“Communication encryption indicates the presence of Cerberus, Shepard” EDI provided “However I am detecting communications in a different channel with altered encryption. Cerberus-based too.”
Her tone made the commander stare at the robot beside her “Could it be the deserter faction we heard about?”
The Robot nodded “There is a 98.8 probability.”
Cortez spoke from the cockpit making Diana turn his way “We’ve got visual commander; it doesn’t seem as if they have detected us….” He leaned to a side, looking directly at her “you might want to take a look at this ma’am.”
Diana nodded and pulled herself to her feet to activate the screen, which descended from the ceiling to allow the whole strike team to watch.
A bunch of Cerberus troops had been deployed around a massive door -a hangar, from the look of it- and there were a few defenders: the unarmored ones were dressed in the common white, black and yellow slacks of Cerberus, the others wore a set of black-and-red bulky armors with big, round, golden visors that covered everything but their mouths.
It was these who were doing most of the job of keeping the Cerberus forces away from the door, while the others appeared to be a group of refugees that had been cut-off from the main group.
Shepard watched the screen for a while until she gasped “Cortez get us down there quickly!”
“What is it, Shepard?” Garrus asked, his mandibles twitching. For all answer, the human pointed at a particular black-clad figure and the Turian’s mouth hung open. “Taylor. I guess that answers the question of where he ended up after the Normandy got impounded.”
“Impounded?” Kaidan asked with a raised eyebrow “You make it sound as if you guys had a run-in with the authorities over a speeding ticket.”
The rest of the crew on the shuttle chuckled.
“I don’t recognize those armors” Liara piped up, pointing to the figured in red and black “are they Cerberus too?”
“Might be.” Diana answered with a grimace. The only real thing she wanted from Cerberus right now was the Illusive man’s head on a plate and Kay Leng’s burning at the stake. After the citadel coup and their stealing the Prothean VI on Thessia, she was out for blood.
“We’re here Commander” Cortez hit the switch to open the side door for them to climb down of the Kodyak. “I’ve detected incoming Cerberus reinforcements; ETA 10 minutes.”
Shepard nodded, unclipping her precision rifle from her back, which automatically unfolded and was ready for use as the scope fell to level with her eyes. “You heard it people! We have the element of surprise, let’s use it. Kaidan, you and Vega have point; Liara, Tali, cover their flanks, Garrus and I will snipe those bastards to kingdom come!”
They all nodded and silently moved forward, Shepard kept a look-out for Jacob, really wanting to see him again. She has spent the six month she had spent in the ‘cooler’ because of what happened with the Alpha Relay, thinking about him. She had enjoyed that one night before their raid of the collector Base, but in truth she only did that because of her fall-off with Kaidan.
Right now she and the marine were acting civil, but there was still much to do in order to clear the water between them… not that she had the time to do it, with the Galaxy coming apart as it was.
She found and climbed over a pile of crates and used the top-most as cover. It was far from ideal, but it gave her the advantage of higher ground, where she could snipe to her heart’s content. “Kaidan, charge once we open fire. You want to catch them with their pants down.”
