Ship Happens

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works, if you recognise it from somewhere else, surprise it isn't mine.

Betad by morde24, Atrius, Hermes, Priapus, Marethyu, Old man of the mountain, TheDonFluffles and Mike, God of Lore

The Guild of Gamers: The Operative

Chapter 04: Ship Happens

— Miranda Lawson —

Waking up feeling sore in all the best ways, she sat up and sighed at herself. Max was entirely too good at talking her out of her clothes, but then he did have one very silver tongue, as he had demonstrated repeatedly last night.

And predictably, she woke up alone once again, Max having snuck away sometime while she was sleeping, but she'd accounted for Max's inability to not be a lying little bastard.

Checking her terminal, she rolled her eyes. The data she'd gathered for him had been recently copied, but he'd be disappointed if he thought she'd given him the entire file, most of it was in EDI's systems and even Max wouldn't be able to hack an AI.

Honestly she wasn't even mad that he'd pulled the same trick again, if anything she was slightly disappointed that he was getting so predictable.

Getting dressed, she stretched out with a satisfied sigh, honestly he was right, she had been stressed lately.

Between the pressure of the Lazarus project and being put under Shepard's command, she needed a night of relaxation.

Max would realise how useless the data he'd run off with was soon enough, even if he'd almost certainly find the tracker she slipped into it, and then he'd have to come crawling back with his tail between his legs, because as prideful as he was, he cared more about succeeding in his mission than admitting she had got one over him.

For once.

Yes, Maxim would have to come and get the rest of the data and that would give her the advantage in their next conversation.

Leaving her quarters, she schemed how she was going to get even with the smug agent, freezing midstep.

"So there I was, wearing nothing but a smile, staring at her husband, his eight heavily armed friends and-" Max trailed off, spotting her from where he was sitting in the cafeteria, talking with Zaeed and Garrus. "Ah, sleeping beauty is finally awake. Sleep well, Miri?"

Why was he still here? She was sure he'd try to sneak away again, but there he was just relaxing in the cafeteria with a cup of coffee, a slight look of disdain on his face at the taste. She didn't blame him, the coffee they had honestly tasted more like mud and Max had very high standards.

"Miri, huh?" Zaeed asked, snorting knowingly as Garrus chuckled, did the entire ship know about what-

Her room was right next to the cafeteria, and unfortunately not entirely soundproofed. Yeah, everyone knew she got laid last night.

"Gentlemen, I'd love to continue our chat but Miri might pout if I ignore her, she's a big softie behind that ice queen act," Max said with a grin, making her glare at him in annoyance and confusion.

Why was he still here?

"Max, a word please?" Miranda said darkly, somehow more offended that he had kept his word and stayed rather than trying to trick her again.

"Of course, princess," Max said with a laid back smile as he followed her back into her room.

The moment the door closed, she turned to him with a dark look.

"What are you up to?" Miranda asked immediately, making Max chuckle as he walked past her and took a seat at the edge of her bed.

"I was talking shop with Zaeed and the infamous Archangel, before you interrupted us," Max said innocently, but Max was as far from innocent as humanly possible.

"You know that's not what I meant, why didn't you try and sneak away again?" Miranda asked, hating how good he was at getting under her skin.

"Miri, do you really think I'm that predictable? Or that I think you're so naive that you'd fall for the same trick twice?" Max asked in amusement, giving her a smile. "We both know you never planned to give me all the information I needed, you'd be a fool to, and you are no fool."

"So you checked the data and decided to stick around?" Miranda asked, making him shake his head.

"Haven't checked it yet, I'll admit I copied it and snooped through your terminal, but after that I went to get some breakfast and met Garrus and Zaeed. You should definitely either fire or shoot your chef though, I've drunk poisons more appealing than his full English breakfast," Max said after a moment. "Also, you can't leave a terminal unlocked next to a spy and expect me not to snoop. Might as well tell a bird to not fly."

"EDI, did Max check the data before or after he copied it?" Miranda asked, convinced he was full of shit.

"He did not, after going through your private files and copying the files you had prepared for him without opening them, he went to the cafeteria and had not checked his Omni-tool since, nor does he have any implants which would allow him to remotely access it," EDI replied immediately.

"See? Also, is that an AI? Cerberus has upped their game lately," Max said with an impressed smile.

"You're telling the truth?" Miranda said, genuinely baffled. He might as well have told her water was solid and Krogans were a pacifistic misunderstood race and it'd have made more sense than him genuinely being honest with her.

"I do that quite a lot, and for some reason people are always caught off guard," Max said easily, making her glower at him, unamused by whatever trickery he was scheming. "I will be leaving the Normandy for a while, whether I'm joining this little team or not. I'm certainly not leaving my very expensive ship on Omega. It's got good defences but I've annoyed Aria one too many times for me to feel comfortable leaving my baby on this rock."

That was entirely fair, and yet she didn't trust a word out of his mouth.

"That said, I do need to take care of the Broker, Shep's mission is too important to have the Shadow Broker hunting us the entire time," Max pointed out, and despite her suspicions she couldn't disagree with him.

That was the problem with Max, he was very good at getting people to buy whatever bullshit he was selling and even with all her training she genuinely couldn't tell the truth from the lies.

— Maxim Russ —

Messing with Miranda is entirely too fun.

"You realise you're talking about taking care of a figure that's been around since before humanity discovered the mass relays?" Miranda says, making me nod easily. "And that's assuming that the Shadow Broker is a single person and not a collective, even Cerberus barely has anything on them. I know you're very good at your job, but this seems borderline impossible even for you."

"I love impossible situations, it's an occupational hazard," I say with a cocky smile before I sigh. "I'm well aware of the magnitude of the task at hand, but I doubt the Broker is going to take my meddling lightly. I'm assuming they've already sent assassins my way. I need to go on the offensive, to make chasing me and attacking humanity too costly for the Broker to continue, and for that I need information."

Miranda pauses, and despite her attitude I can see the concern on her face, that's cute.

"Like I said, we barely have anything on the Broker's identity or location," Miranda says, making me nod.

"I was hardly expecting you to have their name and home address, but any information at all gives me something to work with," I say, making her sigh.

"The Illusive Man has agreed that the Broker is a threat to humanity, even if we don't know why he's attacking colonists. While our focus remains on the Collectors, you're unfortunately right that we can't ignore the Shadow Broker, especially given suspicions he may be working with the Collectors," Miranda finally says, seeming annoyed as she sits down.

Ah, her boss has already made her decision for her? I know that feeling.

"You think the Broker is working with the Collectors?" I ask, having not considered that myself. "They aren't exactly known for working with people."

"The Broker originally attempted to steal Shepard's body, and we suspect they planned to sell it to the Collectors, as they are clearly interested in her," Miranda explained, filling in some of the gaps.

"Because she beat the Geth and Saren? Or is this about their ship?" I ask, honestly I didn't give the whole Geth situation that much attention because I was in the Outer Rim at the time, but the word Reapers has been thrown around. "This is about the Reapers, isn't it?"

I know Shepard believes in these Reapers, apocalyptic machines that harvest every intelligent species in the entire galaxy every fifty thousand years, but does Cerberus believe that?

"You're right, as always. The Geth ship was a Reaper known as Sovereign, our current belief is that the Collectors have a connection to the Reapers, though what that connection is we don't know," Miranda says, which makes me pause.

I assumed Cerberus was trying to manipulate Shepard, and they probably are, but do they legitimately believe that the robot apocalypse is about to happen?

That's worrying, because if both Shepard, a war hero, and Miranda, a sceptical operative, both believe it…

There can't actually be a robot apocalypse approaching, right?

Quest Gained

[The Robot Apocalypse]

Objective: Stop the Reapers from wiping out all intelligent life in the Galaxy

Reward: Multiversal Travel and Much, Much More

Fuck.

— Miranda Lawson —

To say Max was a cool-headed man would be an understatement of epic proportions, he basically never showed any emotion he didn't want to.

His self control made her look like an emotional crybaby in comparison, so when his eyes briefly widened, some genuine panic behind them, she was entirely caught off guard.

"The Reapers are real? I don't suppose Shepard is just batshit insane?" Max asked, but his tone told her he already knew the answer to that.

"Unfortunately not, believe me, I'd prefer Shepard to just be a mad conspiracy theorist as well. Hell, Shepard would prefer it if she was just mad, but we aren't that lucky," Miranda said, seeing Max's mind racing.

She didn't blame him, what could agents like them do against machines the size of skyscrapers?

Honestly she was also flattered, because Max obviously hadn't taken the threat of Reapers seriously until he realised that she was taking them seriously. He was panicking because he knew she was a sceptical woman, and if she believed the reapers were a threat?

"Could the Broker be working for them? How do Reapers even interact with us mere fleshy mortals?" Max asked, making her sigh.

"With Saren, Sovereign indoctrinated him slowly and turned him into a puppet, making him believe that if Saren could prove that organics could be obedient and useful then they would be spared when the harvest started, he was eventually convinced by Shepard that he was deceived and killed himself, though Sovereign took control of his body and attempted to stop Shepard regardless," Miranda explained. "But honestly we just don't know enough about them, how they think, what they even want beyond our extinction."

Max calmed down quickly, immediately going into information gathering mode, he truly was the ultimate agent.

And no, she wasn't just saying that to make how many times he outsmarted her sting less.

"Then we need more information, luckily I'm going to kill the galaxy's best information broker and take everything they have for myself," Max said with a cocky grin.

"Indeed, if anyone has more information, it's the Shadow Broker," Miranda agrees, looking thoughtful.

"So, are you going to give me the leads you're jealously guarding or am I going to have to beg?" Max asked, making her roll her eyes.

She was tempted to make him beg, because she had a suspicious feeling that he'd pull a vanishing act the moment he got what he wanted.

The data he had already had plenty of information on the Broker's operations and known agents, but they only had two actual leads on the Broker's location which she'd left out of the data deliberately.

"We know of two potential leads on his identity and location. We used to know where he was hiding, on a massive ship hidden in the Hagalaz system, but he abandoned it a couple of years ago," Miranda explained, pulling up the data she'd left out.

If anyone could get their hands on the information the Broker was hoarding, it was Max, and they needed whatever he had on the Collectors and Reapers.

"That said, the Broker is working with the Arasaka corporation on a project named 'Relic'. In fact, it seems to be his primary focus at the moment. An informant claims he even headed to Night City on Noveria himself, we don't think he stayed for long but that's the only time he's ever been reported to go somewhere in person," Miranda explained, watching Max pause.

"Arasaka? That's… odd, Saburo makes Cerberus look like xeno-lovers, and the Broker has been around in some form or another for longer than Humanity has been in the stars," Max said with a small frown, making her nod, unsurprised at Max's knowledge.

He'd probably worked for and against Arasaka before.

To be honest, Arasaka was one of Cerberus' biggest financial backers and he wasn't wrong. Saburo Arasaka made even the worst of Cerberus seem accepting, he was a very old man who hated anything that wasn't Japanese and hated anything that wasn't human even more.

Saburo working with an alien didn't make sense for anyone who knew the old bastard.

"And yet, the Broker is almost certainly involved in this Relic project, that has both the Broker and Saburo's attention," Miranda agreed. Something didn't add up and that annoyed her more than she'd ever admit.

"And the second lead?" Max asked, leaning against her desk.

"The Broker's top agent, Adam Smasher, apparently knows where his boss is. It goes without saying that I highly recommend that you don't go for that lead," Miranda said, and while Max seemed to take very little seriously, she could see the way he stiffened.

She didn't blame him, Adam Smasher was a living legend, and a grim one at that. Probably the most cybernetically enhanced human in existence, Smasher was a one man army.

He was officially a Solo, but he did regular work for the Broker.

The man was a pure psychopath, the one you sent when you wanted everything and everyone involved dead. She was fairly certain the only reason he hadn't suffered from Cyberpsychosis was because he was already completely insane.

"Night City it is, I've… missed that place," Max lied through his teeth, making her snort.

Nobody missed Night City, it was a textbook example of what happens when Megacorporations formed a colony where they had exactly zero rules to follow.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised you're familiar with the place," Miranda said with a roll of her eyes. "There's rumours that a certain Dexter DeShawn is working on a job involving the Relic, but Cerberus doesn't have a strong presence on Noveria," Miranda admitted, watching Max think it over.

"I have contacts in Night City, this sounds like a pretty typical corpo heist job, just more dangerous than usual, nothing I haven't done before," Max said simply, and she believed him.

She'd got quite the file on his actions, and she was under no delusion that she knew everything he did considering he occasionally vanished for months or even years, and she knew him enough to know he wasn't taking a vacation.

She'd actually spent some time making a timeline of his disappearances and what happened in the wider galaxy during those times.

During one of his disappearances, someone bombed the Batarian Hegemony's council building on Khar'shan, killing most of their leadership in a single blow that was never claimed by any group, and while she couldn't prove Max was involved… she knew.

It crippled the Hegemony to this day, and the agent had managed to leave enough 'evidence' to point the Batarians to the Turians, causing a small but frankly one-sided war between the two races and worsening the relations between the Council and the Hegemony (who were already on bad terms).

It was a work of art, if Cerberus had pulled it off the Illusive Man would have made whoever did it his top agent, and it was also perfectly in line with Cerberus' goals, strengthening Humanity by weakening the threats they faced.

There were other similar events while Max was missing in action, a Turian general who despised humans falling down the stairs and snapping his neck, a Salarian STG research project being exposed for using humans as test subjects, and she'd never be able to prove it was him, but she just knew he was the cause of at least some of them.

It was why she was confused at his refusal to join Cerberus. He was already working towards the same goals as them, he held similar beliefs and had the willpower to do what was needed to see Humanity prosper. Sure, he was far more tolerant of aliens than most of Cerberus' rank and file but he knew her well enough to know she didn't hate aliens, hell he was probably more xenophobic than her when it came to Batarians.

He was a perfect fit for Cerberus, their ideal recruit in ideology and talent, and he was so utterly against the very idea of joining them. Did he mistrust The Illusive Man that much?

Whatever the reason, she was supposed to find a way around it and get him to actually join up this time. The Illusive Man called it her 'chance to correct her previous failure'.

A knock at her door made her pause before she briefly smirked. Ah, Shepard didn't want to catch them in another compromising position?

The assumption annoyed her, but if it meant Shepard wouldn't just barge into her office again she'd take it.

Opening the door, Shepard seemed slightly relieved when she saw that they were both dressed, Max giving the Commander a wave.

"Is there something I can do for you, Commander?" Miranda asked calmly, watching Jane enter the room.

"I wanted to talk to Max, actually. We're pretty much done on Omega for now, I wanted to make sure he was ready before we set off," Jane explained.

"I appreciate it, I need to move my own ship before we leave since I'm certainly not leaving my extremely expensive one-of-a-kind ship on Omega," Max said with a smile.

"We were just discussing the leads we have on the Shadow Broker, and decided that one of his projects on Night City is the best option," Miranda explained, making Jane frown slightly.

"Ugh, Noveria?" Jane said, distaste clear on her face. "What's the situation? How long do you think this is going to take us?"

"Hm, Shep, I mean this in the most respectful way possible but this mission is going to be easier without you," Max said simply, making Jane turn to him with a growing frown.

"…what?" Jane said simply. Miranda hid her own smirk at Jane's clear annoyance at Max's blunt words.

"This isn't a kick down the door and shoot everyone situation, it's a corporate espionage job, and you are far too famous and entirely too unsubtle for this kind of mission," Max explained, making Jane pause. "If all goes to plan, I won't even draw my gun once. Plus, you have your own mission to handle, I've agreed to help with this suicide mission of yours and I will, but from what I can tell you have a lot to do beforehand that doesn't require me."

Jane went to reply, obviously not liking what she was hearing before she paused, glancing between Miranda and Max.

— Jane Shepard —

She very much didn't like the idea of splitting her team, or sending Max off on his own, that wasn't how she worked.

That said… she was a soldier, not a spy. She didn't know the first thing about espionage, corporate or otherwise. She wasn't arrogant enough to think she was the best at everything.

"We are still focusing on building up our team, and while I was hoping to use this time to get to know the team better before we dive into hell together, you're not wrong that we won't necessarily need you to pick up Subject Zero or Okeer," Jane reluctantly admitted before she paused, an idea forming in her head. "But I'm not sending you off alone, Miranda. You can join Max on the Noveria job while I go and recruit those two. It's Max's operation, but you don't seem to mind being under him."

"W-what? The Illusive Man-"

"Put you under my command, and I'm telling you to go with Max. You two have history, you've worked together before and you know this kind of mission far better than I do, actually we will stop on the Citadel and recruit our master thief as well, she can join you as well," Jane said, seeing Max smirk in amusement at Miranda's face.

She was well aware that Miranda was reporting everything she did to the Illusive Man, which she'd find a lot harder if she wasn't even on the same ship. It wasn't that she was planning on doing anything that Cerberus would disapprove of (too deeply), but sending away her Cerberus-assigned babysitter for a while didn't seem so bad.

Plus, it meant Max wouldn't have as many chances to run off again.

"Master thief? Anyone I know?" Max asked, watching Miranda sigh. She clearly wasn't thrilled with the idea.

"Kasumi Goto," Miranda replied, making Max pause, obviously thinking for a moment.

"Kasumi? That name rings a bell for some reason, but I don't think we've met," Max said, rubbing his chin. "But I'm down for Shep's plan, come on Miri, don't look so glum, it'll be just like old times."

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of," Miranda replied bluntly, giving the innocently smiling Max a dark look.

"What if I pinky-promise to not drug you this time? Scouts honour?" Max said, clearly amused.

"I hate that I actually know you were a Boy Scout," Miranda sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Very well, if this is your decision, Commander. Between me, Max and Kasumi, we shouldn't have too much trouble."

"I've got friends in Night City, contacts, I'll make some calls, find out what I can about what Dex is up to," Max agreed with an easy smile.

"I know how you treat your friends, how many of them will want to shoot you when we get there?" Miranda asked, Max going to respond before pausing.

"Well, you know how it is in this business," Max replied, noticeably not actually answering the question which was an answer all by itself.

"Wonderful, I'll make some of my own preparations then, I'll be ready to join you by the time we're done on the Citadel," Miranda sighed, giving them both a decidedly displeased look.

"Don't pout so much, it'll be fun!" Max said, stealing a quick kiss, unconcerned by her glare. "But I'll leave you to your preparations, say hi to Tim for me."

"Tim?" Jane asked, making Max laugh.

"Well I'm not calling him The Illusive Man, so he's Tim until further notice," Max joked, his tone mocking as he said the Illusive- Tim's moniker.

Miranda's frown only grew at Max mocking her boss, but she ignored them as Jane gave the other woman a nod and followed Max out.

"Are you two going to be okay working together?" Jane asked, getting Max's attention.

"Don't worry your pretty little head, I know how to handle Miranda," Max said easily. "Nice move, by the way. Keeping an eye on me while getting rid of Tim's spy for a while? Smooth. Maybe I underestimated you."

"Honestly, you didn't. If I go on a mission, something is getting shot, I'm not arrogant enough to think I can pull off an espionage job, I'm a soldier through and through," Jane admitted easily, unsurprised that Max had caught onto what she was doing.

Miranda probably did as well, which was why she was so annoyed.

"You don't mind me sending someone to babysit you?" Jane asked, watching as Max gave her a sly smirk.

"Of course not, only an idiot trusts a spy and you're no idiot, I'd be disappointed if you didn't try and put a leash on me," Max replied, and despite her best efforts she blushed ever so slightly at the idea of putting a leash on him.

She blamed Liara, her (former?) lover was a bit of a freak. Were they still lovers? She honestly didn't know, especially since she hadn't forgotten that Tim claimed she was working for the Shadow Broker.

"Ah, you do want to put a leash on me," Max teased, making her roll her eyes.

"Maybe I should, I'm pretty sure I'd be doing the girls of the galaxy a favour by keeping you away from them," Jane teased back, she wasn't the type to back down.

"The girls? You'd leave so many of them broken-hearted if you kept me away from them, their fathers, husbands and boyfriends might thank you though," Max admitted with a cocky grin. "But once the Noveria job is done, I'm at your command, if you want to keep me on a tight leash, at your beck and call I'll be happy to attend to your every whim, I promise you you'll be more than satisfied with my performance."

Snorting, she rolled her eyes at his flirtation, seeing him give her body a once-over. He was bold, and honestly she kinda appreciated it.

Normally she had to be the one to make a move, but until she knew what was going on between her and Liara she wasn't going to jump into bed with anyone, no matter how good that cocky smirk looked.

"Down boy," Jane said simply, making him chuckle. "Where's your ship docked?"

"Not far from here, I have a deal with Aria to use her private docks but frankly I've poked Aria one too many times to feel comfortable leaving my ship in her tender loving hands," Max said in amusement.

"You and Aria don't get along?" Jane asked, wondering how many times Max had broken Omega's number one rule.

"Oh we do, somewhat. She finds me too useful to get rid of, no matter how much I annoy her, and she's useful herself since she keeps Omega mostly in check," Max explained. "That said, I've recently poked at one of Aria's very few soft spots and she's a petty bitch down to her very core."

"Don't fuck with Aria, right?" Jane said, making him grin.

"Ah, she's told you the only rule in Omega. Did she do her little speech about how she's the Queen of Omega? She always was overdramatic, and extremely narcissistic," Max said with a laugh. "Realistically, fucking with Aria is a bad idea but frankly I can usually get away with it since I'm useful enough. As arrogant as she is, she's usually pretty logical, usually being the keyword in that sentence."

"Fair enough, she did seem reasonable enough for a crime lord," Jane admitted.

"I'll go over and grab my ship and start reaching out to my contacts, send me a message when you're setting off for the Citadel and I'll set off at the same time," Max promised, and frankly if he ran off again it wasn't really her problem.

She needed to be able to trust her team going into this, if Max was so determined to get away then she wouldn't be able to stop him anyway, and even if she did he'd constantly be looking for a way out. It was better to give him some freedom and see if he stuck around of his own free will than to try and chain him up.

"Sure, Miranda has your number, right?" Jane asked, pausing as her omnitool gave her an alert. "Do I even want to know where you got my number?"

"Probably not, no," Max replied honestly.

She was going to have to get used to dealing with this stuff with a spy on her team, wasn't she?

— Maxim Russ —

Leaving the Normandy, I head towards where my memories tell me that my ship is docked, a smile on my face despite my thoughts.

I prefer working alone, mostly because I'm a perfectionist and I don't trust that other people will manage things up to my standards but I don't mind working with a team and Miranda is talented.

Kasumi…

I know that name, I know I do. Searching my new memories I swear that name rings a bell but I genuinely can't remember why.

God I hope she isn't an old flame I've forgotten, I've had that problem before. It sounds Asian and I have a thing for Asian girls so that doesn't narrow things down that much.

Ah well, I'm sure it'll work itself out.

I have a bigger question to think about right now.

What am I doing with my life?

It's a dumb thing to be thinking about at this point, but I've been given a second chance at life and all I'm doing is the exact same thing I was doing in my first life but in space.

The fact is, I enjoy this lifestyle and it's the only life I've ever known, but how long will it be before the Alliance decides I'm a problem and I get backstabbed again?

I won't get a third chance, so I need to think things through and decide what the fuck I'm going to do going forwards.

I believe in what I'm doing, someone needs to do the dirty work that keeps my race safe. In my past life I fought to keep my country safe, now I'm doing things on a much bigger scale, with far larger stakes, so I'd not plan to stop entirely.

The Shadow Broker, this whole mess is an opportunity, not a threat.

Nobody knows who they are, and they have all the resources I need to take my operation to a much grander scale.

I have a plan.

I'm going to kill them, take their place, and make 'Max' a top agent for the Broker, that way I can utilise the immense resources and information that the Shadow Broker has collected to be far more effective.

After all my scorn for the agents who became desk jockeys, that's exactly what I'm going to do myself, break my ties with the Alliance and go truly solo instead of just pretending.

Of course, I'm pretty sure Tim is planning to take the Shadow Broker's resources for Cerberus, which means he's gonna have to go, and I might have to kill Miranda unless I can get her to switch loyalties.

That would be a damn shame, and not just because of her looks. I genuinely respect her intelligence and talent, it's just her judgement I question.

Arriving at my ship, I pause as I look over the incredibly sleek silver ship that's apparently mine. It's smaller than the Normandy but it's meant for a much smaller crew.

Much like your safe house, your ship is tied to your System and can grow alongside you, depending on how your abilities develop.

Good to know.

Opening up the Phantom (the X-70B Phantom-class prototype to be exact), I enter my luxurious ship with a smile.

The Guild certainly knows how to treat its employees, because this ship was made for comfort and luxury.

The in-world reason for it is that I stole it from the Salarian STG, who were making their own version of the Normandy due to its stealth technology, wiping out the project and 'destroying' the ship, before I had it heavily customised over the years so it doesn't resemble the 'destroyed' ship.

It's made to be run by a small team of agents, who can infiltrate and exfiltrate without being detected by conventional methods, but lacks any serious weaponry since it's not made for space combat, simply equipped to escape confrontations, which makes it perfect for me.

I apparently had a lot of work done on the ship to make it frankly more of a pleasure cruise than a military ship, mostly for the sake of getting a reputation as a hedonist. It's useful for people to think you're flawed.

There's one more thing that gives the Phantom an advantage over other ships, with the exception of the Normandy apparently.

"Welcome home, Captain," a voice that's familiar from both lives says, making me turn and watch as a figure forms out of blue light. "Should I prepare for imminent departure?"

The translucent feminine figure smiles at me, light blue skin with some dark blue strips across her 'body' that vaguely pass for revealing clothing.

"That won't be necessary, Cortana," I reply, amused at her assumption. She's used to me needing to leave immediately, usually because I've crossed someone dangerous.

I wasn't the biggest follower of media in my last life, but I recognise Cortana from the Halo games, but here she's my ship's artificial intelligence.

She's why I don't need a full crew to fly the Phantom, because she handles most of the work with more efficiency than any humans could manage.

"A welcome surprise, Captain. You have several new messages, mostly job offers, bounty alerts and booty calls. Beyond that, nothing unusual has happened," Cortana says, 'walking' alongside me as I move towards the lounge.

"Did anyone try and break in?" I ask, sinking into the fancy leather seats as she sits besides me, the couch sinking as she sits down.

She's not just a hologram, she's projecting herself next to me through the use of hard-light projectors throughout the ship that actually lets her interact with the material world instead of just existing in cyberspace.

"Captain, this is a very expensive ship on Omega. Someone tried to break in within an hour of you leaving, nobody came close to succeeding of course. I've logged the attempts, most were lowlifes but the Blue Suns tried twice, did you anger them again?" Cortana asks, making me shrug.

"Not particularly, just business as usual," I say, making a mental note of that.

A second Cortana brings me a glass of whiskey as I stretch, disappearing as I accept the glass.

My life is going to get pretty complicated soon so I might as well enjoy what little downtime I have.

"Thanks, Cortana," I say with a smile, turning on the screen as I get to work going through the files Cerberus gave me.

Yeah, my downtime also includes work, that's life.

Before I start, I pause.

"Cortana, do I know someone called Kasumi Goto?" I ask, making her pause for a split second.

"I don't believe you've met her in person, but she's a rather elusive master thief who has put a lot of work into not being well-known. She's known to Section Seven, and has done some work with the Alliance on occasion," Cortana says as the screen changes to the files Section Seven have on her.

Before she continues I immediately realise exactly where I heard her name, spotting a familiar name in her associates section.

"She was the lover of Keiji Okuda, who did some work for the Alliance to avoid being prosecuted for espionage. He went rogue on Kasumi's suggestion, and after it became known that he had information that would have endangered the Alliance in his graybox, you were sent to assassinate him, replacing the graybox with a fake," Cortana explained easily.

Ah, that's where I heard her name. I saw it on Keiji's file, but I killed him when he was alone so I never actually had to deal with his partner.

Well, he committed espionage against his own people (and worse, got caught), and then tried to run after cutting a deal for his freedom. I feel no guilt over cutting him down, but it could be mildly problematic if Kasumi knows or finds out I did it.

I took a job from Donovan Hock, some small-time arms dealer and smuggler with delusions of grandeur, and gave him a fake graybox once the job was done, but I was hired by Hock through a proxy (which was actually Cortana), used one of my fake alias' and never met him in person so I should be in the clear.

The trail should die with Hock, who called the hit in the first place, no real link back to me or Section Seven.

"Ah, I see. Thanks for the reminder," I say simply; taking a sip as I think it over before I shrug. Sucks to be Kasumi, I guess, but she talked her partner into trying to run from the Alliance after he'd already got caught once, what did she think was going to happen? Sucks to suck, don't pull that kind of shit unless you know you can get away with it.

Don't I still have the real graybox in my vault back in my hideout? I never got orders on what to actually do with it so I just kept it around until the bosses told me what to do with it.

I'm sure it's nothing too important, but I might want to try and crack it before I meet with Kasumi if I'm going to be working with her.

But for now, I have work to do. Starting with contacting my mysterious helper from Illium, I couldn't find their identity before, but I was just using my omnitool and didn't have a proper computer (or Cortana to help me.)

Let's see if I can do a little better this time.

— Bonus Scene — Liara T'Soni —

Sitting in her office in Illium, she went over the data Maxim had apparently gotten from Cerberus, frowning.

In his message, he mentioned that he was working with Commander Shepard, Jane… did he know who she was and was fucking with her or was it just a coincidence? She wasn't so naive anymore as to believe in coincidences.

She wanted to drop everything and run back to the Normandy, to Jane's side, but she owed Feron too much to leave him in the Shadow Broker's hands.

She'd free him, then go to Jane, just the knowledge that she was alive again was enough to tide her over for now, it made taking the risk and handing Jane's body over to Cerberus worth it, even with all the things they saw Cerberus was responsible for during the mission to track down Saren.

'Do you think Shepard is loyal to Cerberus?'

Messaging Max again, she bit her lip gently. She didn't know what Cerberus had done to Jane, they cut her out of the loop the moment they had her body, if they had the tech to return her from the dead then could they have done something to her mind?

'Ha, no. She and the Illusive Man's agent don't get along, but she's working with them because she needs their resources. My guess, she'll use them for all she can then ditch them, assuming she doesn't turn on them entirely.'

His response made her smile. Yeah that sounded like the Jane she knew. Pragmatic enough to work with her enemies, but not naive enough to actually buy into whatever bullshit the Illusive Man was selling.

'Any reason you want to know?'

'Curiosity, Shepard is something of a legend after all.'

Cerberus had a lot of data on the Broker's agents movements, and while it didn't seem to point to the location of the Broker's base (and Feron) it was definitely a good step in the right direction.

'Sure thing, just curiosity right? I'm sure you're got no personal stake in this.'

Oh he definitely knew something, or at least suspected.

'You know, Shep's pretty hot. Gotta love fiery redheads, flirty too. I think I'm gonna enjoy my time under the legendary Commander Shepard.'

…oh that little bastard.

Change of plans, she was calling Shepard tonight before some weaselly secret agent could talk her out of her uniform.

Because he was right about one thing, you truly did have to love fiery redheads, and she was flirty.

She didn't beat Kaiden to have Jane stolen by some spy, and Max was definitely smoother than Kaiden.

— Maxim Russ —

Watching Liara through her own office cameras, I chuckle to myself at how agitated my message made her, it's almost cute.

Liara is good, don't get me wrong, but I almost beat her from my omnitool without any help. From my ship with Cortana backing me up?

Yeah, that's a different story.