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First Infection
Citadel, Presidium
2178 C.E.
"There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown
There's nowhere that you can be that isn't where
You're meant to be
It's easy."
The asari brought the cup of herbal tea to her lips as she listened to the beautiful, yet alien music that played through the café. She herself was very gorgeous, through an exotic combination of serenity and erotic enticement. Her face held a serene calmness to it, but her eyes were filled with a promising allure that attracted anyone who looked into them. Most eye-catching was her dress, which sparkled red, hugged her curves tightly, and showcased her bust to the point that even other asari would consider it immodest; curves and a bust that was voluptuous even compared to the above-average standards of the asari.
All of this went unnoticed to Jonum Durhe, who, as a salarian, had no sexual urges. Instead, he occupied himself by looking around the café, which had a very 'house-warming' look about it, what with all of the hanging gardens, modern day appliances, and pictures of various happy people decorating the walls. Any conversation he tried to initiate with the asari sitting at the table with him was hushed by her with a statement that "not everyone was here yet" proliferating from her feminine lips.
Considering the circumstances that forced him to be here and were preventing him from leaving, he simply resigned himself to silence and hoped that he didn't have to wait long.
Which he didn't.
"Vyus Lilacia!" the asari called out happily as she gestured a 'come hither' to someone. Turning in his seat, Jonum Durhe saw a female turian walking toward them, dressed in the conservative attire that practically all turians wore. Jonum was pleased to see that the turian had a look of apprehension on her face, glad that he wasn't the only one confused about this meeting.
The female turian, most likely named Vyus Lilacia, took a seat at the table that the asari was offering her. It was closer to Jonum, which allowed the asari to face both of them easily.
"Great, we're all here," the asari said all bubbly, "let's begin with introductions."
She turned toward the salarian, "Jonum, this is Vyus Lilacia," she gestured toward the female turian, "she is a freelance journalist, a very talented one I think. She's filmed and documented many dangerous subjects like the Blood Pack-Eclipse gang war on Omega a few years back, and, more recently, the turian training methods against human aggressors."
"Wait," Vyus looked baffled, "how do you know about that last one? It hasn't aired yet."
She turned toward the turian and gave her a sunny smile, "Nor will it ever."
She gestured toward the salarian, "Now Vyus, this is Jonum Durhe, one of the STG's better agents. I can't tell you much about his exploits for obvious reasons, but needless to say that he will be rising through the ranks very easily," she swiftly turned her head toward said salarian with a look of remembrance, "oh wait, no, that's right. You're retiring early. Looking to be a doctor in some prestigious hospital, maybe? Marin always said that you valued your medical training more than your spy network."
Jonum's mouth was hung open in surprise, "How do you…?"
"Know all this?" she finished for him, "Oh darling, I know many things," she said with a wave of her hand as if she was brushing off all of the unsaid compliments directed toward her, "for example, did you two hear about that collaborative project between the Citadel Council and the human Collective? Their building a ship together, isn't that marvelous? And it's all for the prospect of peace."
She put a delicate hand on her cheek to feign hurt, "But it's come under attack, politically I mean. A lot of people believe that war is inevitable between the two governments and that the whole project is just an entire waste of time and money, isn't that sad? Most of the dissenters are yelling for a pre-emptive strike on the Collective, claiming that the humans are no match for the might of the Citadel."
After taking a sip from her tea, she shrugged, "Which is true. The humans might stand a chance against the turians, but the entirety of the Citadel? Definitely not," another sip, "but what these warmongers fail to understand is just how much damage these humans could put on the galaxy if a war of this caliber were ever to happen. For whatever the reason, the humans seem to be dead set on not being ruled by an authority like us. And given their survivalist history, they will definitely fight even when backed into a corner. And a wounded animal pushed into a corner by a larger entity can be very unpredictable and very dangerous to everyone, especially when that animal has shown indifference to the damaged environment around it."
She smiled a bright smile, "Luckily for us, there will be a courageous journalist that will show these dissenters just how brutal the humans can be in such a war. Because she will have recordings of the human military attacking the pirate base that was involved in the invasion of Mindoir, which thanks to an anonymous tipper, the humans now know that the base is on Torfan. Of course, to do this and survive she would need a starship with very good stealth capabilities," she looked at Jonum, "like the ones the STG are known to have."
Dead silence permeated the air as Jonum and Vyus stared at the asari in shock.
"Who are you?" Jonum asked quietly.
"Oh dear, how rude of me, I seem to have forgotten to introduce myself," with the cup of tea in one hand she rested the other on her chest, "My name is Niana Thegos," she took a sip of her tea and set the empty cup on the table, "I'm a spectre."
Leaning forward on the table she gave both of them a pervasive view of her cleavage, "And if you don't do what I tell you, then the galaxy burns."
CSV Einstein
2178 C.E. two months later
Commons: mindless humans that had a short lifespan, were used as cannon fodder or manual labor, and appeared in droves.
Special Infected: intelligent humans with a long lifespan, had various mutations, and lived with animalistic cravings.
Humans were either mindless drones or intelligent monsters.
With one type of exception…
For in the CSV Einstein, a starship carrier, was a pair of doors. This pair of doors was massive, stretching twenty feet upwards and fifteen feet from side-to-side, and was composed of thick steel. When together the doors were semi-octagonal in shape and could only be opened through an electronic interface.
In front of this large pair of metal doors was a cheap wooden office desk.
"Major Kyle."
The spitter, who had his feet propped up on the desk, stopped idly twiddling his thumbs and switched his view from the ceiling to his commanding officer. A charger in a blue officer's uniform with the shoulder stars of a rear admiral. Next to him was the ship's captain, a female smoker who was dressed in a similar fashion.
"Sir," the spitter, Major Kyle, said in a dull greeting as he gave the rear admiral a half-hearted salute. The captain looked visibly flustered at his impromptu and uncaring display, but the rear admiral just waved it off as he stared at the large metal doors the major was posted at.
"We'll be arriving at Torfan soon," the rear admiral stated.
"So I've heard," Major Kyle replied as he glanced at the captain, "the misses wouldn't stop yelling in my ear about it."
The captain placed her hands on her pelvis and narrowed her eyes, "Well, maybe if you didn't sit on your ass all day, I wouldn't be angry at you and not have to yell at you so much."
The major shrugged nonchalantly, "True, but the angry sex is too damn good to give up. Not as good as the make-up sex, mind you, but still good."
A deviant smirk appeared on his face, "Besides, you look cute when you're angry."
Immediately, a long tongue wrapped around his neck several times before it squeezed tightly and slammed his head down on the desk. After a painful moment, the tongue loosened from the major's neck and slipped back into the mouth of the captain who crossed her arms angrily and looked away with what was clearly NOT a blush on her face.
"Officers," the rear admiral intervened with a bored tone, "let's at least keep some professionalism here."
Rubbing his forehead in pain, the major gave the rear admiral an irritated look, "Why? Is the Queen of England joining us in this invasion?"
"No, but Fleet Admiral Gray is," he turned to the bruised spitter, "and she will be very disappointed if your unit is not ready."
The major raised an eyebrow, "Is that so? Well, no wonder you came to visit me."
The rear admiral nodded before he turned his attention back to the metal doors, "So… are they ready?"
Major Kyle smiled a cocky smile as he leaned back against his chair and banged against the large metals doors behind him with his fist, the echo of his pounding bouncing off the walls. For a few seconds, everyone was silent as they listened to the receding echo, until suddenly…
WHAM! The massive metal doors trembled terribly as something massive hit the other side. Slips of dust listed through the air erratically at having just been expunged from their resting place on the metal doors. The rear admiral took a step back in surprise as the major answered the question.
"Yeah, they're ready."
Citadel, Presidium
2179 C.E. five months later
Long legs crisscrossed under a table, finely manicured fingers hovering over a holographic keyboard, and azure eyes flickering between various images made from light and technology.
Niana Thegos once again sat in her favorite café like she did so many months ago. Except, this time she sat alone, at the back of the café in a booth with an earpiece in her ear that was connected to her laptop on the table. She didn't pay any attention to the café's patrons or employees, as her attention was focused solely on the laptop in front of her. Only once did she look up from the holographic display of her laptop, and that was when she ordered her most-loved herbal tea while also asking one of the staffs to play her favorite song over the loudspeakers.
As a majority shareholder of the café, none of the employees really argued with her on changing the music line-up.
Focusing back onto the laptop, she clicked a video icon labeled: Humans Use Sheer Brutality to Defeat Torfan Pirates. Niana smiled at the title, as it not-so-subtly hinted the audience what Niana wanted them to think about before they decide to go to war with the humans.
The video had already garnered over a billion views across the galaxy in the short time that it's been available, and its appearance in the media has resulted in a decline of support for the politicians proposing war against the humans. All because of how humans conduct warfare.
Vyus was definitely a master of her craft, as she had somehow gotten an elevated angle of the battle scene. How she did this was anyone's guess, but because Torfan was a barren moon without an atmosphere, the most plausible way was that she had simply found some elevated ground to perch. It was still impressive though at just how close she got to the battle.
There was no build up to it, the video immediately opened up to chaos. Mantis gunships piloted by both humans and pirates swerved in the air around the large rhombus-like structures that lead to the pirates' underground bases. The air-to-air/air-to-ground gunships traded missiles and mass accelerated bullets with each other. Both suffered casualties, with some being shot down to the ground while others completely exploded in the air. Every once in a while, frigate class starships would zip over the battlefield at incredible speeds, completely disappearing from view in an instant as they conducted dogfights with each other.
The battle on the ground was a lot more one-sided.
Niana remembered what Marin had said all those years ago, how the humans' abilities were dampened in places with no atmosphere, as a lot of human abilities require the mouth to be exposed. This also worked against the commons as the amount of spacesuits that would need to be built just to have enough commons to be useful in a battle this size would be staggeringly expensive. Which means that commons were practically absent from this battle (not entirely though, as plenty of boomers were skilled enough to use their Horde efficiently enough to warrant the suits). Without a large number of commons with them this means that humans were at a disadvantage, right?
The video showed a different story as it zoomed in on a monster that had shocked a room full of military admirals. It was a hulking monstrosity that battered its adversaries around like ragdolls. Top-heavy, its bulging muscles forced the giant creature to knuckle-walk with its massive hands for balance. Its armor, painted black with the helmet's eyepieces replaced with a single large red optic, completely covered the giant and seemed to be made from an incredibly thick metal, as the various missiles that struck against its chassis barely fazed the creature. Completely weaponized, the creature had twin-barreled turrets strapped to both of its forearms and a large metal backpack, with various tubes and wires connecting into the creature, which had an auto-cannon mounted on the top of it. This creature was a tank, the humans' ninth and most extensively mutated infected in their race.
It wasn't just the one monster though, there were dozens of them spread out around the battlefield. Each one bringing massive amounts of damage to the pirates and each one being completely brutal in their methods.
A pirate got too close to a tank and it picked him up, whereupon the tank ripped the pirate's upper-torso from the rest of the body. Blood and organs spewed everywhere as the tank threw the two body-halves away from each other. Another tank charged head-first into an anti-air artillery emplacement, completely shredding the gun and tearing apart the pirate crew manning it. One of the pirates' Mantis gunships descended in altitude as it tried to perform a missile barrage on the human troopers before it was shot down by a tank's V.I. targeting auto-cannon.
The way they moved, the way they fought, these tanks seem to be more monsters of rage than any kind of military trooper. Their white fury seemed to only be suppressed by a few specific human soldiers who used their iTools to direct the tanks through some kind of link.
Niana paused the video and stared at the screen in silence before a subtle smile appeared on her face.
"Good job," she said congratulatory to Jonum Durhee, the salarian STG agent who now sat in the booth with her, as opposed to just a moment ago when he wasn't there. STG agents were always very good at sneaking up on people, even to spectres like Niana.
Jonum didn't say anything.
Looking up with a cursory glance, she raised a curious eyebrow to the salarian as he stayed silent. Jonum crossed his arms as he stared back at the asari.
"You believe that war is inevitable between the Council and the humans," he said evenly. It was a statement, not a question.
Surprise flashed across her face for a brief moment before she put a hand over her lips to stifle the girlish giggles.
"Well, well, well, it seems that someone has been doing their research," she said playfully, "don't you know that it's impolite to dig up a lady's history?"
"I didn't know that a person who sabotaged one of the humans' asteroid mining operations with explosives could be considered a lady."
A smirk appeared on her face.
"Or anyone who had a lengthy history with Marin."
That smirk was gone.
"Careful there, Jonum," she warned with an undertone of anger in her voice, "you may be his… what was it that you always said? Protégé? Well, either way, he's gone now, so keep your mouth shut."
He shrugged, "Alright, not what I wanted to discuss anyways. What I want to know," he gave her an inquisitive stare, "is why you are trying so hard to make sure this collaborative project is completed, when you think war is going to happen anyways?"
"It's like I said before," she said, "the humans can be very destructive. Maybe even more so than the krogans were during the Rebellions."
"And?" Jonum prodded.
"And unlike the krogans, there are still a lot that we don't know about the humans," she began to list them off, "the Director and Advisors, the total number of commons they have, the true relationship they have with the quarians and Terminus systems, and what happens to the two percent of humans that survive massive exposure to eezo."
"Ah yes, I remember hearing about that last one," Jonum nodded, "the STG was only ever able to get static images from intercepted transmissions and a few satellite pictures of the area after the event," he put a hand on his chin, "we're still not sure why the base was set ablaze …or the surrounding areas."
Niana smiled fondly before she replied with, "I think a walking biological bomb is an apt reason."
Author's Note
The lyrics at the top come from the song 'All You Need is Love' by the Beatles and, oh wait, hold on…
All You Need is Love is owned by the Beatles and yada, yada, yada.
Anyways, Niana Thegos is the same asari spectre from chapter 3, and this chapter showed off a little bit of action for the tanks.
But just a little bit.
College has been hectic, but hey, what can you do?
Concentrate more on schoolwork than on some irrelevant story on Fanfiction, maybe?
…Nah.
ONTO THE REVIEWS!
Other Personalities: Caroline is Glados and no, the councilors are not going to be. I was talking about the Normandy.
The-ever-chosen: close, just one more chapter.
BlazaWolf: in the second omake Garrus shouts his catchphrase from the first mass effect game.
Question: everyone has a few bombs in the attic (especially the Collective), but A.I.'s are the only secret bombs that are stopping the Collective from the joining the Citadel, along with the fact that humans are aware that they just don't make good neighbors what with their rampant sex parties and occasional urge to kill something. Chapter nine details the people who know that the Director is an A.I., but suffice it to say that it is a very well-known secret. The difference between the Citadel and the Collective on the use of A.I.'s is that the Citadel doesn't let A.I.'s control one-third of their government, so that's not something they're going to see eye-to-eye about.
I wouldn't say that culture has stagnated over just being very …different. But yes, I will admit that some aspects of human culture have definitely been neglected.
I can, without a doubt, assure you that, yes, I will, in fact, have good reasons. And I can still say I'm beating my own path because I'm adding new characters and new missions.
Thank you for the compliments, they meant a lot to me. No really, they did. I was emotionally touched by your words, thank you.
Tito: dull rehash? DULL REHASH!? Sir, I take offence to that. I have repeatedly stated over and over again through the course of this story that I will NOT be rehashing the original storyline. There will be new characters, new missions, the original missions will be different, the human characters definitely won't be the same, Sheperd gets a new background, and I personally think that the game's dialogue doesn't transition well into a literary format so you definitely won't see me copy-pasting any of that. So please, at least wait until we get to the Normandy before you judge my story so harshly.
Crazy lemon: I agree, I never did enjoy the whole Council-bashing thing. I mean sure they didn't believe the Reapers would come, but can you really blame them? It's like saying that they are just as stupid as those people who didn't believe that the world was going to end in 2012.
Omake 1
While the asari, the turian, and the salarian were discussing things at their own table, two individuals sitting in a corner of the cafe were having their own discussion.
One of the individuals was a man, a glorious man with a magnificent beard who was dressed in a formal attire that he wore perfectly. His attention was focused on the empty space in front of him.
"I don't always make cameos," his voice was buttery smooth that made everywoman in a ten mile radius orgasm instantly (and yes, even the salarian women who don't even know what an orgasm is), "but when I do, I prefer omakes."
"Will you please be quiet," Mordin demanded irritably as he nursed his bruised head with an icepack, "I just head-butted a planet and WON, and I have a killer headache now, so I would really appreciate it if you just stayed quiet."
Omake 2
Major Kyle smiled a cocky smile as he leaned back against his chair and banged against the large metals doors behind him with his fist, the echo of his pounding bouncing off the walls. For a few seconds, everyone was silent as they listened to the receding echo, until suddenly…
The doors opened and out popped Sir Tank wearing a monocle and a top hat.
"Good morning," Sir Tank greeted cheerily, "is there anything that I may assist you all on this jolly good day."
"The rear admiral wants to know if you guys are ready," Major Kyle explained.
"The team is right as rain and raring to go. Did have a bit of an internal conflict on whether we should listen to the classical muses of Vivaldi or that of Albeniz, but we eventually got it all sorted out."
"Alright then," Major Kyle replied.
"Jolly good then, I'll bugger on back in there and tell the lads that we're nearing our destination. Once that's done, we'll pop on over and give those pirates what for. God save the Queen!"
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