Four Weeks Later SA-BB(Battleship) 'Against All Enemies', Starboard Viewport New Eden, High Orbit
"Congratulation on your promotion lieutenant commander Shepard."
She turns, a smile tugging her lip, "And congratulations on your's, Captain Anderson..."
Anderson steps beside her, observing the stars and ships outside the massive ship.
Red lights start to flash as the viewport starts to close *Woop! Gravity fluctuations detected at the Relay. All hands to battle-stations! Woop! I Repeat, gravity fluctuations detected at the Relay. All hands to battle-stations!*
Anderson turns to Shepard, a wry grin on his face, "They're HE~RE..."
She tugged on her dress whites' collar, the maple leaf on her collar felt like it was laying wrong.
"You Shepards never did enjoy dressing nice, do you?"
A cloud of cigar smoke followed the man, gray may speckle his hair but his Marine dress uniform was creased to the T and his shoes shined as brightly as the Terran Medal of Honor around his throat.
Carmen pops to attention, "Sergeant-Major Johnson! What are you doing here?"
He steps beside her, "Just came to get a gander at the new aliens, that's all." He pokes her, "and I've told you Carmen, call me Avery."
"As bad as your father..." he mutters as a small shuttle slips into the bay and lands with a barely a whisper.
A ramp extended from the rear of the craft, down which the ambassador, her aide, and two armored Turians emerge. Although from the armor and the symbol on their chest it seemed that these two were SPECTREs.
Carmen's mind started wandering as soon as the speeches started, she tried to stay on task by mentally reciting the square root of Pie (Her record was to number 105) but sadly all it was doing was making her eyes drift close.
After giving herself a sharp mental shake her eyes started drifting over the ambassador and entourage. From the feeling of ageshe was getting from the ambassador she was most likely a Matriarch, according to the information ONI had ripped from the Turian databanks that had been captured that meant she was at least over a thousand years old. Carmen felt a touch of awe at the thought that the woman in front of her had likely been born before Christopher Columbus had even had set foot on the New World...
A slight movement catches her eye. The aide had shifted, a look of discomfort on her face.
Shepard studied her face. She wasn't sure but she wasn't getting the same feeling of age from her, she was most likely a maiden... 'Although the freckles are cute...'
Carmen jumped slightly when applause erupted around her.
As the bay emptied and she turned to leave her comm beeped, the screen simply showing 'Udina' "Yes Ambassador?"
"Ah, Shepard. Could you meet me in my office in a hour?"
"Of course Sir."
Finally out of her uncomfortable whites and back in her normal 'uniform', Shepard knocked on Ambassador Udina's door exactly one hour later.
"Come in!"
She opens the door and steps in. The human ambassador was sitting sitting behind his desk, he looks up from what he was working on, "Ah, Shepard. Just in time, I was" A knock on the door interrupts, "Ah they're here."
"Sir?"
The door opens, reveling the two SPECTREs standing on the other side, "Gentlebeings, this is SPARTAN Lieutenant Commander Shepard. All security questions should be directed to her."
'Sonofabitch...'
The grey-faced one looks her up and down, "SPARTAN? What does that stand for?"
Carmen disengages her helmet locks and seals and removes her helmet, ignoring the question, "Ambassador, may I use your holoprojecter?"
"Of course..."
She uploads a file from her neural lace to the projector. A building appears, hovering over the desk, "This is the Charles L. Draga museum, named after a local who discovered a fairly large stash of artifacts in a nearby quarry."
"Artifacts?" The other Turian leans forward, interest on his face, "There are certain rules about Prothean artifacts..."
Carmen shakes her head, "One: These artifacts are not Prothean, and Two: We are not members of the Council, so we are notrequired to follow Council rulings..."
Udina steps between the now bristling alien and Shepard, "Now, now. We're here about the security of the conference, not talk about topics of the conference."
The two nod, Shepard turns back to the projected building, "Now, the building will be surrounded by four platoons of ODST, with heavy anti-air and anti-infantry weapons dug in. There will be two SPARTAN teams in Defender armor acting as a quick-reaction force." Dots appear scattered around the building and on the roof.
"Should we come under attack we escort the diganities to the courtyard here." A star appears on a small rear courtyard, "From there we will gravlift them to a cruiser that will be waiting in geo-sync orbit." 'And then a full QR fleet will sweep in and mop up the rest.'
The more friendly one nods, "This sounds very thought out, but... ODST? Grav...Lift? I'm afraid I don't understand..."
"ODSTs stands for Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. They're, as the name suggests, dropped from orbit to act as reinforcements or a vanguard of a attacking force. They're the elite of the SA marines. And as for gravlifts..." She uploads a different file, "They're a Covenant innovation. They act like two magnets, temporary reversing gravity in a localized area allowing high-speed movement between two places like a elevator. Be it between two floors of a building or..."
A video starts playing, showing a group of SPARTANs and Sanghelli Rangers using a gravlift to drop onto a Jiralhanae position, "...Between a ship and the ground."
"I... see..."
Charles L. Draga Museum, that night
'God, I hate parties...' Carmen takes a sip from her sparkling grape juice, mentally cursing the fact she was on duty and that all she had was her dress M6 (the plasma knife she had hidden up her sleeve had totally slipped her mind...). Meaning no getting lucky tonight or decent weaponry if the conference came under attack...
"Ah, Lieutenant Commander. So good to see you again..." Ambassador Udina appeared, the Asari ambassador standing next to him.
"Ambassadors..." 'Damnit how do I get out of this...?'
"Allow me to introduce Matriarch Benezina T'Soni..."
*Beep Intruder detected in East Wing*
'Oh thank GOD!' Carmen slips her glass onto a passing tray, "Excuse me, Ambassadors. But something has come to my attention that I need to handle."
"Of course, Lieutenant Commander..."
She keys her mike as she slips though the crowd, "I'm on the east wing intruder."
"Understood Commander."
East Wing
Carmen slipped into the closed wing, her dress pistol drawn.
"How far?" She whispers
"IR shows subject about 50 feet ahead of you and closing, Commander."
"Understood."
Shepard slips from shadow to shadow, closing on the intruder.
Echoing footsteps alerted Carmen to her approaching target.
With a quick yank of the arm and a spin the intruder was pinned face-first to the wall, held in place with Shepard's M6 between their shoulder-blades.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Carmen demands as she quickly pats her captive down.
Only finding a omni-tool on the female intruder, Shepard spins her around and takes a step back still covering her. "I said..."
"My, my name is Liara T'Soni..."
'Shit...' "Any relationship to Ambassador Benezia T'Soni?" 'Please say no, please say...'
"Yes, she's my mother..." 'Damn...'
Carmen holstered her pistol, "My apologies, Ms. T'Soni. Security detected you and I came to check it out. But, may I ask why you're here? This wing is closed..."
"I-I'm a archaeologist. These artifacts are fascinating! I mean, look at this!"
Liara walks to a display, "An working hard-light device that's over a MILLION years old! And this!" She gestures to a picture on the wall, "That looks like a Prothean Beacon!"
"Commander? Your status?"
She squeezes her mike key, "I'm five by five, just a lost lamb."
"Understood Commander." Dispatch acknowledged her and the 'all-clear' code-phrase, five by five.
Liara looks up from the display case, "What was that..." She flushes, slightly mortified, "...I'm so sorry! I never asked your name! I'm not always this rude but..."
"Carmen."
"...but this is so exciting and I'm sorry what was that?"
"My name. Is Carmen Shepard."
"I~I see..." Liara blushes
Carmen smiles and tucks Liara's arm into her, deepening Lirara's blush, "Why don't we head back to the party and you tell me about some of your work?"
"...and then he passed out and fell right on his face!" Carmen chuckles as Liara finishes her story about a Salarian in her archaeology class who had activated a Prothean device no one else had while he was drunk.
"Liara, there you are..." Matriarch Benezia strolled up, her white dress(An exact copy of what Liara was wearing.) flaring behind her.
"M~mother!"
"Where have you been? I wanted to introduce you to the Sanghelli Councilor and the Human..." Liara shrank back, her gentle hand on Carmen's arm turning into a deathgrip.
"She was with me."
Benezia turned her gaze from her daughter to the SPARTAN, "Excuse me?"
"The reason I was called away earlier was because Liara here was curious about some of the artifacts in the East wing."
"I see..." She sighed, "...still playing in the dirt Liara? How... disappointing..."
"I~I'm sorry mother..." Liara's face fell.
Carmen stiffen, disliking the way Benezia was talking to Liana.
"Now, I believe I just saw the Terran ambassador..."
"Eh-em!"
Benezia turned back to Carmen, "Yes, Commander?"
"I believe I wasn't done showing Liara around."
"Excuse me?"
"Yes, ex-cuse us."
Carmen lead Liara away, her mouth a firm line. After a few steps she takes in Liara's gob-smacked face, "What's wrong?"
"I~I don't think anyone's ever talked to my mother like that... in centuries!"
She snorts, "Then people need to talk back to her more often then."
She lead Liara onto the dance-floor, "Your mother... I'm sorry if this seems rude, but she's a bitch."
"Wha...?"
"Walking all over your dreams like that... I mean, we just met and I can tell you love archaeology, piecing the past together..."
"She~she just wants what's best for me..." Liara fumbles out.
"No, she wants you to be her. All cold and scary..."
Liara chuckles as Carmen starts leading her in a simple waltz.
"What?"
"You're the first person to back-talk my mother in centuries and then call her scary?
"Well, the last time I saw eyes like your mother was..."
Liara takes in Shepard's frown, "Was where?"
"...was on Mindoir..."
"...Mindoir?"
*beep Gravity fluctuations detected at the Relay. Commander Shepard, please report to CIC. *beep Gravity fluctuations detected at the Relay. Commander Shepard, please report to CIC...
Carmen lead Liara to the edge of the dance-floor, "Liara... I've got to go, I'll be back as soon as possible..."
"Oh.." Liara watched as the woman who had defended her from her mother disappear and the person who had threaten to shoot her stalk her way thru the crowd.
The History of the System Alliance: Mindoir
A minor Human colony settled 2540(Military Calendar) on the border of Unified Earth Government and the Sangheili Imperium, it quickly rose to prominence after the incident 2556...{Request More Information?}
