fucking awesome! But in the end, we can't fucking take the credit for it. We gotta blame it all on this alien terrorist group instead. An alien terrorist group which, by the way, doesn't even fucking exist." Stepping up to the fountain, Rena tapped her ash into the bubbling water and let out a raspy sigh. "Just sucks, that's all."

"Eh, whaddaya gonna do? Gotta do things by the bosses' playbook," Morgan said, staring out at the rocky hills and cliffs that extended out past the shuttle bay into the distance. "I'm sure once it's all over, we'll have plenty of carnage to take the credit for. And even if not... it's sure a lot of fun, ain't it?"

"Yeah, maybe," Rena said, glancing back at the building. "What's up with her?" she asked. Morgan turned in the same direction, to see Brooks tapping on her omni-tool with a frustrated expression, her mouth opening widely as she raised her voice into it.

Morgan shrugged. "Doubt it's something for us to worry about," she observed. "Shit like that is above our heads, anyway. We're just here to kill things, burn things, and have a good time doing it."

"A good time, yeah. But after pulling something like this off, I just wish I could get on that Westerlund News show or that slut Diana Allers's camera and just tell the entire galaxy," Rena put a leg up on the edge of the fountain, stepped up onto the ledge surrounding the water, and spread her arms wide. "Hey, all you alien fuckers and Alliance cocksuckers! It's us, Cerberus!" she yelled up to the sky. "We're out here fucking up all your shit, and you weak little pussies can't do a damn thing to stop us! You thought you had us beat, but you're the one's gonna be kissing our asses when it's all over! So pucker up now, you helpless pieces of shit, or we're coming for you next!"

The Phantoms surrounding them in the courtyard stopped what they were doing to listen, a few of them cheering and thrusting fists in the air at Rena's speech. With a grin, Rena turned around, hopped down off the fountain, and took another long drag off her joint. "But you're right, though. Even if we can't take the credit for this, it still was a lot of fu-"

Morgan heard a quiet crack in the distance, a sharp hiss of air. One minute, Rena was grinning at Morgan. And then the next, most of her face was gone, replaced with a gaping exit wound. Morgan felt blood splash against her cheek, as Rena tumbled backward into the bubbling fountain.

At the other side of the courtyard, Morgan watched as one after another, heads popped out from behind planters. Heads attached to bodies, bodies carrying lots and lots of guns.

The perfect spot for an ambush, Morgan heard Brooks's words in her head, just before she screamed out. "Everybody DOWN!"

"All units!" yelled out the dark-skinned Alliance officer at the center of the group, as he trained his rifle directly on Morgan. "OPEN FIRE!"
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Slaves of Cerberus