Location: Omega Nebula / Fathar System / Lorek / Eclipse Mercenary Base

"Garrus, move!" Shepard ordered.

Without questioning him, the turian sprinted away, abandoning his cover and using his tactical cloak to disappear from sight of whatever threat Shepard had identified.

The asari Eclipse vanguard reared her arm back and let loose a biotic shockwave. Even after Garrus vanished, the explosive blasts caught him and disabled his cloak. He crashed against some boxes and groaned.

"Jack, take her out!" Shepard shouted.

"She's mine!" Jack used biotic charge to cross the distance in the blink of an eye, ramming the vanguard and creating an explosion that tossed her against the wall hard enough to leave an impression. The follow-up shotgun blast ensured that she wouldn't get up.

"Contact right!" Miranda warned.

"I've got them!" Tali said. "Go get them, Chatika! Good girl!"

"I've got Garrus," Jacob reported. "He'll live."

"Ow… but that bitch won't," Garrus grumbled angrily. "Where is she?"

"Sorry, buddy, but you're a bit late. Lights out for her," Jack said.

"Down you go!" Miranda said. One of the last two remaining mercs flew straight up into the ceiling, only to go right back down to the ground with bone-crushing force.

The last merc panicked when he saw that he was the only survivor. He turned and tried to run, only to be impaled in the chest by Kasumi's wakizashi.

"Got him," Kasumi said as her own cloak faded away. She withdrew her short sword and cleaned the blade with a rag before sheathing it.

"We do not detect any other hostiles, Shepard-Commander. Outside perimeter remains devoid of any units," Legion reported.

"Report in," Shepard ordered.

"Miranda here. I'm fine."

"Garrus here. I'll live."

"I'm good, Boss Man," Jack said.

"Jacob here. I'm good."

"Kasumi and I are fine!" Tali said.

"No damage sustained, Shepard-Commander," Legion said.

Satisfied that everyone was more or less alright, Shepard turned to the door at the end. "Jacob, see to Garrus. Miranda, on me. The rest of you, sweep and secure the area."

"Hey, Cuttlebone? Next time, run faster," Jacob said.

"Yeah, yeah…" Garrus said.

Miranda fell in step behind Shepard as they entered the room the deep-cover Cerberus operative had been tortured and eventually killed in.

The room was empty, save for Operative Tyrone Rawlings' body. Or what was left of him, anyway.

After ensuring that the room was secure, Miranda darted to the terminal and started typing.

"What do we have?" Shepard asked.

"A few reports from the interrogators," Miranda replied. "It looks like he didn't break."

Shepard looked over her shoulder and read a few of the reports.

Report #1: Subject ID

Interrogator: Cpl. Geero
Subject: Cerberus Agent Tyrone Rawlings

Eclipse targeted Agent Rawlings some time ago. We know Rawlings is connected to the encrypted data we acquired. The data could conclusively prove Cerberus' involvement in rachni experiments. We believe Rawlings possesses a cipher that can be used to decrypt the data. Without his cipher, the data could take years for Eclipse to decode.

Report #2: Subject Captured

Interrogator: Cpl. Geero
Subject: Cerberus Agent Tyrone Rawlings

Agent Rawlings proved difficult to capture. Having insinuated himself on a ship bound for the Attican Traverse, he had won over the loyalty of the ship's crew, who believed him to be a human dignitary on a mission of discovery. Our own agents managed to disable the ship and hobble its defenses long enough to extract Agent Rawlings.

We lost a lot of men to obtain this asset. This data had better be worth the expense.

Report #3: Subject Interrogated

Interrogator: Cpl. Geero
Subject: Cerberus Agent Tyrone Rawlings

The interrogation has failed. Despite some of our most advanced interrogation techniques, Agent Rawlings managed to evade our questions. When we applied more invasive methods, he proved resistant to those as well. Eventually, Agent Rawlings' resistance caused tempers to flare. We consider it unfortunate that Agent Rawlings did not live to pass on the cipher.

We have men working to decipher the encryption now. As long as we control this data, its mere existence remains a powerful tool against Cerberus.

After reading through the major reports, Shepard walked over to the body and closed Rawlings' eyes. Despite Rawlings being a Cerberus agent, the Spectre found himself respecting the man all the same. The torture he must've undergone would've broken most, yet he had endured and kept the information out of enemy hands. It was worth offering a little dignity.

"Shepard, I found it," Miranda finally said. She typed furiously on the computer and started downloading the information onto an OSD.

"Is there anything we can use?" Shepard asked.

Miranda frowned. "No, it's heavily encrypted. And I'm not familiar with this brand of encryption, either."

"According to the Eclipse reports, Rawlings was the only one with the cipher," he said. "Can EDI break it?"

"She would have more success than I would, at least," she said. She finished downloading the information to the OSD. "Doesn't matter. With everything Jacob and I know combined with this, the Illusive Man will know that he can't cross us now. It'll hurt him too much to try."

"Are you sure?" Shepard asked.

"He's not a man that takes things personally, though he does conduct reprisals against attacks on Cerberus or himself," Miranda said as she checked the computer for anything else of value. "What we did counts as both."

"So you don't think he's pissed that I basically told him to go hell?" Shepard asked.

"I think you have a knack for pushing his buttons," she said. She pocketed the OSD and turned away from the computer to regard him fully. "At the very least, I can guarantee Oriana's safety now. At least from Cerberus. But she won't be protected anymore if my father tries anything."

"One problem at a time, but we'll definitely work on that," he said. He tapped into his radio. "Alright. Everyone, regroup! Hawthorne, we need a pickup."

"Aye, aye, Captain. En route now," Hawthorne said.

~o~O~o~

Location: Normandy SR-2 / En Route to Serpent Nebula / Widow System / Citadel

"Shepard, I'm sorry for disturbing you, but I need to speak with you."

Shepard groaned softly and slightly opened one eye. "EDI?" he whispered.

"There's something I need to discuss with you. I believe it's important," EDI said via radio.

His cochlear implants allowed for radio transmissions to go straight into his inner ear without the need for cumbersome radio equipment. It was standard among military personnel throughout the galaxy, whether it was Alliance, turian military, asari commandos, or Salarian Special Tasks Groups. Mercenaries, private security, and even some civilians underwent the surgery for the same benefits as well.

Sighing, Shepard planted a feather-light kiss on Miranda's temple and gently extracted himself from her arms. She subconsciously moaned at the sudden loss of heat and pulled the blankets tighter around herself. Smiling down at her for a moment, he turned away and padded over to his terminal before sagging down on the seat. "What's up?" he asked quietly as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"In regards to your last mission, I have logged and begun decryption of the data you recovered from the Eclipse base on Lorek. Preliminary searches show that the information pertains to illicit operations in which Cerberus was involved over the past five years. Should this information be released, it could severely hinder Cerberus' ability to operate openly in the galaxy. It will take me a year or more to completely decrypt this information."

"Okay. I thought it might be too easy to get, anyway," Shepard muttered. He sighed and propped his elbow on his desk, with his chin resting in his hand. "At the very least, the Illusive Man will need to watch his step around us now. Hopefully, that'll keep him off our backs so we can put our focus on the Reapers."

He picked up a datapad from his table and studied the image on it for the umpteenth time. So far, it was the one valuable nugget of data EDI had mined from the Collector databases nearly one month earlier. It was Harbinger, and not as a possessed Collector, but its actual, physical Reaper body. From the scarce information the diagrams offered, it was enormous and far larger than Sovereign had been.

It made him wonder if Harbinger was the one in charge or if there was something even greater behind it.

To make matters worse, according to the last set of transmissions EDI had managed to snag before their last-second escape from the doomed Collector base, the Reapers were now on the move, flying out from dark space, and making their way to the galaxy.

It was only a matter of time, but the question was, how much time did they have?

"Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?" Shepard whispered. He put the datapad back down and yawned.

"No," EDI said. "The main reason I woke you was that I've found something of extreme interest in my download of the Collectors' databanks from their base."

Waking up a little more, Shepard sat up a bit straighter and waited for EDI to drop the next bit of news.

"As you know, the Collectors contacted the Shadow Broker to retrieve your body. What is interesting was that the Collectors, or perhaps even the Reapers, were equally interested in the Shadow Broker as well."

"Really? Why?"

"I do not have enough information to answer that question. Perhaps the Collectors were interested in the Shadow Broker's information network and sought to use it for their own ends to find you. Or perhaps they sought to use the Shadow Broker's resources to facilitate the Reapers' return. I cannot say for certain."

"What did they have on him?" Shepard asked intently. He turned to his terminal when EDI displayed all the information she had. His eyes widened at the sheer amount of intel the Collectors had gathered.

"They had compiled a dossier on him, as well as any of his known agents and current operations," EDI said. "As you can see, their information is rather robust, easily dwarfing what any government, or even what Cerberus, possesses on the Shadow Broker. They even attempted to locate his base of operations. Our attack and subsequent destruction of the Collector base has obviously derailed any further information."

"Is there anything we can use?" Shepard asked.

"There is a possible lead," EDI replied. "However, the information is of great importance to your former squadmate, Dr. Liara T'Soni, than to us. It concerns a former contact of hers: Feron."

Liara….

Shepard remembered the last time he was on Illium. Out of all the people he'd traveled with in his hunt for Saren, Liara had probably changed the most. When he first met her, she had been shy, introverted, and socially awkward. Being only 108 or so years old, she was considered a young adult by asari standards. However, during their brief time together, she had grown to become a force to be reckoned with. Given the difficulty of their mission—not to mention her personal stake in it after the tragic loss of her mother, Matriarch Benezia—she had cultivated her biotic abilities all by herself to find a strength that she probably never knew she had.

Their mission against Saren and the heretics and the discovery of the Protheans' fate at the hands of the Reapers was not one for the soft. It had been a long, hard fight that had more than its share of pain and sacrifice. Through it all, Liara had done well. She had pushed herself as hard as everyone else had done on the old squad, despite having never undergone any formal military training.

Not long after Shepard had been pronounced 'killed in action', she'd scoured the galaxy, looking for his remains. Considering her archeological background, it should have been easy, but what had been a simple search ended up being a race, with his body as the prize. The Collectors had contracted the Shadow Broker to recover his body. The Shadow Broker had hired the Blue Suns to do the legwork. And Liara had agreed to work with Miranda—and by extension, Cerberus—to recover his remains for the Lazarus Project.

Feron was a drell Liara had teamed up with in her quest to find him. Despite having been an agent of the Shadow Broker himself, Feron had helped Liara at the cost of his own life.

And that had been the catalyst that had triggered Liara's current vendetta against the Shadow Broker.

"John?"

Shepard jerked up and turned his head to see Miranda staring down at him. She was rubbing eyes and trying to shake off the drowsiness of disturbed sleep as she padded over to him clad only in her nightgown.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Miranda said. "Are you okay?"

He nodded and rubbed his eyes again before yawning. "I'm fine. I didn't mean to wake you."

She shrugged it off and ran a hand through her messy hair in a fruitless attempt to tame it. "I'm used to late nights and early hours, either for professional or…" She shot him a sly smile and purred out, "…personal reasons."

Shepard grinned for a moment before turning serious. "EDI and I were talking."

"She's already decrypted the information?" Miranda asked in mild surprise.

"No. She found information about the Shadow Broker," he answered. He pointed at his terminal.

"The Shadow Broker…?" she asked, and she leaned over his shoulder to observe the data herself.

"EDI thinks the Collectors might've been looking for him. They were interested in his information network," Shepard added. He turned his head slightly and was treated to her alluring scent. He smiled faintly when her mussed, raven hair tickled his nose.

"Information is a powerful weapon. And if the Collectors seized control of the Shadow Broker's assets, there's no telling how devastating the damage would have been. Either they could launch a disinformation campaign to disavow all knowledge of the Reapers, or cause wars that would allow the Reapers to swoop in without resistance… even convince people that the Reapers might be coming in peace or as gods or some such," Miranda said thoughtfully. Her eyes locked onto a picture of a drell, and she put one of her hands on Shepard's shoulder while pointing at the picture with the other. "Wait, that's…"

"Feron," Shepard finished. He reached up and clasped her hand. "You know him?"

"We met briefly," she answered. "The Blue Suns had taken your body, and Feron was our best chance at getting you back. After Liara succeeded and turned you over to me, she went on her own mission to find out what had happened to him."

"You never knew what happened to Feron?"

She shook her head. "I presumed he was KIA. Even if he was still alive, it meant more to Liara than to me," Miranda replied, before slipping her hand out of his grasp and wrapping her arms around his neck from behind. She rested her head on his shoulder, leaning slightly so that they were cheek-to-cheek. "Besides, I was preparing for the Lazarus Project, remember? The two years it took to get you up and about, hmm?"

Leaning back into her embrace, Shepard smiled fully and closed his eyes. "Oh, I remember. And you do like to remind me of that, don't you?"

"Only once or twice. I have to make sure your ego is kept in check," she quipped. "So what now?"

"Course change. It's Hawthorne's shift, right?"

"Mmm-hmm. Although that might mean EDI's the one flying," she said. Her hands traced random patterns on his bare chest, which caused all sorts of random thoughts to pop up into his head. "That's a shame, though. I was looking forward to dining at my favorite sushi place."

"You have a favorite sushi place on the Citadel?" Shepard asked.

She nodded. "Fresh ingredients delivered from Earth daily, as well as a few exotic species from other planets. They have a beautiful aquarium, too."

"Sorry that we won't get to wine and dine there."

"So, Illium?"

"Illium."

~o~O~o~

Author's Notes:

Here it is: the prologue.

Since this is a DLC, it will most definitely not be on the scale of Fight for the Lost. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about that fact, but I have a few ideas to make it a little grander, regardless.

BTW, there's a tiny reference to the new ME3 DLC here, but it's only a tiny one and something people won't miss. Fair warning: no spoilers in your reviews, please, or I'll have to put this on hold till I play through all of it. And considering how much fanservice is in there, that'll be a while.