Flesh and Metal:

Book One:

The Saren Incident:

Prologue:

He had always hated Arcturus Station, there was always a sense of oppression that hung in the air of the station that he had made sure that he had never felt comfortable. He had been able to bear with it on most of his previous visits because he normally had only been forced to stay on the station for a day or two before he was able to leave.

This time? David Anderson had been stuck on this damn station for three whole weeks. It didn't help that he had always hated space stations, they always made him feel like he was cut off from the real world. Sort of timeless, apparently it was quite a usual occurrence if you did not regularly spend a lot of time on space stations and could happen on ships as well.

Anderson had never noticed it happening to him on a ship however, he had not made it a habit to ask but he had his own theory about it. The feeling of the engine under his feet, the constant movement, the fact that you were going somewhere made him more comfortable on a ship than it did on a station when you were simply floating in space.

Well, with a bit of luck this would be the last day on the station and he would be able to get on with the mission at hand. On the other hand, if Lady Luck liked him at all then he wouldn't be on this damn station in first place. He still didn't fully understand why he actually was, other than the fact that it was going to involve his crew and his ship.

It would be the first time brass had done something without telling him about it and expecting him to just go along with it and getting the job done, all things considered this was practically considerate of them. He didn't like it.

An elevator was waiting for him at the end of the corridor and once he had stepped inside it David rested his hand against the holo console and did not press any of the buttons. After a few moments the console pinged and new icon appeared on the console, the Greek symbol of Omega, and with only a moment of hesitation David pressed it.

Even on Arcturus, the elevators were slow. He thanked whoever might be listening that he wasn't forced to endure endless elevator music or indeed a news broadcast. He was left alone with nothing but his thoughts as he descended deep into the bowls of the station.

The elevator let him out into a long corridor that was barely lit aside from a line of red lights on the floor that seemed to be leading him to the single door at the end of the corridor. He had to wonder, not for the first time, who had designed this place. The brass wasn't exactly known for being theatrical. Regardless, he began to walk down the corridor towards the door.

On the wall next to the door was a mounted hand scanner and when David pressed his palm to it, there was chirp from it and it flashed green for a moment before the door itself slide open.

There were three people waiting for him inside and David again was shocked that such an important decision was being left to only the four of them, he would have expected the entire High Admiralty, a score of Generals and the President himself to be here making such a decision with them. But no, it was just the four of them.

Donnell Udina was the ambassador for Humanity to the council and David did not like him, at all. He did have a deal of respect for him, however. He had a thankless job to say the very least and David would not want to be in his place or have his job. He was also just a colossal arse who David had the very understandable believe that needed a punch to the eye.

High Admiral Hackett was sitting across from Udina and David shot off a salute in his direction, Steven Hackett was the only member of the Admiralty who had been sent to oversee this process which David thought that he understood. The fifth fleet was stationed out in Citadel space and thus he was the one who had the most amount of dealings with the Council, he was also highly respected within the Alliance itself.

The last person in the room was the only woman and David was fairly sure was the most dangerous out of all of them. Nasreen Lata was tall for a woman, six foot or even slightly over with dark skin, long black hair which was often bounded up in a bun and a long scar for the corner of her mouth up to the lobe of her ear. A cigarette was clenched in her left hand.

David and Hackett were both in their dress blues and Udina was dressed in a robe that had been made for him by his personal Asari tailor, Lata was dressed in light armor and while she was not armed David knew that she did not need to be. She was high up in the black ops division of the Alliance and she probably knew a hundred different ways to kill someone without a weapon.

Not that David thought that she would but he also knew that he was not going to take any chances with her, just to be on the safe side. "Captain Anderson, you're late." Udina said from where he was sitting, not even bothering to look up from his data pad. "Well, now that you're here at the very least we can begin. With a bit of luck, we will reach a decision."

"That would be for the best Ambassador." Nasreen spoke as she moved over to the table, stubbed her smoke out on the polished wood and sat down in the chair next to him. "My superiors have informed me that the President is getting anxious and we would all like for a decision to be reached as soon as possible."

"Then let's get on with it then." David muttered as he took his own seat and once he had done so, Admiral Hackett cleared his throat and a soft light began to emanate from the centre of the table. It did not take any sort of shape, but the light itself seemed to shift and twisted in way that reminded David of an old lave lamp that Kahlee had found in an old market place back in London.

Admiral Hackett spoke, his voice was gravel but as always there was a hint of iron underneath it. "Oracle, present three best options for admittance into the spectre program." The light beeped and began to shift and twist and David had to admit it, he found it unnerving.

Oracle wasn't an AI, but it was as close as any of them were willing to push the limit without angering the council. It was linked to almost every single server that the System Alliance had and it could compute trillions and trillions of gigabytes of date in a matter of seconds. David didn't consider himself anti AI but anyone with eyes could see the danger that Oracle posed.

Of course, it's developers had said that there was nothing to worry about, every single precaution had been taken. There were thousands of software blocks inside the program itself to stop it from gaining sentience and even if it managed to somehow get past all of them, there were dozens of hardware blocks in place to stop her from causing any real damage whatsoever.

They had even pointed out that just because Oracle was linked to those servers did not mean she could actually interact with them, she observed and correlated date. Nothing more and the more sources that she had to draw from then the better for all of them. If Synthetic Rights found out that it was shackled in such a way, there would be outrage and if the elements in the Alliance that disapproved of AI, even the Geth, found out that it was linked to the servers there would be riots in the streets.

After a few moments of silence a soft ping filled the room and the light finally took shape, a woman with a shaved head and dressed in light combat armour, a shotgun in her arms. A synthetic voice, devoid of any emotion or infliction filled the room. "Lieutenant Julia Tia, fifteen years of service. Current assignment: Cross species training assignment; serving in the Amarli militia."

Another ping and the projection changed, this time the shape it took was a large black man with a shaved head. "Commander Majid Taha, thirty years of service, N7. Current Assignment: Serving under Captain Thomas Tyvell on the SSV Endurance."

Another ping and the light shifted for the last time and another shape took place, this one was a man who was much younger than the other two. "Corporal Kis Rajmund, seven years of service. Special recommendation, awarded Star of Terra for involvement in the defence of Caleston."

After all of them were presented to them, it was up to them to make the decision. Arguments were raised and then shot down, points were brought up and counter points were fired back. Tia had seriously emotional issues and taking her out of the program might make them worse, or more seriously offend the Asari Republic, she might even have been compromised. Taha had been serving on the Endurance for twenty years under Tyvell and the captain had powerful friends and could make a stink if his commander was taken from him. Kis was a hero but far too young.

There was no screaming or shouting, not a single voice was raised beyond what was needed to simply be heard but the frustration soon became an undercurrent that all of them could feel. They couldn't blame Oracle, it just complied the best of the date it had access to and offered up the choices. It didn't stop to understand the human element of it.

"There is another option gentlemen, if I may?" Nasreen spoke and stood from her seat and activated her Omni-tool, her fingers dancing over it for a few moments and a new projection appeared on the table. A man with brown skin and blue almond shaped eyes with jet black hair, a sniper rifle was held in his arms and his face was blank mask. Anderson felt a chill in his stomach.

"Him? Didn't we send him to you so we wouldn't have to deal with him any more?" Udina's tone was filled with derision and maybe just slightly a tiny hint of fear, Hackett said nothing. "Forgetting for a fact his questionable service history when he was simply in the regular navy do I need to point out what would happen if anyone found out that he works for you know? The things he has done."

"Are terrible things indeed, but the Council has done terrible things as well. The Salarian Union bred monsters in the darkness, The Asari Republic are imprisoning their own for a genetic mutation and are doing anything they can to cover it up and do I need to being on the Turians? I don't think I need too, Ethan Shepard has his issues of his own, you don't walk away from your entire squad being butchered without them, but he also has some of the most experience working with the council races than most of our soldiers."

Udina frowned and tapped his fingers against the desk for a long moment as he stared at the projection. "He has an AI in his head, that had always been a sore subject. The Asari and the Salarians might let it slide but if the Turians catch wind of it-"

"Which they won't, unless they plan on splitting his skull open." Nasreen dismissed her Omni-Tool, the projection fading away into nothingness as she sat down on the chair and crossed her arms over her chest. "Ethan Shepard is my recommendation, he has the ruthlessness that any Spectre is going to need to get the job down but he isn't a madman, if I recommended the Butcher then I would understand, but Ethan is stable."

Hackett leaned forward and crossed his fingers together, shutting his eyes for a long moment before he opened them and turned his attention to look at David. "David, you and Commander Shepard have...history, to say the very least. Do you think that you could work with him under you for the mission?"

He could still hear the screaming in his dreams, the smell of burning and the way Ethan had stood there with the knife in his hand, blood dripping from the end of it. He had looked so young, so very afraid and David didn't think he had ever hated anyone as much as he had Ethan Shepard in that moment. Anderson sighed and nodded. "Ethan and I have history, you all know that for a fact. I would be lying if I said that I did not have some reservations, but he's a good solider and he can get the job done. I promise you. So, he has my vote. We need to choose someone."

"My vote as well." Hackett turned to Udina then. "Ambassador, we need to be united in this. Yay or nay?"

Udina sighed and Anderson had to feel a tiny bit sorry for him for all the future headaches he had probably caused him. "Yay."

And just like that, it was done. And Anderson could only hope he hadn't made a terrible mistake.

End of Prologue.

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Okay so.

This story has been one that has been a long, confusing and complicated path to get out. Originally, I planned for this story to be published after I had written an in depth universe and a prequel story that would have set everything up as to how the world worked,

But as I've gotten older and, I hope, a better writer I couldn't help but think that I might have been putting the cart before the horse somewhat. I still have tons of ideas for how this changed universe works and hopefully fleshes out certain characters and the species within the game and their cultures.

But if the end product which would have been this story is bad, why would people care about the universe behind it? So instead, I put the horse first. Write this story and then if people want me too, give more attention to the Universe itself in other stories. Hopefully there are some intriguing hints for the story here that people like and will motivate them to go forward.

I hope you like it a lot and will consider following, leaving a favourite and reviewing.

With a ton of love,

DiscordantSymphony