Interesting Times

September 3rd, 2167

19:16 SET, [04:16 Local Time]

[Classified]

Lieutenant Commander Niles Smith, N5

Two muffled shots got fired, and two bodies dropped to the ground.

There were no cries of surprise or pain, and the alarm didn't start blaring. Everything was nice and quiet.

That was how Niles liked his operations to go, without any problems.

It wasn't like his team couldn't win a full-blown firefight, far from it. After all, they were N5 and even slated to undergo further training in the N6 course. So it wasn't their ability that made Niles reluctant to engage enemies directly.

Being stealthy had just many more advantages.

If one overlooked that this mission was supposed to be as quiet as possible, then one just had to look at the obvious advantages of doing this quietly.

If the enemy didn't know you were there, then the element of surprise would be on your side. Ending a fight before it really begins was easy with it on your side.

This, in turn, would reduce the chance of getting wounded in battle. No matter how skilled one was, a lucky shot could still kill you, and while Medi-gel was good, it couldn't bring one back from death's door. The best it could do in those times was to keep you alive long enough that a trained medic or doctor could help you.

So, no matter what people say about scars being the proof of a fighter, Niles preferred to get his team through their missions without adding new ones to their already impressive collections.

Besides, it would be detrimental to their mission to get spotted by the enemy right now.

Bravo-Team had entered the building on its northern side to be closer to the staircase leading to the upper floors where the intel report said the laboratories were. They were supposed to locate the main laboratory and gather information about what exactly Cerberus was doing in them. If they came into contact with any scientist, they were to subdue them so that the researchers could be interrogated about their work later.

In the meantime, Alpha-Team, Niles' team, would infiltrate the server rooms and download everything that looked important. Intel hadn't been sure of the security features of the servers and if it was possible to shut them down from afar, but if they got spotted, most of the data would be irrevocably destroyed when they arrived there.

Especially since the server rooms were in the second basement, and on the floor above them were the guard's barracks.

It just needed one person to initialize the erasing procedure while the other guards would block their way. The moment Niles' team arrived, there would be nothing left.

The problem was that there was no direct way to the server rooms. The whole building had been constructed with the idea of delaying invaders.

Individual staircases connected the floors with each other, making it impossible to reach the second basement from the ground floor without crossing the first basement. The same was true for the upper floors.

It would make the evacuation harder, too, but Niles was sure that the key personnel knew about hidden service ladders to escape quickly.

Niles felt a tap on his back from Anya, his second-in-command, asking if everything was alright.

He nodded sharply and pointed at the two bodies in front of them. Even without further elaboration, Anya understood what Niles wanted to say.

She relayed to George, their third teammate, that they would drag the bodies into an empty room to hide them.

George didn't need to know anything more and started to make his way to one of the bodies.

While Anya and George dragged the bodies away, Niles checked if there were any obvious blood traces. After all, nothing screams that something happened as loud as a pool of blood.

Satisfied that there were no hints that something had happened, Niles moved towards the hallway's corner to listen for any patrols.

He closed his eyes to concentrate on his hearing, listening for any footsteps, but the only thing he heard was the soft pounding of his heart.

There were two reasons why he communicated with his teammates nonverbally. The first one was that they could focus on their surroundings much better without the additional noise from speaking. After all, one never knew what they could fail to hear during their conversations. Hearing the footsteps of a guard in advance or not could spell the success or failure of a mission.

The second one was that even if their in-helmet communicators prevented their voices from being heard by others, the radio waves could still be detected by the right equipment. In the worst case, their enemy could even hack into their communicators and listen to their plans. Nonverbal communication had no such disadvantages.

Furthermore, Niles liked how this way of communication forced them to adapt their behavior.

Orders, questions, and answers had to be precise and to the point due to the limited vocabulary of hand gestures. No move could be wasted when relaying something of importance to the mission. If one compared the time it took to say: There are three enemies spread out in the room and the gestures for enemies, three, spread out, the latter one would win.

Besides, training the nonverbal communication with his team had led to more than one enjoyable evening when they tried to form the silliest sentences possible.

At the memory of their last 'training' session, a smile darted over his face before it disappeared just as fast.

Right now wasn't the time to recall fond memories. They had a mission to accomplish.

The opening of a door alerted him that his team had finished hiding the bodies of the two Cerberus soldiers.

He didn't need to look back to see that they positioned themselves behind him when he got ready to turn around the corner.

In a fluid motion, he stepped out into the open. He checked the corridor for any possible enemies with his rifle at the ready.

Not seeing any, he nodded once and slowly went forward, knowing that his teammates would follow him.

He didn't lower his rifle for even a second, securing the front.

George did the same on the other end, walking backward, while Anya switched between looking at every door they passed.

The group moved slowly but steadily.

Niles' eyes flew over a camera on the ceiling, positioned to watch over the part of the corridor where the door to the staircase that would lead them to the first basement was.

For a moment, he worried that the newest addition to their hardsuits would fail but calmed down fast. If that happened, Charlie Team, who, besides disrupting enemy communication, was responsible for monitoring the enemy, would give them a call.

The newest addition to their hardsuits, called by the scientists 'The Veil', was a new piece of equipment that would hack into wireless cameras and freeze the picture as long as they were in reach of it.

It worked only for cameras within a radius of seven meters, and the signal of the 'Veil' was unable to penetrate walls.

The last point was actually a benefit, in Niles' opinion. After all, it would be hard to explain why a guard stopped midstep on another floor when the people sitting before the security monitors saw the frozen picture.

They finally arrived at the door to the staircase, and Niles positioned himself on one side of it while George did the same on the other side.

Meanwhile, Anya had positioned herself in front of the door, her rifle at shoulder height, ready to secure the staircase.

With a final glance, Niles checked if she was ready. When he saw that she was, he took his left hand off his rifle and laid the palm of his hand flat on the door. The orange light of his Omni-tool flared up as a hacking program started automatically to open the door.

A soft ping was the only warning before the hacking program finished and the door opened, disappearing into the wall. Without missing a beat, Anya was through the door and checked everywhere for hidden guards. Not seeing any, she took a few steps back, leaving the staircase to rejoin her team in the corridor.

She turned in the direction Niles was looking and nodded sharply, telling him that there was nobody. He returned the nod and took a step back, turning ninety degrees on his feet to face the staircase himself.

He went through the door, and Anya and George took their positions in their formation. The staircase was narrow, and if Niles had to describe it, he would call it a service ladder rather than a proper staircase. But it was to be expected since the personnel inside the building usually used the elevator, but that wasn't an option. If the elevator moved without anyone in it, the guards would get suspicious, and the 'Veil' wouldn't help them there.

They arrived at the end of the staircase, and Niles held up a fist, signaling the rest of the team to stop.

He activated his Omni-tool to activate the audio-amplifier function of his helmet to hopefully detect if there were enemies on the other side of the exit door. Since they couldn't just open the door without knowing if there was someone, it was their best chance.

After Niles had activated the function, he closed his eyes to concentrate.

He stood there silently for almost a minute, controlling his breathing, listening for any sounds.

Just as he was about to give the all-clear sign, he heard something from the other side of the door.

It was faint, but luckily, it repeated one more time, and Niles could identify it, having heard it often enough during his training for stealth infiltrations.

It was the sound of two armor parts rubbing at each other. Those sounds happened if someone's hardsuit wasn't formfitting or designed for stealth, and the wearer didn't stand still.

When someone moved their weight from one foot to the other, their legs brushed against each other and created the sound that Niles had just heard.

His teammates had noticed that he had clenched his still raised fist harder and tensed in their positions, ready to spring into action.

Yet, Niles didn't give any orders, his mind racing to figure out how to approach this situation. The only thing he knew for sure was that at least one person was on the other side. It could be two, or it could even be three. Without any means to check how many guards were there, they would have to do this almost completely blind.

In the end, they had no choice but to press forward. They couldn't accomplish their mission by staying here.

And it wasn't like they hadn't trained for situations like this.

He unclenched his fist and began to signal his team about the minimum of one enemy on the other side of the door and that they would use the 'Quick and Down' formation to take him and everyone else down.

He didn't take his eyes off the door but felt the tap on his back, Anya signaling him that she and George understood the plan.

Niles moved to the left side of the door, pressing himself to the wall to clear enough space for his teammates.

With deft hands, he exchanged his rifle for his silenced pistol. The short weapon didn't have the same stopping power as his rifle, but it would be more than enough. Besides, using a smaller weapon in close combat was more practical.

He watched as his team got in position and nodded to himself when he saw that George had changed his weapon to his pistol. Then he looked to Anya, who stood between them with her left arm raised and glowing orange from her activated Omni-tool, waiting for his command to open the door.

Once he gave the command, the action happened so fast that not even five seconds went by before everything was finished.

Anya pressed her arm forward, lightly touching the door before her arm snapped back to raise her rifle, ready to secure the front.

The door split in the middle and opened, its halves sliding smoothly into the wall. With barely enough space to move, Niles and George raised their pistols and turned around the edges of the door.

Before his mind had the chance to comprehend what Niles had seen, his body had corrected the aim of his pistol to the helmeted head of a Cerberus guard. At the same moment, his finger had pressed the trigger, and a soft "Pop" announced the firing of a shot.

Simultaneously, the scene was repeated behind him by George.

As the body began to drop to the floor, Niles' left arm snapped forward to grab it, stopping it from falling to avoid the noise it would make if the armor hit the floor.

Quickly he holstered his gun to use his right hand to hold the body up. When he had the body secured in his grip, he began to drag the body to the staircase.

He grimaced when he noticed that there were no places to hide a body effectively, let alone two. Still, they had no choice but to dump the dead guards here. The only other option would have been to carry the bodies with them until they found an unused room, and that was, at best, a stopgap solution.

Time wasn't on their side. The bodies they had hidden on the ground floor could be found anytime, and by that time, Niles wanted to be inside the server room, already downloading as much as they could.

Niles made a decision and let the body fall to the ground. They just had to hope that nobody would use the staircase instead of the elevator.

He stepped outside into the hallway, and he saw how Anya had her Omni-tool pointed at a camera on the ceiling. When she noticed him, she lifted her right index finger up and moved it in a circle, telling him that she was currently manipulating the video feed of the camera. After she finished, it would show how the two dead guards would still stand to the side of the door to the staircase, even when they moved out of the range of the 'Veil'.

Just as George stepped out too, Anya finished her work, and they got ready to continue.

Their way to the next staircase that would take them was uninterrupted.

The only time they stopped had been when they came across the entry to the room where most of the guards slept.

Niles took the time to place a small device on the upper doorframe that would only send a signal and picture to his HUD when somebody went through the door and the invisible laser it sent down.

Yet they were making good time and didn't meet any other Cerberus personnel until they arrived in the second basement.

Unlike what had happened at the door to the first basement, Niles hadn't heard anything unusual, even if he had been extra cautious and waited for two full minutes.

Fortunately, when they stepped into the hallway, no guard had stood outside of Niles' hearing range that could have been alerted by their entrance.

Niles mentally recalled the map of the place that Intel had acquired. After confirming which way they had to go, he signaled his team that they would walk down the right half of the corridor.

Just before they arrived at the corner to the corridor, where the server room was, Niles spotted a sign over a large door.

It read Morgue, and Niles had to think of the reason why Cerberus would need a morgue in this research facility and what they would find there when they searched through the place more thoroughly.

Yet that was a question for the time when they had finished their primary task.

As they stood hidden behind the corner, Niles grabbed at the small knicked tube that had been fixed to his left breast.

He pulled the tube away from his chest and expanded the attached cable through his action.

The tube was nothing special, only a video camera that saved its recordings in the internal computers of his hardsuit, but it had one function that would come in handy right now.

With a quick command of his Omni-tool, Niles opened a small window on his HUD that showed the live broadcast of the camera.

Due to the fact that the top of the camera was knicked, Niles could use it to peek around the corner without any part of his body showing.

What he saw nearly caused him to swear loudly.

There was one guard standing at the end of the one-way corridor, but that was what Niles had expected. He would be no problem, one precise shot, and it would be over.

No, what he was angry to see was that there was one camera that was outside of the range of the 'Veil' if the program he had run over the video was correct.

He turned to his to and communicated what he had seen and the problem they faced.

The only solution to avoid detection by the camera came from Anya, who suggested they use a signal amplifier to boost the range of the Veil. Even if it would be suspicious when the signal strength of the other electronic devices fluctuated, it would only be for a few seconds.

The men watching the surveillance monitor would probably think it was just their imagination. Tired people made mistakes, that was a fact.

They would have to move fast, but their plan was doable. Anya would activate the signal amplifier while Niles would take the shot to take the guard out. The moment they were in range for the Veil to work normally, Anya would deactivate the amplifier and then make sure that the camera showed a picture with the guard still standing in front of the door.

A single nod was all that was needed to show that they were ready.

With Anya's Omni-tool ready, Niles held up three fingers to show the countdown.

When his last finger went down, they sprung into action.

The Cerberus guard had only enough time to begin to lift his weapon before a high-speed bullet tore through his helmet and lodged itself into his head, stopping his barely formed thought of defending himself.

Not caring that their steps were louder than usual, they moved fast towards the server room door, and when Niles threw a look back, he saw that Anya had already deactivated the signal amplifier and was instead pointing her Omni-tool at the camera, hacking it while she moved.

Niles arrived at the door and dragged the body to the side, making it easier for Anya to approach it. By the time he did, Anya had already finished with the camera and was crouching before the door to the server room with her Omni-tool still activated.

It took her only twenty seconds before she circumvented the locking and alarm mechanism, and the door slid open soundlessly.

Anya went through first and stopped just a step beyond the doorstep to check if there were more people inside the room.

She took a step back so that Niles could see her head and nodded to show that the room was clear.

Niles still had his hands on the dead guard and began to drag him into the room. When he entered the room, Niles let the body fall to the side with just enough distance between it and the door for a person to stand.

He didn't handle the body with his usual care, but he was currently more interested if Anya had already managed to gain access to the servers.

As he went along the rows of computers, he took a moment to take a look around the room.

There were only five rows, but they spanned the whole length of the room and were as high as a man. Between each row was enough space to walk and turn around comfortably to access the computers on each side.

And that was what Anya was currently trying.

She stood on the far end of a row, and the light of an interface illuminated her helmet.

Before he walked toward her, he threw one last look to the door to see George walking backward into the room, his rifle at the ready, until the door closed before him.

George saw him, lowered his rifle, and raised his left hand. His ring finger and thumb made a circle while the rest of his fingers pointed straight up.

That way, he gave Niles to understand that he placed a short-range camera outside of the server room to observe the hallway and see if enemies closed in on them.

He positioned himself by the door and relaxed against the wall next to it, keeping an eye on the video for any suspicious activity.

If anything happened, George would hold them back until Niles and Anya could come to help.

The location of the server room was both an advantage and a disadvantage. Enemies would come only from one direction, so they wouldn't have to worry about getting flanked or hit in the back if they were attacked, but at the same time, it would be hard to withdraw if it became too much.

If it came to that, it would be hard to fight their way out but still doable for their team in Niles' mind. They had the training and the abilities. Furthermore, they had the support of six more N5-soldiers who were just as good as them.

With quick steps, Niles made his way toward Anya, who was tipping fervently on the holographic console before her.

He stopped beside her and looked at the interface where rows upon rows of computer code ran over the screen.

While computers were not his specialty, Niles still understood enough to know that Anya was still trying to get around the security systems.

His right hand came up to his head, and Niles tipped two times at the side of his helmet, activating his loudspeaker to talk to Anya normally.

"Are you making progress?" he asked, his voice slightly rough from not using it for so long.

For a moment, Anya's tipping speed lowered, but she didn't stop when her hand snapped to her helmet to activate her loudspeaker.

"The systems here are different from the rest of the building," Anya explained. "It wouldn't surprise me if the person who created these security features was someone else. Every programmer has a distinct style, and from their style, you can tell who it is and how good they are. And this one is way more talented than the one who created the security for the rest of the building. If I had to make a comparison between them, then it would be store-bought vs. commissioned work."

"How much more time do you need?" asked Niles, not even a shred of doubt in his mind that Anya would be able to bypass the security.

"None," said Anya and hit one last key.

The screen changed with her press of a key. The lines of code disappeared, and, in their place, neat rows of digital folders appeared.

"Everything is here," said Anya smugly. "From here, we can access every bit of information that is saved on the servers. There is a connection to another network off-planet, so I guess, theoretically, I could get access to their main network, but to get into that, well, that's something completely different. I only took a quick look and was almost caught."

"Shouldn't that be impossible?" questioned Niles. "I mean, connecting to their main network. Charlie-team should interfere with their communication."

"They should, but the data connection is independent of the communication network. Their communication runs side by side with those of the colony, but the amount of data that goes in and out of this place is too big to keep it hidden from the authorities."

"So they have an extra satellite dish somewhere they use for the servers. Can they use it for communication?"

"In theory, yes," answered Anya. "But it is easier to use the network of the colony. Safer, too. You have to understand that the bandwidth of the satellite dish isn't that big, to begin with. It's barely large enough that files can be sent and received. Furthermore, it's slow. The only thing they could do is send text messages."

"Alright. How goes the download?"

"It is a lot of data, probably too much for me to save on my intern data memory. I haven't begun the download yet. I'm still trying to decrypt their classification system. They use a combination of letters and numbers that I haven't seen before, but it bears a resemblance to one the Alliance uses."

"Civilian or military?"

"Military," answered Anya.

Even if Niles couldn't see it, he knew that Anya had a frown on her face. He knew it because he had the same expression hidden by his helmet.

"Do you know the security level of the Alliance code this one is based on?" asked Niles.

"It's an OSC-08, an officer code. Not that high up, but still. If they have people at the officer level, the AIS will make sure that they have only access to secret information they want them to know."

"Counterespionage tactics at their finest, right Commander?"

"Yes, the AIS knows their stuff in and out," chuckled Niles lightly. Then his expression changed to something more serious.

"I just wish that we wouldn't have to use them on our own people. Humans have fought enough among each other. We should concentrate our efforts on the other species."

"I would call it human nature," said Anya, not taking a break from tipping, " but I'm sure that the other species have the same problems. People want power, and they believe that they are the only ones that know how that power should be used. Those from Cerberus believe just that. I read the latest briefing on their ideology. They think that the Alliance is playing too nice with the Citadel and that us joining them was a terrible mistake."

"I read that one too," said Niles. "It would be interesting to know how much the leadership of Cerberus knows about what's going on behind the scenes. Even we N5 know that the top brass is not interested in staying under the Council's wing. It's only a matter of time until we can stand toe to toe with any Council race or even the whole Council."

"That's the goal, Commander, but that moment is still ways off."

Before Niles could respond to her statement, Anya's Omni-tool played a short melody.

A screen opened above her left arm and displayed a few lines of code that Niles couldn't see clearly from his position.

Anya's head didn't even tilt in its direction, but Niles knew that her eyes flew over the displayed information ever so often.

The speed of her hands flying over the keyboard increased in such a way that it seemed like her fingers were nothing but a blur.

When she slowed down, a new window opened on both the interface of the server and the screen of her Omni-tool, showing the progress of an ongoing download.

"I got a partial decryption. It's not perfect, but at least I can identify the type of files they saved. Currently, I'm downloading every file that is marked with CQ-3-LD. Those should be those that report the progress of the research done in this facility. I can't find out who exactly gets these reports, but it's definitely someone higher up in the chain of command of Cerberus. Shall I try to find out who?"

"Not yet," ordered Niles firmly. "We can't be sure if it's possible to track you if you try to get the information. Download everything that seems important before you try anything else. We can't let those files get destroyed."

"Understood, sir."

Niles didn't know how long he stood there, watching over Anya's shoulder how she moved file after file to her hardsuit's internal memory.

It couldn't have been more than five minutes before the screen of her still activated Omni-tool suddenly flashed red.

"Fuck!" cursed Anya loud enough that Niles would have heard it even if her loudspeakers were off.

"What happened?!" he asked concernedly.

"Someone started the purge protocol. They're deleting everything!"

"Fuck!" repeated Niles Anya's earlier curse. "Try to get as much as you can. The more important, the better. I'm going to see if everything's right with George. They're going to swarm the room."

Anya didn't even turn his way when he left her to her work.

His steps became faster with every step he took, and when he almost arrived at George's position, who stiffened at Nile's approach, a communication link was opened by Bravo-Team's leader.

"Alpha-1, this is Bravo-1. A patrol discovered us, and a silent alarm notified the garrison of our presence. I'm sure they are approaching your position, too," informed him Bravo-1, whose name Niles didn't know.

"Copy that," said Niles. "Any problems on your end?"

"Data retrieved, two targets apprehended. Position secure, can beat off," replied Bravo-1, using barely enough words to convey his situation.

While Niles didn't know how Bravo-1's personality was outside of missions or even who he was, every time they worked together, Bravo-1 would act this way.

It didn't matter what kind of situation he was in, be it a shoot-out or just standing guard over a position. Any time he talked, he would only say enough so that people could understand what was going on.

For example, in just ten words, Bravo-1 had told Niles that they got most, or even all, available information about the experiments and research Cerberus was doing in the laboratories on the first and second floor while, at the same time, taking two of their researchers' prisoner.

Furthermore, they had found a place from where they could defend themselves effectively from any Cerberus attack.

A ping on Niles' Omniu-tool informed him that the light sensor he had placed at the barrack had been tripped, and a short video had been sent to his Omni-tool, showing that at least half a dozen guards had gone through the door before the video was interrupted.

He cursed inside his mind and said to Bravo-1 loud enough that George could hear him too: "Be advised, multiple hostiles on their way. Prepare for combat."

A short "Copy that" was the only response before their communication line was closed.

George, who had checked his rifle when he heard Niles, asked:" Do we know how many are coming at us?"

Niles shook his head and replied:" At least half a dozen have left their barracks. It could be more, and I don't know if they are coming to us or went to confront Bravo-Team."

"Any news from Charlie-Team?"

"No, they're keeping watch outside. If something happens, they will inform us, but keep radio silence otherwise."

"Understood."

They stood in silence on each side of the door, trying to listen for approaching footsteps.

It didn't take long until they did.

It sounded like a group was running in their direction. It was impossible for Niles to say how many exactly there were since they had no way to see the corridor as the door to the server room was closed.

"They seem to know that we're here," said George, gripping his rifle tighter. "Do you think they found out about us tampering with the camera?"

"It's possible," conceded Niles, narrowing his eyes in contemplation.

"Open the door," said Niles after deciding on a plan of action.

George turned his head in his direction questioningly but activated his Omni-tool to follow Niles' order.

"A closed door is a hindrance more to us than them," explained Niles. "We need to know what they're doing, and I don't think we can hack into the camera when they know of us. Besides, I don't like it if we have no way to fight them effectively."

The door opened, and not a moment later, a hail of bullets followed, missing George and Niles and burrowing themselves into the wall at the other end of the room.

Niles and George held out their rifles into the opening and fired back blind. They weren't confident that they would hit anyone, but that wasn't their intention anyway. This move was to force the enemy into cover, giving them a breather to organize an effective counterattack and to see what they were dealing with.

The two of them shared a nod before Niles held out his rifle to fire again, ignoring that the heat of his rifle was becoming too much for it to handle before it would go into a forced cool-down. At the same moment, George moved slightly out of cover to look into the corridor and to see where their enemies stood.

His head snapped back not a moment too soon as the Cerberus guards returned fire.

"I counted five, one down on the floor. I think we got lucky and hit him before they could get into cover. Still, there could be more," said George loudly to be heard over the noise of gunfire.

"Activate your thermal sensors," said Niles, making up a plan on the fly. "We cover them in smoke and try to take out as many as possible before they wise up and stay in cover until the smoke is cleared."

Both took a smoke grenade from their belts and, on the count of three, threw them down the hallway. The grenades landed on the floor and rolled a few meters before they exploded in a cloud of smoke.

Niles could hear the surprised shouts of the Cerberus guards, and their suppressive fire stopped.

George and Niles took this opportunity and leaned out of their cover.

Thanks to their activated thermal sensors, the Cerberus guards appeared as blazing figures on their HUDs. With trained precision, they took their shots and downed three more enemies before the rest scrambled back into cover.

It had been George who had spotted the grenade rolling toward them, and he was also the one to give Niles a rough shoulder check to push him behind the wall. He had barely enough time to throw himself behind the wall before the grenade exploded in a shower of shrapnel.

Luckily, the grenade hadn't rolled too close, and most of the explosion was caught by the walls of the hallway.

Some of the concussive force went through the open door of the server room, and Niles' head ringed from the loud noise and his unexpected meeting with the floor, but he was alive, and that was what was important.

"Damn, that was close. You alright?" called Niles, concerned if George had been hurt.

"Everything's peachy, sir," responded George who was already back on his feet and taking a peek down the hallway.

"Seems like the explosion blew most of the smoke away. I see no one, so I'm guessing they are taking a breather, too," said George while Niles got up, his legs a bit shaky.

When George saw his Commander's unsteady stand, he asked concerned: "Is everything alright with you? You seem a little bit shaky there."

"Everything's fine," answered Niles, shaking his head to get rid of the remaining confusion.

"What happened?" called a new voice, and to Niles' silent shame, it took him a moment to identify it as Anya's.

"Grenade," replied George gruffly. "Don't worry, we're fine."

"Did you get everything from the servers?" asked Niles after he positioned himself beside the door.

"No, once they started the purge program, it was impossible to stop it. It was not designed to be stopped once it was activated. The only use the servers have now is donating the metals they're made of for new ones," said Anya as she positioned herself beside him.

"So, what's our plan?"

"If they want to play catch with explosives," said Niles, "then I think it's our turn."

A moment later, all three had a grenade in their hands, this time of the explosive variety.

The Cerberus guards had started firing at them again, so Niles had to speak a bit louder to overcome the noise.

"Anya, you throw first," Niles started to explain his plan. "After yours went up, George and I will throw ours as well. When they have exploded, we will use Run-and-Gun. We storm their position and take out as many as we can before they retreat and move forward at the same time. Understood?"

"Understood," answered Anya and George simultaneously.

With a flick of her wrist, Anya sent her grenade down the hallway. She had tweaked the activation time and the force of the explosion so that their enemies could see and hear it coming, which was part of their plan.

The first grenade was a distraction, a deadly one but a distraction nonetheless. It was to force them into cover and to mask the next two that George and Niles would throw further into the hallway and thus closer to the Cerberus guards.

This tactic would hopefully catch them off guard and further disorient or even take some of them out.

They heard a loud shout of "Grenade!" shortly before the explosion happened. Just after the shockwave passed them, George and Niles threw the next two grenades with enough force to reach the end of the hallway and got ready to rush down.

They braced themselves for the explosion, pressing themselves close to the wall.

The second explosion was barely over when they started to run down the hallway. The tempo was fast, but their rifles were steady.

Niles and his team had crossed the distance between the entrance of the server room and the corner of the hallway in less than ten seconds. They turned around the corner and began to shoot at anyone still standing.

It was over in a few seconds, three people fell to the ground to never rise again. One of them had already turned around, trying to run away, but even he was shown no mercy.

Niles walked slowly forward, checking over the bodies on the ground.

He heard a grunt to his left and turned his head to see a Cerberus guard who had been visibly hit by one of the grenades and clung barely to his life.

It wasn't something he liked to do, but it wasn't like it was kinder to just let him be. The man would be dead in a short time, so Niles saw it as mercy rather than a cold-blooded execution when he put a bullet in his head to end his suffering.

Sometimes, you had to do things in this line of work that churned one's stomach.

"Clear!" "Clear!" called George and Anya after checking their surroundings.

"Good, keep an eye out and the ears open for more while we make our way up," ordered Niles.

His teammates answered affirmative and got into their usual position behind Niles.

They moved through the hallways fast but carefully, they had just passed the room labeled as morgue when a transmission came from Charlie-1.

"To all Team-Leads, multiple shuttles just took off a few hundred meters west from our position. It seems like Cerberus evacuated the facility. Be advised, there could still be some Cerberus personnel on the site. Charlie-2 is currently hacking into their security systems. When we know more, I'll contact you again."

Niles had stopped in the middle of the hallway when Charlie-1 told him of the shuttles, and he felt the confused looks of his team on his back.

He still faced forward when he started to tell his team what happened.

"I just got a call from Charlie-1," began Niles. "Multiple shuttles took off in the distance, so the assumption is that Cerberus fled the building. But don't relax just yet, we don't know if there are still some of them around."

"Is there some change in our plan, or are we still en route to the evac point?" asked Anya.

"If Cerberus truly did evac the facility, I think we can investigate a bit more before joining the other teams. I'm curious what we will find in the morgue we just passed. If you have anything against it, say it now, and we will move toward the meeting point."

"I'm for it," answered Anya immediately. "I'm curious, too. I haven't got the time to look over the files I downloaded from the servers. The only thing I know is that they researched something that has to do with biotics."

Meanwhile, George just shrugged, not showing a preference for either option.

"Biotics?" inquired Niles while they turned around to make their way back to the morgue.

"Yes," said Anya, "I could only read some headlines, but it seems like they tried to research how biotics develop in a human body and perhaps how it would be possible to influence the development of eezo-nodes."

"So, we will probably find the bodies of their test subjects," concluded George, who had been listening in on their information exchange.

"That is most likely," confirmed Anya with a hint of sadness in her voice.

It wasn't like she was unused to death or even shaken by it anymore, she had to kill often enough to be desensitized to it, and she could distance herself from her actions.

Yet, that only applied when it happened during combat situations.

The loss of life outside of it just seemed like a waste to her, something unnecessary.

That was one of the reasons why she stayed with the military when they offered her a position as a field agent for the AIS.

She knew a lot about what happened behind the scenes, but if she was honest, she didn't want to know what truly happened in the darkest shadows.

When they arrived at the door to the morgue, a wink with Niles Omni-tool was enough to open it.

He and Anya walked into the room while George waited in the doorframe, keeping the door open and an eye out for anyone approaching them.

The room looked as clean as one expected. If his helmet didn't block smells, Niles was sure that the room would smell heavily of aggressive detergents.

The middle of the room was occupied by two stainless steel tables, with one of them empty, and on the other was what was obviously a human body covered by a white sheet.

At the other end of the room was another door, plastered with hazard signs, ranging from biohazard to radioactive. This was one door, Niles didn't want to open until he had no other choice. It would be better to just take note of it and to call in a team specialized for this kind of situation.

On the right side of the room, closer to the other side than to the entrance, was another table on which a computer stood.

Anya had already started to walk toward it before Niles was even finished taking a look at the whole room.

She pulled the stool that stood before the table back and sat down on it while at the same time starting the computer and connecting it to her Omni-tool.

If she found something important, Anya would let him know, so Niles continued to check out the room.

The opposite wall, the wall to his left, was the most interesting one to him, and perhaps the most disturbing.

Slow steps moved him forward until he stood directly before it.

Three rows with six units each, that was how many cold storage units he saw.

And only three of them were empty.

The number was easy to guess since only three units didn't have a folder that was attached to the hatch.

Niles took one of the folders and opened it. It was a medical record that probably belonged to the woman inside the unit.

"Old style, huh?" muttered Niles to himself while he read through some of the files inside the folder.

The first few pages were nothing out of the ordinary. Name, age, place of birth, old diseases, everything that a standard medical record should have.

Yet, the later pages were anything but ordinary.

They documented how Cerberus had recruited the now dead woman.

Rather, a better word to use would be bought, thought Niles, mildly disgusted.

Her name had been Nicole Ferdian, and she came originally from one of the mega-cities on earth, New Pheonix to be exact.

She, like so many others, didn't have an easy life there.

It was easy to forget that living in a mega-city wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, no matter how grand or beautiful the city looked. If you fell off the grid, then chances were high that you woke up with no memories and fewer organs than before.

Nicole had been one of the unlucky ones born off the grid. Her whole life had been one big struggle to stay alive and support her three younger siblings after their parents passing.

So when somebody came along offering to pay for their education and finding them work outside the slums, was it surprising that she took the offer? She sold herself to buy a better chance for her family.

Niles put the file back into its place before taking another one, skipping the personal information to jump ahead to the documentation of her recruitment.

He had finished three more files, and they told a similar story every time. Desperation was the common theme in all of them. The circumstances differed but were ultimately the same. Be it for their family or themselves, they all went with Cerberus on the promise of a better future.

Just as Niles put away the latest file he had read, Anya said: "Commander, you should probably see this."

Even through the speakers of her helmet that distorted her voice, Niles could hear that there was something that disturbed Anya.

It took him only a moment until he stood at her right shoulder, looking down at the computer screen.

One look was enough to recoil in disgust, and Niles had to force himself not to turn away.

On the computer screen were pictures of an autopsy of a young woman who couldn't be older than her mid-twenties.

To the left of the pictures was a transcript detailing everything the coroner did and what he found.

"What am I looking at," asked Niles after he briefly skimmed the transcript.

"We were lucky that this computer was disconnected from the servers and that the coroner saved his files locally as well.

And what you're looking at is the proof that Cerberus will use everything you have, even in death," answered Anya tensely. "All the women down here died because they were exposed to too much eezo. Cerberus tried to find out what consequences happen when the human body is exposed to eezo and how much is too much."

"But that isn't why you called me over, is it? I know that the Alliance is conducting similar studies, they just don't expose people to eezo deliberately, as far as I know."

"No, it is only part of the reason," agreed Anya before she took a deep breath and continued, "It has something to do with what is behind that door."

Almost casually, she threw her arm out to point at the sealed door, not looking away from the computer screen, and Niles felt how something heavy settled inside his stomach.

"What have you found?" he asked, almost afraid to do so.

"Most of the women were pregnant during the time of their death," said Anya flatly, like all emotions had left her for a moment.

"Pregnant?" repeated Niles, barely believing his ears.

"Yes," answered Anya, her voice still devoid of emotion. "Only two weren't. The coroner's files call them the control subjects. It seems like the human body is even more susceptible to eezo during pregnancy than any other time. Probably the reason why some children are born with the ability to use biotics even when their mothers came into contact with eezo only very briefly."

"So, they tried to figure out how biotics develop during pregnancy," summarized Niles. "I guess their goal was to create them artificially and perhaps find ways to strengthen them."

"Everything I found points in that direction."

"The only question is now, what happened to the children?" asked Niles, dreading the answer Anya would give him.

"There are none," said Anya, her voice tinted by sadness and grief. "They all died with their mothers, not one took even a single breath."

"And I can guess where their remains are," Niles spat while looking to the left at the door with too many danger signs.

"You would have guessed right with that," confirmed Anya with a slight growl. "They too became test subjects in death. The exposure to too much eezo mutated them and warped their features. From what I've read, some of them don't even look like human babies anymore. I couldn't bring myself to open the files just yet, I'm afraid of what I'm going to see."

"You won't have to," said Niles, putting a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "Make copies of everything, just to be safe. And after that, we will meet up with the other teams. A different team can do the clean-up."

Anya nodded slightly and began to initialize the download.

In the meantime, Niles went over to join George at the door to the morgue.

George acknowledged him with a nod and said:" Didn't see or hear anything indicating that Cerberus troops are lying in wait for us. But I've heard what you and Anya were talking about. Heavy shit, right?"

"Yes, yes, it is," said Niles. "When this mission is over, I definitely need a drink."

"Me too," chuckled George and then added: "But Anya probably needs it the most."

"True, that she does," confirmed Niles, a small smile playing on his lips, thankful for George's ability to lift one's spirit even just slightly when they needed it.

They fell into a comfortable silence while they waited for Anya to finish.

Yet, George broke that silence by asking the question every subordinate asked their leader.

"So... first round's on you?"