The Next Great Journey: Awakening

DISCLAIMERS: I don't own any Halo or Mass Effect products; they belong to their respective owners.

Beta Reader: l3loodKnight

Chapter 7: Motive

February 19, 2575, Systems Alliance Calendar; Sigurd's Cradle, Mil, Selvos.

Treeya was in a though spot, and frankly, she didn't know what to do in her current situation. Rain had started to pour down a couple of minutes ago, a thunderstorm, extremely rare for the planet, but not unheard off. The store in which they were provided cover from the rain, but it did nothing to alleviate her situation. She could still see the devastation in which the city had been left days ago, after the Collectors had attacked, through the windows of the store. It served nothing to provide her with an answer.

Looking in front of her, she saw her fellow Asari, being reduced to nothing more than a hostage, the barrel of a gun pressed against her head as she cried due to the terror that she was going through.

"I'll ask nicely once again Treeya. Hand over the data, or Noli here gets a bullet." As if to prove his point, Messner cocked his revolver.

Treeya could only stare, frozen as her mind processed what was happening. "How? How did it come to this?!" She asked herself, the events that had taken place to lead them to this point not making sense to her. "Why would he…? Why would he do this, after everything that we went through?" Her attention returned to the Messner and the other individual behind him, its gun aimed at them, though the uncertainty being clear on his, "her?", body language.

She looked at her hand, the data-chip containing the data in there before she began to extend it. She only had two question in her mind, "why would Benezia want them to have this data? Did she know who she was working with?"

Suddenly, the sound of a weapon being fired took her out of her thoughts, the chip that she was about to give to Messner falling to the floor as she ducked behind any cover that she could find, her survival instincts taking over. She saw as blood sprayed one of the isles of the store before the deafening sound of a gun being fired was heard. Among the commotion, she heard as a new voice said something to the Human.

"What the fuck were you thinking?!"

The voice was male, that much she could tell, as the words were gibberish to her. It seemed that the other Human, for she was sure it was Human, spoke a different language than the one she had gotten from Messner. She could detect the angry tone from the voice and could tell the displeasure on it. "Maybe something else is at play here?" was the last thing that she thought as she looked back to where Noli was supposed to be. Gunfire made her duck back into cover before black smoke started to fill the room.

February 15, 2173, Citadel Council Calendar; Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel Station.

"Just as we agreed. Here's the information that you requested." Said a distorted voice.

Saren's computer in his temporal apartment lit up as the download of information started. Looking back at his contact through his Omin-tool, Saren clicked a few holographic keys before the money was transferred.

"Just remember, I'm risking my ass with the Shadow Broker for this." The voice said before it sighed, "Do you really believe that they are behind all this mess?"

Saren looked back at the screen, not having expected his contact within the Broker to stay for long. He had made it known months ago that they relation was strictly business and would not take longer than necessary between each transaction. It had been difficult to tag an agent of the Broker, more so in finding one willing to give him information. He was no fool, he knew that the Broker would find out sooner or later, so this was his last request before laying down for a while.

"Behind this? Of course not. They are definitely connected to this somehow. Question is, how?" Saren responded, the toll that this latest case had on him clearly being shown on him. "Look, all the evidence I have found so far, connects them to the events in one way or another. That's not all, do you remember the incident in Logasiri a week ago? Turns out that they were there, or at the very least, an Alliance model ship was in the system."

"Please Saren, you are just being paranoid. It could of being a merchant ship. Believe it or not, there's many of those going around the galaxy. Or one of those Covenant ships snooping around." The agent responded, the exasperation being clear even with his distorted voice.

"A merchant ship that happened to land on the planet just before the incident happened, and left right after? I don't think so."

"Look, I found some weird things on that information packet that I sent you. I don't think that Cerberus is behind this from what I found." The agent stopped momentarily as he seemed to look at something off screen, "hold on, there seems to be something going on in the bridge. Sar...call.." The transmission was cut, as static filled the holographic screen. At the same time, the download stopped, the progress bar stuck two-thirds of the way.

"What the?" Saren said as he tried to reconnect the transmission. All his attempts ending in failure before he gave up. Looking at the information downloaded, or what was managed to be, Saren decided to start sorting through the files.

-The Next Day-

The search had been a tiring and extensive one. It seemed that, even with the partial download of the files, Saren had still managed to get enough to connect some of the dots, and also to spark many more questions. He revised one of the multiple reports on the specimen collected from Imorha, to distract himself for a bit. It yielded no results, the scientists in station had had no progress yet with the multiple tests that they had performed.

He sighed as he massaged his forehead, trying to alleviate the migraine that was making itself present. A notification sound from his omi-tool called his attention, as someone was trying to contact him. He answered, thinking that it was a fellow Spectre or one of the councilors, his surprise was evident when it wasn't any of the aforementioned ones. Instead, it was Matriarch Benezia herself that had contacted him.

"Saren," She said in greeting, "It seems that circumstances have made it so that we speak again after all." She said, her tone neutral and business like.

Saren's curiosity was picked, partly because he was curious in knowing how she managed to get a hold of him, and another because of the last time he saw her. They hadn't spoken since they met in that distant planet full of ruins, too much had happened between then and now.

"May I ask as to what is the nature of this call?" He asked, skipping the pleasantries and trying to get to the main point of this conversation. "Please let it not be a political call." He thought, his migraine not helping him at the moment.

"Selvos." She said, picking Saren's curiosity slightly in the process. "I've lost contact with someone important…"

"Look, if this is due to the lack of communication from there since yesterday, then don't. It might be just a solar storm causing interference or some problem with their communication network." Saren interrupted, while thinking, "Hmm, what are the odds that she experienced the same problem as me, but even then, why contact me?"

Looking at her, Saren said, trying to bait some information out of her, "You know the standard procedure in this situation. It hasn't even passed the allotted time to consider it a concern. Besides, shouldn't you take this with someone else? I'm a Spectre if you hadn't noticed." He finished, inserting some annoyance in his tone to gauge her reaction.

"She has information that might help in you in your investigation." Benezia said in a placating tone.

Saren expression hardened, looking at the Asari incredulously. "And what, may I ask, is this investigation that you mention?" He asked carefully, internally starting to worry about a possible leak of information.

"The colonist's disappearances in the Terminus." She said before continuing, "Look, a follower of mine was in Selvos yesterday, finishing a deal with... some business partners." Saren looked at her pointedly at her slight pause, noticing that she seemed to omit something at the last second, "Thing is, I haven't heard anything from her since two days ago. Due to the nature of the information, it can't fall into the wrong hands."

"That still doesn't tell me how it will, as you put it, help me in my investigation." Saren said, trying to fish for more information from the politician, but mentally noting the event into something to look for after this.

"Do you remember Daratar and what we found down there in the ruins?" Benezia said, "I also know about your little specimen that you keep in the labs of the Citadel." She finished, a smirk forming on her face as she saw Saren's panicking face. "Let's just say that, it is related."

"How did you...?" Saren's voice showed his panic, something that he would berate himself for later on, but at the moment, he didn't care.

"The how is not important. I need you to recover that information for me, and if possible, to bring Treeya back alive. There's no one else I can trust with this."

"Surely you are exaggerating." Saren said as he got himself back in control, "You matriarchs have entire groups of mercenaries or spec-ops under your fingertips to do your calling. Surely one of them are more than qualified for this sort of operation." He was genuinely curious as to why she had asked him of all people. Meanwhile, outside the view of the video transmission, Saren started to track back the signal with another computer of his.

Benezia's expression didn't change, though her tone did, becoming slightly more aggressive. Something that went unnoticed by Saren, "Of course I already considered that option, but the last transmission from Treeya's ship in orbit is more than concerning."

A notification ping sounded in Saren's omni-tool, looking at it, he saw that he had received a video file. He looked at the matriarch, wishing that he had eyebrows so that he could convey his disbelief as the Humans onboard the station seemed to like doing. He opened a second display as he saw the video, trying to think of ways to get more information from the politician. "Surely she knows more than she's letting on" He thought.

The video started playing normally, depicting a conversation between the matriarch and the crew of the ship. The conversation being about the status of the deal planetside while the ship waited in orbit. Saren was about to just fast forward the video before it happened. The crew seemed to start coming into a panic, static becoming more present on the video as small explosions started happening on the bridge. The video turned to static soon after. Following that, multiple information screens appeared on screen, some showing the ship's status as well as, the last logs recorded. Clearly, part of the ship's black box had been recovered somehow. One of said screens called his attention, as the design of an unknown ship was shown in it, the shape oddly seeing familiar.

"As you can see, the situation is more than a simple communication problem, as the rest of the authorities believe." Benezia said, though Saren ignored her, his mind trying to remember where it was that he had seen such ship design.

"Collectors. It can't be a coincidence." He murmured to himself as he remembered the Citadel records of all known and rumored species in the galaxy, plus the last transmission with his contact. There wasn't much in the files about the Collectors, and the only reason that he remembered them was due to the information that he received yesterday. It seemed that the rumors of that species were increasing in number as of late.

Looking at the still speaking Asari, Saren interrupted her, noticing her annoyance at being so, and secretly taking joy in the act. "Look, I'll look for your missing consort."

"Follower." Benezia corrected sharply.

"Same thing." Saren continued unfaced, "But it'll take time. Possibly a week, depending on how cold the trail is. But know that if this information that you mentioned is not worth the trouble, then I will personally find a way to remove you of your position." The treat was more to see if the Asari was somehow laying, though it didn't mean that he would not follow with it.

He cut the communication a little bit after that, before contacting another person through his omni-tool. There was no video this time, just pure audio.

"Keep an eye on Matriarch Benezia, but do not let anyone notice you. Inform me if you find anything suspicious." He sent in the information that he got from the scan of the transmission, including, the location from where it was that she had called him. With his orders giving to one of his contacts, Saren exited his apartment, taking off towards the spectre's office.

Once in there, he pulled all the available information on the Collectors, while also running the given video through a scanning program. As expected, the search turned up nothing new, though the scan had better results. Due to the angle in which the video was recorded, the viewer had a partial view of some of the computer screens. Clearing the image for better resolution, Saren managed to see that one of such screens had tagged 3 unknown contacts on the system, as well as, the destruction of 2 others seconds after the unknown's arrival.

"Well, seems like this is all I'll be getting from this." He said as he exited the room, a message being sent to his two usual teammates to meet him at the ship. He took with him the files that he got from his contact, planning to keep looking at them while they traveled to the other side of the galaxy.

February 18, 2575, Systems Alliance Calendar; Serpent Nebula, Widow System, Citadel Station.

Jacob calmly walked through the residential district on the Citadel, pulling his map out every once in a while, to make sure that he was still on the right track. It took him a couple of minutes more before he finally found the building that the was looking for. He approached the receptionists a friendly smile on his face.

"Hello, I'm looking for Detective Vakarian." He simply said to the Quarian receptionist.

The Quarian looked at Jacob with distrust, and what could be identified as anger, something that went unnoticed by Jacob. It wasn't something new, after the news spread that the Alliance made use of AIs, the Quarians started to keep their distance from them, the distrust in AI still prevalent in their people. The news that the Alliance and Geth were allies had outright turned that distrust to anger, and, in some cases, resignation that they would never reclaim their homeworld, at least, not without facing the Alliance in war.

"Your identification?" She simply answered, her tone betraying nothing of her professionalism.

Jacob complied, showing his identification, putting it away once he got the room number. He thanked her and moved on, taking the elevator two floors up. Minutes passed by before the Quarian saw the same Human come back down, with the detective behind him.

Moving with a purpose, both of them moved through the crowd towards a parked sky-car. Jacob got on the conductor seat, with Garrus taking the co-pilot seat. As they drove, the glass in front of Garrus started to show multiple screens, each one showing information about their objective.

"That's Selvos, a colony world in the Terminus. A few hours ago, we received a distress signal from Albert Messner." At the mention of the name, Garrus frowned as he saw the newly shown image of the mentioned person. Jacob took notice of the change in expression, "I take it you know him?"

"Rather hard to forget the person that blew up a wall in C-Sec HQ." He replied simply.

"Yhea, he can leave an...impression." Jacob said while chuckling. Clearing his throat, he got back at the matter in hand, "Anyways, he was there to finish a deal. A simple transaction in itself. Though it seems that there have been some complications. Our job is simple. We go into the system, assess the situation, and recover the packet that he was supposed to obtain."

"That's it?" Garrus asked as the sky-car arrived at its destination.

"That's it." Jacob nodded as he walked away from the sky-car, his direction being a civilian Alliance shuttle.

Garrus followed behind, thinking on the why sent him in such a simple mission. "Then again, do I want to be part of something more impactful?" He thought as they were approved by customs. Their cover being of two friends traveling the galaxy. Minutes later, they were heading outside the Citadel, the shuttle boarding a larger civilian vessel before this one headed for its departure point.

Once the ship was in the area designated for slip-space entry and exit point, the ship opened a portal and ventured into it, its destination unknown to anyone on the system.

"Better rest while you can," Jacob said as he guided Garrus to the crew quarters section of the ship. Garrus noticing no one on sight, "The trip will take some hours."

"What's with the lack of crew?" Garrus asked, curious as he entered his designated room.

"Skeleton crew and an AI." Jacob answered, happy with a lack of response to the AI part, "just a heads up, whatever you do, DO NOT tell the cook to do the special." Jacob finished with what could be described as a traumatized look.

Garrus looked at Jacob perplexed, wondering what he was going on about. But before he could ask, Jacob moved away, saying that he'll be on the bridge.

Sighting to himself at the antics of the Human, Garrus turned to look at his assigned room, his expression pensive. "Might as well get some sleep while we arrive." He said to himself as he set his things on the room.

February 19, 2175, Citadel Council Calendar; Sigurd's Cradle, Mil, Selvos.

It had happened again; another colony was hit. Millions, if not billions of colonists had disappeared. However, unlike the other ones, this one felt more personal. "Damn it!" Saren thought as he hit the wall of the shuttle that he and Thane were taking towards the surface. Thane didn't say anything, his mind preoccupied to take them safely towards the surface.

Throughout the 3-day travel, Saren had attempted to contact his contact within the fleet protecting Selvos, when that had failed, he tried a connection with Treeya. That had failed as well. "If only I had acted faster." He kept repeating in his mind as he realized that he should have taken the Matriarch more seriously. He exhaled, an attempt to calm down his pent-up anger as he went over everything that they had found upon arrival.

Communications were down, just as in the other cases, however, one distinct feature that was different from all other colonies was the evidence of fighting. The carcasses of a couple ships floated around the planet, some of the remains being detected on the surface of Selvos by their ship. Reena was currently scanning the planet from orbit, trying to locate any signs of life.

The dropship shook, as it entered the atmosphere of the planet, with no indication as to where Treeya could be, they had decided to head for the capital. The view clearly showed that fighting had taken place on the streets. Destroyed buildings and vehicles, and smoke coming seemingly out of every building, Saren was pleased to see that at least the colonist had managed to put up a fight. As Thane landed the ship in the middle of an intersection, multiple animals scattered around, heading for a hiding place.

Saren was the first to step out, his Phaleston ready, even though he knew that nothing will pose a threat. Clear skies greeted him, leaving the greenish-blue skies to be seen by those on the surface.

Just like before, silence greeted them, the only sounds coming from the animals scurrying around. The only difference was the presence of destruction, along with some military equipment scattered throughout the streets. Thane and Saren pushed on ahead, heading for the city hall to download the city's VI, at this point, that was the only thing they could do.

"Think that we'll find anything?" Saren asked as they headed up the stairs to the city hall.

"With this level of destruction around? Yes, we ought to find something." Thane stated as his mind took notice of everything around him. "Whoever did this, they got sloppy."

Saren didn't respond, but Thane's words resonated within his mind. In the end, he nodded and followed the Drell within the building. "Keep those sensors active Reena, let us know if you find anything." Saren said to the Asari in the ship as they moved through the doors of the building.

February 19, 2575, System's Alliance Calendar; Sigurd's Cradle, Mil, Selvos.

"Ah, Garrus, glad to see you here." Jacob said as Garrus entered the bridge of the ship. He was currently standing near the observation window as the ship's Captain gave orders to the rest of the crew.

"I take it that we have arrived?" Garrus asked as he stood near Jacob. His view taking a glimpse outside the protected window, taking note of the slipspace portal that they were traveling.

"Almost, I figured that you would like to see the ship return to real space." Jacob simply said with a friendly smile.

Before Garrus could say anything, the Captain walked up to them. "First time?" He simply asked as he motioned to the window.

"Yes sir." Garrus responded respectfully, unsure on how else to address the Sangheili.

This one simple looked at him for a moment before seemingly nodding to himself. "Shipmaster Zesa 'Dradum," He simply said as he did the customary Sangheili greeting, Garrus responding in kind.

"Sir, we'll be exiting the slipstream within the next minute." One of the crew members said.

"Understood, keep the stealth field running and get us to the planet." Zesa simply responded. He turned to Garrus before saying, "Enjoy the show, it's quite magnificent the first time." After that, he headed back towards the ship's tactical map.

Just as the crewman had said, a minute passed before the ship shook as it exited the slipstream, a portal appearing on the system but for a moment before it disappeared. Anyone who looked would have seen nothing coming out of it, and would probably think it a natural portal.

Multiple call so of statuses and reading followed, the bridge entering in controlled chaos. "Transition to normal space a success, reactors working fine." one said before being followed by, "Sensors are detecting multiple destroyed ships on the system. No transmissions detected on the planet."

Zesa narrowed his eyes at the report, looking at Jacob, he said. "Get ready to be deployed. Seems like we stumbled upon something more sinister than we initially thought."

"Come, the armory is this way." Jacob said as he guided Garrus, who was currently looking at the carcass of a ship through the window.

Garrus followed along, his mind not knowing how to react at what he had seen. An entire fleet decimated, with no apparent traces of who did it. As they arrived at the armory, Garrus had finally managed to process what he had seen. "Did you know?" Garrus asked Jacob as he showed him the armor that he would be wearing. It was similar to the Hierarchy's EVA suits, but this one being pitch black and with the Cerberus logo on the shoulder plates. The helmet was polarized to help hide who he was, but anyone paying attention would know that it was a Turian wearing the armor.

"No, we are just as surprised as you are." Jacob responded, his tone showing genuine shock at the situation. He stepped into one of the machines on the armory, letting the machinery put on the Spartan IV armor on him. Just like Garrus', his was pitch black with the Cerberus logo on the shoulder pads, a standard that was common for the group.

"Armor comes with built in thrusters," Jacob said as Garrus put the armor on, "Seeing as you don't have a neural interface, they are activated via your omni-tool, useful for high height landings, and maybe in combat if you are fast enough."

Garrus put on the helmet as Jacob finished saying that, the systems activated as it was connected to the armor, showing its status and connection to his omni-tool.

After picking up their weapons and were in their armor, Jacob guided Garrus to the hangar, were a stealth Pelican waited for them. A dark-skinned man stepped out of the cargo bay of the Pelican, his friendly expression noticeable to anyone.

"Welcome, Steve Cortez," he said while stretching his hand for a handshake, "I'll be your pilot for the remainder of the op."

Both, Jacob and Garrus, took the offered hand, introducing themselves before Cortez guided them within the bird. Taking his seat on the pilot's cabin, Cortez went through the preliminary tests before taking off. The modified, and disguised prowler came briefly out of its stealth field, as the Pelican took off. Seconds after, both ships were invisible once again.

"Sir. We have detected another ship in orbit around the planet." One of the crew said as he monitored the system.

"Any chance that they have detected us yet?" Zesa said, his harsh tone noticeable due to the lateness in which the information had come.

"Hard to say, they don't appear to have yet." the crewman responded.

"Inform the recon team, tell them to keep a low profile in there." Zesa said as he focused on the information screen appearing before him. There was an unknown present on the system, he intended to find who it was.

-Spectre Team-

Reena looked at one of the sensor's screens on board the ship, as they notified them of an anomaly on the system. Doing a quick comparison, the ship's VI identified the anomaly as a slip-space portal. Typing a few more commands on the screen, she was confused to find that no other ships were on the system. She frowned, typing some other commands for the sensors before one of them signaled some sort of result. It was momentarily, a detection of two other objects in the system before they vanished from the radar.

"Got you." She said before contacting her two companions. "I detected two contacts on the system. Two ships currently using some sort of stealth system."

There was a moment of silence before a response came. "Any idea of who they are?" Saren's voice came through the coms.

"Hard to tell. It could be Alliance, Covenant or even Cerberus." She said, stopping momentarily as she considered something, "I'm leaning towards the latter two, the Alliance wouldn't have a reason to hide their presence here."

"Understood, keep the ship on stealth and let us know if you detect anything else."

Silence returned to the cabin as Reena kept an eye on the systems, intent on finding their new visitors.

-Cerberus Team-

"Copy that." Cortez said as he received a communique from the ship. He guided the stealth pelican through the clouds of the planet as it entered a city covered in smoke. Spotting the space port a couple of klick away, he said to the ones on board, "Seem like we aren't the only ones here. Command wants us to keep a low profile, get in, find Messner and call me for extraction. I'll be in orbit to minimize detection, until then, you two are on your own."

"Roger that," Jacob responded through the comms as a red light was turned on in the cargo bay. "Just follow my example and have ready the thrusters." Jacob said to Garrus, this one activating his omni-tool in response.

The pelican stopped as it started opening its cargo bay, the lights still red before they turned green. Jacob jumped off first, followed by Garrus who hesitated but for a moment. The drop wasn't big, and the thrusters made it so they landed safely on one of the rooftops of the buildings on the city. Looking up, they would not be able to see the ascending pelican.

"Never again," Garrus said as he landed, "you Alliance folks come with the worst of ideas. What's next? Orbital drops?"

"We already do that." Jacob answered nonchalantly.

If Garrus did not have the helmet on, Jacob would have been able to see the flabbergasted expression that he had, "Why do I always get paired up with the crazy ones?" Garrus lamented to himself.

"Alright, the last location of the transmitter puts it on the space port." Jacob said as he opened the door to the building they had landed on. "The faster we find Messner, the faster we'll know what happened here." With no objections from Garrus, he followed Jacob down the stairs towards the street level.

-Spectre Team-

Both Spectres were currently disappointed. After searching the city hall, they found that the city's VI had been wiped out, and all evidence of what happened here with it. With no apparent trail, they had opted to look around other government buildings, the police station, and even through the hotels' cameras. The results were better, but not by much.

"EMP traces." Thane commented as he examined a disposed omni-tool on one of the hotel rooms.

Saren looked at the dead body of a Turian on the room, a weapon by its side. "Seems like whoever is behind this, is only looking for live colonists." He said as his omni-tool finished the scan of the body. "Particle weaponry was used here. That rules out pirates or Citadel associated species."

"Are you suspecting the Alliance?" Thane asked as he walked over towards the body.

"No, but the hostile AIs, Forerunners, as the Alliance calls them, could be behind this. Those floating machines found on the Big Ring used particle weaponry as the basis for their weapons. Perhaps they are the ones behind this?"

"Possible, their level of technology would certainly be able to pull something like this. The question is, why? I wonder if…"

"Got a signal a couple of clicks from your position," Reena interrupted. "It seems to be a distress beacon of some sort. That's not all, I'm detecting two heat signatures close to the beacon. They seem to be covered in electronics."

"Survivors perhaps?" Thane asked.

"Possibly," Saren said as he moved towards the exit, "come on, let's find out."

-Cerberus Team-

As both agents entered to the spaceport, they noticed the burnt marks on the walls, as well as, the clearly torn off door that now rested meters ahead on the floor. Both moved slower, guns raised and ready to fire, through the right corridor. The blood trail that Messner had left already dried and unseen by both. The lack of living beings on the city had certainly unsettled them, as even the wildlife seemed to be avoiding the city. Arriving at the end of the corridor, they spotted multiple ships on the hangar, some of them completely destroyed, while other laid silently, untouched.

Jacob typed a few commands on the wrist computer of his armor and before long, he had the exact location from the distress beacon. It pointed to a seemingly old ship, one that he noted to be clearly of Alliance making upon closer inspection.

"Signal comes from within that ship." Jacob said as he pointed at said ship. Garrus nodded, not saying anything as he followed Jacob.

Getting closer, they spotted someone under the ship, it was Messner, if his attire was anything to go by.

"Albert Messner?" Jacob asked as the guy under the ship seemingly stopped working, "We heard your distress call."

Messner exited under the ship, looking at the two Cerberus agents clad in armor, his expression was one of confusion at first, one that turned into slight alarm. "Shit, you guys weren't supposed to arrive until later." He said, the statement confusing both agents.

As if answering their confusion, Treeya stepped off of the ship, the action making both agents aim their guns at her, though Garrus lowered his after noticing it was an civilian, Jacob taking a bit longer to lower his.

"I got the part that you asked…" Treeya seemingly stopped in her words, her sight focused in the new arrivals, in particular, the Cerberus logo on their armors. She looked at Messner, she saw a sheepish smile on his face as he seemed to be resigned to something.

Compression dawned on her then, Messner's mysterious attitude, his ability with weapons as displayed during the attack, and his apparent knowledge with ships. There was also the fact that he had acted too calmly, as if knowing that rescue would come. That's when she remembered it, the first night they spent on his ship, after she saw him treating his wounds, Messner had gone to one of the boxes in the ship, pulling out a device. She had thought nothing of it at the time, as she was falling asleep already, but the next day she had seen him pull it out again, and then doing his utmost from hiding what it was from them.

With what she was seeing now, she easily made the connection, the way he handled himself with complete calm during the attack, as well as his suspicious actions, Messner couldn't be who he said that he was. Without thinking, she quickly used her biotics to push the three Cerberus agents, the action drawing Noli's attention from within the ship. Treeya took hold of Noli, currently surprised at what she had seen, two other survivors, or so, she thought. Treeya's action had been unexpected, and as such, she didn't had time to register what had happened until they were close to the entrance of the spaceport.

She pulled back, as she said, "Treeya? What going on here?" She asked, her expression confused.

"Cerberus is here!" Was all that she said before she took hold of Noli's hand again and brought her along.

Back within the spaceport, Messner cursed as he stood up, "Great fucking timing you two!" He said, his anger clearly shown. "If you two had just waited a bit longer…" He trailed off, as he simply decided that it wasn't worth the effort.

"Well sorry for interrupting your date, now, come on, we have to go. We aren't the only ones looking in this planet." Jacob said, a tone of annoyance on his voice as Garrus stayed quiet. "I'll call in the extraction before we have more complications."

"Don't. She still has the data I am here for." Messner said as he started to move towards the exit, checking his guns along the way. "Help me get it and then we take off from this place."

"What about your ship?" Garrus said. Messner looked at him, as if recognizing the voice but ultimately failing to place a name to it.

"Standard procedure. I'll blow it up once we have the data." He simply said, with the presence of a third party in the planet, Messner did not have the time to recuperate his ship. "Thank god I backed up all my data from there." He thought as the three ran outside.

Rain started to pour down on them as they moved through the street, following Cortez's directions towards the location of the two Asari. Something that was easily done due to the thermal scans. Taking a turn, Jacob instructed Garrus to switch to non-lethal ammunition, it will not kill the target as long as the shot wasn't on critical areas, but it would certainly break the bones of the area it impacted on. Garrus compiled, switching his phaeston to concussion ammo, the standard for police forces.

Before long, they managed to catch up to the two fleeing Asari, their stamina, biotic or not, not comparing to those with training and augmented with implants. They saw them enter a store, with Treeya barricading the door with some of the stands within, her biotics easily helping on the task. Signaling for Garrus to follow, both operatives went around the back of the building, Messner on the other hand, kept going through the front, using his pistol to break a window and enter through it. Treeya and Noli took note of it, both turning to face him as they moved towards the back.

"When?" Treeya asked, her distressed voice clearly telling Messner how she felt.

"When what?" He asked, he was genuinely confused as to what she was asking. He moved towards them slowly, his guns holstered as he showed both his hands to them, trying to lure them into a sense of security. On the background, Messner spotted as Jacob and Garrus hid behind some stands, watching for now.

"What do you mean what?! When did you killed the real Dr. Messner?! Was it before he came to meet me? Or was it before he contacted Matriarch Benezia asking for the data?!" Treeya stopped, as if retaking a breath, but arriving at the worst conclusion that she could fathom, "The Matriarch is on this right?" She looked at Messner, who was currently flabbergast at what he was looking at, "Answer me!"

Messner stopped on his advance, blinking a couple times in surprise at what he was hearing. To Treeya's side, Noli looked on at the scene, fear clearly present on her expressions as she looked at Messner expectantly as well. As he heard the rant, his mind went into overwork, trying to find a solution to solve the situation, that's when he remembered the particular set of words that she had used, "If you want to think that I'm supplanting someone else, then I guess I'll have to use that then."

With a plan in motion, Messner spoke, both of his hands still at the view of the Asari, "Does it really matter when I assumed his identity? He won't be needing it anymore." He put on a sadistic smirk after the statement, playing along the role he was given, "Now, I just want the data and that's it. You won't see me again or heard from me if you give it to me. Do that and no one will get hurt." He extended his hand, expecting her to go along with his suggestion.

Treeya looked firmly at Messner's eyes as resolve seemed to come to her. "You are wrong," she started to say as biotic energy seemed to accumulate around her, "I don't know what's so important of this data, but I will not give it to you." As she was about to unleash some biotic attack, a shot rang within the store, followed by the sound of something being broken.

"I wouldn't recommend that." Jacob said as he came out of cover with Garrus behind him, both had their guns aimed at them, the smoking barrel of Jacob's gun making it clear who had shot. The sudden appearance of the two black armored individuals made Noli move involuntarily closer to Messner's position. "I recommend that you stop with the biotics or I'll be forced to shoot you." Jacob simply stated.

Messner sighed before saying, "Their translators don't work since the attack," the tone was an exasperated one as he noticed Treeya's confused expression, her biotics still active, "Look," He continued, getting Treeya's attention back towards him, though she moved so she could see both groups. As Noli was about to follow, Messner suddenly grabbed her, pulling out his revolver and aiming it at her head, "I'll ask nicely once again Treeya. Hand over the data, or Noli here gets a bullet." The words were accompanied by the cocking of the gun, as Messner looked at the Asari in question, his other hand extended, ready to take the chip.

Treeya's biotics faded as her eyes widened at the sudden turn of events, her eyes looking at the now crying face of Noli. Outside, what had started as light rain had picked up in pace, turning into a full-on thunderstorm. Throughout the exchange, Jacob moved so that he was behind Messner, while Garrus looked on unhappy from the side, not sure what to do.

"Keep eyes on them, if Messner gets out of hand I'll take him down." Jacob said to Garrus discretely over their comms. Garrus only nodded, positioning himself off to the side, his aim mainly on Treeya as Jacob switched between the Asari and Messner.

Treeya could only stare, frozen as her mind processed what was happening, her biotics fading as she thought. "How? How did it come to this?! Why would he…? Why would he do this, after everything that we went through?" Her attention returned to the Messner and the other individual behind him, its gun aimed at them, though the uncertainty being clear on his, "her?", body language.

She looked at her hand, the data-chip containing the data in there before she began to extend it. She only had two question in her mind, "why would Benezia want them to have this data? Did she know who she was working with?"

Suddenly, the sound of a weapon being fired took her out of her thoughts, the chip that she was about to give to Messner falling to the floor as she ducked behind any cover that she could find, her survival instincts taking over. She saw as red blood sprayed one of the isles of the store before the deafening sound of an automatic gun being fired was heard.

Messner screamed in pain as blood flowed out freely from his arm, looking at his wounded appendage, he noticed that it was missing. Veins and arteries, along muscle tissue was all that remained from his lower arm as he started to lose blood at a rapid pace. Noli, who was now covered in Messner's blood, couldn't hold it anymore, she had passed out in shock, the sight too gruesome for her to take on.

Messner bit through the pain, trying to look for some cover before he passed out. As he looked around, he could barely hear one of the two Cerberus agents screaming at him, telling him something. That's when he saw it, the chip with the data on the floor a couple of meters from him. He scrambled towards it just as another shot rang. Messner didn't know if it was by sheer luck, or due to the storm outside, but the round had missed a critical area, instead, grazing him on the leg as it passed by. It didn't matter, he had managed to get through to the chip, and just then, someone grabbed him from behind, dragging him towards cover.

"What the fuck were you thinking?!" Jacob said to the wounded Messner as he applied a tourniquet on his bleeding arm. Garrus in the meantime deployed a smokescreen, obscuring them from view of the sniper. "Mother bear, this is Alpha 1, we need extraction ASAP! We have wounded." He said through the radio.

"Negative Alpha 1. Your position is too hot, you need to move to the agreed extraction zone over." Cortez responded.

"Damn it!" Jacob said as he carried Messner fireman style, "Come on we need to go."

Exiting through the back door under the cover of the smokescreen, Jacob and Garrus hurried towards the extraction point. Making a turn on the back alley, they immediately pulled back as they were greeted with gunfire. Looking to their left, Jacob saw another alley that was connected to the main street one that would also put them in direct sight of the enemy sniper.

As Jacob pondered what to do, Garrus opened fire, successfully suppressing whoever was shooting at them through the alley. "Through here," Garrus said to Jacob as he opened a side door to one of the buildings within the alley.

Jacob, and the now unconscious Messner, moved within, with Garrus closing the door behind them.

-Spectre Team-

Everything had gone FUBAR since the moment they arrived at the location with the concentration on heat signatures. Reena had informed them of the separation of 2 of the signatures out of the 5 that she had detected. Both seemingly running from the other 3. As such, they had settled the shuttle on one of the roofs, with Thane moving within the building and setting himself on a sniper's nest with view to the store. It didn't take them long to spot 3 other individuals arrive at the scene, two moving towards the back of the store while the armor-less clad Human went in through the front.

"I have eyes on the scene." Thane said to Saren, the later moving in close through the ground level.

Thane observed the scene calmly, a direct contrast to the storm outside. Setting his sights over the scene, he observed as the Human took hold of one of the Asari. "We have a hostage situation Saren." He said as his crosshair lined up with the Human. Coincidentally, that's when he got sight of one of the armored individuals, his sight moved over to them, seeing the emblem on their shoulders. He easily identified it.

As he moved his sight back towards the hostage, he thought, "Too close to the hostage." Thane re-centered his sight, waiting for an opportunity. From then on, he waited. It wasn't long, as the Human seemed to get cocky, extending his hand, the gun on his other moving away from his hostage's head momentarily. He didn't waste the opportunity, he took the shot.

The Human fell in agony, while the hostage seemed to pass out from shock while the other Asari moved to cover. Moving his sight back to the downed Human, he saw him crawling towards something. He took aim and shot, unfortunately for him, the storm had taking this time to increase in magnitude, the wind picking up along. The bullet missed its intended mark. A smoke screen was soon deployed, making it impossible for him to get a visual on the targets.

"They are all yours Saren." He said as he waited patiently.

On the street level, Saren moved to get within the building, having arrived after the shots had rang. As he made a straight dash for the front entrance, he got a call from Reena, telling him that the hostiles were moving through the back alley. He didn't waste any time, he used his biotics to go around, hoping to cut them off. His gamble had been spot on, as just as he looked into the alley, he saw them turning. He shot, missing as they took cover. He waited there, taking a couple more shots to keep them in there as he moved closer to them. That's when he heard it, the tale tail of fire coming his way, and not from any rifle, but from a Phaeston. "Mercenaries? Working with Cerberus?" He thought as he took cover.

When the shots stopped, he looked back up, seeing a door being closed ahead of him. Saren moved, pursuing the three hostiles within the building. "Thane, take the shuttle and follow me. I'm right behind the hostiles."

He didn't wait for a response, instead he kept moving, taking shots every once in a while, while also evading the ones coming his way, his biotic barrier taking the couple of shots that managed to hit him.

Eventually, he found himself once again outside, on a park to be exact, as he took cover behind one of the abandoned vehicles as the might be mercenary suppressed him with the Phaeston. Thinking fast, Saren sent a warp attack, forcing his shooter to take cover behind a tree, this one disintegrating from the unstable biotic attack. The mercenary's companion seemed to have had enough from him as well, as he also started to shoot him. With no hope on obtaining another opportunity like this one, he quickly concentrated his biotics, charging directly at the Cerberus operative.

The biotic charge took Jacob slightly by surprise, as after one second, he had the Spectre right in front of him, using his increased mass to hit him head on. His shield failed as they took the brunt of the force, while he was sent back a couple of meters, his gun discarded on the action. As Garrus moved closer to where Jacob had placed Messner, he used his Omni-Tool to signal Cortez that they were at the extraction point. Cortez acknowledged and started to move in.

Jacob pulled out his knife as he charged the Spectre, his Spartan armor and implants making him able to reach him within a second. Saren evaded the knife moving for his head, his body charging in biotic energy as he prepared a push attack. Jacob read through him, as he immediately targeted Saren's thorax with the knife, a faint, one that the Spectre had fell for. The next kick from Jacob came in hard, with his armor bending from the impact on the chest plate, putting Saren out of balance as his biotic energy dissipated from his hand. Not to be outdone, Saren pulled out his sidearm, managing to get a shot out before Jacob grabbed his arm, twisting it so that he dropped the gun. The following punch came straight for the face. He felt immeasurable pain as he heard something break. Jacob was about to follow up with another punch, hoping to leave the Spectre unconscious before the sound of thruster called his attention from his bloody opponent.

Thane had arrived just in time, as he opened the side door of the dropship, his rifle aiming at the Cerberus agent while the ship was set in autopilot. As Jacob made a move for his secondary gun, a torrent of bullets came flying at the hovering dropship. The shots hitting its engines as it started to spun out of control. A Pelican dropship soon appeared from within the storm, hovering for a couple of seconds before landing, opening its cargo door for the agents to get in. Garrus and Jacob didn't waste the opportunity, with the later picking up his discarded rifle along the way.

"Get ready, it'll be a bumpy ride." Cortez said over the comms as the ship ascended, disappearing among the clouds as it activated its stealth field.

As they exited the planet, Cortez couldn't help but smirk as he passed right next to the other ship in system, this one unaware of his position. "This is Cortez to command, I got our guys back. Requesting the presence of medical staff, we have a wounded." He waited for the permissions and vectors of approach to be sent back to him before landing the pelican. Soon after, the Prowler exited the system via slip-space, with their presence known, there was little to no point in keeping themselves completely cloaked at the moment.

The medical teams rushed out of the pelican, with Messner being carried by them towards the medical ward of the ship. Jacob in the meantime, headed for the bridge, with Garrus close behind him.

"Report." Zesa commanded as soon as both stepped into the bridge.

Jacob went on in retailing the events of the mission, before finally giving Zesa the chip that Messner had barely managed to acquire. Zesa took it, placing it on the tactical holographic table, letting the ship's AI analyze it. After a couple of the seconds, it said.

"The data is corrupted, it will take me some time to fix it. There're traces of an EMP on the chip. Shipmaster, I recommend asking agent Messner for a full report once his injuries are attended to." With those words, the AI focused mostly on salvaging whatever data it could from the chip.

"Let the medical team know that I want Messner's testimony by tomorrow at the latest." Zesa simply ordered. He then looked at Garrus, contemplating something before moving on to his quarters. He stopped briefly next to the Turian as he said only for him to hear, "I commend you for your resolve to carry out the mission through to the end. Be assured that Messner's behavior will be dealt with accordingly." After those words, he left the bridge, leaving command to his XO.

February 19, 2175, Citadel Council Calendar; Sigurd's Cradle, Mil, Selvos.

The Predator's Claw landed on the planet, with the shuttle destroyed, Reena had to guide the ship towards the spaceport, where her teammates and the two survivors awaited her arrival. The ship's doors opened after a minute of the landing, letting Saren, helped out by Thane, go into the medical bay. Reena, who was coming out of the ship, helped the two accompanying Asari to the crew's room, staying with them to try and calm them. As Saren entered the medical room, he turned, punching the wall in frustration as biotic energy disappeared from his body. A dent clearly left on the wall.

"Spirits! They managed to escape." He said, his anger clearly present.

"We didn't expect them to have a cloaked gunship," Thane said, trying to calm his companion as he tended to his wounds of the crash landing. He winced in pain as he felt his shoulder protest at the bandages that he was applying.

Across him, he could see Saren bearing worse than him. He had fractures along his face, something that only worsened with his small outburst. He laid down on the medical table as he let the machine diagnose him.

It seemed that none of them would be on the field for a while, not with their current injuries. Thane just hoped that the testimony of the Asari would share some light on what was going on, he was getting tired of this endless goose chase across the galaxy. "Fuck, it seems like it'll be my turn to write the report for the council." Thane thought, chuckling at his current situation. Even as a Spectre, he had yet to find a way to avoid the paperwork.

February 21, 2575, Systems Alliance Calendar; Unknown location.

Jason Patterson, ONI's current director, looked at the data sent to him, while a holographic image of T.I.M stood in front of him. He stood quiet, looking through the report before finally breaking the silence.

"Are you sure that all this data is accurate?" He simply asked, looking at T.I.M.

"Absolutely. Dr. Treeya's data only served to further prove our suspicious." the answer was confident, Jason noted.

"If I recall, said data was corrupted." The raised eyebrow he sent spoke of his doubt in the validity of the report, "Even then, are you sure of this?"

Unphased by the tone, T.I.M. nodded. "I can assure you of the validity of the information. And, on that note, I suggest that it's time to let some of this known to the Council. The time to start setting up the bases has come."

Jason put the data pad on his desk, looking at T.I.M. for some seconds before he nodded. "The President and my appointed representative are meeting with the Council in a couple of days to discuss the future of the Alliance and Citadel relationship. It'll be a good show of trust to let them in in some of our intelligence regarding their missing colonists. Also, have your people in there ready to neutralize and stop those that are, less than agreeable with the Alliance."

T.I.M. nodded in acknowledgement, already thinking of dispatching multiple phantom operatives within the Citadel. His primary worry being the Quarians present on the station, it was no secret that they hated them after all.

With that, Jason ended the transmission, going back to his desk to keep revising the report. It'll be several hours later, that he will send instructions to his representative, Matt Rogers, for said meeting.