Chapter Text
RRW Gallena
“Shit. I hate it when I’m right.” Detective Anaya, her image appearing on V’lana’s computer screen, frowned, “It all fits too well.”
“What happened?” V’lana asked as she sat down her cup of Tarkalian tea.
“Shepard arrived at the Nos Astra spaceport today with two freaks and another human.” Anaya responded.
“Can I see your surveillance footage?” V’lana requested with a frown.
“Sure.” Anaya replied, pressing a button. “Transmitting now.”
V’lana carefully studied the images appearing on her screen before commenting. “The redhead must be Shepard.”
“Yep.” Anaya confirmed. “That’s Shepard. She’s supposedly in charge of this little zoo.”
“Supposedly?” V’lana exclaimed, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah.” The asari detective affirmed, “Intel I’ve picked up says otherwise. Look at the way she’s acting towards that psycho dressed in black—at how she nods her head and the way she speaks to him. That’s the look of someone who’s used to not taking orders having to take them instead of giving them—and she’s plenty pissed at it too.”
“That jibes with some of the intel reports we’ve received also.” V’lana confirmed, “We’ve heard rumors that Shepard isn’t really running the show anymore. Looks like the man in black is.”
“That’s what I’m thinking too.” Anaya agreed with a nod of her head. “You ask me, he’s got trouble written all over him.”
“If he’s who Miranda thinks he might be…” V’lana frowned worriedly, “You might be right.”
“Go on.”
“Miri thinks that he might be a Cerberus killer. Does the name Kai Leng ring any bells for you?”
“Yeah.” Anaya scowled, “All bad. You and your friend are right. According to my intel reports, he is a fucking psycho—sociopath too. If he’s running the show, then odds are we’re going to have a body count—especially with those other two assholes in their entourage. Thoughts on them?”
“Fuck me dead.” V’lana swore as she studied the other two in Shepard's party. One, a human, her head shaven and body covered with tattoos with what appeared to be a Borg implant on her eye and another implant replacing her right hand and arm. The other freak, a giant krogan, also possessing Borg implants and what appeared to the Romulan subcommander to be grafted tissue from a Gorn.
“Other than being two ugly motherfuckers, what’s the issue with them?” Anaya nervously queried as she noticed the apprehensive look on her Romulan friend’s face.
“It’ll take too long to explain over a comm. What I can tell you right now is that we’re in deep shit.” V’lana replied. “We’re about to enter the Illium System. Once we arrive, I’ll bring you aboard my ship and we can compare notes.”
“Okay.” the asari detective drawled, “Let me know when and I’ll meet you at the docks.”
“You won’t need to do that.” V’lana answered back, “Just be alone in some place secure where no one can see you when I comm you.”
“I can arrange that.” Anaya responded. “Contact me when you arrive in system.”
“Will do. Avesti out.” Immediately after terminating the communication, V’lana tapped her comm. “Miranda? Come immediately to my ready room. I have something I want to show you.”
Illium
“Entering Illium System.” Joker reported from his position at the helm.
“Maintain cloak and begin scanning for stealthed vessels.” V’lana commanded from the warbird’s center seat.
“Expecting something, Little Sister?” Tovan inquired as Samantha began scanning the system.
“Call it playing a hunch, Big Brother.”
“Your hunch was a good one, Subcommander.” Traynor called out. “I’m reading one stealthed vessel. Frigate class. Modified Normandy.”
“Cerberus?” Tovan inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“That would be my guess.” V’lana replied. “The Alliance doesn’t have any frigates deployed in this sector and we know through interrogating those prisoners that Cerberus built an improved model of the Normandy.”
“Bastards got no respect for the dead” Joker growled, “Request permission to shove a plasma torpedo up their asshole, Ma’am.”
“Not yet, Joker. We want to keep good relations with the locals. I don’t want any shooting in their space if we can help it.” V’lana thoughtfully replied before again addressing Samantha. “Ms. Traynor? Have Cortes and Rodek take out one of the Scorpions. I want them to monitor that frigate under cloak. The moment it does anything out of line…then have them attack.”
“Understood, Subcommander.” Samantha acknowledged, passing on the order to the pilot and his engineer. “They’re preparing to launch.”
“Good.” V’lana nodded, “Bring us into standard orbit, Joker, but keep that cloak up. I don’t want them knowing we’re here—not just yet. Samantha? When we get into orbit, comm Detective Anaya and tell her to prepare for transport. I’ll be in transporter room one to greet our guest.”
“Aye, Subcommander.”
As the turbolift closed behind the auburn-haired subcommander, Joker quipped, “Tell someone to take Anaya’s picture.”
Illium—Hotel Azure
“This is the location.” Kai Leng announced to the redheaded clone walking beside him as they approached a door to one of the erotic hotel’s rooms. “Our contacts will meet us here.”
In an effort to assert control, Shepard took an authoritative tone as she commanded, “Open the door.”
“Of course.” The Cerberus assassin acknowledged, in a tone of voice that while not being openly defiant, was far from deferential.
Opening the door, the two Cerberus agents found themselves face-to-face with two asari and a human. While the human was clad in non-descript civilian clothing, the two asari wore combat armor, one bearing Eclipse colors. “Tela Vasir.” The asari with well-used combat armor introduced herself. “I represent one of the interested parties.”
“Who is this interested party?” Shepard inquired suspiciously.
Shaking her head, Vasir responded with just a touch of arrogance in her voice, “You don’t need to know.”
Kai Leng declared in a sneering tone of voice, “Knowledge of her employer is not germane to this mission.”
“I’ll decide…” Shepard began to object, only to be silenced by a sharp pain in her skull, forcing her to place her hand on her forehead.
“Bitch of a headache you’ve got there, tough girl.” The asari wearing Eclipse colors smirked. “Maybe you should sit this one out. Let the grownups take care of things.”
Growling, the redhead bit back, “I’m fine. Who the hell are you?”
“Captain Enyala.” The Eclipse mercenary responded. “I was contracted by Dr. Lawson.”
“And you?” Shepard queried, turning to the human.
“Niket.” The human male responded.
“He’ll be delivering the package.” Enyala declared. “I and my people will be at the extraction point.”
“Are you expecting trouble?” Shepard inquired.
“Yes.” The Eclipse mercenary answered back, “That’s where you and your team come in. A detective by the name of Anaya has been a thorn in our side long enough.”
“My employer agrees.” Vasir interjected, “She has also been interfering in his operations.”
With a snort of derision, Enyala sneered, “Anaya runs one of the few uncorrupt police districts in Nos Astra. That bitch has fucked up more of our operations than all the other cops combined.”
“I’m surprised you weren’t able to bribe one of her superiors to just remove her.” Leng mused.
“It’s not as if we haven’t tried.” Enyala replied with a frown. “The problem is that the whore has dirt on virtually anyone who can remove her. She goes down, she takes them with her.”
“While it’s true that you can get—or get away with—anything you want on Illium—provided you have the connections, there are some limits on what the ‘authorities’ will permit.” Vasir explained. “Anaya’s superiors are more useful where they are. Also, my boss wants to send out a clear message to any other cops who don’t want to…what’s the human expression?”
“Play ball.” Shepard tersely replied.
“Right.” Vasir nodded her head, “That’s why he wants this detective and every officer but one in her district eliminated. And he wants you to make it as brutal and bloody as possible. Remember, he wants to keep one cop alive to spread the word that this is what happens to anyone who gets in our way.”
“Where can we find the target?” Leng asked, his lips turned up in a predatory smile.
“Anaya’s precinct is in the industrial district. Her headquarters is located at the commercial spaceport.”
“Her and her people are dead.” The Chinese assassin sneered.
“Good.” Vasir nodded in acknowledgement. “When you complete your task, rendezvous at this location…” She then uploaded a set of coordinates to the omnitools of the Cerberus operatives, “and we’ll transfer the package to you. Understood.”
“Clearly.” Leng responded, having taken control of the negotiations away from his nominal superior.
“Consider it done.” Shepard asserted in a vain effort to reassert her authority.
“Good.” Vasir affirmed, “Comm Enyala when you’re done. Unless there’s something else, we all have our business to take care of.”
“Time to go, Shepard.” Leng declared, his voice again not so subtly asserting authority, “We have work to do.”
As the Cerberus agents departed, Tela Vasir remarked to the asari standing beside her, shaking her head, “I never thought I’d see the day when the great Shepard was humbled.”
“Enyala snorted contemptuously. “Shepard's nothing more than a tool to be used and then thrown away when you’re done.”
Nodding her head in acknowledgment, Vasir agreed, sighing sorrowfully, “Yeah…you’re right. It’s just a shame. Shepard was a legend once. I have a feeling things would be very different if things had broken just a little differently at Lazarus Station.”
“Yeah.” The Eclipse mercenary captain agreed, “Our job would have been considerably tougher.”
Letting out another sigh, Vasir gestured at the door, “Time for us to get to our missions. You know our bosses don’t like failure.”