Ch.15 - Picking up trails pt.1

"Hope everyone had a good shore leave." Jane began with a quick look around our meeting area where the squad had gathered.

"Meh. Not firing my gun for a few days makes me itchy." Grunted Wrex in mild frustration at having to 'play nice' so he wouldn't be held by C-Sec.

"Must be because you haven't bathed since you entered that bar." Quipped Garrus with a smirk. "Or do you count drowning in alcohol a bath?"

"Heh! At least I can still get some!" The Krogan shot back with grin.

"Too bad you have to pay for it." The Turian smoothly answered.

"And I'd do it any day of the week for Asari twins." Wrex proudly declared.

"Goddess." Groaned Liara in embarrassment over her race being brought into things.

"As much as I'm glad hearing you were able to 'relax' without C-Sec getting involved, I think we should be moving on." Shepard suggested, earning near unanimous approval. "Good. Anyone else get something interesting?"

"I've got some…information I'm in the process of confirming, but beyond that I simply visited some old colleagues." Garrus informed with some seriousness in his voice, indicating importance regarding the first matter.

"Let me know if you need any help with that." Jane offered immediately.

"I will." He replied with a hard look.

"I've been compiling all this new information regarding the Protheans. Using existing evidence to hopefully defunct some current theories. These papers will be highly controversial in academic circles, but I am still excited to finish them." Liara passionately followed up, causing Jane to shake her head fondly at the Asari.

I simply elected to offer a more objective set of eyes to help touch up her paper before submitting it later.

"Well I actually decided to have some fun. You know? Hit up a bar or two, try out some of those attractions." Ashley revealed as she leaned back it her chair with a look of satisfaction.

"Uh huh. I know someone who got some when I see them." Wrex said, causing Ashley to cough and immediately become embarrassed.

"*Cough! Cough!* Hey!" She glared at the Krogan.

"Heh heh heh." He chuckled in response.

"Don't worry Ash. We're all grown ups here." Lt. Alenko said as he tried to comfort her.

"I'm not." Joker suddenly announced from the comms with great amusement lacing his voice.

"Joker! I swear to God, if you tell anybody I'm making sure you can't even sit in that chair of yours!" The very embarrassed and nervous gunnery chief roared.

"Hahahaha!" Only getting laughter in response.

"Is there a particular reason you were listening in Joker?" Jane asked the pilot with a raised eyebrow at the potential breach of protocol.

"*Ahem* Yes Commander. Admiral Hackett sent a signal." He seriously answered, indicating our meeting was postponed.

"Alright. Give me a minute." She replied as the Squad vacated the room to allow privacy.

We all separated after leaving, heading to keep busy before we received our new headings.

"Neo. Want to go and work on the new suit?" Tali asked me in a hopeful and excited tone.

"Of course. I am looking forward to finishing our work and seeing it in action." I answered with a peaceful smile as we made our way towards the still lamentably paced elevator.

At least I had a pleasant conversation partner.

Sometime later, Jane informed everyone that she had received various bits on intelligence regarding Cerberus, pirate and Geth activity around a few sectors, giving us a heading while awaiting any new information regarding Saren or his known associates.

During this time, I did receive multiple invitations to join Shepard's landing party, something which I appreciated when dealing with Cerberus.

The fact that we discovered they were experimenting with the Dragon's Teeth and Thorian related matters did not surprise me, but it did disgust me further.

How far must one sell his soul to commit the acts they do in the name of 'humanity'?

I find myself frequently taking every morsel of information from Cerberus servers, using the fragmented pieces to slowly build a picture of the beast this organization has become under the Alliance's nose.

Many of the facilities we actually find were those 'disavowed' by Cerberus. Projects like my own which were originally funded and supplied by the group, but later were shutdown for inconclusive results or failures. Usually, by the time they reach this state, those leading and working those projects had already lost their souls due to their actions in attempting to succeed or meet some near impossible standards, resulting in them becoming desperate and doing even more acts deemed unthinkable.

Obviously, once they reach this point and become threats to Cerberus, the group erases them. If they are deemed to be no threat, they let the Alliance find them.

An efficient system to offer deniability and ensure Cerberus' main forces or projects never come to light.

But this is just not enough to hide everything.

To do what Cerberus does, they need money. Far more than the Alliance itself should even have.

The level of technology at their disposal, the raw ressources, the numerous work sites, private forces and everything needed to support those, and well, the cost is immense.

Ruling out most major governmental support, on the economical front anyway, private investment was then the surest option. Narrow this down to humans only. Refine further by firstly focusing on more xenophobic or 'driven' individuals. Then look through those who have the ressources or support via companies of all kind to secretly move things or help finance a group of Cerberus' scale and you have a much more workable list.

After that you can use a few dozens sets of data gathering V.I's to track shipments, payments, communications and connections, one can then hope to find patterns.

Now, I am not doing this from the Normandy.

In fact, I am simply receiving the data to go through.

The current system I have in place was set up using personally coded Virtual Intelligences housed in numerous Warehouses on the Citadel and, with some help from Shiala, on Feros. The amount of credits I have obtained from my time on the Normandy was substantial, but nowhere enough to fund all this, hence why Cerberus is finding everything thanks to me raiding all accessible funds from every base we've targeted.

I've split the credits with the squad, but I've still obtained millions.

Feros actually being a very well placed investment for a future base of operation or hideout in the future. With Shiala as my main contact and the colonists holdings very favorable opinions of the Normandy's crew, they have been quite accommodating.

But in all this, I recognize that I will only be finding a part of Cerberus.

They no doubt hold many ways to avoid detection. I hold no illusions to that.

Rich individuals all possess secrets they do just about anything to conceal after all.

Even then, this is a good place to start.

My systems will narrow down my options to allow me to personally work on possible targets.

The Galaxy is a very large place, but Cerberus only has so many places it can hide in a single planet.

Another angle was to look for those who are working or leading these projects.

Everyone is registered somewhere, in some form or another. There are ghosts, individuals who have disappeared, some presumed dead, but they are or have been registered somewhere.

So I looked for them.

The easiest were the more high profile individuals: Scientists with the required level of expertise to lead extremely advanced projects are not exactly common, engineers capable of building or designing the technology used were not easily concealed and skilled soldiers need to learn their skills somewhere.

Humans may have great numbers, but the exceptional will always be noticed. So to find them one simply needs to follow the trail.

And my final major approach, it was to look at technological advancements brought forward by points of interests linking to the prior two parameters. A project worked on by a highly skilled experts, pushing boundaries and earning vast sums, owned and funded by a company focused on humanity, and praised by individuals with connections between each other.

This helps identify some possibilities.

Cerberus has been hidden by many powerful figures in the Alliance and humanity, allowing for their actions to remain shadowed for so long, but i doubt they have ever had to deal with a being like me.

The information I gather, it is massive in scale due to sheer amount, and no normal mind would ever be able to piece everything together, nor are the exceptional ones ever going to be looking through it all, but I have both desire and opportunity, and I will not let Cerberus continue to jeopardize the Galaxy while we stand at the precipice of the end of all advanced civilizations.

I know them.

Cerberus will believe itself capable of controlling the sentient machine race which has erased countless civilizations before us. Their hubris will let them believe they can make them weapons for humanity.

And this will possibly lead to our end due to it.

Even now I hold no doubts that should they be aware of Saren's ability to indoctrinate even an Asari Matriarch, if they don't already, they would do everything in their power to obtain this power for themselves.

From these initial efforts, I've begun to find various projects.

Most are codenamed using relevant but grand titles.

A few stood out, such as Project Phoenix, Avalon and Fallout, but I was currently more interested in Projects Savior and Pendragon.

Project Pendragon held an obvious link to the Arthurian legends, just like Avalon, but the information I currently held indicated genetic, biotic and even archeological experts, catching my eye.

Meanwhile Project Savior, well it mentioned the Ascension Project, a vital part of humanity's burgeoning biotics. If Cerberus had an interest in this matter, I wanted to know why.

And while I was working on all this, it would seem that I wasn't the only one reaching out.

Two weeks after our departure from the Citadel, Garrus approached Jane regarding a Dr. Saleon.

This Salarian doctor was a criminal who had escaped Garrus during his time in C-Sec. he had been found cloning various organs within 'employees', harvesting them, selling them across the Citadel and dumping the bodies of those who could no longer support his activities or simply held too many extra organs which had failed to grow properly.

Once Garrus had discovered this, he gave chase. Unfortunately for him, the 'Doctor' had reached his ship for his escape, with hostages. Garrus ordered the escaping ship to be shot down, arguing that the fate of those hostages would be far worse than death should they leave with Saleon, but his superiors overruled him, allowing the Salarian Doctor to escape.

Our Turian squad mate had just recently picked up his trail and confirmed his location, asking for Shepard to help him take the cruel insult to medical professional down. She agreed.

We found a relatively small cargo ship in the Herschel System of the Kepler Verge, boarded by Garrus, Jane, Wrex and Ashley. The rest of us stood by for backup as this was Garrus' vendetta and we respected his wishes.

We were not needed, but Jane told me about what they found on that ship over dinner. She needed to talk about it and I listened.

On board they found that Saleon had effectively turned all manner of beings into barely living husks, something between the ones created by Dragon's Teeth and the Thorian's puppets. Twisted, living beings turned feral, attacking anything in range. Even some who were likely children hadn't been spared.

It was a small horror show for those who experienced it.

Laying the poor ones to rest, they found Saleon hiding from his own twisted creations, attempting to lie to them about his presence, but was outed by a furious Garrus. Jane had managed to talk him out of becoming an avenger, reminding him of his desires to serve and protect even if he joined to get away from the 'red tape', but Saleon would not let himself be taken in and was gunned down.

The mission left Garrus recluse, lost in his own thoughts, Ashley perturbed, Wrex mumbling about Salarians and Jane needing to talk… and drink some alcohol.

"Fucking shick bashterd!" Jane cried out as she finished her second personal bottle of wine.

It was designed for biotics as well.

"Far too many learned individuals use their knowledge in the worst ways." I acknowledged in agreement with my drunk Commander.

"I know! I mean, shometimes they do good. Jush look at you! But they do sho meny bad things to even get there." Jane slurred as she visibly swayed.

"Yes…Many bad things." I softly agreed as many of those bad things rushed back in that moment, but this was quickly controlled as I saw her becoming more unstable.

Before she could fall, or makes something else fall, I rushed to Jane's side of the desk and grasped her shoulders to stabilize her.

"*Gasp* You are quick." She observed. "*Giggle* And Shtrong."

'It would seem she has lost near full control if she giggled.' I observed with a shake of my head as I gently began lifting her.

"Come on Jane. I believe it is time to rest. You have had a difficult day." I said as I carefully maneuvered her uncoordinated self out of her chair.

"Whoa! Eashy there! *Giggle* There's eashier ways to get me in bed Neo." Jane said with drunken amusement.

I lifted her off the ground to ensure she wouldn't stumble or fall.

"Ooh. Warm." She observed with a satisfied smile, snuggling into me much like Tali sometimes does when I bring her to bed after she exhausted herself. "Comfy."

"I have been told I am surprisingly 'soft'." I told her as I went along her loss of inhibition.

My body may been able to stop gunfire and exert great strength, but my muscles remain incredibly supple to maintain flexibility, explosiveness and endurance, making me 'soft'.

Jane's bed was not particularly far from her desk, allowing me to quickly lay her down on it, much to her displeasure.

"Booo~. You're better. And warmer." She sloppily complained as she tried to reach out for me. "Alliance mattresshes suck."

"I can't say I would know." Replied as I removed her boots and socks, then her belt and pistol, not going further due to it being inappropriate.

I truly wouldn't know. I was fine with my cot near Tali's 'room', as such I've never been on a mattress before and have no comparison to offer.

"Wanna try~?" Jane whispered with an almost playful playful look.

"Not in this situation Jane." I softly answered as I gently pushed her down to rest her head on her pillow. "Time to rest."

To help her along, I began sending soothing, calming and peaceful feelings through. Her body immediately relaxed and sleepiness waved over her in moments.

"*Yawn* Maybe you're right." She admitted as she closed her eyes, but she kept holding my hand.

'What do I do in this situation?' I pondered as I watched her fall asleep, using my hand as part pillow and sleeping aid.

I could feel her mind sometimes flashing with various darker emotions, evidence of either nightmares or unpleasant memories, so I eased in warmth and content to ease her. She holds enough burdens and needs none in her slumber.

But then, I was still caught in my dilemma.

Should I move, Jane will likely wake or become less peaceful, and she deserves proper rest after the day's events.

'It would seem my choice is clear.' I inwardly declared.

With that I used my controlled biotics to bring the closest chair to me without bothering my sleeping commander, sat down next to her, allowing her continued use of my left hand, and closed my eyes to internally review the knowledge I held but did not truly integrate yet.

All while assuring Jane would have pleasant dreams.

She deserved it. More than most.

_______________________________________

EXTRA AUTHOR NOTES:

So this was more of an in-between chapter than anything.

The Shore leave itself lasted a few days, allowing everyone to relax as they pleased.

In this time Neo essentially had some fun with Squad mates and arranged for a warehouse with the needed servers to be set up. The VI themselves wouldn't be complicated as they simply gather data from targets eligible depending on various criteria and then send it to Neo. He does the thinking.

The Feros thing was to spread his systems in order to divide the risk of losing everything at once. It really just needs power, a signal and some maintenance after being set up. They have plenty of room for it.

To fund his hunt of Cerberus, I thought it would be good to use Cerberus.

While Cerberus is divided into isolated cells, each cell still needs funding they control to operate properly, and even after being 'cut off' from Cerberus the projects need money to continue, meaning that it essentially becomes available to take. Plus you can contact some people for whatever leftover equipment, supplies or information left in the base.

This is my initial idea for Neo to start getting his own funding.

There's going to be more later, but he's kind of limited right now due to being stuck on the Normandy most of the time and not controlling the destinations.

The reason he's focusing on them in general, well they can be pretty obvious, but Neo really does see them as a long term threat even without the Reapers, so with them he sees them as an inevitable enemy which will cause the Galaxy to fall due to its hubris.

And beyond that, we got Garrus' 'loyalty' mission down, but without Neo. He deals with the aftereffect it should have on people.

Seeing people getting twisted up like that and becoming deformed shells of their former selves who attack anyone near them is not easy. Especially unhelpful when people have seen multiple other times something like that happened. This shit leaves marks.

So, mild drunk scene.

I didn't do it before on the Thorian and the like because even the Creepers weren't 'human' before while Husks kind of become mechanical even if formally human while having been killed before being transformed. Saleon's subjects were slowly turned into monsters piece by piece and the Squad had to put them out of their suffering. So yes, Shepard be drunk.

Then Neo being the nice boy he is, he give nice dreams.

Anyway, gonna be going through the other loyalty missions, but with Neo since Wrex and Tali are really his friends. Garrus isn't quite there yet.

Hope you enjoy.