Chapter 21

Zakera Ward, The Citadel, June 2167

Jack and his daughters calmly walked among a sea of Humans. The Citadel was flooding with them today, as this was the day Humanity pandered to the greater powers of the galaxy. Once they did so, they would be bound by all the limitations of the galactic economy. What was scaring him was the lack of preparedness among his companies. Their stock market was going to be slammed the next day. Prices would soar, profit would be for all, but for the foreign investors, they were going to be after something much more troublesome. If they ever bought a controlling stock in any of Earth's companies, then they would have the power to relocate it, change the methods, replace the workers.

Jack was more than a little worried that this period of economic growth would end with Humanity buying back their companies for pennies on the dollar. Debt would be bought out by alien entities, and who knows how poorly that would work out. The economic juggernaut that was the Asari were going to come down on them, and they couldn't do what the Batarians did, and resort to violence and cultural isolation. Humanity had to lead if they were to get out of this alive.

His daughters were beaming, just getting to go someplace official with him. He had taken them out for some authentic Thessian cuisine, and he himself had to build up his resistance to the sour taste of many of their greens. Julia kept trying to figure out how they discovered how to make their meat into some sort of gelatin. Miranda was more concerned about who was sitting around them, as many of the Asari and a mixture of the other races glanced over at them every so often.

He acted nonchalant, as the stares could have been for a number of reasons. Plus, he had been missing the creamy desserts that the Asari were well known for. If he could possibly buy out anything from them, it would be some of their recipe books. Those would sell very well in the Earth restaurant market. Sadly, most of the profits would go to whomever sacrificed twenty years of their life learning Asari cuisine.

"Jack Harper. I am quite pleased to see you." The baritone voice behind him caused some loud humming among the Asari that were present at the restaurant. Jack got out of his seat, and his daughters did as well, and he turned to face the owner of the voice. Coming to his table was none other than Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, along with a few Asari escorts. One of whom looked like a carbon copy of her, minus a few age lines and skin tone. Liara T'Soni was here as well, curiously. Both were in some sort of sparkling silken robes, with a long symbol on the shoulder as some sort of family crest. A couple other Asari were here, in commando leathers with the markings of their family on their shoulder.

"The pleasure is mine." Jack said, giving her a small bow. Julia and Miranda both did one as well, but Jack couldn't keep his eye on them without seeming like a distrusting parent. They were old enough to know something about what was going on around them, but lacked the experience to handle a situation. "Thank you for the chance to come to this ceremony. My government and I are not quite in agreement at this time. As such, they have sent a minder to keep track of me. You'll see her following us, but she won't interfere with anything." Jack motioned to Jones, who was at the bar and sipping on some sort of drink.

"What happened to that wonderful red-haired companion you had? She was much prettier." Benezia asked. "I assume you were partners of a sort."

"I actually don't know where she is. In trouble, most likely. Julia, Miranda, this is Matriarch Benezia. She is the one who sent Nyra to come and teach you, so you can thank her for all of the biotic lessons you have received." Julia looked like she was trying to size up Benezia, while Miranda glowed. Not as much with biotic power, but adoration.

Benezia smiled. It was a very straightforward one, and not laced with deceit. One thing that Jack had been spending some time learning was Asari body language. With Matriarchs it was harder to tell, as they had been alive long enough that they could just hide what they felt. "Pleased to meet you, Miranda, Julia. Nyra writes of you often to me. She claims that you are some of the more gifted children she has ever met. She hopes that you will both continue to perform well in your lessons." Benezia then brought Liara forward, who looked somewhat uncomfortable. "It is my honor to present my own daughter, Liara, who has recently completed her studies at the University of Thessia."

Jack raised an eyebrow, giving Liara a smile. "That sounds like quite the accomplishment. I admit, I am somewhat uninformed as to the system of education on Thessia. What is the hardest degree to earn?"

Liara's voice was higher pitched, somewhat child-like. "This most difficult to earn would be the degrees related to experimental technologies, and physics. Those take upwards of sixty standard years to finish. I finished a degree in Prothean Studies, which in your terms would be a combined Biology, Geology, Archeology, and Math degree. To understand a dead civilization, we need to understand all of its component parts. Due to our long life spans, most of the celebrated researchers are Asari."

"My girls are just starting their biotic lessons with Nyra and two others from your House. Would it be correct to assume you received the same training?"

Liara brightened at this. "Yes, though I only spent a decade under the tutelage of my mother's commandos. Though, if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them."

Well, that got Miranda into the conversation rather quickly. Liara was quickly drawn into a conversation about biotics, which she seemed comfortable talking about. Jack directed his attention towards Benezia, who was in a rather good mood. Probably because this was one of the few times she had seen or spent time with her daughter in decades. "What are her plans now that she has graduated? Will she teach in the University?"

Benezia shook her head. "Oh, no. Only Matrons and Matriarchs can even get those jobs. As qualified as she is, her thesis has caused some negative attention to come upon her. Her thesis, while accepted as a valuable study of the Prothean extinction, does not follow any conservative or traditional lines of thought. Very few praised the work, and now her chances of getting field work are extremely limited."

"If I may, I happen to know of a Prothean Site that needs a lead researcher. Considering she has decades of experience, I feel that she might be a valuable asset on our Prothean ruins on Eden Prime. Rather than have her suffer through that kind of negative influence, I could bring her in onto the project."

"I haven't heard of any Prothean site on Eden Prime." Benezia said. "Unless you are trying to start one."

"Sadly, I am simply a partner. But We recently found out that Eden Prime has some large ruins of Prothean Origin underneath a few dozen meters of dirt. While it will be difficult, the entire site should be completely unplundered. Offering a spot to the Asari, and therefore the Council Races, will be a measure of kindness."

"I would offer you quite the favor in return, for your most kind offer. My own contacts cannot secure much better for her." Benezia said, letting her arm rest upon his leg. He had to control the usual reaction to that, as Asari were much more comfortable with touching. Touching his thigh in Human terms was a sexual advance. Touching it in Asari terms was more of a form of endearment. A kindness, he had to remind himself. Jones was probably going to report to his superiors that he had been romantically involved with Benezia. That would be uncomfortable to answer questions about, or have rumors flying around him regarding.

"So, what is this i hear about you lending money to Quarians?"

Jack grinned, hiding any discomfort in talking to someone who might be more experienced than he was at finding information. Hopefully Hannah got what he sent her. Having that shipped was rather difficult.

Trebia System, June 2167

"Who the Hell thinks its a fine idea to ship something to me and label it as a nuclear mine?!" Hannah took off all of the rather mundane wrapping paper around something that had been wrapped as some sort of nuclear mine. But then who names a nuclear mine Bad Quarian?! The Turians who had received the shipment were rather flustered, and so they were having her open this on some planetoid, in the middle of nowhere. So, on some nameless asteroid, she was opening a gift of a nuclear mine from Jack Harper. Which of course created all kinds of security concerns with her Turian hosts, and most likely made them more comfortable blaming her for any wrongdoing that might result from all of this.

She input the security code from Jack, which happened to just be his birthday. Not the one that was on his birth certificate, but the day that he started his first company. Apparently he considered it a more fitting birthday. Greedy bastard. She clicked the button to open the device, and input the correct code. The device opened, revealing an empty case. The nuclear mine was just a casing, and what was inside was some sort of container. A large shotgun was off to one side, along with thirty grenades. Lastly was some sort of gauntlet, meant for the wrist. All of which looked hardened, or the casing had an extra layer of something on it. When she looked closer, she noticed that it was even covering the grenades. This must be some sort of EMP shielding.

"Smart bastard." She finally said, understanding what he had sent. EMP shielded gear for when the nasty super-Turians attacked. She picked it all up, hiding most of the grenades inside her vest. The shotgun even made a chirp noise when she picked it up. She tried to read what was written on it, but it seemed to be in some unfamiliar script. Her Omni-tool registered it as a Quarian script. Jack had sent her some sort of quarian weapon?

She aimed at the rocky asteroid, aiming far away from her feet. Instead of a shot or single particle, a burst of particles emerged in a cone of what looked like lightning. The spray didn't seem to bite into the crust of the asteroid, but the flare made it very interesting. "What the hell is the purpose of this?"

"Miss Gunn, we notice that you were not in fact shipped a device banned in Council Space. Is there any secondary bombs within the package?" The voice of whatever Turian operative assigned to watch over her said.

"No, there are no other bombs. Looks like someone just wanted to make sure that my package wasn't fiddled with." She placed the shotgun into the slot on her back, and the grenades went into her backpack. She wasn't going to share those. The wristguard she slipped on over her Omni-tool, giving it a little bit of protection. At least from whatever those things were. General Arterius had tracked the shuttle that had escaped her team to some sort of religious structure on Palaven.

Local religious authorities had been rounding up people ever since. Police forces had been in a lull, and hadn't tried to interfere. It was in one of Palaven's more antiquated districts, and the area had little to no military presence due to the Temple. Apparently it was one of the Turian's oldest religious structures, and the district around it was known as one of the most peaceful. In fact, there was an ancient binding tradition, held dear to them. No weapons were allowed within the district, leaving the area nearly undefended.

Not that anyone attempted anything. The last person caught with a knife in here was strung up by his entrails on the wall of the Temple for breaking the binding tradition. No one in recent history had bothered to try again. So that led to some difficulty. General Arterius had been trying to decide how they were going to go forward from there. The military wasn't allowed to bring any of their heavy weapons into the district, and trying to engage with just their claws was asking for suicide.

"The General would like to see you, once you are back on board." Her overwatch officer told her, with the shuttle coming by to pick her up. She closed up her 'package' and dragged it on board as well. For all the trouble it just put her through, she was certainly going to use this to make some trouble for him eventually. Or just as a prank on Alexei. The Turians didn't give her much of a glance, though she knew they were watching her closely. They didn't bother helping her drag the nuclear mine case to her locker, and once that was secured she walked over to the command deck. She didn't actually get to enter it, but had to wait outside on the same deck of the ship.

Her body was starting to get itchy, as she hadn't cloaked in over a day. With her implanted technology, a charge would be steadily built up, and sometimes it felt uncomfortable to let the energy just sit there. She was avoiding using her ability, as it would certainly make the Turians uncomfortable to know that she could cloak, if not the other things she could do.

The General was waiting for her, in one of the side rooms on board the cruiser. She assumed it was some sort of supply room, as there were no active stations in it. Only some boxes and a secondary airlock. Three guards were with her, all helmeted. One of them was holding the shotgun she had received from the package, looking over it critically.

"Do you realize how rare one of those is?" He asked, when she came in.

"I am not familiar with the gun, so I can't say I could know." Hannah said, shrugging. "It's Quarian."

"That is a Riigar. One of their shotguns developed to put down Geth at very close range. I am sure I am butchering the pronunciation of their weapon, but it is only dangerous to synthetic creatures. If you painted us with it, the most it would do is scratch our shields. Or at least if it functions as I hope it does. The last time I saw one of those was when we tried to board a Quarian pirate ship. They managed to completely destroy our armor and weapons, before we were forced to withdraw."

"So, this might be effective against the augmented Turians?" Hannah asked.

"If they are more synthetic than organic, then yes. From what we can tell, their brain matter and some of their organs are intact, but their nervous systems, bones, and muscles have been changed with some sort of cybernetics. It might work on them. What is more worrisome is how your employer managed to get ahold of a weapon rare among the Migrant Fleet Marines."

"He's an ass like that. Makes you jealous and pissed off all at once." She replied. "What are your plans about the Temple?"

The General wasn't smiling. "I sent two men to the Temple to offer respects for their ancestors, as they were from Palaven. They haven't reported in yet, and it's been an hour. I am guessing that they aren't going to be. As even I will be drawn and quartered for breaking the covenant, I need another method to stop this from getting out of hand. I can either call in biotics or somehow cause a natural disaster."

"So, have these augmented Turians made any demands of the government? Have they tried to communicate with any outside groups?"

"So far, they have not tried to communicate with anyone or anything. In fact, any technology that they gather is simply left in a pile near the bottom of the sacred hill." He pulled up an image of a pile of turned off aircars, drones, and appliances that may have been inside the Temple at one point. "I don't have any idea what the inside of the Temple is shaped like. The entire area is a single slab of granite. The entire complex has been hand-carved for centuries. Much of the carving occurs underground, and the innermost parts of the Temple are off limits to all but priests. As you might imagine, they haven't been able to help us."

"Why haven't they tried to communicate? Is something wrong?"

"Of course there is! Every Turian, and I mean every single one, is trained to respond in a disciplined fashion when confronted with our system of authority. When we ran into these Turians, whatever their augmentations did, it made them lose their natural responses to us. An officer confronted them, demanding an explanation. Normally, a Turian is duty-bound and obligated to respond, and explain the situation. I would have understood if they just simply told a half-truth, or a basic explanation. Under the law, that is the closest someone may get to outright lying to an officer. These augmented Turians didn't even grace him with a response, and just attacked."
"I'm guessing that means you have a solution for all of this."

Arterius nodded. "The only way I can send any sort of weapons in that can harm these things is by sending you. I cannot authorize any troops in the district, and Humans are still restricted on Palaven as it is. Your presence will be one that could spark some troubles, but our races seem to be at a head already."

"Are you saying you want me to go in there and stop this?" Hannah said, folding her arms. "I am not a one-woman army, you know. Considering I had to kill the one augmented Turian I did run into with explosives, I doubt my ability to hurt these things."

"I am loathe to ask this of you, but in order to give the Imperator reason to ignore this most ancient covenant, I need proof of wrongdoing. All that I can convict them of so far is manslaughter and a few counts of insubordination. I need something hard, some tough evidence that can give us reason to come in there and be able to shoot." He looked her dead in the eye. "I know that you are or were part of the Alliance Infiltrator Program. We call our own agents Spirits-of-Vengeance." Her Omni-tool translated it as 'ghost' but thankfully she knew Turian. "They will notice our agents. Hiding a Turian scent from another Turian is near impossible. When we engaged the augmented Turians on the ground, our agents were unable to get close before they were noticed, and became the target of tech attacks that somehow knocked them back into visibility. As such, I am hoping you will be able to infiltrate the Temple better than we could."

"What if I say no? This entire situation most likely ends with me dead or dying. My team and I could barely handle one of these things, and you want me to try to sneak into a complex full of them. I'll need some sort of promise that you'll back me up, along with a huge amount of money as compensation for risking my neck on this."

"So greedy of you. Like the rest of your race." Arterius said with some spite.

She had to bite her tongue to hold back a comment about Shanxi. He might realize that she was the one who killed their Spectre candidate. "I've got to have some guarantee that you won't betray me. When all of this hits the fan, you can easily label me as the one who caused all of this, and blame Humanity for your troubles. If what you say is true, I'll just be drawn and quartered."

"So you want some sort of guarantee that I won't blame you for this."

"Not just you, if your government decides to slam me, then anything you promise is going to be ignored. Unless you can promise me that I won't get slammed with all of this when it's convenient, I'm not setting foot on Palaven."

Arterius leaned forward, which among Turians was an expression of trust. Among predators, to willingly step forward towards someone you didn't like was an expression of trust and admiration. "I can promise that I have the authority to protect you. I am a Council Spectre, and I will guarantee that authority to protect you from my own government. Is that enough, Ms. Gunn?"

Spectre. He was a damned Spectre. Well, that basically made her screwed either way. "I suppose it does. Will the Council notice?"

"Only if you screw up with the intention of disgracing our agreement. Then I will be obligated to use that same authority to hunt you down."

She grimaced. "Fair enough. So you don't have a map for me to follow, and if I get caught I get drawn and quartered."

"But if you fail then we might have some sort of civil revolt on our hands. In the interest of Palaven and the rest of the Council Races, just get me something to convince the Primarch and the Imperator to lift the ancient accord for this."

"I'll have to transmit once I'm back outside the Temple, then. It sounds like it blocks outgoing signals as well." Hannah noted. She clipped her quarian shotgun behind her back, and secured all of the pouches on her torso. Just to be safe, she brought a couple of extra ammo blocks, as for some reason that shotgun went through it much faster than the normal rate. She also brought her pistol, but didn't plan on using it on the augmented Turians. Other targets would be fine for it, and it was a silenced weapon. Useful for other reasons.

"I'll send you down in a shuttle, and you can get a ride on it back up here once you're done. You don't want to remain on the surface of Palaven in the old district too long. There is nothing out there to shield you from our planet's natural radiation. More than two days of that and you'll need a hospital."

She nodded. "That must be hell on any Asari who visit."

"It's why our homes are made thick, with stone and solar shades. Other races find our planet to be slightly uncomfortable. Though Quarians and Volus don't find it as bad. You know our comms enough to get a hold of me if anything goes wrong." He stood up, no longer as close to her. "I may not like your race, but I know you are capable and cunning in ways that our race does not prefer to be. Right now that is what we need. I am putting my name on the line for you, human. Don't give me a reason to bring down an orbital bombardment."

"Trust me, I don't hate you guys that much. I'll do my best, even if I don't completely trust the word of a Spectre." She nodded to herself, having checked everything. Three days of food and water were also stored in her pack, and she wished she had some radiation medications.

Arterius didn't say anything further, and she was sent down to the shuttle bay. She didn't know that Arterius was one of the Spectres. It rankled her a little bit, to be promised protection from the Turians, through Spectre authority. That wouldn't help her remain anonymous at all. She wordlessly got onboard the shuttle meant for her, and took a seat. Turian shuttles were circular, squat, and angled on the inside. Some of the chairs in the shuttle were mounted facing back towards the others, on a raised section of the deck. Probably for their officers to be respected from.

She connected to the public network, which of course in Turian space wanted some citizenship ID number and rank. To her surprise, the gauntlet over her Omni-tool beeped and filled in the blanks. A profile for someone named Neytri Matten came up, complete with a picture and everything. She saw that it was some female Turian with green triangular markings on her face. Like all Turians, stoic was the look she gave the camera.

Well, at least someone was prepared for her to come to Palaven. Knowing Jack, it may have had an ID for every Council Race. She would have to check that later. Those ID's could be useful for other things if they existed. Somewhere on this gauntlet was another OSD that was interfacing with her Omni-tool. Since she was running the Tantalus OS, her files and data were much more encrypted, but Jack probably had backdoors in the system to let himself in. She wouldn't put it past him, and she wasn't that great with technology. She could do some lower level work with hacking, but she was a brute force kind of person. If it required any kind of care or precision, she would rather just let a program do the work. Or someone else, if she was just cloaked near the terminal she needed access to.

The shuttle landed in some field, with what appeared to be granite castles everywhere. Most had pads on the roof or at ground level for vehicles. Everything seemed to be built in a way that would make a planetary invasion difficult. Every home had barricades and gates, places where static defenses could resist the piercing effect of element zero driven rounds. The shuttle driver came out after her, and took a deep breath of the air.

"Are all of your planets built like this?" She asked.

"Yes." He said, seemingly calm. "It's something of a tradition."

"The way I see it, everything is built to hold back an invasion force." She noticed a larger ridgeline in the distance, with homes and towns spread along it. Lights highlighted different sections of the ridgeline, where homes and streets were located. The sun was behind it, highlighting the area and bringing out the natural beauty of it all. The purple atmosphere was a new one, that was for sure.

"It made our Colonial Rebellions tough. Our Temple will be even more fortified. But don't expect any sort of electronic defenses. Power in the city doesn't run into the Temple. All the work there has been done by hand, like in the ancient times." The soldier shrugged. "I was instructed to drop you off our here, outside the district. The district is small, and all of the roads are old and thin. Most of the streets aren't well lit, and they don't move in straight lines. All of the old streets move in the sacred curve, all centralized on the Temple district." He handed her a flashlight. "If you can get to a roof, wave that and I'll pick you up even if you can't transmit anything."

She gave him a smile, with some teeth showing. Turians liked that better for some reason. If you smiled with closed lips, apparently it meant that you were lying or taking advantage of them. "Thanks. For everything." He simply nodded, and got back into the shuttle. She started walking into the district, an old cobblestone wall marking the very edge. It was eight feet tall, but easy to climb. It looked more ceremonial than defensive. A short hop and she was able to clear it. The area beyond was filled with broken stone and gravel, not truly suited for any sort of crops.

A few awkward lizard like creatures flitted about here and there, each about four feet long and with some horns. They were licking the algae off of the rocks. It must be their source of food. She gave them a wide berth just in case they were territorial or predatory. She could see no Turians out here, but the edge of the city wasn't too far away.

"Just in case you didn't notice, this gauntlet comes with some other functions. One of which is an option to escape if you need it. There is a shuttle in the Cheru district, which you can call at any time. When I saw that you were headed towards Palaven, I had James help prepare a shuttle for you to ride out of here. Just in case things get more than a little intrusive with the Turian military, I wanted to offer you a way out. There is a flight path that takes you towards the main hospital on Palaven, which I am somewhat sure the refugees from that district will travel along. You can either hitch a ride or call the shuttle, which is currently parked eight blocks from that hospital." Jack Harper's voice echoed inside her helmet.

It must have been a recording. "Inside this gauntlet is everything I could get on your case file. Maps of Palaven, areas where you can escape notice or avoid being ID'd at the spaceport. Anything that I could get you on the local area I did. Also, try not to shoot any of the creepy statues. Those are apparently one of the few pieces of art the ancient Turians actively made. Killing a Turian is simply criminal. Destroying ancient culture would make any kind of saving action impossible. If you can get away with making the Turians take any of the shots necessary, that might be better. But what you are looking at is the main temple for their ancestor worshipping cult, which is one of their longest standing and most popular religious sects. If this temple gets wiped out, then the entire pilgrimage and ancestor worship cult will fall apart, leading to some sort of civil trouble down the line. So be careful about that. The gun that I sent you is one that was traded to me in exchange for the first batch of work visas for quarians. It's a Reegar shotgun. Not sure what they needed this much firepower for, but with some of their files on the Geth, it seems as though they need it. It's considered a heavy weapon for them, meant to put down fourteen foot tall robots with pulse cannons. As you might imagine, it should work well on the Turians that have all of the cybernetics. It will cook off the cybernetics, which I assume is the source of their augmentations. None of the files that I saw had anything about the organic tissue being augmented or improved in any way. So use this or the grenades and the augmented things should be put down.

One thing that is in your favor is that they have decreased brain activity. They aren't thinking in the same terms that a normal Turian would think in. Seems like all that strength seems to make them stupid. I haven't found any other exploitable weaknesses, but I have sent you with what I can. More than what the Turians were going to send you with. Also, you are broadcasting a signal from somewhere on your person. It's probably some sort of tracking bug they placed on you." The image blurred. "No other conversation options are remaining. Unit shutting down."

Hannah smirked. Jack was being at least somewhat supportive. He was somehow getting her the weapons and intel she needed. Though why the Turians didn't say anything about the cybernetics bothered her. Tracking her she could forgive. That was expected, and a complement to their worry about her. As she walked, she noticed that the lizards were even more common around the oldest structures, and the newest structures they avoided. The algae only grew on the rocks around the older sections of the city. The roads were made of old stone, broken up and non uniform in shape.

Strangely, the streets were quiet. Not somber, but quiet like something terrible was happening. Lights were on in the homes, but no shapes moved behind the windows, and none of the doorways were closed. Everything was open, and she thought she saw an aircar running in front of one of the shops. Two of the doors were open, and she could see no signs of life in the car. She didn't feel comfortable at all.

From then on, she moved around town with her tactical cloak on. As she got closer to the Temple, the winding streets got thinner and thinner, until the walls were barely wide enough to walk single file. Some of the buildings leaned on each other, and even shared rooftops. She almost shot at the first Turian she saw, she was so rattled by it all. It was on one of the rooftops, almost patrolling the area. It didn't have a weapon, but the long talons that hung out of its brown robes betrayed its danger. She ignored it, moving forward. The augmented Turians had only heard her last time because she spoke. This time she wasn't going to be so foolish.

She considered testing her new shotgun on one of them, but decided against it. Charging in like some commando unit wasn't her way. She was the scout, the gatherer of intelligence. If she was in combat, something had gone wrong. So, she found the solitary road leading up to the Temple. All of the winding streets came together in a large square, where some statues of ancient Turians stood. They were in good condition, wearing some sort of leather wrappings or armor plating. Spears with a curved tip were held in each hand.

The area had stalls with different foods and supplies at them, but they were ignored by the Turians in the courtyard. Roaming groups of Turians in brown cloaks wandered around the courtyard, checking homes and cars as they went. Their search pattern was pretty simple, practiced. Hannah could see that more groups were on the road leading up to the temple, up some steep hill. Guards stood in a few places along the hill and the surrounding rooftops.

It was very different from the normal style of Turian defense around an object. Normally they had all approaches covered, completely supported, and had multiple layers of defenses around critical points. Here, it seemed as if the most critical positions were only being protected by the few Turians on the rooftops. The ones on the street were actively patrolling, but not in a defensive fashion. She took some images and recordings of it all, but didn't narrate it.

She wished she could, and highlight all of the issues she could see. The hill was old, and covered in shrubbery. It would have been an easy climb for her, but it would have kicked up dust and noise to do so. The only way to get up the hill was to just walk up the main road. So, she shadowed one of the groups walking up the hill, and echoed their steps. The patrol she was following had no idea they were being followed, nor did they step leisurely. Their steps were just as measured as when they were on patrol, and didn't seem affected by fatigue or exhaustion. Probably the cybernetics.

The Temple itself was a structure that reminded Hannah of the old vids of Rome, with large columns supporting a triangular entrance. The carved rock showed signs where digging had occurred, all using hand tools. The stone was old, and statues faced outwards from the temple, left hands in a cupping shape and the right held across the chest. The figures wore robes, in the same type and shape as the ones worn by the augmented Turians.

Few of them were up at the Temple entrance. The groups moving up the hill just moved inside the temple, where torches had been lit. No guards were in place here, just a small crowd of the robed Turians moving inside the Temple. The archway was wide enough that ten men could walk through it together, in armor. It was roughly forty feet high, which if she understood right meant that this structure was extremely strong. Rare for something so old and large to be so well preserved, too. She kept her tourist tendencies down, though, as she slipped inside.

Here she finally saw some sort of evidence. Groups of Turians who weren't wearing robes were being corralled into the inside corners of the temple, hundreds of them being pushed into the area between the columns. She got a lot of angles on this. This would be clear evidence of wrongdoing, but probably not enough to merit coming in here guns blazing. She needed some sort of real dirt.

There had been some sort of large altar in the innermost section of the temple, but it was now covered with rocks and dirt. Some of it was being dragged up to the altar, while other chunks were being dragged out towards one of the large windows and deposited outside. That led to the far side of the hill, and wouldn't be visible from the road. The amount moved was in the tons. Some of the rocks being moved would normally take heavy machinery to move, but teams of these augmented just carried them around.

The rocks were coming from a ramp behind the altar, one that seemed crudely carved out of the rock. It looked recent, probably expanded to fit the large rocks being excavated. Old carvings on the walls had been cut through and a statue was missing to make room for the new archway. She highlighted the destruction of the art, and made sure to show the casual disregard for their own culture.

She also got a nice recording of the augmented taking one of the Turians from the group that had been herded, and dragging them down the ramp. Hannah zeroed in on that, and followed. She almost lost them, having to move quietly to avoid notice. The ramp had carved stone edifices on the sides, and those hadn't been defaced very much. A team of the augmented were moving a rock up the ramp that was three times their size, and they seemed to have no trouble.

She slipped past them, avoiding a patch of loose rock at the bottom of the ramp as it led to some sort of interior chambers. Another ramp led deeper off to one side, where some of the augmented were pulling rocks from. The Turian that was being dragged off was being taken to a side chamber, and less of the augmented were in that direction. She was able to step a lot less lightly there. In what may have been a dormitory or eating area, she finally saw it. The objective that their team was supposed to secure was a large black stone monolith, with some form of element zero or something inside of it. It had a slight glow in it, and the edges of it were curved, enough that someone could sit or lay down on the lower section of the monolith.

A message flashed from her Omni-tool, showing up on her helmet feed. Hostile signal detected. Physical contact not advised. Alright then, don't touch the monolith. Jack had at least shown that he had looked into some things. Or at least prepared for it. She would trust his work if it said there was something dangerous here.

The Turian being dragged by two of the augmented was dragged roughly to the foot of the monolith, and then they grabbed him by both his hands and his feet. The Turian mumbled some sort of religious phrase, right before he was shoved onto the small platform at the base of the monolith. Immediately the monolith lit up with an eerie blue light, and some cloud of something flew from the corners of the black stone and into the Turian's skin.

He started twitching, screaming, and convulsing as blood came out of his orifices. To her great disgust, he started coughing, and his eyes were spraying some sort of matter onto the the rest of his face. The augmented Turian just turned around, and walked back towards the entryway. She kept her hand steady, focusing on the Turian being affected by the monolith. She felt more than saw the augmented Turian twist in her direction, and rolled away from him. The robed figure followed, its arm reaching towards her.

It wasn't reaching to impale, however, but just to grab her. Pure idiocy. She rolled, the shotgun coming off her back, slipping into her hand. With a solid thump the bore opened. The spray of what looked like lightning went past the Turian's arm and into his torso. Which then promptly turned to melted pulp when the lightning struck all of the mechanical bits. She could see the shape and form of the Turian's skeleton through the robes, just by the way the lightning arced around the body.

Thankfully, it didn't scream or make any other kinds of noise as the body got cooked. There wasn't the blast of burning smell she normally associated with people being tortured or killed by electricity, but the heavy clunk as the body slid to the ground was evidence enough. Just to be sure it was dead, she drew her Batarian knife and sliced its tendons and neck, the hydraulic fluid leaking out onto the floor. For the finale, she stabbed deeply into the brain, the robe concealing any movement on its part. It didn't even flinch as she cut its major arteries and brain stem. There was no reflexive twitching or reaction. With a final slice to the lower back, the augmented Turian couldn't move even if it tried.

The shotgun didn't make noise as a normal gun would, with a bang or a loud crack, but made a sound like water being shoved through too small of a hose. It hissed, more than made noise. She didn't hear any more of the augmented Turians coming, but couldn't risk too much more exposure. With one dead, her chances of escaping without notice were lower. But she needed to send in more damning evidence. Just showing some Turian with cybernetics wasn't going to be enough. Hostages and signs of digging were pretty bad too.

She stood up, coming over nearer to the monolith. The Turian that had been thrown onto it was thrashing around on the ground, blood and viscera still spraying around him. She inched closer, as he had rolled off the platform. She zoomed in the camera, focusing on his face. From behind where the eyes were, something else that was blue and glowing was emerging. She had to keep her arm still as she saw some of the blood in his eye sockets being converted to some sort of stringy tissue to hold together a new set of eyes.

There was no cybernetics that were capable of this. This was just too powerful. She knew the limits, she was an example of someone with a significant amount of cybernetics in her body. Watching a cybernetic eye being built from someone's blood just wasn't possible. When she saw the Turian's crest separating and breaking apart on top of its head, she knew that this was something really bad. She left a nice little tech grenade on the Turian being augmented. In fact, she left a lot of grenades. She liberally applied them to the monolith, on a passive detection pattern. If anything crossed their proximity alarm, they would all go off. Hopefully that would disable this freaky monolith thing.

Backing out of the room, she could see a few of the augmented dragging up stone, volcanic rock. Obsidian chunks were being carted up in handfuls or in bags carried between two of the augmented. She decided that she could risk a peek down into what they were excavating. With a few short steps, she went down the crude stone ramp that extended into the deepest part of the temple. It had no decoration down here, only a long stone hallway that looked carved with hand tools. The air was a little thin, and dust obscured everything.

The end of the tunnel arrived at some sort of lava flow that had cooled a long time ago. The cooled rock was being torn apart by the hands of the augmented Turians, and crude tools were also being used. The obsidian was hard enough to chip the armored talons, causing some of the area to be covered in broken pieces of augmented Turian. She tried not to pay attention to that, trying to see what they were so actively trying to dig up. She had to zoom in, seeing the Turians scratching at some sort of large stone in the middle of the obsidian.

Hostile signal detected. Physical contact not advised. The message flashed across her screen again, making her look carefully at the shape of the stone. It had a glowing blue line along one side, covered by dust and debris for the most part. But she noticed that the shape of it was the exact same as the monolith upstairs. It was another one of the things.

Now that was a scary thought. Two of these things could be even more dangerous. Especially if they were separated. These augmented Turians would be able to make more of themselves faster, which suggested something of a plan. They were actively trying to expand their numbers, yet expressed less thinking and consideration on the defense of their artifact. She didn't like the ramifications of that, considering that whatever these augmented Turians were doing, they didn't show any kind of moral values. They ignored the figures of authority, and didn't have any regard for their culture.

The cybernetics seemed to be providing some sort of mental control or destabilizing effect. Considering that she just saw a cybernetic eye grow from blood and bone, she was willing to accept that these cybernetics weren't for the greater benefit of society. She followed behind a large chunk of obsidian being dragged out of the Temple, and awkwardly watched as the corpse of the Turian she had killed was being dragged up the ramp ahead of her. It was dumped with the rocks like a sack of fruit, without even a care for the person they had just tossed.

More worrying was the lack of alarm or panic going on. One dead augmented Turian and nothing changed. The body was just thrown out the window like so much debris. She didn't like that. They should be doubling their patrols, moving aggressively to contain the intruder. The fact that they weren't bugged her. They were doing nothing to respond to her intrusion. It gave her a bad taste in the mouth that they didn't care.

She looked up at the doorway to the Temple, where it had been barricaded. She stood corrected. It appeared as though they had prepared for her, or at least sealed off the temple. That would stop most people. Not her, as she calmly stepped out the window they had been dumping the rock out of. The hill face was not a cliff, but it was close. Dust and broken shrubs marked where the debris had gone, so she went upwards. The top of the temple was populated with a few of the robed figures, but she was able to find a nice little spot to sit down. There was a very clear and crisp signal repeater for the local extranet network on top of the hill, and she put it to good use.

She made her own signal bounce off of that, and took the tracer that they had stuck on her and placed it on the signal repeater. It was a good model, too. Once that was done, she found a safe spot to run her Omni-tool and visibly route her comm signals through that transmitter, so that anyone scanning the area would assume she was actually on top of the hill.

From there, it was a more complicated matter of slowly climbing down the hill, moving towards where the far ridgeline still had lights on. She could even see a few air cars coming and going in the distance. No one knew that people were being held hostage within sight of their homes. Their homes were lit up, still glowing with light and radiating warmth. She moved towards the hills, getting some distance between her and that temple.

Once she was far enough that she felt more comfortable, she started uploading the vid she had recorded to Arterius. "Reporting in, all clear." She said in Turian, not trusting the ability of others to listen in or try to assume wrongdoing. "Sending package now."

The vid recording of her foray into the temple was uploaded onto the communications network. She didn't have to wait long before she got a reply. "We have it. I am with the Primarch right now, and we are getting the video." She could hear the sounds of her vid feed in the background, and Arterius seemed to be focused on it.

"I need an extraction, they know I'm here." She said, making sure to put some urgency in her voice. "I had to kill one when it came too close."

"We are watching that moment, yes." She heard a sharp intake of breath. "Where did you get that knife!"

She hissed. It must have been some sort of important knife for him to recognize it. Worse, he sounded pissed. "Are you still going to get me out of here?" Their detectors would show her transmitting from the top of the hill. Though a tech would be able to tell that she was repeating her signal from within the area. Where she was sending from might be able to be found if they could get into the communications network. She had to end this conversation soon, then.

"You don't have any idea what that is, do you!" Arterius sounded livid. "The Batarian Hegemon has the right to decide who inherits the title after he dies or is incapable. He marks those who are heirs with knives that have five monomolecular blades, known as Kavka. My little brother, Saren, was sent on a mission out in the Terminus systems. On his first mission he ran into one of the heirs of the Hegemon. The ensuing battle left only a few survivors. Saren managed to survive the fight, but only at the cost of his right arm's ligaments.

"He never put that knife down. The only way you could have gotten one of the Kavka is if you took it from him. Only two are outside Batarian space, and one of them is in the Temple of Athame, and the other was owned by Saren. You killed my brother, and for that I am debating removing any protection I would have given you."

"We were at war! You had shown up on our planet, bombarded our world! What do you think happens during a war!" She yelled at him. She had to end this, and fast. He knew she had killed Saren. "He had the only Omni-tool we had that could translate Turian. We had to get it back."

"I apologize, Human. While your actions and any blame associated with them have been forgiven due to the Council's intervention, I cannot allow the threat posed by these augmented Turians to grow any further. Make peace with your gods, as I will with mine. Primarch, all of our agents are clear."

She was in motion before his angered tone finished his sentence. She cut communications off on her end, and took cover behind one of the old walls surrounding the fields. Some of the lizards she had seen earlier scattered when she moved, a dust cloud kicking up in response to her steps. She was able to get at least somewhere covered before the first shots hit.

She had experienced orbital bombardment before. The loud crash that echoed across the countryside, wind whipping and tearing over the wall, and most of all the quiet that followed. Kinetic strikes had a loud initial strike, but afterwards the only way you could tell anything was damaged was the sound of collapsing buildings. She didn't hear any of that. She could see the smoke cloud from the impact on the temple hill, and the movement on the rooftops. Augmented Turians were converging on the hill, running out in the open back towards the Temple.

She picked one of the ravines that lead away from the temple and dropped down into it just as the second round hit the hill. This one made her almost stumble. She was only a mile or so away, but still, that shook the ground. That must have come from a dreadnought to have been felt this far. The Turians really were not fooling around. She knew that troop transports, fighter squadrons, and armored vehicles would be crawling all over this district soon.

Her footprints would be easy to notice and easier to track. There were no humans here. She abandoned any stealth she might have used, and just started running along the ravine. Her batteries were low, so she had to turn off her tactical cloak as well. She hoped that by staying in the shrubs and the ravine she could avoid notice for a while. She did notice that the local comm network had been taken down. All of the surrounding stations were quiet.

Then the guns let loose on the hill again, and the shuttles started coming down. She tried hard not to think of Shanxi, but it was difficult. When she checked her Omni-tool again, she could see a static map of the area. A blinking light was on near one of the hospitals in Choyu district. She couldn't access the aircar Jack had prepared, but she could certainly get to that district. It would just be a lot of walking.

Thessia, Parnithia System, June 2165

Jack could understand Asari very clearly, but Opera was one of those things that only a native speaker of the language could understand fully. For Humans, that meant letting the music flow through you, the rush of excitement when the tone dropped or rose, and the final gasp as the performance ended. For Asari, a performance lasted between four and six hours, and the tones that an Asari could reach went above what the human vocal cords could reach. It sounded like cats singing or being drunk, minus the screeching and painful sounds.

Miranda and Julia were watching with starry eyes, still excited even into the fifth hour of performance. It was all in the religious language of the Asari, and not the common language that they had developed for speaking with the rest of the galaxy. The fluting tones and warm choruses carried throughout the sixty thousand seat opera house, inside of which there were seats reserved by the societal elite. Benezia had one of the best balconies, just ten feet off of the floor.

Major Jones was outside, in their aircar. It was as close as she could get without getting arrested or creating an awkward situation with the Asari government. He felt very comfortable with the situation. Looking over, he could see Benezia leaning forward and whispering with Liara, along with other members of their extended family. The amount of blue Asari faces in the room was intimidating, and he frowned at the thought of how many would be assaulting Humanity in the morning.

"What has you so worried, Jack Harper?" Benezia was looking over at him. She had a smile on her face, but as to why he couldn't guess.

"Tomorrow morning, the Human market connects to the Citadel stock exchange. If what you have told me in the past is true, all of these people will be as wolves among sheep when they apply their wealth to our market."

She smirked. "Any wrongdoing on their part will be seen to. When a younger race joins us, we usually try to allow them the space they need to learn and grow. Tomorrow, when your stock market is open, the only thing you need fear is how much you all will be willing to spare, in exchange for our products."

"Expensive products. Especially Serrice. I was just offered biotic amps from them, to jumpstart our own program." He motioned to where the S'ricce family sat, in their own balcony not far away. Their distinctive family crest was blatantly displayed on all of their shoulders. "I recently talked with the head of the Batarian biotic training program. Apparently when the same offer was given to the Batarians, their entire first generation of biotics died unexpectedly. It is my own assumption that they were sold faulty first generation amps. If the same thing happens to us, my daughters die. Not an acceptable option."

Benezia nodded. "Serrice is not the only company that will be willing to sell you amp designs. If you need other contacts, there are a few Salarian companies I would recommend."

"Caught an STG team stealing data from Sirta. I won't be able to trust that source."

Benezia didn't even seem surprised. "Picky, then. Elcor designs are ponderous, and Volus designs are hard to convert over to anything that operates in comfortable environments. You could go with Turian designs, and it might get you a bit of political niceties. I hear that they are very efficient compared to other designs."

The L2 and L3 were based off of Turian efficiency designs. He would have to purchase the rights to their detailed parts at some point, but the L1 and L2 were based heavily on Asari designs. "I might have to ask around about those. Though I will make sure to guarantee a spot for Liara at my sponsored dig site first."

Benezia smiled about that. A real smile, with none of the venom that normally he associated with an Asari smiling. "I investigated your offer while we were in the car. You only have one other Prothean expert leading the dig. Are you sure you would trust your entire dig site with my daughter leading it?"

Trick question. It had to be. "She has more experience and knowledge than any team of experts I could hire in human space. I don't risk anything by placing her in charge of the project. Giving her an equal who has experience running digs on earth will balance out any trouble that may result from Liara not knowing Human culture or practices."

"What are you expecting to find in your search for Prothean ruins?" She asked. "Because I have noticed that you are interested in a very dark part of the Protheans. You may be good, Jack Harper, but I noticed that you have been looking for Dark Beacons. If you are hoping to find those troubled devices, then Liara will not help you."

At that moment, he did not like Benezia. "You know where the Council moved the supply of Dark Beacons in their possession." He said, matter of factly. "You must have seen the files when you logged into the Mars Archive."

"I was confirming that they matched the files in the Salarian Archive. Interesting that I found some tampering, or signs of attempted tampering. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, now, would you?" He didn't break eye contact, but that venom was back. Never trust an Asari. Absolute power over the galaxy means that they take responsibility for protecting it.

"I have found a single Dark Beacon." He admitted. "But I haven't perfected the extraction of information yet."

"How do you plan on extracting that? All who come in contact with those have been killed." Now she was getting suspicious.

"Then you've obviously not hugged the correct beacon. In my experience, the message that they relay is somewhat garbled, or not meant to be understood without some experience in Prothean code or language." He gave her a grin. She already was mad, he could tell. "I won't expose your daughter to that, but anything to understand that message is important to me."

Benezia stood up. "We will be just a moment, family and connected friends." She motioned to Jack to head up the stairs. He got up, so as not to make a spectacle of himself. Outside their balcony was a small hallway, with the unisex bathrooms that were normal for Thessia. Asari didn't have much in the way of shame. He didn't even make it halfway across the hallway before he was pushed against the wall. Hard, but not so hard that he broke anything when he hit the wall.

Benezia had the kind of control that most associated with mystics or shamans. He biotic throw didn't just send him into the wall. It held him there, making it impossible to move away or try to get any traction with his hands.

"Others who have been touched by the Protheans usually go insane within a decade of being exposed. For your sake, I will do what I can to contain the damage." He could feel a hand on the back of his neck. He stiffened. Her glove was missing. "Embrace Eternity."

He knew what she was after. Prothean information. Reapers. The Reapers. He immediately brought his worry for his daughters to the forefront. Something real, something human, he had to shield the parts of his mind that contained his detailed plans and thoughts of how to counter the Reapers. He also knew that the link between their nervous systems and minds could only be maintained by the Asari. Considering that it was an Asari Matriarch, he knew that his chances of getting out of here were small without some sort of detail or plan being revealed.

So, to start, he pulled up the memories of his time during the Reaper War. Memories of the horrors within the Citadel, of the cybernetics burrowing into his face, and of the sound of grinding flesh all around him. These scenes he reinforced with visions of the Collectors, and of them being taken apart by autopsy devices. He almost cheerfully sent portions of the husking process, trying to see if this would be enough.

He could feel something in his mind, though. Like a snake, it was at the edge of his perception. It felt different than having a Reaper inside your mind, that was for certain. But he didn't like this one bit. He could equate it to a siege, where the only way to end it was to outlast a nine hundred year old being who was known for her strength and control of her biotics and nervous system. The battle over his mind had begun, and he did not like his odds in the slightest.

Author's Note

I apologize for making you guys wait so long. This chapter was a bit harder to grind out around school and work. Marketing and Finance both decided to move last week, meaning that IT was very busy just trying to get them reconnected in time for their sales conference calls to go through. This week, all of the conference rooms are under construction, leading to that awkward jump where we have to shove meetings into any available spaces.

Very awkward, very annoying as an IT guy to sit there and tell someone that you literally cannot do something for them. Be it time constraints or lack of supplies, it is still a sad moment. So, there won't be updates to this for a short while, due to National Novel Writer's Month. I will be putting in a piece for it, which after a while I will re-upload back onto , for you guys to read and experience. So, expect the next update to this story to be in the first or second week in December. Thank you all for reviews and messages.