A.N. Since I can't respond to guest reviews via PM, I guess I'll have to do it here. Yes, I put the part about Wrex riding Grimlock into the summary to convince people to read this. I figured it would catch attention. That said, it is going to happen, probably during the Virmire mission. Yes, this means that Grimlock is confirmed as a character.
Also, as I said before, if a conversation or event hasn't significantly changed from canon, I will not be repeating it, although it will probably be mentioned. Bioware does the canon parts much better than I do, so refer to the games for details.
Theme music: Mass Effect Main Theme
Commander Shepard woke up feeling quite well rested, which was rather disorienting, as she didn't remember going to bed. Also, she rarely slept well the night after a combat mission, especially one as gruesome as Eden Prime had turned out to be, and... Oh my god!
Shepard shot upright, hands grasping for her sidearm, only to be sent reeling back onto her bunk by a sharp pain in her skull. Now that her eyes were open, she was treated to the sight of Captain Anderson, her CO, staggering back as well, one hand pressed to the side of his head. Staring at the ceiling of what she now recognized as the starship Normandy's medical bay, Shepard spared a few moments for her now aching head and the Captain, before turning to address the Normandy's CMO, Dr. Chakwas.
"Sorry about that, Sir," Shepard apologized to Anderson, before addressing her main concern. She couldn't remember how the Eden Prime mission ended, and she'd woken up in medical an unknown time later. That had the potential to be very bad. "What's the damage, Doc? I still have all my limbs, right?" She tried to inject some humor into the tense atmosphere (already helped a little by her accidental collision with Anderson), but her levity fell somewhat flat.
"We were hoping you could tell us," Dr Chakwas informed Shepard with a stern frown. Her eyes, however, said she was trying not to laugh at the captain's pain, because what did he expect leaning over a hospital bed like that, but she didn't want to disrespect a superior officer, even if he was known to have a sense of humor. However, her tone was dead serious. "You've been out for almost six hours. Physically, you are in perfect health, but we're worried what he beacon might have done to your mind. I detected some abnormal brain activity while you were unconscious, very similar to a vivid dream. Er, you can still understand me, yes?"
"Uh, yeah, doc, I feel fine," Shepard reassured her concerned audience, "but, the beacon..."
"It's on board," Anderson informed her, ignoring the steadily spreading bruise on his forehead. "After it shined that light on you, you passed out. Sergeant Williams grabbed the beacon's core, and Alenko and Jenkins grabbed you, and they made it to the rendezvous point with no problems."
"Good," Shepard allowed herself to relax again,"Because that beacon? I'm pretty sure it's important, even more than we thought."
"Really? The last Prothean tech we found set our technology forward by nearly a thousand years," the captain pointed out, "That beacon must be rather impressive to top that."
"It was. The beacon ... I think it contained a message. Or a warning. Maybe both. And I saw it," Shepard explained, immediately catching the full attention of her superior. "After the beacon flashed, I saw... I think it had to be a Prothean, probably in some kind of power armor. Or maybe talking through the comms of one of those VI bots the Protheans left everywhere. He was big, real big. Called himself Optimus Prime. He said that the Protheans were wiped out by a race of beings that fly around in ships like the one that attacked Eden Prime with Saren. And that we're next."
"Saren? A Turian named Saren? Are you certain?" Saren's presence seemed to bother Anderson more than the thought of an impending invasion of superdreadnoughts. At Shepard's confirmation, the captain muttered a few words that the standard alliance translation software didn't know. "This is worse than you know, Commander. Saren Arterius... I've worked with him a few times before. He's a council Spectre, but not like Nihilus was. Saren is brilliant, ruthless, and determinedly genocidal. To him, the only good human is a dead one, and he's willing to accept massive civilian casualties to accomplish his missions, even if many of the dead aren't the humans he hates so much. But Saren was always loyal to the council before. He wouldn't attack even a human colony like this without provocation. If Saren's leading a army of Geth and a warship that can shred entire squads of frigates with ease, attacking human colonies, probably more insane than he used to be... Even if that's the extent of the situation, humanity is in serious trouble."
"This isn't just a human problem," Shepard countered, "The Reapers, the aliens that supplied Saren's ship, they don't just want to kill humans. According to Optimus, they wiped out races other than the Protheans. The Reapers want everyone dead. We need to bring the council in on this."
"Won't be easy," Anderson analyzed, "The council's tolerated Saren for decades because he's one of their most effective agents. With the propaganda out there, he's the one all the little Turian boys want to be when they grow up; the xenophobia and psychopathy are swept under the rug. We'll need ironclad evidence to accuse him of anything, and if all we have is the recordings from your squad's helmets, the council will probably cite my personal history with Saren and have them thrown out as fabricated. If Nihilus had survived we might have a case, but at this point it's our word against Saren's, and the council is practically guaranteed to take his side. It wouldn't be the first time. Ugh, what a mess. Maybe Ambassador Udina will have a better idea; I'm tapped out."
Ambassador Udina didn't have any better ideas. The master of the human embassy to the citadel agreed to call for an investigation my citadel security (Csec), the council's police force, but beyond hoping that the detectives would get lucky, he couldn't see a way to bring Saren to justice. Still, they had to at least try, and whether or not Saren was deemed guilty, there was another matter to discuss: the Prothean beacon.
The alliance and scientists from the Salarian Union took the time while Csec investigated Saren to test Commander Shepard and the Prothean relic. While they could not replay the message within, no matter how they exposed Shepard to the device, that wasn't exactly unexpected. While many aspects of Prothean technology have been replicated by citadel engineers, some aspects of their devices and omnipresent worker drones remain a mystery.
However, the device glowed much brighter when Shepard held it, and even brighter when she pointed it in certain directions, the directions of the sites Optimus Prime had indicated as being a part of the mysterious Project Vendetta. Whether or not Saren paid for his crimes, Udina felt sure that the Prothean message, at least, could not be ignored.
On the day of their hearing, Shepard, Udina, and Anderson headed up to the Presidium, the wealthiest part of the citadel station and the citadel council's preferred location for public meetings. Ashley, Rich (Jenkins), and Kaiden would stay behind, as the council was mostly interested in hearing from the officer in command of the mission, Shepard.
On the way, the humans ran into Garrus Vakarian, a Turian Csec investigator in charge of the investigation into Saren. However, Garrus looked like a younger person, not a rookie, but not the sort of highly experienced detective that would be likely to actually dig up useful information on a Spectre. Garrus was also in a heated argument with his direct superior, Executor Palan, the head of Csec. That was less than good.
According to Garrus, his investigation hadn't turned up anything. However, he thought he could find evidence condemning Saren, or at least enough to prompt a more thorough inquiry, if he had a little more time. Palan, however, ignored the younger Turian's request, dismissing his claims. After all, one does not keep the Citadel Council waiting. The evidence gathered already would be enough. Commander Shepard had the sinking feeling that the council might have already made up their minds about Saren, but wasn't willing to give up hope. Yet.
Soon enough, Shepard and her superiors stood in front of the councillors themselves, in a matter of speaking. To discourage assassinations, as during the Krogan Rebellions, the councillors were never actually present on the citadel. Instead, they spoke to the people they lead through holograms from elsewhere in the galaxy, where an optimistic murderer was less likely to find them. The Salarians councillor stood to the left, and the Turian to the right. The Asari stood in the center, as Shepard had expected. Most Asari the commander had met fancied themselves diplomats, and liked to make symbolic gestures of unity like standing in the center. However, much to Shepard's dismay, a hologram of Saren also stood on a platform to the right of the council, looking down on the human delegation with barely masked loathing.
"The council is now in session," the Salarian councillor stated briefly. Salarians never enjoy long, ceremonial speeches, and when the Salarians wrestled control of the council's agenda from the Turians several years ago, the flowery opening and closing protocol was the first thing to go. While the Asari have since gained power over the agenda, they have not changed it back. "We have examined the evidence against Spectre Arterius presented by the Csec investigation into the Eden Prime incident, but we would like to hear Commander Shepard's report in person before we give a final verdict. Commander?"
"Yes, sir," Shepard replied respectfully, moving to the front of the human delegation. After a brief pause to collect her thoughts, she decided to address the Salarian councillor directly, as he seemed to be taking the lead today. " We, that is Leutenent Alenko, Private Jenkins, Spectre Nihilus, and I, arrived on Eden Prime two weeks ago. The mission was supposed to be a routine shakedown run for the starship Normandy, fresh out of the alliance dry docks. But, with a Spectre on board, everybody figured there was something more to our mission. So, I wasn't really surprised when I heard that our real job was to pick up a Prothean beacon unearthed by a construction team in the colony. That was when things started to go bad.
"The Normandy received a garbled, staticy SOS transmission from the planet's surface, and captain Anderson ordered Joker, our pilot, to go in in full stealth, while the away team prepared for a combat drop. Spectre Nihilus insisted on going ahead of the rest of us, which for the record I strongly advised against. If he'd listened, he'd probably be here right now...
"On the surface, we saw a huge, black dreadnought hovering over the colony, scouring the place for survivors with some kind of beam weapon. I'm not sure what it is, but according to the lone survivor it ignores mass effect shielding. We recovered a black box from one of the Systems Alliance frigates the dreadnought destroyed, but it's memory was wiped clean, somehow. Neither the dreadnought nor it's infantry got near the black box, so I don't know how. It wasn't damaged.
"We rescued a survivor, sergeant Ashley Williams, and learned that the colony was under attack by the Geth. Sergeant Williams led us toward the spaceport, where we found Spectre Nihilus, shot in the back. Leutenent Alenko identified footprints behind Nihilus as belonging to a Turian, who we were unable to identify, as Nihilus' helmet camera was destroyed, presumably by whoever shot him. However, the killer stepped in Nihilus' blood, and we were able to follow the footprints to Eden Prime's main spaceport. After fighting more Geth, and ensuring that the charges they deployed to erase any evidence of their presence would not detonate, we encountered Saren attempting to open the Prothean beacon. He mentioned that he was worried that the Alliance fleet might arrive before he could open the beacon, and had a brief argument over communicator with someone on board the dreadnought. We decided that his possession of the beacon was detrimental to our mission to retrieve it, and Sergeant Williams drove him off with heavy weapons fire. We didn't see Saren again, until now at least."
"You don't seriously believe this, this slander, do you councillors?" Saren asked indignantly, "I have yet to hear any evidence that I was actually there."
"Your friend in that dreadnought addressed you by name," Shepard replied coolly, "And I recognize your voice. So does my Omnitool."
"Captain Anderson," Saren abruptly switched targets, obviously pretending to have only just noticed the human officer, "I should have known you would be at the heart of any attempt to besmirch my reputation. Slaughtering a hundred human civilians and pinning the blame on me wasn't enough for you? I know you hate me, and trust me, the feeling is mutual, but an entire colony? That's taking things entirely too far. I can't believe you were ever considered for the Spectres; if nothing else you're far too lead-fisted and sloppy."
"You destroyed that building, bystanders still inside! You attacked Eden Prime!" Captain Anderson practically shouted, only the presence of Udina and the council restraining him from starting a full on screaming match. "You won't get away with this this time!"
"You've already been indicted for fabricating evidence once, human. Honestly, I'm amazed you kept your commission," Saren hissed, "Care to go two for two? What did you promise that commander of yours to get her to play along? A bribe? A promotion? You aren't sleeping with her, are you? Assuming that's a female; you humans all look rather similar to me. Not that there's anything wrong with same-gender couples, of course." The last sentence was added after a nervous look at the abruptly furious Asari councillor, who as a member of a single sex species, was most decidedly against any form of homophobia. After all, only about a third of all Asari found male partners.
"What? I am not- You- He's thirty years older than me!". Shepard sputtered. Captain Anderson added something incoherent and, by his tone, highly uncomplimentary to Turians in general and Saren in particular, his hands making tiny, controlled movements toward where his sidearm was usually holstered. Fortunately, the Captain, like everyone else, had disarmed before meeting the council, which saved him from a potential intergalactic incident.
"This session is adjourned," The Salarian councillor stated, glaring at the humans with distrust.
"Saren Arterius is cleared of all charges. You humans disgust me," the Turian councillor added, "Prehaps we should have been investigating you, captain."
"Wait! There's one other matter to discuss," Anderson reminded everyone, "Commander Shepard's vision when she interacted with the beacon. We need to-"
"Oh, are we admitting dreams as evidence, now?" Saren sneered. Like most Turians, his perpetually-exposed teeth gave him an excellent sneer. "I know your species only stopped burning witches recently, but the civilized races haven't accepted dreams as evidence in thousands of years. Do try to keep with the times, you barbarians."
"Expect a hearing in four to six weeks," the Turian councillor told Captain Anderson, "Attempt to leave the citadel and you will be arrested. This meeting was adjourned five minutes ago! Why are you people all just standing here? We're done." The holograms of the council and Saren fizzled out.
Back in Udina's office, the ambassador poured himself a finger of brown liquid from a flask kept under his desk, considered the bottle, then added two more measures of liquid before gulping it down. "Well, that went worse than I ever imagined it could," the ambassador observed, "Anderson, it was a mistake to bring you along. We should have anticipated that Saren would use your personal history to discredit us. But I don't remember him being such a persuasive speaker before. He never had the patience for it. Ugh, what a mess."
"Any evidence we turn up now will be ignored," analyzed the captain, "We need an outside source or we'll be laughed out of the council. That investigator, Vakarian, he acted like he had something. I could track him down. I know a guy in Csec, Investigator Harkin. He's scum, but he owes me a few favors, so..."
"No," Udina ordered him, "You've done enough damage. Unintentional damage, yes, but damage nonetheless. You are going to quietly stay out of the limelight until Csec finishes with you. Commander Shepard will speak with Vakarian; of all of us, her credibility came out of that meeting with the least damage, I think."
"Fine," Anderson reluctantly agreed, "I wanted to be the one to bring Saren down, but if Shepard has a better chance, she should do it. You'll need to track that drunk Harkin down. I'll send you his mug shot on your Omnitool. Now, slime flows downhill, so at this hour you'll probably find him in Chorra's Den, a rather tacky titty bar down in the lower citadel wards. The place is lit up like a Christmas tree; you can't miss it, even though you probably want to. But, watch yourself in there. The bar's owner, goes by Fist, works for the shadow broker. Do not piss him off without a very good reason..."
Harkin turned out to be easy to locate, and even easier to extract information from. After seeing Kaiden at work, Shepard had to admit that the blue glow that surrounds an active biotic, shining from their eyes and forming an aura to back-light their bodies, was pretty intimidating when viewed from the outside. And Rich picked up his 'good cop' cues perfectly, playing the sympathetic ear with ease. She was glad she'd decided to bring him instead of Ashley. The sergeant, as discovered during Normandy poker night, was a stiff, wooden actress, and Shepard was in no condition to be nice to Harkin. After his drunken flirting, it took the better part of her self-control to refrain from powering up her biotics and putting his head through the wall. After Saren's speech, she was even less in the mood for that sort of thing than usual.
Harkin directed Shepard's away team to a small medical clinic nearby, that Garrus Vakarian was supposedly helping to protect from a local protection racket or something. Harkin wasn't generous with the details, but he was very, very drunk, which went a long way toward explaining why.
Upon arrival to the clinic, Shepard and company were called on to defend it against a small party of thugs. After a brief firefight, and some extremely impressive marksmanship from investigator Vakarian, Shepard was able to interrogate Garrus. Fortunately, the friendly cop was more than happy to share what he knew. A few days ago, a Quarian girl had come into the clinic, badly wounded, for medical attention and antibiotics. She'd mentioned that she had valuable information on Spectre Arterius, and wanted to trade it to the shadow broker for sanctuary against Saren. However, one of the doctors added that she'd directed the girl to Fist, who she'd recently heard had betrayed the shadow broker to work for Saren! The Quarian was going to her death, and taking the evidence with her! The thugs in the clinic were sent to shut the doctors up before they could talk to Garrus, or anyone else.
Shepard left Jenkins to keep the clinic safe (Fist's thugs were not exactly impressive, so one defender was plenty), and exited the clinic with Garrus in tow. The investigator suggested one stop on the way to Fist's bar/base. The shadow broker, furious about Fist's betrayal, hired a bounty hunter to track him down and kill him: an infamous Krogan battlemaster with a reputation for swift results. Csec had picked him up for disturbing the peace, and conspiracy to commit murder (of Fist, who was technically an upstanding businessman). However, now that it looked like Fist was a murderer and possibly a traitor to all life, Garrus was more than happy to add nearly a ton of angry Krogan and heavy hardware to their chances of successfully storming Chorra's Den. Fist's thugs might have been unimpressive, but they were numerous.
Urdnot Wrex, Krogan battlemaster, turned out to be as imposing in person as his rep suggested. Standing nearly two meters tall, the Krogan towered over even Garrus, the former tallest person in Shepard's team. His armor glowed blue with energon feeds, his skin and eyes faintly adding to the harsh light, the sign of a biotic stormeater. The energon lines would constantly infuse his body with the volatile fuel to empower his biotics and natural regeneration. A Krogan is dangerous. A biotic Krogan, a battlemaster, is nearly unbeatable with a full squad of anything else. A stormeater acclimated to energon exposure is, if possible, even tougher.
When Urdnot Wrex's armored crest met the door to Chorra's Den, the hardened steel crumpled like a tin can, allowing Shepard and Wrex to charge the badly outmatched thugs inside, shotguns blazing. Garrus and Kaiden, hanging back to provide covering fire, had almost nothing to do.
Once they actually got to Fist, the cocky criminal quickly caved under Wrex's unblinking stare, and told Shepard and co where he'd sent the Quarian, to be ambushed by three of Saren's top flunkies. When Wrex shot Fist, Shepard declined from saying anything. If Fist's information was accurate, they had only three minutes to save the Quarian, and it wasn't like the guy didn't deserve to die. Shepard would have preferred that Fist stand trial and end up in prison, but after extracting a promise from Wrex to "Follow my lead from now on, damnit!", she decided to save lives now, and ponder moral questions later.
Shepard and her team arrived at the alley Fist had indicated to see a Quarian talking nervously with three other people, two Salarians and a Turian in high-quality armor. Whatever words were exchanged, too far away for Shepard to hear, things obviously heated up fast, as all four went for weapons and cover.
A few hurried hand signals later and Garrus Vakarian unslung his sniper rifle with practiced ease, flicking the ammo counter from nonlethal polymer rounds over to the armor-piercing composite shot typically used by police to halt runaway vehicles; it was also used by military snipers to kill tank operators, whether or not they were currently inside a tank at the time.
The Salarian to the right's head exploded just ahead of the sharp report of Garrus' shot breaching the sound barrier as Shepard terminated a biotic charge with her knee impacting the back of the Turian's head. Amazingly, the assassin actually survived the blow (with her biotics altering physics, a punch or kick from within a biotic charge hits like a heavy sledge), so she finished him off with a few shotgun blasts. Shepard whirled around to deal with the final assassin, only to see him staring down the barrel of the most beautiful thing the human commander had ever seen.
The Quarian's shotgun was almost as long as she was tall, coated in machinery and energon conduits. The heart of the weapon was a massive, Krogan shotgun, the weapon covered with too many modifications to be readily identified. Most Krogan-made weapons are so powerful as to break the bones of a non-Krogan who tries to fire them, which the Quarian had countered with a set of hydraulic braces replacing the weapon's stock. Where a gun's ammunition block usually sat, a thick, braided cord of glowing energon lines fed directly into the barrel, and a salvaged Prothean device jutted out of the assembly, its smooth metal contrasting with the battered, worn Krogan craftsmanship to either side.
The firing of the magnificent weapon was everything Shepard could have hoped for. The length of the barrel lit up energon blue, the glow from the end of the barrel illuminating the terrified Salarian's face as an ominous hum filled the air. With a crackling discharge of power, a brilliant bolt of pure energy leapt from the massive gun, disintegrating everything above the Salarian's waist. A small warning light flashed red three times before the modified shotgun ejected a fist-sized heat sink, venting coolant from slits along the barrel with an explosive hiss. The Quarian drew a new heat sink from her belt, fumbled with it briefly, and slotted it in where the previous one had been. The light flashed again, green this time, and the Quarian turned to Shepard, shotgun leading the way. "Who are you people? What do you want?"
"I have got to get one of those... Er, I'm Commander Shepard, alliance marines," Shepard introduced herself, "We heard you were walking into an ambush and came to help you out. We also heard you could help us; we're building a case against Saren Arterius." The Quarian tilted her helmet slightly, taking in the assassins Garrus and Shepard had dropped, and relaxed, returning the energy weapon to subspace.
"In that case, I'm Tali'zorah Nar Rayya, and it's a pleasure to meet you, commander," the Quarian offered in a brighter tone, "I think maybe we can help each other, and not just because I do commissions."
"Eden Prime was a major setback, my lord," Saren's recorded voice filled the council chamber, emanating from Tali's Omnitool. The Quarian had used her superior knowledge of Geth hardware to extract an audio file from a destroyed Geth platform, usually impossible as Geth wipe their hard drives upon destruction as a counterintelligence measure. That particular Geth had listened in on a conversation between Saren, his unknown leader, and a third party. As humans say, jackpot. "We failed to keep the Matrix of Leadership out of enemy hands. If someone loyal to the council opens it..."
"You exaggerate the danger, Saren," The dual voice Shepard heard before scoffed, "If you, the greatest hero the Turian people have ever produced, couldn't open the Matrix, who alive possibly could? Besides, there's probably nothing important on there anyway, and even if there was, with no one to read it, it's irrelevant. That dusty old relic won't help anyone now. It certainly didn't help that insufferable fool Ultra Magnus when I ripped out his spark.". The voice took on a mocking, even more gratingly screechy tone. "'Matrix of Leadership, light our darkest hour!'. What a load of superstitious scrap. Pah!"
"The decoding of the Iaconian star charts proceeds ahead of schedule, my lord Sovereign," a third, female voice reported dryly, "Soon we will know the location of the Conduit."
"And the means of the Reapers' glorious return," Saren elaborates as the recording ends.
In the council chamber, everyone is silent, for the barest of seconds, before all three councillors explode into motion.
"Yes, you heard me right! I said to call off the investigation on that human, Captain Anderson, and get me everything we have on Saren! The damn smug bareface has been playing us this entire time! Yes, that Saren! He's a spirits-damned traitor! No, I'm not drunk, I'm in a council session, and the evidence against him was analyzed by one of your best, no, your best damn investigator. No, that Vakarian boy. Yeah? Well, maybe I should just go and make him Executor, then! Sure he's inexperienced, but he dug up something explosive the rest of you idiots were too blind to see..."
"I said four STG groups; I will not settle for two. We need to find out exactly what that turncoat has been pulling right under our noses. For all we know, he's got an army hidden off somewhere, and none of us any the wiser! Well, he knocked over a human colony and almost slipped it by us, so clearly we don't know as much about him as we ought to, and that is unacceptable..."
"What do you mean he requisitioned six tons of eezo and twelve tons of energon from the Thessian military reserves? And you just gave it to him? Supply requests that big and valuable have to go through the council first, if they're on Spectre authority. No, I don't care how persuasive he was! Matriarch Benezia signed off on it? She's working for him? How the hell'd he convince auntie to go along with the Eden Prime massacre? She'd never- Wait, what?! You just gave a traitor enough fuel and element zero for half a dozen top-of-the-line dreadnoughts and you expect me to..."
Twenty minutes later, a distinctly ruffled trio of politicians turned their attention back to Commander Shepard, Tali'zorah, and investigator Vakarian, the Turian councillor still making abortive twitches at his Omnitool like he wanted to resume yelling at whichever poor sap next came forward as an unwitting collaborator with the traitorous former Spectre. It seemed that the rot went far deeper than they knew.
Somewhere along the line, Saren had managed to disappear no less than twelve dreadnoughts from the Turian reserve fleet, which contains ships the Turians maintain but do not man to be ready for when wars break out. He had then, with the help of the evidently traitorous Asari Matriarch Benezia T'soni (the other voice in Tali's recording), appropriated enough energon and eezo to modernize the warships, recruited the Geth for additional numbers, and holed up somewhere in the Terminus Systems with his giant black ship and massive army to decode something called the Iaconian archives. His target: a place or object called the Conduit, which would bring about the return of the Reapers, whoever they are.
While the council was convinced that Iacon and Conduit were both code words, the part about the Reapers matched the message Shepard had 'claimed' to see. However, sending a fleet in to scour the Terminus Systems for Saren was not practical, the Turian councillor explained. Without a more exact location, they would be blundering about in the void, fighting every two-bit warlord and loser pirate they came across. With all that noise, Saren would see them coming from light years away and flee. This would tie up large portions of the fleet in a time when every available hand would be needed to recommission the reserve fleets to prepare for the Reapers. A Spectre agent would need to track down the Illusive traitor before they would commit a fleet.
But, Saren has more than a bit of a reputation among the Spectres. Whatever his final loyalties, he was the most effective operative the council ever fielded (and apparently far more skilled than even his commanders believed). The rogue Spectre even stars in many of their boot camp training videos for inexperienced recruits. In order to send an agent who would not be hampered by Saren's monolithic reputation, the council would need to send a new Spectre after him. Someone who had proven themselves tenacious, charismatic, and highly skilled. Someone like...
"As you should know already, before the current disaster Spectre Nihilus Kryk was dispatched to evaluate you, Commander Shepard, as a potential Spectre," the Asari councillor stated, "Although he never gave a final verdict, his reports are favorable, and you displayed great ability in exposing Saren's treachery. If you want it, and the mission to bring former Spectre Saren Arterius to justice, the position remains open to you, commander..."
The second council meeting in as many days now over, the citadel's newest Spectre agent gathered a council of war in the starship Normandy's meeting room. In addition to Alliance members, including Captain Anderson, ambassador Udina, and the original ground team from Eden Prime, Shepard invited her allies in the struggle to expose Saren: Garrus, Wrex, and Tali. It was these three that the Spectre addressed first.
"You probably already know why I invited you here, but it's worth saying anyway," Shepard began, "I'd like you to continue to help us track down Saren and bring him to justice. I would say this is your last chance to back out, but you don't have a choice. Not really."
"Among his many unpleasant traits, Saren is vengeful, and he never forgets," Captain Anderson explained, "Once you're on his enemies list, you never get off. For the first contact war, he's been murdering innocent humans for over twenty years, and allegiance aside, Saren is one of the most effective and well-connected agents the citadel ever produced. He will have you hunted down and killed, and we still don't know how extensive his network really is. Your only chance is to get him before he gets you."
"Hah, you trying to scare us, human?" Wrex spat, baring his teeth, "Sounds like a good fight. Besides, we wouldn't be here if our answers were no."
"I, well, Saren is a threat to everyone, not just the humans, or even the citadel races," Tali added, "I still need to find something for my pilgrimage, but there's no point in completing that if Saren just destroys everything. Besides, with the commander's record I'm bound to find something worth bringing back."
"As a good Turian, my honor demands I bring the traitor to justice," Garrus grinned, far more good-naturedly than the Krogan's predatory grimace, "As a slightly less good Turian, the council stonewalling me on Saren, well, let's just say it wouldn't have been the first time a monster walked because I got tied up in red tape. I'm interested in seeing how justice works on the other side of the beaurocracy, with a Spectre, where things might actually get done."
"I figured you'd say something like that," Shepard explained, "So now we get to the real business. We need to find Saren, and we have a limited time to do so. Ideas? Anything at all that might be useful."
"The alliance recently received word that our colony on Feros might be under attack," Captain Anderson offered, "We originally thought it was some exotic contaminant that the original terraforming crew missed, but Exogeni, the colony's sponsor, recently picked up traces of its effects in the soil too. They also reported unidentified synthetics skulking around. Testing a new bioweapon on a human colony and leaving Geth observers sounds like Saren's MO to me. Might be worthwhile for you to check it out."
"Don't you mean for us to check it out?" Shepard replied, "I may be a Spectre, but you're still my commanding officer, sir. Spectre status is independent of the chain of command."
"No, I mean you. The alliance is worried that my history with Saren would cloud my judgement," Captain Anderson admitted, "And I can't honestly tell them they're wrong. I've been transferred to Admiral Hackett's sixth fleet. With the new military mobilization he needs all the experienced officers he can get."
"Liara T'soni, matriarch Benezia's daughter, I think she's on Therum," Tali ventured quietly, "I read several of her articles when I was researching how to restore Prothean technology, a few years ago, and it said that she planned to be working on the Therum dig for the next ten years."
"I seem to recall an old buddy of mine from boot camp who works in Alliance R&D mentioned Therum when we met up on the Citadel about a week ago," Kaiden recalled, "He follows all the Prothean dig sites hoping they'll find something his team can try to reverse-engineer. He said the Therum dig is overdue to check in with their sponsoring university. You don't think maybe Saren hit the dig to get Liara's take on Iacon or the Conduit, do you?"
"Csec picked up Benezia herself's trail on sunny Noveria," Garrus shared, "She landed on the planet a few months before Saren was exposed and holed up in a lab owned by Binary Helix. I'll give you one guess who owns a significant share of Binary Helix's stock."
"Therum? That was one of the places from the Prothean message," Shepard added, "The other places sound like they're not particularly time-sensitive. The Noveria situation and whatever's happening on Feros have been going on for months now, maybe longer in Feros' case. The Therum dig couldn't have gone black for more than a few days, or the university sponsoring it would've sent someone to check up on them. I think Saren, or someone important enough to know where he is, is most likely to be on Therum. That's our destination."
Codex
Prothean Worker Drones
The Protheans, much like the more modern Quarians, preferred mechanical servants to performing labor themselves. These worker drones, operated by complex VI programs and containing technologies the citadel races still struggle to comprehend, have been found in moderate to large numbers in every Prothean site save the Mars cache, which nonetheless contained many parts from destroyed drones. Each drone is highly unique in color scheme, design, and build-in tools (and sometimes weapons and armor), but works off a much smaller set of underlying frames. Prevailing speculation suggests that Protheans personalized their drones, treating them much like humans and Turians treat a beloved household pet. However, as no drone has yet been recovered intact, and the synthetics lose large parts of their programming when they lose power (believed to be an anti-theft measure that proves quite inconvenient to archeologists), the exact purpose and methods of construction of these drones may never be discovered.
The Citadel
The citadel is a massive space station many times larger than anything else ever constructed. Like the mass relays that dot the galaxy, connecting inhabited worlds, the citadel is presumed to have been build by the Protheans to aid their travel around the galaxy. The citadel council uses the space station as its capitol world, supported by the station's massive population. However, unlike all other Prothean technology, neither the mass relays nor the citadel use energon as fuel, and rather than maintenance nanomachines, techno organic beings called Keepers maintain the citadel. A small but vocal minority of Prothean history experts, working off of papers published by Dr. Liara T'soni cite this as evidence than the Protheans did not build the mass relay network or the citadel. The lack of inactive Prothean drones found on the citadel supports this theory, but as there is no other known force that could build the gargantuan devices, most academics have decided to assume that the Protheans built them until another possibility surfaces.
The Krogan Rebellions
Many centuries ago, the citadel council, then only containing the Salarians, Asari, and a number of client races, came under attack by a vicious, insectoid race called the Rachni. Outnumbered and outgunned, as the Rachni had somehow reactivated an insectoid type of Prothean drone to bolster their already formidable forces, the citadel armed forces rapidly lost ground. In desperation, the Salarians provided weapons and technology to a recently-discovered race still recovering from a self-inflicted nuclear winter, the Krogan. Despite being bombed into a glowing wasteland, the Krogan home world of Tuchanka is one of the most actively hostile places in the galaxy, and Krogan, despite being intelligent, are fairly low on the Tuchankan food chain. Everywhere else in the galaxy, a Krogan, typically standing two meters tall and possessing both multiple, redundant organs and regeneration that can close flesh wounds in seconds, is nearly unstoppable when given modern weapons and armor. With the Krogan at the vanguard, the Rachni and their machines were annihilated. However, the Salarians helped the Krogan become the finest warriors in the galaxy. They provided none of the culture, social maturity, and discipline that other races gained in the acquisition of such firepower. The Krogan knew how to fight, and nothing else. If not for the timely intervention of another newly discovered and technologically advanced race, the Turians, the Krogan would have conquered the galaxy, and then probably self-destructed in a spectacularly world-spanning civil war. The Turian fleets battled the Krogan warlords to a brutal, grinding standstill while Salarians scientists deployed a bioweapon, the Genophage, to neuter ninety nine percent of the Krogan race and force the remaining Krogan to throw down their arms or face extinction. The Krogan could no longer breed faster than their enemies could kill them. The remaining Krogan have spread across the galaxy, most living their bitter, solitary lives as mercenaries until they run into someone bigger and badder than themselves. In a few generations, unless something changes, the Krogan will likely become extinct.
Salarians
Salarians are an amphibious, short-lived race known for intellectual ability and an abundance of energy. A Salarian, so the saying goes, burns bright and hot; they produce great things and live life at a breakneck speed, but are lucky to see sixty years of life. Turians and humans routinely see over a hundred and Asari many times that. The Salarian union contributes most of the citadel council's spies and scientists, and the Salarian intelligence organization known as the STG is widely regarded as the most effective spy organization in the known galaxy, although the Systems Alliance black ops group known as Cerberus has recently begun gaining on the STG's reputation and records in leaps and bounds.
Asari
Asari are a race of blue-skinned beings resembling beautiful human females; yes, every single one of them, barring disfiguring injury, is close to physical perfection. Furthermore, as Asari mate using a process that is part psychic link, part biotics, they can have children with absolutely anyone. This, combined with the Asari life cycle, has given the species a mostly unwarranted reputation for being an entire race of loose women. Asari can live for a thousand years, during which they go through three distinct stages. Maiden Asari are young and generally have less emotional control. They rarely have children, and a very high profile minority of them become mercenaries, citadel council soldiers, exotic dancers, or prostitutes to bleed off their more primal urges. The rest, much like young people of other species, attend schools and universities, seeking understanding and work experience in a more conventional manner. Matron Asari are more mature and collected than their younger fellows, and generally have at least one daughter during this phase. Most Asari seen off of Thessia and outside of the four maiden professions are matrons. Matriarch Asari are the oldest and rarest, if only because the dangerous lifestyles favored by many maidens mean that few Asari survive this long. Matriarchs are universally powerful biotics and skilled politicians, using the wisdom and skill gained over hundreds of years to guide and lead their people. However, they also have a tendency to assume that they always know best, whether or not others agree. Despite their relatively small numbers compared to the other council races, the Asari hold a great deal of military power thanks to their technology and unique biology. Asari tech always seems to be just a little more advanced than everyone else's, and the high concentration of elements zero on the Asari home world of Thessia makes even the least Asari a powerful biotic. Furthermore, Asari and Krogan are the only races capable of surviving direct exposure to energon. Mainlining the volatile substance can give an Asari or biotic Krogan 'stormeater' an immense, temporary boost in biotic power, although an overdose can still be fatal. Without energon, the Asari are the best biotics in the galaxy. With energon, a team of elite commandos can tear a frigate out of orbit with their minds alone, although doing so would exhaust them. Matriarch Asari are notable for a significantly greater tolerance for energon exposure than younger Asari. Some matriarchs, and a few especially hardy Krogan biotics, are known to constantly expose themselves to energon, gradually growing accustomed to the strain and gaining constant access to their full power. However, this practice comes at the cost of the biotic in question becoming dependent on energon, unable to survive without it. Also, the process of building up resistance to energon poisoning has a fifty percent chance of fatality, and an additional ten percent chance of crippling brain or organ damage.
A.N. Poor, poor Ultra Magnus. It seems like all his appearances serve only to illustrate how much less awesome he is than his brother. It must suck to constantly be compared to Optimus Prime. And because this is Optimus Prime we're talking about, Ultra Magnus always comes up short. The plot demanded that he die this time, but I hope that someday some intrepid author of fiction or fanfiction will go where no one has gone before and give Ultra Magnus his chance to shine...
I always wondered why Saren didn't take the political pull he had for his status as a famous and respected Spectre and Benezia's immense influence and milk them for all they were worth until Tali and Shepard exposed him. I also wondered why Shepard didn't have Garrus check over the evidence to give it extra credibility; as a detective certified by the council, he certainly could have put some extra weight on her accusations and opinions. So here, they did. Saren made off with a nasty navy, and the Garrus helped convince the council to look a little more closely at Saren's extracurricular activities. Plus, Tali's sound bite is much longer and more detailed this time. The council is panicking right now; they'll be mostly back to the uncooperative, obtuse, power hungry politicos we all know and love in a few chapters. For a few chapters. Why stop? Not every Cybertronian is as humble, politically inexperienced, and vulnerable to conventional mass accelerators as Arcee... Also, they know Saren has a formidable army this time around, even if the Reapers are a myth according to them.
