Jump Chain Gothic - Mass Effect - Part 8
Cockpit. SSV Normandy.
I was standing behind Joker along with Commander Joan Shepard as the Normandy begin to descend to the surface of the ice planet that was called Noveria.
Noveria was a small, frozen terrestrial world, barely habitable by conventional definitions. It was controlled by the Noveria Development Corporation, who leased out labs to companies, so that they perform research too dangerous, controversial, immoral, and possibly too illegal, to be performed elsewhere.
The Noveria Development Corporation was funded by investment capital from over two dozen high technology development firms. Meaning that the Noveria Development Corporation was actually owned by those firms, so techninally they all owned parts of the planet. It was very confusing, and no doubt this arragment allowed companies to expoilt loopholes in the law.
"Approach Control, this is the SSV Normandy, requesting a vector and a berth" Joker requested, all professionally.
A reply wasn't long in coming.
"Normandy," a dry, monotone male voice replied "Your arrival was not scheduled. Our defense grid is armed and tracking you, please state your business".
The local's welcome was warm as the surface of their world it seemed.
"Citadel Business" Joker firmly replied, no hint of humour in his words or actions "We've got a Council Spectre on board"
He then muted the channel for a moment.
"As you should know from the damn name" he added when no one other the Commander and I could hear him.
After a few seconds, the voice came back. The channel was now unmuted on our end.
"Landing Access granted, Normandy. Be advised, your identities will be confirmed on arrival; If identity cannot be established, your vessel will be impounded" we were warned.
And then whoever was on the other side of the transmission abruptly hung up.
"Must be a turian" Joker said with a huff "What a fun bunch. Think I'll take my next leave here".
Given what I knew about the Geth and Rachi here I sure wouldn't.
"Apprantly Noveria does have resorts at the planet's equator were the weather is more reasonable" I told Joker "The Skiing could be good".
Joker snorted.
"Yeah falling down a mountain" he said sarcastily "That's an activity for a guy with brittle bones".
Unlike him Shepard was all business.
"Don't let any inspectors come on-board" Shepard reminded Joker "We've got Geth tech on board, and the last thing I want that tech falling into the hands of these kinds of people".
While the Alliance had taken possession of all the Geth stuff we'd had on board the last time we'd docked with the Citadel, while on the way to this world, we'd had to stop off and fight more Geth. The bloody flashlight robots were all over the place.
Not much Geth tech had been captured despite all the fighting because the Geth tended to self destruct, and most Alliance units weren't doing to well against them anyway. However we on board the Normandy knew how to take Geth out without damaging their too much. Not that we took efforts because in a firefight you just focused on not dying while trying to kill the enemy, but we'd captured a lot of tech since the attack on Eden Prime.
"I know, I know" I heard Joker grumble.
With that Shepard and I headed for the airlock.
(Line Break)
Docking Bay. Noveria.
As the ground team, which was made up of Shepard, Ash, Liara, Ash, Wrex, Garrus, and myself, two teams of three, stepped into the airlock, I looked around at this new alien world.
It was so dull looking, like the dull life of all the dull business people living and working here had somehow seeped into everything. I was already bored.
We stepped up to the entrance to the port proper, only to be stopped by a security team consisting a few humans and turians.
"That's far enough" a human woman annoced, while holding up a hand.
This world became less boring very quickly.
"Is there a problem?" Commander Shepard asked, while crossing her arms.
Despite the Commander's words and the causal stance of her body, things were super tense.
"No problem, but we need to confirm your identity before you can enter the port" the woman replieed "This is an unscheduled arrival, I need your credentials".
In this day and age all ID is electroic and part of our omni-tools so rather than show a card you transmitted your ID to the person requesting it.
"Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy, Council Spectre" Joan said while pressing buttons on her omni-tool.
"They're lying, ma'am" another human woman said while levelling her assualt rifle at us "There aren't any human Spectres"
Well someone was behind the times.
"I'm sorry, without confirmation, I can't allow you in" said the leader of the local security forces before she turned to the human woman under her command "Sergeant Stirling, please secure their weapons"
As the rent-a-cops began to attempt to do that they were met by all of us removing our weapon of choice and pointing it at them.
"Whatever you're thinking," Shepard said "Rethink it. You can check any Extranet terminal. I'm the First Human Spectre, the media is still yelping on about it".
Odd choice of words I thought until I remember that the reporters on the Citadel were a bunch of bitches. Where was Lois Lane when you wanted her?
"We are authorized to use lethal force," we were warned "You have until the count of three to surrender your weapons. One...".
Thankfully a voice of reason soon filled the air.
"Captain Matsuo, stand down"
Matsuo glanced to the speaker, as if she could use to see who was speaking.
"We've confirmed her identity. Council Spectres and their aids are allowed to carry weapons here"
Captain Matsuo nodded upon hearing that.
"You may proceed Spectre" she then said "I hope the remainder of your visit is more peaceful".
There were several chuckles. By now we all knew then when Shepard was around things had a habit of exploding.
As a group we placed our weapons away and moved on, only to almost draw them again as some alarms went off.
Quickly, a woman in a red dress stepped up to the counter and pressed a few buttons. Which ended the loud and annoying noise.
"Weapons detectors," she explains to us "Don't mind the alarms".
The woman came out from behind the counter and introduced herself to Commander Shepard.
"I'm Gianna Parasini, assistant to Administrator Anoleis" the woman in the dress told Shepard "We apologize for the incident in the docking bay Commander"
Joan gave a nod of greeting.
"Thanks for chiming in when you did" Shepard was now saying "That captain of yours nearly started a gun fight".
One they would have lost. No group of hired thugs were a match for the battle harded men and woman under Shepard's command.
"She takes her job seriously. A little too seriously at times, but it's not a bad thing" Parasini remarked, before changing the subject "So, one of my duties is orientation for newcomers. Do you have any questions?".
Indeed we did.
"Has anyone unusual passed through here, recently?" Shepard asked.
We all knew Benezia was here, or to be more percise she had been here. She may have moved on.
The woman in red checked a list
"Unusual" she muttered "Hmm well an Asari Matriarch, Lady Benezia, passed through here a few days ago".
And she hadn't left. This was good. I'd been worried about things going off script. I was pretty sure that in the game no member of the crew got kidnapped by asari commandos.
I could only assume that the Matriarchs, or at least a Matriarch, knew about the Cipher and wanted it. Because of this Shepard had asked Liara to take the Cipher from me, or at least to share it. Yet somehow I didn't think this would stop interested parties from coming after me.
"Benezia?" Liara asked, sounding very concerned "She's here?"
I saw Shepard reach out and lay a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her friend, or possibly girlfriend.
"We'll find her and get some answers, Liara" the Commander promised.
Sure but she wouldn't like them.
"I can't believe she's here" the asari muttered to herself.
On some level Liara must have been hoping we were wrong about her mother siding with Saren.
"Lady Benezia left for the Peak 15 research complex two days ago, and to the best of my knowledge, she's still there" the woman in the dress told us.
Shepard went back to focusing on the mission.
"Can you get us to Peak 15?" the Commander requested.
The assistant shook her head.
"You'll need to ask the Administrator for clearance to leave this port" she told us "Sorry Commander.
As the team and I enntered the port proper by taking an elevator. I thought about what needed to happen next. Shepard would need to talk to Administrator and depending on her skills, will either get a pass or won't. Knowing her as I do, she won't. She was better than me at being all political and shit, but she had not gotten the whole Charm and Intimidate thing totally down. To many points invested in weapons skills. Still I had a feeling that this world would be a teaching experience and that soon she'd be able to talk people in shooing themselves in the head.
"We'll divide into two teams" the Commander decided "Gothic, Garrus, Wrex, take a walk around the port. Act like you don't have anything to do, and if anyone asks you don't know why I brought you here".
I split off from the group with Wrex, and Garrus. If I recalled right, there should be a bar or something nearby. After getting some directions, we headed for the bar that was on the first floor of a hotel, which required another elevator ride.
Shepard, Ash and Liara went towards the Administrator's office and I wondered why we'd been divided by gender. Did Shepard not want to look as if she was trying to intimate the buracrates, or did she just want some girl time?
I shook my head gently as part of an effort to dimiss those thoughts and tried to focus on what was going on around me.
Because we didn't look anything like the regular guards and are heavily armed, a lot strange looks were sent our way. We really didn't fit in, and we were getting a lot of attention. Besides that was why Shepard had divided us this way.
While Wrex was much larger than anyone else, neither Garrus or I were weak looking. We looked dangerous. While Shepard and the others were armed and armoured, they wouldn't grab as much attention as us guys. We might be here as distraction.
We might even be bait. All over the galaxy there were people with problems guys like Wrex, Garrus and myself could deal with. The same had to be true here.
Again I forced myself to ignore such concerns. Instead of dwelling I led the group as we ordered food and grabbed a large table. The bar wasn't busy so there was plenty of room for us.
"I hate places like this" Wrex grumbled while drinking his beer.
Since I was on duty I had to limit myself to soft drinks. I might have broken some regs, but I was still an allaince officer. Which was a shame as getting drunk right now seemed really tempting.
I wasn't even suppose to be here, with Kaiden dead I was the ship's second in command, no other than Shepard outranked me on the Normandy, mostly due to the fact that we barely had any crew.
But the Commander no longer seemed to care much about Alliance rules and regs, that or Kaiden's death really hadn't sunk in yet and she hadn't realised that I should have remained on board the Normandy while she was on a mission.
I didn't think everyone had really let Kaiden's death sink in. It helped that none of us had been close to him, but sooner or later people were going to realise that Kaiden's demise meant that any of us could snuff it.
"It's too damn cold here, inside and out" the turian at the table commented.
Garrus wiped his mouth after taking a swing from his drink. Then he spoke some more.
"I'd hate to work here" he told us "I thought the Citadel was bad, but with as many big, private corporations as there are here, they must have to outsource their red tape to some poor planet badly in need of credits".
This made me smile.
"Well it would explain the record low numbers of unemployment back on Earth" I joked.
The krogan snorted, and while it hadn't it been a funny joke, even Garrus cracked a smile.
It was at this point I realised how comfertable I was around two memebers of different species. Also I noted how relaxed they were with me and each other. Which was odd as neither Krogans or humans had much love for the turians what with one of humanities colonies being invaded and the whole genophage thing. Granted having one world invaded didn't really compared to near genocide of the Krogan race, but the total lack of resentment Wrex had towards Garrus was good.
Of course I didn't mention any of this as we were men and there was beer nearby, also the food was about to get here, besides somethings don't need to be spoken about.
"I noticed that the 'security' here is from Elanus Risk Control Services" Garrus mentioned "They're a private security corporation that provides a host of services ranging from simple event security to professional mercenary companies and even provide starships to counter piracy. ERCS began as a privately-owned turian security firm but they expanded into an interstellar conglomerate after opening itself up to foreign investment".
Wrex and I exchanged puzzeled looks. That had sounded as if Garrus had been reading out info on them that he'd found on the extranet.
"C-Sec was always concerned that they'd turn into another group like the Blue Suns" the former cop told us "We had a few breifings on them when ever a group from ERCS would come to the Citadel".
That made sense. I knew the proper police forces looked down on private security, and if they were anything like Escplise or Blue Sun then C-Sec was right to be concered.
"They produce their own weapons and armour too" Garrus was now telling us "But they make guns with poor accuracy".
This led to the debate over who produced the best firearms no doubt we would have gone on to discuss for a good long while, but I got a message from the boss.
"I couldn't get a pass from the Administrator, who's an asshat by the way" she told me over the comms "But his assitant mentioned something about a Turian named Lorik Qui'in who has a garage pass we can acquire. Are you anywhere near the hotel?"
Taking a moment I sipped the drink I'd bought from the hotel's bar.
"We're not far from the hotel" I said.
I quickly chewed and swallowed some of the food I'd ordered.
"Alright, find a Turian called Lorik Qui'in, and see what you can do to get a pass from him" Shepard ordered "He should be at the bar. You won't have a problem finding him I'm sure".
There was a pause, and I could have sworn I heard Ashley say something to the Commander.
"Are you three already at the bar?" the Commander asked.
I might be in trouble, not proper trouble, it wasn't as if I was drinking booze while on duty, this was more annoyed woman kind of trouble.
"We might have just found Lorik Qui'in" I said, wanting to change the subject "I'll go talk to him".
I heard a word muttered, it may have been the word 'men'.
"Keep me appraised of the situation" the Commander ordered "And try not to blow anything up".
Of course not. Exploding things was her job.
"Will do." I confirmed, while finishing off my lunch.
I closed the connection and headed over to where a bored-looking turian sat nursing a drink. As I approached him, he looked up. While I was wearing armour, it was my own private set rather than Alliance issue. Shepard didn't care much if we Alliance marines wore our gear as the aliens did and this wasn't a purely Alliance mission.
"Afternoon" the alien said
His greeting seemed honest and friendly
"What can I do for you?" he asked me.
That was a good question.
"Are you Lorik Qui'in?" I enquired
He nodded
"Then perhaps you can help me" I said while taking a seat "And by that I mean help us".
Lorik gaves me a confused look, which soon changed to something harder to read. Either because he was trying to hide his feelings or because I still wasn't very good at reading turian faces.
"You're part of that group that just arrived with that Spectre, aren't you?" he asked "What could an old turian like me possibly help you with?".
I smiled, and hoped it seemed friendly.
"Well its more a matter of what we can do for each other" I explained.
(Line Break)
Offices. Noveria.
"Its got to be Shepard" Wrex argued "You want a mate who can protect your offspring, that's all which matters".
Somehow we'd gotten back on to the topic of who was the hottest babe on the Normandy. Wrex thought it was all about which woman could protect the children, Garrus claimed it was all about who had the best child bearing hips and as a human male it was all about butts and boobs for me.
"Ashley would be just as fierce in protecting any children we might have" I argued "And unlike Shepard she doesn't make things explode around me".
I found it attractive when a woman didn't regularly place me in mortal danger.
"Garrus you have to agree that a lack of explosions is a plus when it comes too..."
I trailed off when I noticed the expression on his face. I was pretty sure I understood it.
"You seem irritated" I said to him.
Or maybe it was contispated. It was hard to tell with turians.
"You think?" he replied gruffly.
Sighing, he then uncrossed his arms.
"It bothers me knowing that any cops, even rent-a-cops, are corrupt, and worse in this place its like its expected".
I could understand that. Garrus might never have been a totally by the book officer. But he belivied that a keeper of the peace should be just that. Not a sanactioned thug, no better than the crooks they arrested.
"Well Lorik Qui'in did say that some conflict with Anoleis' goons was bound to happen, so we could shoot them" I said "But if you have a better idea than kill-them-all-and-let-the-spirits-sort-them-out, then feel free to take charge of the misson".
The turian gives me a rather perplexed look, but soon nodded in agreement. Frankly I was happy to let him take charge. I might be an officer but I wasn't used to command, and I wasn't sure I wanted to order people into combat. I don't know how Shepard did it.
"Alright. Well, let's try to talk to them first, get them to surrender if possible I want them to face justice" Garrus told us "But if they open fire then respond with lethal force, and take them down".
Wrex grunted, while adjusting his armor.
"Fine we'll do it your way" he agreed "but it's less fun"
By now we were walking down a corridor in some sort of massive block of offices.
"So, Lorik Qui'in needs us to go to his office in the Synthetic Insights building, and recover some evidence he has that shows that Administrator Anoleis is corrupt" Garrus said, going over the misson one last time "With it we can prove that he is using his position to line his own pockets while paying some of the 'police force' here to be his enforcers".
That about summed it up. Anoleis had learned of the evidence and had gotten a few of his dirty cops to close down the office, with the intent of ransacking it for that information.
"So, we are going to the Synthetic Insights office to recover the data" I said "and then we give it to Lorik, and he will then reward us with garage pass Shepard wants. This will make the Commander very happy and we can bust a corrupt buracrat as well. This will make Garrus feel all tingly".
We were now walking down a short hallway, there were a lot of hallways, and we knew we were in the right place because of pair of ERCS cops who are guarding the entrance to the offices we wanted to entered
"Freeze!" a lady cop ordered "This office is sealed"
Garrus stepped forward and I prepared to unleash biotic fury.
"We all know that you're here illegally" the turain said to them "I'm giving you one chance to walk away before things get violent".
The two guards give us a once-over, eyeing the weapons we're holding with wary eyes, and then they wisely back off.
"Tell you what: You forget you saw us, we'll forget we saw you" the lady cop said as she and her parter walked past us.
"Smart choice" Wrex said with a grunt
The next group of hired thugs in uniform were not so smart. Rather than talk they tried shooting us.
"Scatter!" Garrus shouted.
Letting my training, a lot of which had been of the 'on the job' kind recently I took cover behind a pillar. An act which allowed me to see Wrex, the Krogan Battlemaster, smack a gun from the hand of one of the dirty cops and thenI saw Wrex headbutt the guy so hard there was an auible crack despite all the gunfire.
I sent a biotic warp at a lady cop, who was hiding behind an upturned desk. The biotic moved known as Warp worked by creating rapidly shifting mass effect fields that shreded a target apart, similar in function to the disruptor torpedoes used by starships.
The table was destoryed and the cop hit the wall, but she didn't go down. I really needed to practice my biotics more, but so far I'd not had much chance to when in battle as Shepard kept me in a support role.
I finish off the lady cop with my pistol, and then sighed when I realised Garrus and Wrex had killed everyone else. Not because I wanted to kill people, but because we'd had to kill them. I wasn't really a soilder I just pretend to be one, and even real soliders didn't just go around shooting people.
"Garrus is in the main office" Wrex told me,
We barely made it a few steps before the former C-Sec officer came back out, holding up a data padd.
"Got the data" he said.
This was when one of the cops from the docking bay appeared. The angry one who'd been with Captain Matsuo. She was not happy to see us, and was soon making threats.
"What are you going to do, Sergeant?" Garrus asked sarcastically. "Report us to the local authorities for some illegal activity?".
The woman scoffed
"Do you know what we do to cop-killers on this world?" she asked in reply.
This was just a waste of time so I used Singularity. The gravitational power sucked up our enemies leaving them floating helplessly and vulnerable to attack. It also attracted objects from the environment around, such as a few small peices of furniture.
I couldn't hold it for long, but that hardly mattered as when it ended they all hit the floor hard. I hadn't actually killed anyone with that attack, but that didn't mean it wasn't effective.
"Does anyone else want to see what else I can do with Mass Effect fields?" I asked.
Those that had been able to keep hold of their weapons dropped their guns and held their hands up in surrender, which was good because while I had no issues shooting Geth, since their platforms were more like vechicles than bodies, I didn't really want to slaughter people.
We left the rent-a-cops behind after securing them and headed to the elevator. I doubted they be arrested, but they might be considering a new career at this point. Once word got around about what happened to them, it was doubtful they'd keep their jobs anyway.
"Feel better?" I asked of Garrus.
He nodded at me.
"Yeah" he said as we headed down the corridor "When we get back to the Normandy I need to have a word with the Commander about someone else who escaped justice".
I vaguly recalled something about a doctor who grew extra organs in people to sell later on. If this was happening then I hoped Garrus found the bastard doing it.
(Line Break)
Hotel. Noveria
Garrus, Wrex and I were on our way to rejoin the ladies, but on the way someone got my attention
"Allow me to reintroduce myself," that woman in the dress started by say "Parasini, Noveria Internal Affairs".
Okay now the Shepard's Flock drawback was actually being a drawback. I would have to face some sort of moral choice I just knew it.
"You know about Anoleis being corrupt, don't you?" I said to her.
She looked very surprised and it was at times like these tha I really liked having foreknowledge. It made me look more way more genre savvy than I actually was.
"We do" she replied, while gesturing for me to sit down "I've been undercover for six months, gathering evidence, and I just need one more thing to seal the deal"
Garrus bet me to it.
"You want Qui'in to testify against Anoleis, don't you?"
Parasini nodded.
"With his evidence, this case can be closed and we can put the administar behind bar where he belongs" she said
"If we do this for you, will you be able to get us a Garage Pass?" I asked.
That was what Shepard wanted, and if a corrupt buracrat got arrest as well, this would be a nice bonus.
"Of course" Parasini "You help me with this I promise you a pass".
Then this really left things to me. Either way Shepard would be happy. If Qui'in refused to testify he'd still give us the pass we need.
"We'll talk to Qui'in." I agreed.
It's not like I wasn't already planning on doing that.
"Alright. I better get back to my post. Anoleis likes to shout at me if my breaks take too long." Parasini told us as she got up from the table she'd been sitting "Come find me when you're done"
"Hey, Gothic can I handle this?" Garrus asked me "You know, he's a Turian, I'm a Turian, we understand each other".
I saw no reason why not so I gave him my blessing.
"Who do you think would win in a fight, me or Garrus?" Wrex asked as soon as the former C-Sec officer was gone.
I thought about it.
"Up close it would have to be you" I said to Wrex "But Garrus would never you get that close. He's a great shot which means he can take you down at range. Unless you're regeneration is so good you can heal a headshot from a sniper rifle".
Wrex grunted.
"Think we have enough time to get another drink?" he asked.
I figured that we did.