War for the Corpse
From FABT
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Previous: |
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Concurrent: |
Post-war Heretic conflict | ||||||||||||||||
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 Liara T'Soni making a run for Tazzik's ship in the closing minutes of the Raid on Alingon.
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Date: |
6 April - 13 April 2184 CE | ||||||||||||||||
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Location: |
Across Illium, Omega, Alingon and Lazarus Station / Milky Way Galaxy | ||||||||||||||||
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Outcome: |
Decisive Cerberus-Liaran victory
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Engagements: |
Ambush on Melos avenue | ||||||||||||||||
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- "I helped Cerberus retrieve your body from the Shadow Broker...he wanted to sell you to the Collectors. You know I couldn't let that happen...and even if there was only a small chance they could bring you back, I had to try. We were lost without you, Shepard. You needed to come back...to bring us back together."
- — Liara T'Soni explaining her involvement in Cerberus' acquisition of Shepard's body to Commander Shepard in 2185 CE.
The War for the Corpse, also known as the First Shadow Broker War and the War for Shepard's Body was a shadow war between Cerberus and the Shadow Broker, with former Normandy Squad member Liara T'Soni assisting the former, that occurred briefly in 2184 CE and was fought over obtaining the corpse of Commander Shepard from Alchera, the former with the purpose of resurrecting the fallen commander, while the latter wanted to sell it to the Collectors, who wanted the body to run genetic experiments: it is also sometimes considered a theater of the larger Collector campaign. Only a month after the Eden Prime War concluded in late July 2183 CE, Commander Shepard met his untimely end at the hands of the Collectors (then an unknown attacker) in August when the Sarcophagus ambushed the SSV Normandy over Alchera and destroyed it, killing much of its crew and Shepard in the process, who was claimed by both asphyxiation and incineration upon re-entry. The Broker, knowing about the Reaper threat, ordered her yahg assistant to manage the recovery of Shepard's body in order to keep it out of the hands of the Collectors, who she knew would attempt to recover the body to run experiments on to determine what made Shepard so dangerous that he could disrupt the seemingly perfect harvest of their masters. The assistant instead double-crossed his employer, reaching out to the Collectors and offering to sell them the body, offering peak discretion. Sealing the deal and offering the make the trade on Omega, close to the Omega 4 Relay, the Broker sent his best information trafficker, Feron Huul, to retrieve the body. However, Feron was already offered a deal by Cerberus to retrieve the body for them, and while he had initially turned them down out of loyalty to the Broker, the Broker's orders to retrieve the body to sell to the Collectors made him change his mind, agreeing to a plan to get the body, but hand it over to Cerberus instead. The Broker learnt of this scheme, but not Feron's involvement in it, so the drell used this to his advantage, establishing an elaborate plan to triple cross the Broker: convincing the Broker that Liara T'Soni was the one Cerberus contacted to get a hold of the body, being a former member of the Normandy Squad and the most accessible, he convinced his employer that he would take a team of mercs to Illium where he would set a trap to lure Liara there, "pretending" to betray the Broker in order to lure Liara into an alleyway where she could be killed discreetly. In reality, Feron would be helping Cerberus, with a team of Cerberus commandos led by Randall Ezno waiting for the signal to move in and kill the Broker's mercs before they could kill Liara: Feron would then establish the fiction to the Broker that Cerberus had laid a trap for him, but would convince Liara to let her believe she was on her side, and that he could sabotage Cerberus' efforts from within as a plant. In reality, Feron would still be working for Cerberus, and this narrative would allow him to continue using the Broker's resources against him while, at the same time, convincing Liara he had betrayed the Broker and only wanted to help her stop the body from falling into Collector hands, while he was actually Cerberus' agent.
Despite being a convoluted plan, it ultimately worked, and following a brief ambush, both Liara and the Broker fell for Feron's lies, and Feron worked with Liara to retrieve the body, kickstarting the shadow war. With Feron on a different assignment, the Broker instead sent Gukon Tazzik to retrieve the body, and once he completed his mission, he took his ship not to Omega, but to Waystation X-RAY on Alingon, one of the Broker's bases, as the Broker wanted to take precautions to make sure Cerberus didn't ambush the transaction site and take the body: a fake meeting would take place on Omega instead, with the Collectors informed on site to follow Tazzik back to Alingon for the real trade. Suspecting the transaction will happen on Omega, close to the Omega 4 Relay so the Collectors could duck in and out quickly without drawing attention, Cerberus sends Liara and Feron there to pump Aria T'Loak, the pirate queen of the Terminus Systems and Ruler of Omega, for information as to where on the station the meeting might take place. Having a heated conversation, Aria finally tells them it'll happen in one of the abandoned processing plants for the mines: not wanting to alert any of the Broker's spies who might be watching them, Liara and Feron go to the processing plant alone while Randall's platoon remains on standby to assist if needed. At the processing plant, they witness Tazzik arriving, but Feron seemingly ruins the plan when he opens fire on Tazzik's ship with a turret, alerting the Broker's forces and the Collectors present, the latter scattering while the former sweep the area for their assailants, and Tazzik escapes. After Randall's men turn up to cover their escape, Liara is furious with Feron, believing his actions proof of her suspicions he was a Broker mole sent to sabotage her, but Feron reveals he knew the meeting was a setup and the body was never there, making Tazzik think Cerberus was onto them, and as he escaped, planting a tracker on his ship, believing it will lead them to where Shepard's body was actually being held. Still skeptical, Liara agrees to go with Feron to follow Tazzik to Alingon, while Cerberus' forces remained behind, as Feron needed the Broker to believe he was still on his side or Tazzik might get cold feet and run again. Arriving on Alingon shortly after, Liara pretends to have been captured by Feron in order to get inside the base undetected, and they head to the command center. Scouring the database for information on the Collector interest in Shepard, they learn of their intent to perform experiments on it, and Liara begins to suspect a connection with the Reapers, but it's tenuous. They confront the Broker when he contacts the base for an update on the transaction, and while he is using a voice changer and image modifier to disguise his species and identity, Liara discusses with the Broker in a one-on-one, where the two promise retribution against the other. Noticing Feron in the room, his cover is blown, so Feron quickly powers down the communications array, stopping the Broker from warning the base long enough for them to escape, and this cuts off the Broker, who mocks Liara moments before it shuts down by claiming the transaction is already complete: in anger, Liara tears the command center apart with her biotics, alerting security and forcing them to make a quick escape, but not before Feron downloaded all the information he could from the mainframe and giving it to Liara on an OSD, providing as much information as he could extract to damage the Broker.
Heading for Tazzik's ship to hijack while Shepard's body was still onboard, as it hadn't been offloaded yet, they both encounter Tazzik and a Possessed Collector sealing the deal and about to hand over the body. They try to keep up the prisoner narrative, but the Possessed Collector can sense Feron's thoughts and alerts Tazzik to Feron's treachery. Already suspicious of Feron, Tazzik alerts the base, but not before Feron punches him and begins to fight him, shouting for Liara to make a break for it while he buys her time. Eliminating any shred of belief she had left that Feron was playing her, Liara swats aside the Collector with her biotics before it can attack and runs into the ship, sealing it off and taking off. Liara successfully escapes with the body, long before the Broker's forces can muster their own ships to pursue her, and Liara takes the ship to Illium, where she leaves it in a dock until Cerberus turns up to take possession. After assurances that Cerberus will not mishandle the body and that she will "make them pay" if they're playing her, Liara begrudgingly hands over the body into their custody, hopeful Cerberus can achieve what they're claiming. Shepard's body is subsequently transported to Lazarus Station, and full-scale progress on Project Lazarus begins: armed with information on the Broker and believing Feron to be dead, Liara becomes consumed by plans to destroy the Shadow Broker for what he did, establishing her own information broker network on Illium, building her own network of contacts, hiring mercenaries and collecting resources in an effort to dismantle the Broker's empire one piece at a time, all with the ultimate goal of finding the Broker himself and killing him personally. This process would culminate in the War on the 89th Shadow Broker over a year later, and Liara's ascent to becoming the new Shadow Broker herself. It was through these efforts that Feron was discovered to be alive, captured by Tazzik and sent to the Halcyon, the Broker's headquarters, to be tortured for the rest of his life through electrocution, and was freed when Liara and the Normandy Squad stormed the base, working for Liara afterwards and even becoming her lover.
Despite losing the corpse, the war didn't technically end, only becoming inactive as the Broker looked for ways to reclaim the body or, if Cerberus succeeded, to kill Shepard and sell his intact body for a higher price. Cerberus, as it turned out, did ultimately succeed, and after two years, Shepard was resurrected by August 2185 CE. Seizing an opportunity a month after losing the body, the Broker reached out to Lazarus' chief medical tech, Albert Wilson and employed him as a mole, monitoring Lazarus' operations and informing the Broker when an opportunity arose to disrupt it. Despite Wilson's efforts to sabotage the project, even prematurely reviving him in July 2185 CE in an incident that almost killed him, but Miranda Lawson quickly adapted to any discrepancies, proving her skill and proficiency and countering Wilson's sabotage at every juncture, and overtime she began to suspect Wilson was involved in actively sabotaging the project, although the reasons weren't immediately apparent to her. His attempt failed, the Broker finally ordered Wilson to stage an attack across the facility, hacking the security mechs to turn on facility personnel and, in the chaos, to find and kill Shepard while he slept, sending a team of mercs once everything had died down to quickly retrieve the body before Cerberus sent a clean-up crew to investigate, effectively restoking the shadow war that had concluded a year before. Wilson's efforts would be for naught though, as Miranda was able to wake up Shepard and get him moving, and once awake, Shepard carved a path through the mechs, linking up with Jacob Taylor and even Wilson himself, who faked being shot by a mech in order to embed himself among their group, abandoning the Broker's plan and just hoping to get out alive with his cover intact, knowing Miranda was onto him and hoping that sending most of the mechs to her location would dispose of her. Wilson was proved wrong, and when they reached the shuttle bay to escape, Miranda was waiting and summarily executed Wilson. Shepard and the team escaped, and the Broker called off his extraction squad when he realized the plan had failed. With Shepard alive and active, the Broker gave up all plans to capture him, especially after the Collectors gave up on it as well. The Broker briefly entertained the concept and used it to intimidate Shepard and his squad when they stormed his base a few months later, but it was a hollow threat with the Collectors already gone by that point and the Broker backed against a wall, and he was subsequently killed in combat shortly after. With the failure at Lazarus Station and cessation of all efforts to capture Shepard's body, the War for the Corpse officially concluded.