80

The Hourglass Nebula. System: Osan. Purgatory Station. Kuril Overseer.

- So Cerberus pays ten million credits for Subject Zero. I think we have a deal," I said, summarising the negotiations. Cerberus surprised me. They brought five cruisers, twenty frigates, and a carrier ship. And they're armed to the teeth. Tripled SEARCH system on the ships, all the infantry in heavy armour, and everyone had some emitter, Smerch, Storm, Avalanche, Cain or ML-77. What is wrong with these guys? And then there's Jacob. That's the creepy one. Their eyes are glowing red and stitches all over his face. No, fuck it, I'm going to give them that bitch Jack. Get the money and let Cerberus go.

- Yeah, that's right," Jacob replied dryly and briefly. His voice sounded strange, like it was some speech synthesiser. No, that's it, fuck it.

- Sir, we have an unidentified frigate coming out of FTL. It's making contact. The comms guy told me. We were just in the control room with this Jacob and two of his soldiers.

- Come on," I said, and the communicator linked up with this strange frigate.

- Captain Normandy Shepard to Purgatory. Do you read me?

- This is the Warden of the Kuril. What do you want? I asked. If it's another customer, I'll donate some of the profits to some religion. The Spirits are definitely at work here.

- Good afternoon, Warden. We want to buy Subject Zero from you," Shepard said, and I could have sworn she was smiling.

- I'm sorry, but that's not possible. She's sold out," I replied. What bad timing.

- Fifty million.

- HOW MILLION!? I blurted out. BITCH, BITCH, BITCH, BITCH!!! Why didn't they arrive sooner? What a lot of money, Spirits! I quickly gathered my thoughts and looked at the black man. He remained calm, but he was glaring at me. And his blokes had already drawn their guns and taken the safety off. Erm, listen. The deal's done. The goods are being loaded.

- So you're backing out? The voice asked.

- Yes. I refuse. I answered. I was well aware that I was losing a lot of money but better to have ten lemons, as people say, and stay alive than fifty lemons, which will be inherited by those who survive here. And it's not a fact that this Shepherd will pay a corpse.

- You should think about it.

- Listen, Shepherd. Fuck you!" I said, "Subject Zero has been sold! That's it! Full stop! Get out of here before I blow you to dust! And I had something to blow her ship with. There's a reason I've got ten Tanix on the hull. They're expensive, but now I can destroy any insolent man.

- Dust, you say..." came a calm voice, "All right. Guys, get out!" she shouted to someone to the side. And then, right behind this Normandy, a monster appeared. A huge ship with its nose right at us.

- S-sir...," the signalman said in a low voice, "O-he..... Twenty kilometres long. In length.

- Spirits," I said, immediately realising what was happening. This ship had been all over the Terminus. Like something out of a human film, a huge ship destroyed the planet of the Batarians. And now this ship has appeared right next to us. On Shepard's orders. Whoa, whoa, Shepard. А... Do you n- do you want to-- continue the n-negotiation.

- Uh, no, dear. You told me to fuck off, and you said you'd fuck me up. I'm going to do the same for you. Guys, get the Tanix.

- But Captain Shepherd!" came a pleading voice, "That's the Tanix we use to destroy moons. Wouldn't it be easier to hit them with something lighter? Proton guns, for instance. Or gravity bombs. They're designed for orbital bombardment, but still!

- Talk to me some more. Come on, get it out and don't talk! - then something opened on the huge ship, and a huge behemoth emerged. Three kilometres long. Small compared to the rest of the ship.

- Shepard..." I contacted the crazy one. "Come on... Let's take it easy! Let's talk about this! You can dock with us!

- You want me to board the strictest and most guarded prison in Terminus, where you'll capture me and try to sell me? No, no, no, no, darling. Accept your fate. Charge!

- SIR! This thing's charging and locking onto us! The comms guy shouted to me.

- Twenty per cent, Captain." came a voice that sounded like Shepard. That bitch didn't shield the radio so we could hear everything.

- Shepard, tell me, what do you want? Money? A share? A position in the Luminaries?" I started nervously listing my options. I can't make it to the escape pod. So the only thing left to do is try to negotiate. Come on, think, Kuril, think! You've always been a bargainer.

- Even would offer a romantic dinner. - she sarcastically remarked.

- Forty per cent.-that voice hit my ears again, and their weapon was treacherously increasing the brightness inside.

- "Look, if you want, you can be in charge at Purgatory. I'm well past retirement age! This is real money!!!

- Sixty per cent.

- What do you want, woman? What am I supposed to do, sell myself to you as an enslaved person!? Or give up all the prisoners!?

- It's already hot. - she said briefly and with a truly sinister grin. So, what does she want?

- Eighty per cent.

- Wait, you want Jack? Fucking take it for free! If you want it, I can bring it to you in person.

- One hundred per cent. There was no response. Instead, the gun, already glowing almost white, fired at us, and a huge blob of molten metal rushed at us. From the shock, I didn't even have time to say anything. Neither to shout nor to say goodbye to this world. But after a few seconds, which seemed like an eternity, the blob flew through Cerberus' cruisers. The result was three cruisers that were partially vaporised and five more frigates that were also in the line of fire. Holy shit, and that could have hit us!

Recovering from the shock, I realised I'd put on armour. And the signalman did, too. But nothing moved on this, Jacob.

- Hey, Kuril, are you alive in there? - Shepard's mocking voice sounded.

- Yeah... We... We'll send you Jack.

- Mr Kuril,'' the Cerberus man said, ``The deal's done.

- Fuck you, you know what?

- The deal's done. He said again.

- "The deal is off," I said. After that, it all happened fast.

I grab my Phalanx pistol, turn around and shoot this nigger in the head, as people say about black people. The shot goes right through his head. Then I pick up his corpse and, covering myself with it, shoot two Cerberus men in the heads. I kill the first one with three shots. I do the same with the second one. They got a few shots at me, but the nigger's body held up well.

- Hey, what's going on in there? Shepherd asked.

- Dealing with past customers. Hold on for a minute," Shepard asked, and I switched over to all the mercenary forces on the station. "All Blue Light fighters. Destroy all Cerberus fighters. Now! Jack is not to be handed over under any circumstances! Execute!

****

In one hour. The frigate Normandie-SR2.

Yeah, we scared the hell out of that Kuril. But we had good reason to do so. The station, as it turned out, had 3,000 light fighters. We didn't stand a chance in the narrow corridors, with about 5000 turrets, a bunch of robots and shields against the rioters. It was fine in the game, but Kuril went nuts on suppressing riots and defending from the outside. So I had to call in my giant. Yeah, they put a Tanix on it, too. We couldn't install a laser that could destroy a planet or a moon; it consumed much energy. But we could install a three-kilometre-long Tanix. We did a great job.

And so, we are standing in the hangar, which has already flown into the shuttle Svetil. The door hissed open, and we saw Jack in person. Bald, tattooed, and barely clothed. Two other turians were in the shuttle, but we couldn't see their faces; they were wearing helmets. Jack jumped out of the shuttle and looked round the hangar with her eyes. The Vorka were crammed into it, and that was about it. Shepard and I greeted Jack. Rex, Grant, and Zaid sat behind crates in full battle gear. Plus, Garrus is behind the crates with a laser rifle. I still managed to make it, thank goodness. Garrus didn't have much of a view, so he only had one shot. There were turrets in the ceiling controlled by Susie for the very last resort, and all the Vorka were armed with plasma pistols. Everything should go off without incident.

- So that's who my saviours are.- she looked at us and started a conversation. After that, the shuttle door closed, and he left. - I don't know you. So why are you fussing about me? You bring in a big dummy; Cerberus is bent over. That's a bit much honour. Oh, and she's got a nice way of talking.

- We need to talk. I said. It's time to remember the great mighty,

- In a nutshell," Shepard continued, "we want you to join us.

- What's the deal? I'm not afraid of macrusha; I'm not afraid of pussy.

- Destroy the Collectors," I said, and she immediately changed her face.

- Oh, you're dreamers, I see. How much are you paying?

- Ten mil. To you personally, in case of death, to whomever you say.

- [whistles] That's serious money, iron man. I want to say yes. But what makes you think I'm going to take it? In case you do.

- What's the point? We always pay our bills. If you help us, we'll help you, and we'll add ten million on top of that. - Well, she changed her face. If from my words she even smiled, though falsely, now she looked at me seriously.

- And from this place, iron.

- You join us, and we help you destroy the Pragia complex. One megaton of nuclear is, isn't that what you've been dreaming of?" There was no immediate response. Jack lowered her gaze and began to think. However, she was probably in a flashback. There was no forgetting what had happened to her.

- Bitch, you got me, iron man. Well, if that's the case. I'll take it.

- Welcome," Shepard said and held out her hand. Jack shook it, then started asking questions.

- So, where do you want me to put my arse?

- Somewhere where you won't be disturbed. Under the reactor.

- Perfect," she said, "You read my mind, iron man. Oh, one more thing. What's your name?

- Jane Shepard.

- Legate.

- Shepherd? The Shepherd? You threw your hooves off!" she said in surprise.

- Well, you can glue them back on. All right, let's go to Prague. Joker?

- Changing course. We're going to kick Cerberus's arse." came Joker's voice from the ceiling.

- That fast? I'm starting to like you," Jack said, and I took her to her sleeping spot.

****

Nubian expanse. System: Dhaka.

- Gentlemen. We've got a big problem." I began as everyone gathered in the conference room.

- "What's the iron?" Jack asked, which made Tali a little angry. Honey, don't try to keep a marble face. Firstly, it doesn't suit you, and secondly, you can't control your heart. And the temperature.

- Look.- I said, and the whole table was coloured in the 3D map of the complex, which we made from orbit and probes. Everyone was silent for a minute, and then it came out.

- Fucking dig dig dig dig dig dig, is that Pragya?" commented Jack.

- You've got to be kidding me..." said Garrus.

- We're sure to get a lot of whistles there..." continued Zaid.

- Heh, it's nothing. Scared of a couple of three hundred men and pissed their trousers right away! - Grant was in his repertoire.

- And there are five Mako. We're fucked. Rex said with his head down. I didn't expect that from him, but I knew what was going on from the game.

- Five Mako. Four hundred outer perimeter soldiers. Ten SEARCH guns. Five air defence missile launchers. An armoured wall. Fifty machine gun emplacements. Ultra long-range radar. Direct attack is madness. Suicide. Reckless. Orbital bombardment is a priority." Mordin reported.

- Commander Shepard, we express sincere surprise at what we're seeing. Oh yes, the Legion has yet to become a person. We'll upload the algorithm in a fortnight until they build a powerful transmitter. The heretics needed a whole station, and this was the whole community. That's a big difference. There's a lot of work to do, and there are new servers to put in, sync with Virtua. But Legion is already starting to adapt to humour and emotion. For example, he can fake emotion by agreeing with the majority. It's temporary, but it still looks funny sometimes.

- Shepard, that thing stole my shower gel!

- Commander Shepard, we express our sincere displeasure with Zaid Massani's behaviour and his unwillingness to share his hygiene items with us.- said Legion, who from the communal shower came with Zaid to Shepard's quarters. The situation was strange. Liara was sleeping on Shepard's bed in her mother's clothes, the Captain was in her underwear, Zaid was wet and only wrapped in a towel, and Legion was soapy and unclothed. Especially the soapy "crown" on his head suited him.

Yeah, we've had our share of that.

- How do we do this?" Liara asked.

- What are we doing here?" asked Zaid after thinking it over for a while.

- At first, we were just going to help Jack," I began, "It was supposed to be an abandoned compound where we set the bomb, fly away, and watch the light show. However, that's all changed now. Cerberus has returned to Pragia and spent tens of millions, maybe even billions, to rebuild the complex. The question is, why? Two years ago, those with Shepard understood what Cerberus was doing in its labs.

- Nothing good, Tali said.

- Just how are we going to storm this fortress?" Thane asked.

- There are two plans," I said, "One with fire and one that's quiet and calm. Where do we start?

- Let's go with the quiet one," Shepard said, and then answered Grant's reproachful and hurt look, "We'll just listen. Then we'll choose.

- All right, then. Taine and Kasumi go first. Kasumi has to get into the server room and bug it so that the Legion and I can monitor the complex. Then Taine, with the tanks on her back, will infiltrate the complex, find the air conditioner and pump gas into it. All this will be at night. Most staff will be asleep, and the gas has no colour, taste or smell. We can shut down the gas analyser in the ventilation system. Then we'll just have to kill everyone outside, find out what Cerberus is doing here, plant the bomb, get out, watch the fireworks and leave.

- Okay, now plan two. Shepherd said.

- Plan two. The Joker flies over them, drops a Hedgehog missile and flies away. The missile kills everything alive, then we land, kill whoever comes out, storm the complex, and kill the rest. The probes show a huge underground void; it looks like they've expanded it.

- Okay, we have two choices. Either do it quietly or with fire." The Captain summarised, "What's it going to be?

- Let's go with fire," Jack suggested.

- Seconded! Grant agreed.

- I'm not sure we can take out Mako from the air, but yes, fire is better," Rex said.

- Then Kasumi and Taine will have a job to do," I added. "While we're hitting the ones who run out, they'll get into the server room and open and close the doors. And if there are turrets in the complex, you two will have a lot of fun.

- Well, does anyone else have anything to say?" Shepard asked the others, and they agreed with the second plan, "Then it's settled. We need to discuss the details.

****

Planet Pragya.

- We're coming in for a landing." Joker announced as he came in on the Cadillac and Mako drop vector. Shepard, I and the Legion were in the latter. That part everyone agreed on, even the newbies. The Kadyak fit everyone else. At first, they didn't fit; we still had to cram two krogan in, but when Shepard said there was room in Mako, they lost weight quickly. I'd better find out their diet because people would give up a fortune for something like that.

And so we were dropped a kilometre from the complex, and Joker used a missile called "Hedgehog".

The missile flew towards the complex, but in a second, it split into five smaller missiles, which flew on different vectors but to the same target. The radars didn't detect them, but the Cerberus saw them and ran back and forth. Then each missile separated into five more soared upwards, then turned and headed for the ground at almost a right angle. Only at a height of thirty metres did they explode, and thousands of cluster bombs loaded with shrapnel fell on the heads of the minions of the three-headed dog. The result was good enough. Everyone outside was dead, but the compound was intact.

- Cerberus got his present. Now it's your turn, Captain." said Joker as we raced towards the complex.

With a clatter, Mako smashed through the damaged and shredded door of the perimeter wall. It's an unsightly sight. Everything was pitted with small, orange-sized bombs that exploded with the force of 10kg of TNT, each containing a hundred tiny depleted uranium balls. It was a good substitute for tungsten. And a good way to kill a lot of people. There were huge piles of corpses of technicians, riddled crates and guns, pools of blood and silence. Seriously, all we could hear was the sound of the Mako's wheels and the Kadyak's landing engines.

- Legate-starpom, the enemy at midnight.- informed me Legion, so he was the gunner, I was behind the gun, and Shepard led,- Armament - grenade launcher Em-ninety twenty "Cain".

- Got it. I'm pointing the gun and firing plasma. Of the seven soldiers, five vaporise, another catches fire and boils in his armour, and another escapes behind the crates. I switch to the blaster machine gun and fire a line in that direction. It pierces the crate through, and I can see from the sensors that it's dead. Shepard turns the Mako around so he doesn't drive into the building.

- Opponent for one hour. Legion said. He has decided to give me a short warning, yet he speaks normally so that Shepard can also understand. The queue goes through three soldiers. The weird thing is they have armour like in part three. That's all I need.

- Shepard, we've entered the building. We're looking for a server. Kasumi said.

- Understood," Shepard said shortly, and I fired a cannon at three more of the lucky ones. It's okay; I've got 300 rounds here, enough for everyone. We drove around a mountain of crates and crashed into a squad of infantry trying to find us. I didn't even get a chance to shoot, and they were under my tyres.

- IMIR at ten o'clock." came the geth's voice again. That robot was damaged but was heading towards ours, which was coming in from the other side. Shepard turns towards it and presses the accelerator pedal. The IMIR turns on us and starts firing, but the shields hold. After another second, Mako jumps up and crashes into the robot by inertia. Head off its shoulders.

- Shepard, we need help getting into the complex. We've got two IMIRA and a Bastion squad at the entrance." Garrus called us in while I was shooting at the fleeing soldiers.

- I checked the coordinates and fired a missile from the Mako. There were ten of them on him. The missile flies over the complex and falls behind a squad of robots, to which reinforcements have already run up. The missile explodes, tearing everyone there apart and leaving a crater five metres deep and eight metres wide. That's nice.

- Shepard, we've taken over the server and locked ourselves in. There's a complex full of turrets and shields inside. There's also a neutron purge.

- Don't touch the labs, Shepard said.

- Understood. Stand by." came the reply. If we can clear the complex that fast, that's a good thing. It's a lot less hassle to clean up.

Suddenly something hit us, knocking out our shields.

- You damned Udina!" I yelled over the air, turning the gun to six o'clock.

- Why Udina?" Shepard asked while I fired plasma at the lone Gondon that shot at us from Kain.

- Only Udina comes up behind you and kicks you in the arse. In every way!" oh, five more Bastions ran up with a lone soldier. They are so raring to fight, but another plasma charge calms them down. Forever.

Five minutes later, everything around the compound was cleared. Not a living soul and only a pile of fresh corpses. We drove up to the squad and disembarked from the Mako. Five Vorka were to guard Kadyak and Mako, and we were to enter the compound after waiting a few more minutes.

- That's it, let's go." Shepard said, and I opened the door.

Something could have been more interesting on the first levels. Warehouses, hangars, a mess hall, restrooms, burnt corpses. Pardon me, dozens of burnt and smoking corpses. Plus, labs related to pharmaceuticals. We scattered through them and began to read all the information. I couldn't do it fast enough, and there was no hurry. Susie calmly answers Cerberus' calls, and they think everything is fine. Kasumi and Taine download data from the servers, but I want to wait to read that rubbish. Let Jack get nostalgic.

- A lot of things have changed around here," Jack said.

- What's changed?" Shepard asked.

- Everything. If my memory serves me correctly, this is where..." Jack looked around the lab, where Shepard and I were. The rest of us were in other rooms, and I was tortured. Drugged, electrocuted. Anything to make me feel pain. Those fuckers thought pain could increase biotic potential.

- Cerberus..." said Shepard, who was already getting angry.

- Yes," Zero replied briefly, "Cerberus.

- The side effect is "a twenty-three per cent increase in Hanar biotic potential," I read the report and all the data from the experiment, "Only Cerberus would consider that a side effect.

- Do the Hanar have biotics?" asked Tali, who had joined us.

- Believe me, baby, they do. I've seen one once," said Jack, "It's like a biotic person who sends four or even five blasts at you at once. Or shoots you with two strains at once.

- They're that tough?" the Captain wondered.

- They hide it, and the Salarians can't swim enough to spy on them," Jack replied.

- How did you defeat that Hanar?" asked Tali.

- I didn't. Then I discovered what it was like to be penetrated by a hanar. It's not a pleasant sensation..." Yeah, I shouldn't have asked Jack that. There's a lot the BioWare didn't tell us.

- All right, let's move on." Shepard turned the conversation around and contacted the others, "Hey, guys, what do you get?

- "Increase human biotic potential by fifteen per cent. Side effects are pancreatic failure," said Garrus.

- "Increase human biotic potential by one hundred and thirty per cent. Side effects - increase libido by fifteen times," came Liara's voice.

- "Increase biotic potential in krogan by seventy per cent. Side effects - impotence." I don't need to use that shit!" Rex growled.

- "Increase biotic potential in humans. Thirty per cent. Adrenal failure, pituitary failure, rejection of L implants-two, three, four. Subjects ten. Humans. Mortality, ninety per cent. One survivor. Disabled. Disposed of." Mordin mumbled.

- What do you mean, disposed of? Tali asked.

- Mostly strangulation or broken necks," Jack said, looking at Tali. "They needed brains for research so they couldn't shoot him in the head. They couldn't administer a drug to stop breathing or cardiac arrest; they didn't want to change the blood test result. Everything was used for research, even shit and semen. Then into the incinerator.

- All right, let's get all the data and go. Shepherd said.

There were more labs. Mostly everything was related to drugs and doping for human biotics. Except for some data, no one would do anything for such experiments except perhaps punishment for unauthorised research, but that was just a fine. But there was still the underground complex.

The lift took us two hundred metres underground. Deep, though. Considering we're carrying a pretty big device. Yeah, one megaton underground, that's a lot to handle.

The atmosphere has stayed the same - silence, smouldering corpses and a lot of equipment. We walked down the corridor and dispersed to the labs. I, Shepard and Jack found something right away.

It was a man if you can call it that. Only he was half husky.

- Holy crap. They-- They turned him into a husky? Shepherd asked while I was checking the data.

- Almost. He's still alive, but he's in a coma. Post-op. Bone, skin, muscle, pacemaker, eyes replaced, kidneys and bladder replaced with implants, reproductive system removed. And a bunch of other implants, plus some in his brain. Plus, he's a biotic.

- Fucking bitches. They're already growing people into creatures." Jack fumed.

- I want to tear this place apart myself. But we need to figure out what they were doing here.

- Captain," Samara said, "there are nine Collectors. They're all open. It looks like they were able to extract the implants.

- Shepard, over here! Hurry up!" Garrus shouted, and we ran towards the turian. "Open the fucking thing!" Garrus growled, and I could even understand his language. Then we heard gunshots. Running over to him and everyone else who had come before us, we saw a strange sight. Rex was trying to break through the glass in the wall; Grant was trying to open the door. Garrus was growling at Tali, who was trying to open the door, and something was out of the ordinary behind the glass.

There were four beds in the lab, with bodies lying on all of them. Three of them were covered with tarps, but here was one... It was an Azari, about sixty to sixty-five years old, a child. She was completely naked, chained to a table, and some machine with daggers was starting to work on her. There was no way to open the door; it was mechanically blocked, and the glass was not penetrated by krogan, plasma, or lasers. The Azari herself was screaming wildly, but we couldn't hear anything. Nothing at all.

After another second, we learnt the purpose of this machine attached to the ceiling. After fixing Azari's arms, legs and head, the machine stuck out a ten-centimetre-long spike. And then this spike sharply pierced the belly of this unfortunate woman.

Our panic was growing. There was nothing we could do to help her. We had already shot the entire squad into the glass until it overheated, but the glass was too strong.

Meanwhile, Azari was being sucked out. We'd already seen her skin tighten around her ribs and other bones. We've seen her transform into a native of Oswenzem. We've already realised that nothing will help. We would not be able to save her.

After a minute of this spectacle, the poor thing just withered away. Next to her was a machine with a cylinder filled with blue liquid. These things just sucked all the fluid out of her like a tube. And after this, Ghost says he's doing it for the good of humanity. And he asks himself, is this collection of meat bags worthy of such sacrifices? Is humanity worthy of children suffering in the name of both good and might? Did this fucking scum of his passionate beliefs ask if humanity was worthy of the power he was trying to give it with his research? My guess is no.

- Shepard, let's blow this place to fuckin' krogan shit up," Garrus said dryly but with anger, rage and passionate fury. I don't think he'd ever seen anything like it. Neither has anyone else. I shook my head at Mordin, telling him to shut up. Kasumi and Thayne weren't there; they were still in the server room and just gathering other information. Jack, Grant, and Rex were also blazing with righteous anger, and Legion had been sending me requests for a digital link for beat seconds. I was turning him down. I wasn't in the mood to talk.

- Take the bomb and move on," Shepard ordered, and then, to avoid any other outrage, added, "There may be more survivors out there," which was an argument for everyone to double back.

- Fuckers," Jack said out loud, uninhibited, as we walked down the corridors, "Fucking fucking faggots!!!" after that, she blazed with biotics and slammed the glass of some lab with all her might. The glass didn't even crack, but Jack howled, "Fuck! It doesn't even take fucking glass to break glass!

- Um, Shepard, I..." Kasumi started awkwardly, "I saw what was in there. We tried to stop it, but it was controlled from that room. Someone must have been in there. It made us stop.

- Can you get the door open? Shepherd asked.

- No. It's blocked—some compressed-air mechanism. Welding's the only way out now.

- Then let's keep going. Whoever it is, one megaton is enough. No one argued with the Captain. What's the point? If we couldn't open it then, we can't open it now.

- You know, we've been going through the mail. It looks like Jack was going to be brought here after Agent Taylor was supposed to ransom her from Purgatory," came the thief's voice.

- So you rescued me, yes." It wasn't a question Jack asked; it was a statement. She was well aware of the mess she'd been rescued from.

- Is something wrong?" the Captain asked without even turning round.

- No. Thank you. This place is worse than ever. I remember being fucked by several men at once. It was one of the tortures. Still, I was about ten years old. But to be fucked like that. Sucking me alive. I'd rather go through drug therapy again than accept that kind of death." There was no response. Everyone just walked on in silence.

We found ourselves in a kind of punishment cell when we opened another door. On either side of the corridor were cells with glass doors. And there were sentients everywhere. Humans, Drell, Turians, Azari, Hanar. And everyone was alive. They spotted us and immediately started calling for help, banging on the glass, but we couldn't hear anything.

We switched on the sound as we approached the first cell, where there was a gaunt man in his thirties.

- Can you hear me? Shepherd asked.

- Yeah. Yeah, I can hear you. Look, let's..." The guy leaned against the glass, and I could see his breath, "let's get laid. You've got so many girls. Let's all fuck! It's so great! I just haven't fucked in three days! I'm so excited! You've got two Azaria! TWO! How many do you need? One's enough for you! And one for me! Or you could give me a Quarian! How about it? An Azari for you and a Quarian for me. Why are you looking at me like that? I'd rather you didn't look at me and let me fuck someone else. Why don't you say anything? Just open the door so I can get laid!!! - I switched off the sound and started looking at the file of this unstable man.

- He's been tested for biotic doping. The side effect is increased libido. He can't think about anything else.

- We should release him. Shepard said, but I didn't agree.

- I don't think so. He's a criminal—a repeat offender. Thirty-two murders and seventeen rapes, and that's just the proven ones. I reckon the others are the same.

- We should check it out," Garrus said, and Shepherd agreed.

- I wish I hadn't," I concluded when I'd checked all twenty cameras, "Hanar, the rapist pervert. Drell, the paedophile. Ardath-Yakshi murderer, mercenary group, sectarian. Fuck this shit. Let's move on! This place was unbearable. We'll fly somewhere and get drunk as soon as we get out of here. Legion and I won't be able to do that, but the rest of us will need a release after this.

And next, after a few corridors and doors, we spotted the pinnacle of Ghost's madness. It was a huge hangar-like room with a thresher in the centre of it. A living one trapped in a glass tube. Inside, it glowed the bluish glow of implants and spitting biotics.

- 'It's...' Tali said in a low voice.

- Yeah. A biotic thresher. Cerberus is smoking something," I said.

- Kasumi, can you release him into the wild?" Shepard asked suddenly.

- Yeah. Do it?

- Do it. The airlock in the pipe opened, and the thresher crawled out quickly. We all moved on. The scanners were already showing a strange room with many corridors leading into it. I recognised it from the construction layout Kasumi had sent me. Five corridors were going there, and a lift to the upper levels. A separate one. There was something in there that Cerberus needed.

Opening the door to this very room, we immediately saw a dozen scientists. And another human figure encased in tight black armour but suspended above the floor. The figure was female, half of its head hidden by a helmet. But there was something painfully familiar about the chin.

- Hey, you! - suddenly a scientist, about 55-60 years old, - Did you organise all this? What do you want? Who are you? Mercenaries?

- Shut your face before I rip it out." Shepard snarled. None of the scientists were armed so that we could relax. Now try and explain to me what's going on here. And you better not piss me off.

- Look, this is Cerberus' biotics lab.

- Biotics?!" Jack couldn't take it anymore!

- Zero?" said the scientist, who took a step back in surprise, "Is that you?

- And who the fuck are you?

- Dr Hargil. Human. Scientist. Systems Alliance. Missing three years, two months and seventeen days ago." the Legion reported. It looks like the geth had some information on him.

- Hargil? It's time for Jack to wonder, Hargil.

- Dr Hargil, Zero's condition has stabilised.

- Good. Next time, increase the total dose by ten cc's.

- Of course.

- What other ideas do you have?

- We could influence her. Sexually.

- Rape? That's an idea. All right, find the right tools. Let's try it out.

- I do not see any improvement.

- Well, it was worth a try as long as we didn't hurt Zero.

- Doctor, we've got a-- Trouble. It looks like Zero's pregnant.

- What? I told you to use protection during the experiment!

- I don't think it's the experiment; I was there to supervise. I think it's one of the guards. Took advantage of her.

- Remove the baby and take it to research. Run DNA tests on all male staff. Eliminate the culprit. If he's healthy, make him a donor. We're short on blood donors again. Also, be careful with Zero—all eleven years.

- Hargil.

And then everything resembled a massacre. Or rather, that's what it was. Jack lit up with biotics and directed the biotics at Hargil. It just pulverised him into bloody dust. Even his muscles and organs turned to crumbs. Jack then found herself beside another scientist and punched him in the chest. Breaking his ribcage and ribs, which punctured his lungs, and then hitting the wall hard. The third Zero was torn in half, then punched at the man, who flew ten metres away and crashed practically through the ceiling. The fifth and sixth Jack picked up, slammed into the ceiling, and then sealed and flattened against the floor. The singularity lifted the last four and was torn apart by its warp blast.

That was the end of it. Jack quickly began to back away. Dropping to the floor, she breathed deeply while I tried to find out what was suspending her. Digging into the settings, I lifted her helmet, and immediately, Shepard and Tali freaked out.

- What the..." Shepard asked though I was surprised.

- So much for loyalty to Cerberus," I said, looking at Miranda Lawson's face.