The closer Shepard and her team got to their objective, the more on edge she got. Despite making a beeline towards what should be a critically defended section of the facility, they were running into fewer and fewer Cerberus troopers.

  Part of her rationalized that as them moving quicker as part of a smaller group. The rest was wondering if it was simply because something else got to the Cerberus squads first.

  A feeling that was only growing as they started running into additional squads that seemed to be searching the shadows for something that definitely wasn’t her own team or else they’d have been more prepared when the Spectre’s group engaged. And while it was possible Cerberus might have been paranoid about Kasumi ambushing some of their men while she was running around, Shepard was sure it likely had more to do with the Adjutants Revan had warned them about.

  For fuck’s sake, a techno plague. How had anyone thought that was a good idea?

  Even by Cerberus standards it didn’t make sense.

  Project Overlord at least had some kind of logic behind it if you squinted. The Geth didn’t communicate like any other group in the galaxy, so if Cerberus wanted to control – or at least negotiate with if that wasn’t possible – them, they needed a way to clearly communicate with them.

  That logic didn’t work with the Adjutants.

  Even if Cerberus managed to perfectly control them… then what?

  It would not be a self-replenishing army to use against the Reapers’ own forces. Shepard might not know exactly how the Huskification process worked, but she knew enough to know it wasn’t a process that could happen to a body twice.

  There simply wasn’t enough reactive mass after the Reapers nanomachines tore apart everything to create the initial cybernetics needed for a Husk to function to do it again.

  And that was also assuming the Reapers’ didn’t have some sort of backdoor program that could seize control if they wanted.

  So at best Cerberus would need to convert still living sentients elsewhere and then transport them to any planet contested by the Reapers. Something that would have the entire galaxy turn against humanity after the first instance was discovered out of fear an incoming human ship had Adjutants on board to devastate their populations.

  And Shepard wouldn’t even be sure they’d be wrong to do so.

  She pushed those thoughts of the future out of her head and refocused on the present as the final Cerberus trooper in the squad they encountered fell to the ground with several smoking holes burned into his armor.

  “Clear, everyone good?” She asked as she checked herself over. Shields were holding strong, no breaches in her armor, and the shot counter on her blaster still read over a hundred shots left.

  “Everything is green here, Commander.” EDI reported.

  “Indeed, I have no issues besides the sudden decrease in quality among our adversaries.” Javik said. “This last performance was just insulting.”

  “Don’t get used to it. While the troopers might not be that dangerous, we’re still probably going to have to deal with any Adjutants we run into on the way to the reactor room.” Shepard cautioned. “Speaking of… EDI?”

  “Nav point updated, Commander.”

  Good, they were actually pretty close now.

  The three of them swiftly moved through the halls of the Cerberus facility now that most of the defenders were gone until they reached the heavily armored doors leading into the reactor. Shepard and Javik kept an eye out for any enemies while EDI worked on getting the door open, but concerningly none made an appearance. Not even an alarm.

  Considering there should have been some technicians watching the reactor at all times – especially when the facility was under attack, just in case someone attempted to do precisely what Shepard’s team was here for – that told the Commander that they were either about to be ambushed… or something had already gotten inside.

  So when EDI managed to get the door open and there wasn’t a Cerberus squad there to prevent them from getting inside, Shepard didn’t lower her guard. If anything she raised it higher.

  To make things worse, they had entered the Reactor room close to the top of the chamber. They were going to have to find a way to the bottom where the main controls were if they wanted to overload the main reactor.

  And, concerningly, there was no sign of Revan’s group either.

  “Revan, we made it to the main Reactor but it’s going to take a bit to get down to the controls. Where are you?” Shepard said lowly over the comms as her team moved into the room.

  “We’re…*scrrt* way, but we…*scrrt* massive Cerberus presence. It…*scrrt* dangerous the Adjutants breaking loose…*scrrt* to deal with them.”

  Shepard frowned at the amount of static breaking up the call, but she got the gist of the message.

  Cerberus was making a big push for the labs to do… something about the Adjutants – destruction or capture was up to how reckless the officer in charge was – and had gotten between Revan’s group and their destination.

  They would just have to—

  Shepard’s instincts screamed as something landed on the catwalk her team was using, almost too soft for her to notice. But when she turned to look there was nothing beside a slight heat haze beside–

  “Javik, move!”

  The Prothean followed her order almost immediately, just in time to almost dodge the burning orange blade that suddenly appeared with the very recognizable snap-hiss of a lightsaber. The energy blade easily cut through his shields and armor, causing a deep gash into his side that made Javik cry out in pain, but he didn’t end up bisected for now. That blade was still in position to attack him if no one did anything.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Unfortunately, the way Javik dodged had put himself between EDI and their invisible attacker and Shepard didn’t have a clear shot, so she did the first thing that came to mind to protect her squad.

  She Biotic Charged straight for the base of the blade and grappled the wielder before throwing both of them over the side of the catwalk.

  Not her best idea, a distant part of her brain acknowledged even as the rest of her focused on not slamming into the machinery below, but her enemy hadn’t expected it either and ended up landing harder.

  As Shepard scrambled back to her feet, she looked over to see that the Cerberus agent’s Tactical Cloak had broken to reveal a heavily augmented man with Asianatic features. One she recognized from one of Revan’s reported encounters.

  “Kai Leng.”

  “Commander Shepard.” The Cerberus assassin returned as he got to his feet. “I’ve been looking forward to this moment. The Illusive Man kept delaying our meeting so much I was starting to get worried it was because you would be a disappointment, but you’re just as skilled as I heard about. I thought I’d at least get one of your teammates before you noticed me.”

  “Always nice to meet a fan.” Shepard quipped before she snapped her blaster rifle up and fired a few shots at the man.

  Leng might have had a lightsaber, but Shepard was betting even with whatever Reapertech enhancements Cerberus had given him, it wouldn’t be enough to let him actually block or reflect the blaster bolts like Revan could.

  She was almost immediately proven correct as the Cerberus assassin made no move to attempt to use the plasma blade to defend, but triggered a powerful personal shield that simply absorbed the shots with no apparent effort.

  Shepard continued to fire more blaster bolts at Leng and even a couple Biotic Shockwaves for good measure, but the shield barely flickered. It reminded her very strongly of the shield the previous Shadow Broker had used in their fight against him. Which meant they were practically invulnerable to anything that wasn’t hand to hand…

  Something slightly suicidal when going up against someone with a lightsaber without a weapon or shield of thier own that could block the damn thing.

  “I suppose I am something of a fan of yours.” Leng said casually, as if he hadn’t been repeatedly shot at. “Hero of Elysium, N7, humanity’s first Spectre… you were the postergirl for the best we had to offer. And you proved it when you beat Saren and his Reaper.”

  Shepard got the feeling Leng liked to hear himself talk. Unfortunately, with that shield up there wasn’t much she could do to make him stop. So she just let him while she searched the area for anything that would give her an edge over the Cerberus operative.

  “And then you let all of that go to waste when you decided to play nice with the Council when you should have been advocating for Human interests.” Leng sneered.

  “In my defense, it’s really hard to care about tax codes and corporate privileges when the galaxy is about to be wiped back down to the stone age.” Shepard pointed out. “We needed the other races to help us prepare. Still do, since in case you haven’t noticed – Earth is under siege and we need help to take it back.”

  “What we need is for the rest of the galaxy to fall in line. And after I kill you, Cerberus is going to be the one giving the orders.”

  Shepard circled him cautiously. “I think you might be overestimating my importance a little now. I’m hardly the person giving people orders.”

  “But you are the one people go to for answers.” Leng countered. “The Krogan, the Turians, the Alliance… all of them go to you when they need something done. And with you out of the way, Cerberus will be the one to give them the solutions they need instead… for a price.”

  Exploit them for short-term gains while screwing everyone over long-term, Shepard translated.

  “Then it’s a good thing we’re going to stop you.”

  Kai Leng chuckled. “Oh Shepard, you might have been the best humanity could offer a few years ago. But I’m going to show you how much that’s changed.”

  With that the time for talk was over as Leng charged forward. Shepard snapped up her blaster rifle and snapped off several shots at his head. Leng’s shield might protect him from the energy bolts, but repeated bursts of plasma in his face should still cause issues for his vision.

  It almost wasn't enough. Shepard waited until the last moment before throwing herself forward to dodge under the orange lightsaber blade and saw an explosion of sparks as the blade carved a line into the front of her armor. But there was no pain and no smell of burned flesh.

  A close miss.

  Shepard didn’t hesitate to put some distance between the two of them. She couldn’t win in close combat, and that shield made standing around shooting at him a waste of time. She needed to find a way around Leng’s defenses quickly, or this was going to be a very one sided fight.

  As she ran through the maze of machinery, Shepard started going through a checklist of potential ways to get an attack in. Sudden shots from her rifle were automatically blocked by Leng’s shield. Direct Biotic attacks were similarly useless. Sparks from her rifle hitting the machinery walls had made Leng flinch, so at least Shepard knew his shield worked like other kinetic shields – things slow enough or with too much mass would be able to get through it.

  That one scrap of information gave her the beginnings of a plan, but she would only have one or two chances to make use of it. Leng still had his own body armor and training. He wouldn’t just let Shepard get through his defenses the same way time after time if she failed to take him out.

  “Running only delays things, Shepard!” Leng cried out as the Spectre Charged away from him again, even as his blade sliced through a thick metal support for the walkways above them.

  She didn’t fall for the taunt though.

  Running had kept her alive so far and she had finally found something she could hopefully slip past that shield. No need to screw things up now.

  Shepard feigned to be out of breath from her most recent Charge – and to be fair her Amp was uncomfortably warm from the constant use it had seen today – while she body-blocked a certain warning label and turned to futilely shoot more blaster bolts at Kai Leng.

  She had already done the same thing three times before without trying to pull something so she wasn’t surprised when Leng fell for the bait and rushed her before her Amp could ‘reset’ and allow her to escape again. The assassin rushed towards her and just when she was sure he had committed, Shepard Charged away once again. But this time instead of attempting to put distance between them, Shepard spun back around and unloaded her rifle into the machine she had just been resting against.

  The thin metal casing was no match for the red energy bolts, though Shepard had a moment of vindictive glee as one of them pierced through the ‘High Voltage’ warning label she had hidden before something sparked inside the machine and promptly exploded.

  Kai Leng was sent flying as a result, but his shield, armor, and cybernetics were enough that he didn’t die.

  “Good effort, Shepard.” Leng growled as he dragged himself back to his feet using the wall and reignited his lightsaber. “You almost got me with that one.”

  “Yeah? Well now that you don’t have that fancy shield, let’s see how you hold up.” Shepard challenged, raising her rifle again.

  “Tempting, but I’ve already won. You weren’t the only one setting up a trap.”

  Shepard tensed for whatever Leng was about to do, only to freeze when the Cerberus Operative cut through another metal support for the walkways above them. There was an ominous groan above them and Shepard realized Kai Leng’s plan was dropping several tons of metal on her head.

  “Bastard.”

  “Hmph, goodbye Shepard.”

  Kai Leng cut through one more support and the walkways finally couldn’t support their own weight. With one last groan of tortured metal, they began collapsing and Shepard found herself staring at almost certain death as the heavy steel platform fell towards her.

  Only for the platform to freeze midair.

  “Shepard, move!” EDI called as she, Javik, and a handful of Imperial troopers rushed out of the surrounding machinery and opened fire on Kai Leng.

  “Tsk, looks like you get to live for now after all, Shepard.” Leng growled and started to run away. “You won’t be so lucky next time!”

  Shepard didn’t bother replying except to add her own blaster shots into the mix, but Leng’s shield had either recovered or he had a backup and she could only watch as the Assassin slipped around a corner and vanished.

  She scowled, but truthfully there were more important things to do than go chasing after one Operative.

  “Are you alright, Shepard?”

  “I’m okay. A bit banged up, but no actual injuries. What about you Javik?” She asked her squadmate as the new arrivals moved to set up a perimeter and the walkways magically floated off to a side where they were harmlessly lowered.

  “A minor scratch. I am fine.” The Prothean deflected.

  “Great, and I see you guys found Revan’s team! Thanks for the assist by the way.” Shepard said as she saw the Sith Empress walking over to them, followed by Tali and an unknown Asari.

  “I’m glad we arrived in time.” Revan replied. “But we don’t have time to stand around. The Adjutant numbers seem to be growing again and Cerberus is just throwing more bodies at them.”

  Shepard nodded. “Right, we can catch up later. EDI, can you get started on the main reactor controls? The rest of us will get to work disabling the failsafe features.”

  “Tali’Zorah, you have the lead there. Let us know if you need assistance.” Revan ordered her own team. “Let’s end this crisis before it gets any worse.”

  “Yes, Ma’am!” Several voices rang out followed by a rush of movement.

  -o-

  Between EDI and Tali’s expertise, it didn’t take long to sabotage the facility’s reactor to go critical on their command.

  After setting a twenty minute countdown just to ensure the place would be destroyed even if something happened to them, both Shepard and Revan’s teams rushed back towards the surface and the closest shuttle they could call in.

  Looking down over the Cerberus prison facility, Shepard could still see some active anti-air batteries firing at the Imperial fighters buzzing through their airspace but most of them had either been destroyed or simply had nothing to target as the rest of Revan’s forces had already pulled back after extracting the freed prisoners.

  It was time to end this mission with a bang.

  “All forces pull back to minimum safe distance.” Shepard ordered over her comms. “Main reactor detonation in 3… 2… 1…”

  There was a brief flash as the Cerberus facility was consumed by a short lived star. Not only had they rescued nearly everyone Cerberus had imprisoned here and found a treasure trove of data that would hopefully lead them to more facilities like this one, and had also stopped another Cerberus created doomsday scenario.

  Even if there had been some rough spots along the way, Shepard would consider the entire thing a job well done.