A/N: What's up everyone? How are you liking the story? Please let me know in reviews. Since I wrote the outline I knew this story would attract interest. I'm just hoping I'm close to what Bioware has. Although I like to be surprised. I already pre-ordered the game for 360; so don't disappoint me Bioware.
Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect, it's Bioware's baby (weeps)
Chapter 3: The Idiot Trio
125,000 BCE
Ancient spacefaring races called the thoi'han and inusannon fight over the planet Eingana, littering the planet with the debris of hundreds of starships. Refined element zero scattered by broken drive cores contaminates the environment, causing many native species to go extinct and those that survive to show a tendency to develop biotic powers. Source- Stolen Reaper Data Cache.
A virtual intelligence is an advanced form of user interface software. VIs use a variety of methods to simulate natural conversation, including an audio interface and an avatar personality to interact with. Although a VI can provide a convincing emulation of sentience, they are not self-aware, nor can they learn or take independent action.
VIs are used as operating systems on commercial and home computers. Menial VI "agents" are also available. Agents are compact and specialized. Some serve as personal secretaries, filtering calls and scheduling meetings based on user-defined priorities. Others are advanced search engines, propagating themselves across the extranet to collate user-requested data.
Commercial VIs in a variety of stock personalities are available at any software retailer. Boutique firms and hobbyists also build unique VIs to personal specification. Although software emulation of living personalities is illegal, reconstructions of famous historical figures are common. Source- Citadel Galactic Library
Shepard brief them on the mission as the Citadel begin to take flight. The ships lined up to the Mass Accelerator. The FLT(faster than light travel) jump was expected and everyone on the Normandy held on. The sensation of a deep breath and plunging into invisible water came over them, that lasted a few moments but it was enough to leave you disoriented.
The Citadel closed its giant long tentacle arms and followed into the Mass Accelerator towards Sol solar system. Thousands of Citadel ships awaited outside of the Mass Accelerator. Ever since the discovery of the Mass accelerators and the Citadel, the Asari had never moved the citadel.
Asuna D'calo, the Asari council being held captive felt that the humans were exaggerating the threat. As soon as the army took care of the Reaper problem if there was actually one, humanity would be expelled from the council. She was sure of it. Akrot Remaish, turian council was right to call humanity a blight and a threat to all organic life. They were reckless and now they had pushed their luck too far.
The turian army led the charge towards the third planet, Earth as humans called it. "General Grievas I expect a full report after you have taken care of the situation." said the asari councilwoman, Asuna.
"Yes ma'am." said the Turian General. She slumped back in her chair looking at the two captors, Grunt a Krogan, who had bandages around him but stood proud of his injuries. He grunted when he noticed the Asari staring.
Sitting on a desk with a gun near his thigh, was a human male. The asari guessed he was old, since he had thinning gray hair and was badly scarred because she had never seen a human with a white eye and a chunk of his face nearly ripped. The scarring had not healed well and stood out as a half moon around his eye. His name was Zaeed, Shepard had mentioned. "Maybe I'll try to reason with him while I call the Asari commandos," she thought. "Excuse me human, Zaeed, do you foresee commander Shepard to keep his word and let us go free?"
Zaeed took a puff out of his cigarette and looked at the Asari examining her figure. "Not bad for a matriarch" he thought then exhaled. Asuna felt the examining glare and kept her eyes down. Perhaps Shepard did not have them under control and human males were said to go berserk and rape alien females.
"Aye, Shepa'd always kee's his word, I reckon there is no young fella better than Shepa'd." Asuna pressed the button underneath her desk as she asked her next question; however she was interrupted by an invisible voice. "She has pressed the button for the reinforcements. Should I kill her?" asked the woman's voice. Asuna looked around trying to find the source, afraid for her life, she begin threatening what the council and Asari would do to Shepard if she was harmed.
"Don't bother." said Zaeed "I was beginning to get bored. Shepa'd did not say we couldn't play with the fine ass Asaries." He chuckled and brought some bookshelves down for cover.
"No he did not." said the invisible woman appearing out of thin air. She had a hooded armor and was quite petite and did not seem much of soldier. She seemed to be stretching, preparing for the battle. Asuna could not see her face well but she was licking her lips with anticipation or lust, Asuna could not tell which one. Grunt was psyching himself up. One of his arm was bandaged and probably broken, but just shrugged it off and resisted the pain. "Now that's one tough son-of-a-bitc-" complimented Zaeed, but was interrupted by a thump against the door. Grunt and Zaeed ducked for cover and the hooded-woman pulled out a short sword, while engulfed in blue electric light and vanishing into thin air again. "I'll watch over the council and I'll kill them if they make any orders." She lied before charging into battle.
The door blasted open with explosives and asari commando rushed in. They used flash bangs but those stood frozen in midair then bounced back into the incoming asari. Many screams were heard as the bangs exploded. An asari body was flung in the air then shot. The commandos immediately took cover and begin shooting. Grunt and Zaeed kept them pin down. Shrieks of deathblows were heard behind the commando lines and they soon begin shooting upon themselves. "Leave us some blue fish asari! Goddamn Kasumi!" Shouted Zaeed. He charged forward shooting at the unsuspecting asari. Grunt joined in the fun with a Krogan warcry.
Back on the Normandy shepard continued his briefing...
A three cell team would infiltrate a Reaper and hack their AI by an upgraded program from the Geth, EDI, and the Shadow Broker.
Shepard wanted things to go smoothly. The mission he decided on with the Geth unit, Legion and info from the Shadow Broker, Liara seemed sound, EDI had joined the disscussion and soon the hacking program had been worked on. Legion called it an atonement for the rogue geth. The geth unlike organics had a hive-shared-experiences mind. They all took concensus and decided their fate.
In return the Geth had evacuated Tali's homeworld and the Flotilla had landed on it a few days ago. Caches of data about the planet had kept Tali busy. She had become giddy and happy as a little girl. Certaingly a welcome change from the past depressed Tali. Shepard shot a few glances Tali's way. He knew deep down her enviro-suit she was blushing and smiling. They were both worried but as long as Shepard concentrated on coming back to her beautiful girlfriend. Things were not as desperate as they seemed.
"Shepard!" Jack brought him back to his senses. "What?" asked Shepard pretending he was examining some charts in front of him, on the holograms. "I asked you if the plan will be safe!" said Jack exasperated. She had noticed where Shepard was looking and was annoyed. Shepard knew Jack was more tomboyish than she cared to admit so he appealed to her masculine side. "What's wrong Jack, you scared?" asked Shepard with a grin.
Jack slammed her fist on the meeting room table. "Fuck no. I asked because I'm going and I want to come back in one piece, dumbass!"
She could play the same game if Shepard wanted to taunt her. "I will not have people disrespecting me on my ship, Jack."
"I'll respect you if you can beat me on a fight, one-on-one." Shepard thought about it and could not find the harm so he agreed. "Fine, but after this battle." Jack put up her hand for Shepard to shake. Shepard took it and shook it, but Jack had other plans; so she pulled him close and hugged him, putting her arms around his neck. People around them gasped. Tali surprised dropped her datapad, her anger boiling in her pale face.
"Want to have a quickie before we go on the mission Shepard?" whispered Jack near his ear. "Let go." said Shepard as he tried to get out of the hug. He had dealt with pushy women, but Jack was taking it to a new extreme. "If I let you go do you agree to a fuck?" Shepard shook his head trying to get her hands out his neck.
"He said let go!" Yelled Miranda.
"Butt out, cheerleader! We all know you have the hots for Shepard." Barked Jack back to her. Miranda blushed furiously at a loss for words. " But Tali is going to share him with me. right Tali?
"The hell I will!" exclaimed Tali furious. "Get your hands out of my Shepard!"
Shepard rolled his eyes, his head away from Jack as much as he could. He looked around and saw Garrus cracking up, pointing at Shepard. Thane pretended to look away elsewhere. Mordin was furiously scribbling notes, on human behavior no doubt.
"Females flocking dominant male. Fight. Blood. Never seen human females fight. How bloody? Must record data." He raised his onmi-tool, a holographic personal computer around people's arm, pressed a few buttons and hit record video.
Samara looked towards Shepard with a smile. Even Joker was cracking up when he announced that the army was approaching planet Saturn. "Meetings are supposed to be secret." Shepard reminded Joker finally able to get out of Jack's embrace. "I'm sorry comm-" He couldn't finish as he had another outburst of laughter.
"All dismissed." said Shepard. Everyone stood and walked towards the door. Tali had an unusually fast pace. "Tali?" Shepard called to her, but she did not turn. He watched her leave and immediately knew he was in trouble somehow. He didn't have time for petty fights with Tali, but he did not want to leave for the battle with her mad at him. It would be up to him to apologize. He face palmed himself and walked towards the engineering lower levels.
London England, Earth, 13 hrs after invasion...
Most of Earth Alliance military had been wiped out. Few remnants still fought out in space while heavy thermal nuclear lasers fired at the behemoths destroying England. Major William Chapel, fired another rocket-propelled missile. The missile circled around the clock tower and struck the huge battleship formed like a giant ant. His antennas vibrated erupting beams, that hit the buildings and part of the clock tower. Napalm-like bombs exploded after the beams. The explosion knocked the Major across the room since part of the ceiling had blown up. Large wind rushed in clearing some of the smoke.
He was deaf for a minute, not being able to hear the bomb sirens all across the city. William's lungs filled with smoke and he felt like retching. His gasping became heavy. His left leg had explosion debris, slowly he pulled a piece of metal, grunting through it. He coughed loudly trying to get all the soot out his lungs, then crawled next to his sniper rifle near the half blown out circular window. He dare not attack the giant metal beast again, but at least he could help kill the horde of metal zombies that had rampage the streets. He injected himself a medi-gel in his leg and the pain went numb.
He grabbed the riffle,leaned it against the window and aimed across the roads from him. He saw a horde of metal zombies advance on armed civilians and he took a deep breath, then exhaled. He squeezed the trigger and blasted the head of a metal running corpse. Their skeleton was human, but it was too sunk and torn to be alive, a glow emitted from their insides. The military emergency channel had called them husks.
Another husks corpse pounced on a man, and tore his face with claws, blood spurted out. William aimed and killed the husk. He reloaded and cursed himself for not being fast enough to save the man. "Goddamn! where is the rest of the alliance fleet?" He shouted desperately as he saw two other civilians getting torn to pieces.
He raised his eyes and saw more of those giant spaceships landing all over the city. Hundreds could be seen in the sky. Waiting for something. The soldier in the last transmission had called them, Reapers. He had also mentioned that Shepard had been contacted and he had promised to come back with reinforcements. "If Shepard doesn't come to help us soon, there won't be any earth left to protect!"
Back in the Normandy...
Shepard found Tali near the Mass Effect Core, a sphere surrounded in lighting and biotic fields, it was responsible for FLT, faster-than-light-travel. She was crying under the enviro-suit. The tinted helmet glass shadowed her tears, but Shepard could hear her sorrow. She did not hear Shepard approach. He came behind her and put her arms around her. She had been acting more sensitive lately and Shepard wondered what was really going on. She did not struggle, but was surprised.
"Shepard!" she exclaimed in her usual sexy accent. "It's ok." He said it soothingly. "Why did you get upset? You know you are the only one I love."
"Are...you sure Shepard? You sure you wouldn't like being with one of your kind better?"
"I wasn't flirting with any other girl, you were there."
"But you sure didn't put much of a fight when she put her arms around you!"
"Did you want me to punch her or knock her out before a big battle?"
Tali thought for a second and she was still upset, but tried to sound reasonable. "No...but."
"Excuse me commander, everyone has suit up, General Grievas has intel to discuss." said EDI's seductive female voice.
"Just give me a few minutes EDI" replied Shepard.
"Certainly commander." He licked his lips and chose his words carefully.
"Listen Tali, I know something is wrong with you. You been hiding something. I can only guess what that is. Please I'm sorry for what happened." started Shepard.
"But I love you. No matter what. I don't want to go into the battle with you being mad at me." He caressed the helmet, turned her around and embraced her. Tali had tears running down her cheeks and she too did not want to part angry. Her hands embraced him.
"I love you too, Arthur." She was the only one he allowed to call him by his first name.
"I'm scared." She muttered in tears.
"Me too." replied Shepard sincerely.
"Please come back to me." She whispered.
"I promise my love." he finished. He kissed on her helmet glass and walked away towards the second floor meeting room and to change into his armor.
Shepard was tense, despite his impressive battle record. He couldn't shake the importance of this battle, mainly because it was earth, his home world he was defending. His frustration grew as he saw the timer on his omni-tool. He was riding the elevator on the way up to the tactical meeting room. Wherever he went, he was bothered about something, the engineering personnel had just asked him for biotic turbo blasters for the propulsion system, whatever that was.
The elevator stopped on the first floor and Garrus Vakarian got on. He was in full armor. "Shepard." he greeted him with a handshake. "Everyone is ready near the Mako." Garrus told him.
"I'm going to have a quick meeting with a general and will be right there. Why are you going up?"
"I have to tell something to someone."
"Oh"
"Who?" Garrus looked at him for a minute before replying. "I have observed you and Tali. I've thought that if I have someone to look forward when I come back too. I will be more motivated to fight."
"You are not going to tell me are you?"
"I'll tell you if anything happens my friend."
"Deal. Just don't bore her with your weapon modifications crap." Shepard said grinning.
"What is the human saying? oh yes...Screw you. I'm surprised Tali hasn't dumped you from all the heart attacks you give her." Both let out a laugh.
"She was pissed off a minute ago from that scene in the tactical meeting room." said Shepard looking annoyed.
"Oh yea, that was hilarious." Garrus remembered laughing. He had made his face hurt last time he was cracking up in the meeting room and seemed like he would again.
"I'm glad you enjoyed that. Smartass." grunted Shepard with a smile. He had been to countless battles with Garrus and trusted him completely, so he knew he would give him his honest opinion if he asked him something.
"Hey Garrus, have you noticed Tali acting strange?" Shepard asked.
"Now that you mention it, she gets more angry when you do your reckless stunts, but now she yells at you during battle." he replied.
"Which is why I'm not taking her in my group." Shepard confessed.
"So which group is she going in?" Garrus asked him.
"I was hoping to ask you to look after her..." Shepard told him. There was no one, besides Tali, he trusted more than Garrus.
"You sure?" Garrus asked, realizing this was a big responsability, but one that Garrus was proud to take.
"Yea that way we won't be distracted during the mission." Shepard told him honestly. Garrus thought about it and asked.
"Who are you taking?
"Jack and Miranda." replied Shepard remembering the scene at the meeting room. He was not looking forward to it, but Jack had insisted.
"Ooh, you sure that is a good idea? I thought you were trying to avoid trouble with Tali?" Garrus reminded him.
"You are right." Shepard thought about it for a minute. " I'll take Legion and Samara instead. Thanks Garrus."They shook hands again parted ways in the lobby. Kelly saw him and ran to talk to him quickly. "Commander you have an urgent message from The Shadow Broker. He said it was concerning the Citadel."
"Ok I'll take it in the Tactical Meeting Room." replied Shepard heading there. "EDI lock the door and start security privacy measures."
"Roger Commander" Only a handful knew who the new Shadow Broker was and he wanted to keep it that way. The deep voice of a man spoke even though Shepard could see Liara. Liara T'soni was an Asari Shepard had dated until his death. "Shepard so good to see you. My voice has a new tone since this is encrypted data."
"ok, What can I do for you Shadow?" He asked with a smile. Despite loving Tali, Shepard still had a soft spot for the beautiful, sweet asari.
"I have sources and hacked cameras in the Council. Right now your trio of idiots are battling salarian troops and asari commandos."
"Were they attacked? How bad is the situation? and how come they haven't contacted me?"
"Beats me. I don't have all the answers, but they don't seem to be in trouble. Actually I think they are enjoying it. If you don't keep them in line the council might decide to pull out their troops and leave the Alliance military to their fate against the Reapers, Shepard."
"Those idiots! Thanks, I'll deal with them. Anything useful I can use during the battle, Shadow?"
"I'm sending you a VI(Virtual Intelligence) that will mimic your voice and personality. I can relay orders for you while you are in battle." She paused for a minute touching her ear to hear the tiny speaker in her ear better. "It seems the turian army has decided not get involved in the battle. They plan to run and hope humanity gets destroyed Shepard."
"Goddamn Turians!" He burst in anger.
"Not unexpected Shepard. I will hack their communications and sent them orders to belay that order." replied Liara with a calm voice. She typed furiously at the holographic console in front of her. Sweat showing in her brow. "Done. That ought to do it."
"What did you do?"
"I just sent them a few fake vids of Turian Councilman Akrot Remaish reminding them to do their part and tell them the Council will revoke them of their new founded colonies if they don't fight. Plus for a low blow, 90% funding to their military would be suspended. Seems Turians love their military might more than colonies." She giggled. Shepard couldn't help, but laugh.
"I'll be feeding you status of the battle Shepard. But we don't know how superior their technology will be against us. Please be careful Shepard. I won't say anything personal here. But remember the words I told you when we met."
He nodded. He remembered clearly. "I still love you and always will." She had told him then. He had given it a great deal of thought a few months back when they had helped her complete her revenge against the past Shadow Broker. Afterward she had taken on the role. She had asked him to come back to her. She had thought him dead and had not moved on. By then Shepard was now in love with Tali and could not betray her. So he asked for time. He had isolated himself and thought how life would be if he dated his old girlfriend, the girl he thought he would spend the rest of his life with. Surely he had been in love with the old sweet asari, but Liara was changed now. She was bitter and cold, calculating like Miranda. Personally he had always thought people didn't change, but he was surprised when he had met the new Liara. He had chosen Tali and did not regret it.
Liara waved and she dissapeared off the screen. "Encrypted files received Commander." said EDI. "Files downloaded to your omni-tool" He clicked on it and read the new message on it.
"To Shepard,
Written messages will be faster to download and harder to decypher when you are inside the Reaper. I will update you like this and you can send me messages as well. Please let me know when you've hacked your first Reaper. As I will be taking over it. EDI will have access to the Second and the Geth will be taking theirs. Personally I feel giving one Reaper to the Geth is a mistake, but you have assured me they are allies now. I will trust your judgment once again as I've always done, love. What do you see in that Quaraian anyway?"
Shepard did not feel like starting a personal conversation with important data; so he called Zaeed.
Back in the Citadel...
Zaeed pitched another grenade and the Asari commandos scrambled for cover. Zaeed noticed his omni-tool beeping so he retreated back to a corridor and shouted for his comrades to keep the noise down, it was Shepard. "Hey Shepa'd, you don't call and keep us bored out here."
"Really Zaeed, you have been bored doing nothing?" Shepard asked eyeballing him suspiciously. Zaeed scratched his head and gave a fake smile. "Of course Shepa'd." Suddenly a grenade went off twenty feet behind him and he ducked his head out of instinct.
"Then what was that Zaeed? You are to retreat and make sure those Councilmen don't give any orders to retreat. Is that clear?"
"We was just having a little fun Shepa'd."
"Well stop having fun dammit! This is serious Zaeed."
"Don't make me send the Justicar overthere to appease things." Threaten Shepard.
If there was anyone Zaeed was afraid of, was Samara, the Justicar. He had once faced her in combat and she had almost wiped out the Blue Suns twenty years ago. Zaeed eyes bulged, and he actually shook visually. "Al ri-ght, no need to go th-at far, Shepa'd. We'll make sure the cowards co-operate." answered Zaeed stuttering a bit. He still had nightmares about the asari wiping out half off his squad back then. Shepard called the other two members in the citadel squad and scolded them too, just in case. He swore, then wondered how many members was actually taking this as serious as him.