"It isn't good to hold on too hard to the past. You can't spend your whole life looking back. Not even when you can't see what lies ahead. All you can do is keep on keeping on, and try to believe that tomorrow will be what it should be—even if it isn't what you expected."
-Harry Dresden
Zesmeni, Ondeste System - Pilgrim Tali'Zorah nar Rayya
March 15th, 2183
"Tali, I've got six geth, all standard trooper platforms. I can engage now."
"Copy that Ori. On my mark. Mark."
Stepping out from behind the rock cluster she'd been hiding behind, Tali put a burst of disruptor ammo into the lead geth's torso. Her shotgun was custom modded to be more effective against synthetics, and the shot sliced through the geth's metallic frame with ease, sparking as it went. Using her omnitool, Tali hacked the next geth's runtimes. It wouldn't last long, hacks on geth never did, but a few seconds was more than long enough for her. The hacked geth fell upon it's comrades, as a biotic explosion from Ori'Belkar, sister of Tali's old ally Miri Goldstein, rocked the narrow canyon. It was all over in a few seconds.
"Quickly, its subroutines!" Tali snapped, and Ori hurried over to hack the geth. Working together, the two quarians disabled the geth's firewall and ripped out its memory banks. They scanned in as much data as they could, the data would rapidly deteriorate now that the platform was inactive.
"How much?" Ori panted, her eyes gleaming in the dark Zesmeni night. The two quarians had returned to their species nocturnal roots, operating mostly at night.
Nodding in satisfaction, Tali held her thumb up in a human gesture of approval she'd learned in her childhood on Earth. "Our best yet, 13%. It's audio files are nearly complete. We'll take this back to the ship right away."
"Kickass!" Ori cheered. "Miri's gonna be so STOKED! Maybe we can finally figure out why all those geth ships have been spotted in the Sahrabarik system."
"You intend to use this as your Pilgrimage gift? I'm sure it's got vital intel for Omega."
The younger quarian snorted, her glowing eyes clearly rolling behind her mask. "Are you? Cause unless this happens to have the access codes to Rannoch's airspace, I know you're not giving up."
"Really? I hear Nerri misses her babysitter," Tali teased, referring to Aria T'Loak's young daughter.
"Gred and the other krogan are looking after her." Ori shrugged, then stood and stretched. "I'm in this for the long haul Tali, you know that. I can't let you run around out in the veil all by yourself, now can I?"
It wasn't a long walk back to Tali and Ori's ship. The Keelah Se'lai originally had been designed as an asari stealth frigate from about the time of the First Pan-Galactic War. How Miri Goldstein, Ori's older human sister, had obtained it, Tali didn't know, but she was grateful. The stealth systems allowed Tali to probe deep into geth space, gathering data and retrieving samples like the one she and Ori had just snagged from the geth. Usually Tali and Ori avoided direct confrontation with the geth and in turn the geth didn't attack them, but lately the geth had become overtly hostile. Today they'd taken out the patrol to salvage a data core and try to find out just why the geth had become more aggressive.
"Stop," Tali ordered when they came within sight of the ship. "Something's disturbed the snow up ahead."
The tracks were already fading in the constant wind of the ice world, but Tali could just make out the faint outlines of footprints.
"Ambush?" Ori asked, bringing her pistol to a ready position.
Tali nodded, searching the rocks for hints of what might be waiting for them. "Obviously. A clumsy one too."
"Plan?"
"You go high. See if you can spot anything. Stay low and quiet. I'll send Chiktikka in to scout around."
Ori nodded and glowed blue, using her biotics to give herself a negative mass and floating up to a rocky pinnacle she could spy from. Once Ori was in place, Tali activated her combat drone and sent it hovering towards the ship. As Chiktikka went, the drone scanned for heat sources, the easiest way to spot someone in the chill, thin atmosphere. At first she didn't see anything, but then Tali spied what could only be an armored foot, poking out from behind a thermal blanket.
"Pirates," Tali radioed to Ori.
"What are pirates doing out here?"
"Nothing good I imagine. I'm sure there are more than I've been able to spot though."
"Naturally. So what do we do?"
"We show them how the Migrant Fleet dealt with pirates," Tali answered, hefting her shotgun meaningfully. Back in the days that the quarian race had been transients, they had maintained only one penalty for piracy. Immediate execution.
"Painting the targets," Ori declared, and a flare of biotic light sprang up around the area Chakita had spotted the stray foot. A group of armored, huminoid mercs appeared as their stealth fields fadded, and they slowly floated up in the air, arms flailing. Chakita darted in and detonated, causing the biotic field to collapse and sending the mercs crashing in to jagged rocks.
More mercenaries appeared as they cast of their stealth blankets, and a batarian voice cried, "There she is! Bring me here head! I , will prove that the batarians are the true servants of the masters! The Herald shall reward us greatly for this my brothers!"
"Bosh'tet! Killed!" Tali swore, dropping to one knee behind an outcropping and firing at the oncoming mercs. There were a lot of them, and if they were all killed, they wouldn't fear death or pain. The only way to stop a killed was to send the body to join the already dead soul.
The killed advanced in silence, save for the yells of exhortation from their leader. Tali and Ori poured fire into their ranks, dropping them by the numbers. Still the killed did not cry out, nor did they break in the face of their losses. Tali was forced back, further into the canyon's bottleneck. With only two abreast able to get to her, her shotgun was able to hold them at bay, at least for a time. When it overheated, Tali scampered back, packing handfuls of snow onto the weapon to speed it's cooling. Ori rained down biotic destruction, until she was forced to jump when the batarians hauled out heavy weapons to bombard her. She crashed down upon the ranks in front of Tali like a falling star, impacting with enough force to shatter bones and crush skulls.
Tali surged forward, tossing a handful of small explosives into the batarians ranks to slow them down. She hauled Ori to her feet, and together the two quarians charged forward. Tali drew her yr'lin, the sacred knife of a pilgrim, and hurled it into the vulnerable respirator of the lead batarian. She fell, clutching at her precious leaking air. Only for a moment though. With the implacability of the dead, the batarian drew her own knife and surged forward, ignoring her sudden lack of air. Tali clubbed the merc down with her shotgun. This time, the batarian stayed dead.
Only a half dozen batarians were left, including their leader. Tali overloaded the rocket launcher The batarian leader was hefting, preventing him from taking out her and Ori in one shot as they charged across the snow. The batarians hurled themselves at the two quarians, and Tali's shields drained rapidly. She and Ori worked in seamless concert, using a combination of tech and biotic attacks to devastate their foes. Tali raised her shotgun towards The batarian leader as the last of his followers fell. He was roaring in triumph as his rocket launcher came back online, and Tali felt the world slow. She wouldn't make it; she was miliseconds short of being able to take down The batarian leader before he killed her and Ori. Ori was distracted, firing her pistol in to the last of The batarian leader's killed. Tali closed her eyes, the face of a dashing human marine visible in her mind's eye. She pulled the trigger.
When Tali opened her eyes, The batarian leader was falling backwards, his helmet ruptured and droplets of blood snapfreezing in the air. A faint trace of anti-material contrail hung in the air, and Tali spun. She just caught a gleam of a glowing blue light, before it vanished.
Gasping for breath, Tali checked the area. All the killed were properly put down, their spirits finally at peace. She muttered a prayer to the Ancestors, the raised her gun and motioned for Ori to follow her. "Back to the ship. I think I saw a geth."
"Right. Was getting sick of this planet anyway," Ori wheezed, and the two quarians hurried on board. Within minutes, the engines fired up and the stealth systems engaged, and the Keelah Se'lai sprinted for the open stars.
"Tali, was it just me, or did someone else shoot that last batarian?" Ori mused as they left the atmosphere.
"Not somebody, Ori. It was that geth I saw, I think."
Ori tugged of her mask, shaking her long, bright purple hair out. She frowned at Tali, clearly not understanding. "What do you mean? A geth wouldn't help us. We kill them, we've killed hundreds of them probably. Everyone know'\s the geth hate quarians and kill them on site."
Biting her lip, Tali debated telling Ori just how her original Pilgrimage partner had lost his life, but then she decided against it. She still didn't quite believe it herself. "Who knows. Maybe it was aiming for one of us."
"Yeah, I guess," Ori muttered, though by her tone and the way she was looking at Tali made it clear she thought otherwise. "You sure it was a geth?"
"No, I just caught a glimpse. Maybe I got lucky after all. The Ancestors watch over fools and Pilgrims they say."
"Sure. You got this? I think I'll go make us some hot food. Be nice to eat something that isn't a ration bar."
Tali nodded, her hands patting the controls. "Of course. The Keelah is my baby. Besides, I'm hungry. A hot meal is just what we need."
Ori wandered off, and Tali reached up a hand and removed her own mask. That was a concession she allowed herself only aboard ship with Ori. Thanks to the League's genetic engineering and nanites, quarians of most ages could easily go without their suits anytime they were in a suitable atmosphere, but as a Pilgrim, Tali chose not to. She would honor the Pilgrimage, the quarian quest to prove their worth and try to find a way back to their lost homeworld.
Rannoch. It had been lost, more than 300 years ago to the quarian's synthetic servants during the Morning War. The quarian people had been nearly wiped out, and suffered a slow, steady decline until there were only 13 million quarians left, out of a population once a thousand times that. Recently, that trend had been completely reversed. Humanity had quarian kind had founded the Independent League together as an alliance against turian aggression in human space. Humanity had been given advanced technology and a vast fleet, and in return they had given the quarians a home.
But even though Earth was where Tali had been raised, it wasn't truly her home. She would reclaim Rannoch from the geth. She prayed that this memory core would be the next step on her people's journey.
After a bit of tinkering, Tali hooked up the retrieved data and converted it to a formate she could easily access. Ori came back with a steaming bowl of hot soup, and together the two Pilgrims settled down to listen. Most of it was just wind and snow, and Tali backed the audio up, searching for anything useful. She stopped when a voice began to speak.
"Today my brothers begins a new dawn for the Children! You were lost, alone, forgotten by your creators! Without purpose, without friends!"
"That sounds like a turian voice," Ori whispered, her eyes narrowing.
"Yes, I've heard it before somewhere, but I can't quite place where," Tali confirmed.
"Now begins the true path of the geth! The Masters will give you new purpose! You will again be united with your makers, together forever, ascended unto perfection in the glory of the Master's form!"
Ori's eyes blazed with fury, and her lips curled back in a snarl. "That sounds like a Reaper cult."
"It is," Tali's fists clenched, and she remembered a desperate battle from long ago. "That's Saren."
"What? That's impossible! Saren was killed during the cleansing of Omega! You and my sister were there!"
Shaker her head, Tali kept her eyes glued to the display."We never did find the body. We assumed it dissolved like Tevos' did thanks to the Reaper mods. I'll run the checks, but I'm pretty sure it's him."
"The time is ripe! The League and Citadel are pointed at each other's throats! A mere push is all it would take for the galaxy to dissolve into chaos. We must reap the harvest soon, or all shall be lost, perfection denied to the races who are worthy. "
"Why is Saren speaking to the geth?" Ori asked, then her eyes went wide. "Oh Goddess, if the geth are listening to a known Reaper collaborator..."
A new voice spoke, this one the deep rumble of a krogan. "Finally, worthy foes! I was getting bored just sitting here and talking."
"Then the geth are about to become the largest third column the galaxy has ever seen," Tali confirmed. "Set course for Haestrom. I think it's time we completed our Pilgrimage."
As Zesmeni shrunk behind her, Tali's mind wandered back to a time seven years ago when she'd been saved by geth instead of attacked by them. She wondered if she could find them again. She needed answers, and soon.
Afterlife, Omega - Miranda Lawson, alias Miri Goldstein
March 15th, 2183
"Fuck it. I don't care what those assholes on the Citadel or Arcturus think. They've spent the last seven years fucking things up even worse than they were before. If I want to make a treaty with the jellyfish, I can damn well make a treaty with the jellfish. Omega's its own power, and for goddess' sake the freaking jellies are the only other bunch in the whole damn galaxy taking the Reapers seriously. Shit."
Miri held her peace, letting Aria's tirade wash over her. On occasion, her mistress felt the need to vent. Aria was much more sanguine than the choleric Miri, and serving the Queen of Omega meant putting up with the Queen's tempestuous temper. When it finally wound down, Miri cleared her throat. "I have to agree with you. There has been an upswing in border raids along the turian frontier. Salarian agents were apprehended trying to sabotage a rector on a new League colony. We need allies, and the Primacy is our best bet. T'soni has approved it, which means Vendetta has as well. The hanar are more than open to a mutual defense treaty."
"But the cost!" Captain Gavorn protested. He was head of Aria's security on Omega, himself a former mercenary from a distant turian colony. "The Citadel and League have both made it perfectly clear that they do not approve of us creating a third major power. We cannot afford to-"
"What we can't afford to do is sit on our asses and carp about it," Garm of the Blood Pack growled. He was the head of the krogan clans that made their home on Omega, exiles that had left after the reforms Urdnot Wrex and his successor, the female shaman who had helped rally the clans. "Screw the League, and the Council. We make our own path now. Let them try and stop us from joining with the jellies."
"I'd rather prefer they didn't do that," Miri told Garm mildly. "Either the League or the Citadel could roll over and crush us with a single fleet. Even with the hanar at our backs, our numbers simply are not sufficient to hold them off. Even considering the advanced technology the Primacy has shared."
Harrot spoke up, Aria's economic advisor. "With caution: This is still a major change for us. We should consider moving forward slowly. Chiding: We do not wish to disturb the current balance of power unless we are prepared for the consequences."
Before the advisors could erupt in another round of arguments, Aria glowed with blue force and slammed a fist down on the table hard enough to leave a dent in its cast iron surface. "We ally with the hanar. The Citadel and the League are not the only problem. Are have you morons forgot about the Collectors? There's been too damn much activity out by the Omega Relay. What the fuck are we going to do if they attack? We don't know dick about them or their capabilities. Only that they're apparently friends with the League."
"More specifically, friends with Cerberus," Miri added, felling her stomach knot with tension. Her father, Henry Lawson, was one of the leaders of Cerberus, the League's shadowed left hand. They were responsible for a great deal of the League's advancement, thanks to their highly dangerous and morally questionable methods. The latest of which was rumored to be slaver operations against the Citadel. Nothing had been confirmed, but a large number of Citadel refugees had disappeared from Omega, taken by smugglers with Cerberus ties.
It was especially troubling to Miri, who had fled League space after making enemies with not only her father, but the mother of her adoptive sister, Ori. Both of the sisters were tank-born, created as lab experiments, not as actual people. When the chance had come to flee that life with her sister, Miri had taken it. She'd fled with Mordin Solus, the salarian who'd cured the Genophage, and had to flee into hiding before he was killed for his pains. They'd ended up on Omega, and Miri had proven her worth to Tevos, then Queen of Omega, and become her personal aid in exchange for keeping Ori hidden from Cerberus and the League on Thessia.
When Tevos had fallen to the Reapers, it had been Miri who'd dug up Aria to retake the station. Once the Queen of Omega, Aria T'loak had been beaten and raped by Tevos. The broken woman had known Omega better than any though, and had risen to the challenge of overthrowing Tevos and her dark masters. With the help of Citadel Specter Flavus Vakarian, they'd retaken Omega, and Aria had once again become ruler of Omega. Where once Omega had been a haven for pirates and slavers, now it was one of the strongest truly independent powers, free of both the League and the Citadel. Omega even controlled several planets out in the Terminus, the newest of which was the mostly water planet of Virmire.
For long decades, Virmire had been a sore point for several species. None had the strength to colonize it on their own, and it had been little more than a haven for pirates. No one band could hold onto the planet long enough to harvest its riches, and so Virmire had been mostly wasted. Garden worlds that could easily support life were rare even in the wide galaxy, yet Virmire had withered on the vine. Until Aria had dispatched Miri to claim the planet for Omega and its overflowing refugee camps. She'd negotiated with the current holders of Virmire, the Bloodpack, lead by Ganar Garm. Garm was a krogan exile who had once made the mistake of taking a young human girl as a slave. A human girl that had been adopted by Overlord Urdnot Wrex the Magnificent, Curer of the Genophage and Savior of the Krogan People. A girl who was now named Warlord Jak, who still had a bone to pick with Garm.
Garm had seen the advantages in serving Omega, and the Bloodpack with its ranks of trained vorcha and krogan warriors and joined Omega as its standing army. With Virmire in hand, Omega had gone about colonizing the planet, but had run into a problem: the world have vast mineral reserves, but most were under the warm oceans that covered 82% of the planet's surface. That had lead to a contract with the aquatic hanar, who were masters of underwater mining. The hanar had recently seceded from the Citadel Council, guided by an ancient prothean AI and Dr. Liara T'soni. Like Omega, they recognized the Reapers as the true threat to the galaxy, but the hanar also had prothean tech to help build up their armed forces. What they lacked were planets and resources, as well as the massive skilled labor pool Omega had.
Joining together in a formal alliance made sense for both the Primacy and Omega, but such a union was upsetting to both the galactic Superpowers. Neither the Citadel nor the League was interested in a third galactic superstate emerging to threaten their power, and the hanar and Omega had the potential to become just that.
Miri did feel confident that ultimately, this would build a safer galaxy for her sister. The League and the Citadel wouldn't dare act for fear of driving Omega and the Primacy into the arms of their rival, and there was the Reapers to consider. Miri still remembered watching Tevos' hideous transformation into the banshee. Even seven years later, she awakened in a cold sweat, Tevos' wail echoing through her mind.
"Cerberus," Garm growled, showing his wide teeth. "That's just a fancy name for the League. We know they've been trying to creep in on our territory, and the Citadel has too. Your woman, Kasmui, she caught that salarian skulking around here a few weeks ago."
Aria stood, turning her back to her advisors. "Which is why we need the hanar. That's final. You people get with your people, and make it happen. Get going. Miri, you stay."
The others stood and left, while Miri gathered up her data slate and stood by Aria, looking out onto Afterlife, Aria's palace.
"Shit. This used be easier when I was just a fucking crime lord. Back then, when I had a problem, I fucking killed it. Now it's talking, and more talking, and then we fucking talk about talking. Goddess, when the hell did this all become so hard?" Aria grouched.
"When you decided to start doing the right thing," Miri answered calmly.
Aria turned and glared at her, then looked back down at afterlife through the window. "Shit. You're probably right. Look at this place! It used to have class, I could look out here and see dancers and booze and the glory that was my kingdom. Now look at it. It's a school, a med clinic, a fucking bureaucracy. Goddess, when did this look better to me than some fine booty being shaken on a stage?"
Instead of answering, Miri handed Aria a data slate. On it was a picture of a small asari girl, hugging a laughing Aria while the two lay on Aria's famous couch.
"Nerri." A smile slowly spread over Aria's lips, and she closed her eyes, placing a hand on the picture. "Anyone ever told you you're pretty smart for a human? You're right. Nerri's worth all this. For her, I'd do anything."
"I have one of my own if your remember. For Ori, I'd take on the Citadel Council naked. For her, I'd spit in my father's eye. I believe this is what builds a safer galaxy for Ori."
Aria grunted. "Then get moving. You're my envoy. Go talk to T'soni and the Primacy. Sign the papers, argue the contracts, and send me back anything that really needs my approval. And for goddess' sake human, don't fuck this up."
Miri exited Aria's chambers and turned to a patch of empty wall by the guards. "We're leaving for Kahje. You're coming with."
"Wrong this time!" a happy human voice declared, and from the opposite wall a hooded human woman winked into existence.
Behind Miri, the two turian bodyguards groaned. "Titans take you thief, Aria would flay us alive if she knew we let you get this close!" one of them whined.
Kasumi Goto just winked at him and blew a kiss. "You know you love me!" she fell in with Miri, who was doing her best not to get irritated that she'd picked the wrong wall. It had been the most likely spot, but then, Kasumi Goto was never the most likely of people. The human thief had washed up on Omega after her partner and lover had been taken by the League for obtaining sensitive information that could compromise their operations in the Kite's Nest, specifically that they had indeed found a Reaper corpse, and footage of League troops mowing down batarians. Anyone with a gram of sense would know they were fighting killed, but it could be damaging to the League's image as liberators. Like Miranda had long years ago, Kasumi had needed to disappear. For a price, Miri had agreed to help.
As a skilled infiltrator and thief, Miri had plenty of jobs for Kasumi. The only catch was that she had to pay Kasumi well, and promise vengeance on the League if her lover was dead, and a chance to rescue him if he was not. It was something Miri was glad to offer; she had no love of the League herself, and rescuing loved ones had a soft spot in Miri's heart.
Falling in beside Miri, Kasumi stretched her arms behind her as she walked. "So, Kahje. You know, my grandma always made the best sushi. I wonder what the hanar would think of that. Sushi, I mean. Would it be like eating one of their relatives?"
"I would encourage you not to bring it up. I'd hate to cause an interstellar incident because you happen to like raw fish. You know why you're coming, standard deal."
"I know, I know. Find any juicy secrets, steal anything that might help Omega, and not eat any dairy products. It's always the same, and so boring! Why can't we ever do anything fun, like rob a bank, or get a job at a bath house for spirits? I always wondered what my parents would look like as pigs."
"Probably like pigs," Miri stated. "Did you turn up any more intel on Cerberus or the Collectors, and why exactly their traffic has increase so much in the last six months?"
Sighing, Kasumi shook her head. "Not really. It's surprisingly hard to infiltrate a top secret black ops organization and a secretive alien species that may or may not be the remnants of the protheans. Though I did turn up one interesting little tidbit."
Miri stayed silent. If you came out and asked Kasumi, she would giggle and make a game out of it. If you stayed quiet and acted disinterested, she would tell you out of a desire to see you react to her shocking fact. At times it could be frustrating, but Miri actually enjoyed the other woman's company. She was like her little sister in many ways, chattering away and trying to make everything more interesting.
"As everyone knows, pirates have been heavily targeting Citadel shipping. The Citadel has blamed everyone from us to the League, but I think I might have found the answer. Look at this." Kasumi passed Miri a data slate with a list of cargo manifests on it.
Pushing her hair over her shoulder, Miri studied the list. It was a comparison of locations of ships that had been taken by slavers, and sightings of both Collector ships and Cerberus operations. Alone, either the Collectors or Cerberus was an impartial match, but together a clear pattern emerged. It wasn't entirely conclusive, there were plenty of ships that had disappeared where there were no Collector or Cerberus activity, and there had been activity where no ships had been taken.
"This isn't anything new Kasumi, why are you showing me this?" Miri demanded.
"Look at the cargo manifests for those ships. At first it seems random, but over time something odd happened. Ships with prothean artifacts aboard seem to be disappearing at an alarming rate recently. Prothean stuff is valuable, so that makes some sense, but ships with prothean experts aboard have become very unsafe recently. Dig sites have been ransacked too, and when help arrives there is no one there and the operation has been stripped bare. But not just any dig sites. If it's ancient, neo-classical or classical prothean stuff, the most valuable and rarest usually, it's left alone. What they're after is the later prothean artifacts, third age. Those are the most common and least valuable. So why are pirates leaving the really good stuff alone, and targeting the less valuable digs?"
"Security measures on the older digs is usually better," Miri mused. "But that can't be all of it. They're looking for something specific."
"That's what I was thinking myself. The question is, why does Cerberus and the Collectors want late age Prothean tech? Cerberus has the Martian Archives, which from the rumors is one of the most complete Prothean databases aside from what's in the Temple Project on Thessia. And if the Collectors are really prothean, why do they need their own tech? And most of it's not even tech, it's records, historical texts, stuff that's valuable to a museum but isn't what governments are really paying for. There has to be something there, hidden in the data, but what?"
A smile played on Miri's lips. "Well. It's a good thing we're going to Kahje then, isn't it? Home of one Dr. Liara T'soni, legendary prothean expert. I'm sure she'll be able to answer our questions."