Chapter 32a: Noveria pt. 1
It was a normal day on the Normandy, Shepherd had just did his rounds and decided to work out in the cargo hold alone. It helped him clear his mind as he thought about the situation between him and Ashley. Things had been tense between them since he told her about his relationship with Tali. And telling her that he didn't trust her enough to tell her made things worse to the point that they weren't now friends, just a commander and his subordinate. 'I got to fix this' he thought. He got up to see Ash, but got a message from Feros.
'Feros? Who could be calling me from there?' He activated his omni-tool and saw an asari. "Shiala? How did you get my tool's code?" He asked. He then thought about it. "Wait; don't tell me, Liara right?" Shiala smiled and nodded. Shepherd sighed. "That girl…" he muttered.
Shiala spoke up. "I'm glad you are well commander, I should thank you again for sparing my life"
Shepherd sat at the tool bench. "You're welcome, but I'm guessing you're not here for small talk" he said.
Shiala nodded. "Yes" she said sadly. "I wish it was under better conditions"
Shepherd raised his brow. "The Thorian?" he asked.
Shiala shook her head. "No, though I could see why you would be worried" she said.
"So shoot, what do you want?" he asked. Shiala grew silent. "Shiala?"
The asari looked at him. "An old friend of mine contacted me last night, she saw my sister on Noveria" she said. That caught his attention, they've been on a dry run when it came to leads to Saren and his allies.
"Matriarch Benezia? What is she doing there?" he asked.
Shiala lowered her head. "I don't know, but I do know she is not doing this of her own will" he said. Shepherd didn't believe her story about her being controlled by Saren's ship, mind control was just too crazy to believe, but let it drop for now.
"Okay, got it" Shepherd said. Before he turned his com off, Shiala spoke up.
"Wait Shepherd, bring Liara with you on Noveria, she needs this" she said softly.
Shepherd raised his brow. "What do you mean?" he asked.
Shiala lowered her head. "Let's just say it is for her sake as well as well as my sister's" she said sadly.
Shepherd nodded. "Understood "he said. Shiala's image faded. As he got up from the tool bench, he saw Ashley. "Ash" he said.
Ash gave a dry salute. "Sir" she said without emotion.
Shepherd rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Um, gear up you and Liara are coming with me to Noveria." He said.
Ash nodded. "Yes sir" she said dryly and walked away. Shepherd sighed. 'This is going to be fun' he thought.
Noveria is a snowy, rocky world, with most of its hydrosphere locked up in massive glaciers. A privately-chartered colony world, the planet is owned by Noveria Development Corporation holding company. The NDC is funded by investment capital from two dozen high technology development firms, and administrated by an Executive Board representing their interests.
The investors built remote hot labs in isolated locations across Noveria's surface. These facilities are used for research too dangerous or controversial to be performed elsewhere, as Noveria are technically not part of Citadel space and therefore exempt from Council law.
By special arrangement, Citadel Council Special Tactics and Reconnaissance agents have been granted extraterritorial privileges, but it remains to be seen how committed the Executive Board is to that principle. Given its unique situation, it is understandable that Noveria is often implicated in all manner of wild conspiracy theories.-Codex
When the Normandy approached Noveria, they were apparently not on the scheduled arrival list. Joker explained to them that they had a spectre on board, they didn't buy it, but let them through anyway, however Noveria's traffic controller warned them they were being tracked by defense systems and threatens to fire at the Normandy if Shepherd's identity is not confirmed. The spectre hoped that inside things would be friendlier, they would have no such luck. Barely out of the Normandy had the team come across a group of armed people stood in front of them, two human women and a handful of turians. They were all wearing the same armor.
"That's far enough," one of the women called out to them. She had black hair and a calm expression, while the other one had yellow hair and looked much more aggressive. Shepherd looked at the black-haired woman. 'Must be the leader' he thought. "This is an unscheduled arrival," the woman explained. "I need your credentials."
Shepherd rolled his eyes. "Wayne Shepherd, Spectre for the council" he said. The guards looked at each other; Shepherd was not surprised his title was pretty new.
"Load of bullshit, ma'am" the blonde said.
Shepherd sighed. "You know people who doubt me, tend to end up dead" he said.
The blonde took a more aggressive stance. "Is that a threat?" she growled.
Shepherd gave smirk. "No, just a friendly warning" he said. The blond was about to say something, but was stopped by the dark-haired woman.
"We'll get you checked out, but in the meantime, firearms are not permitted on Noveria." She turned towards the yellow-haired woman. "Sergeant Sterling, secure their weapons."
At the same time the team was in combat mode, Shepherd and Liara flared up their biotics and Ash had her Assault rifle primed and ready. However, the security personal also had their weapon up too. "Yeah, that's not going to happen" he said.
"Back off, nice and slow" Ash said. "We don't have time for this shit, we need to get inside"
Sterling held up her arm. "Charge and lock" The team could hear the sound of the officers weapons charging, this was going to get bad very quickly. "I would listen to Captain Matsuo, put down your weapon"
"And I say hell no, now let me through or this get ugly, I would hate to mess up that pretty face of yours" Shepherd said. Sterling glared at him.
"We are authorized to use lethal force, I hope you know that" Matsuo said.
Shepherd rolled his eyes. "And I hope you know, that means jack shit to me" he said coldly. The tension was so thick, as the two sides will prepare for a shootout, a voice boomed through the loudspeakers, hurting both sides' ears.
"Captain Matsuo, stand down!" the voice said. "We've confirmed their identity, Spectres are authorized to carry weapons on Noveria"
Matsuo nodded her head. "Understood" she said. She looked back at Shepherd. "I hope your stay is less confrontational, Spectre" The guards walked away glaring at Shepherd's team, Shepherd just sat there with a smug smile on his face.
"Well that was fun" he said.
Ash shook her head. "That was reckless, sir" she said with no emotion. She walked to the security gate.
Shepherd sighed. 'Fixing this will be harder than I thought.' They went to catch up with Ash, when they reach the second landing and pass through some scanners and an alarm goes off. The team went to attention, an attractive human woman in a pinkish-red dress came up and turned off the alarms.
"My apologies, spectre Shepherd, just weapon detectors" she said. "I'm Gianna Parasini, assistant to Administrator Anoleis, quite the show you put on"
"Yeah, well I wouldn't have to, if security was more…friendly"
"They were just doing their job" Parasini said.
Shepherd scoffed. "I bet"
"You're not very friendly yourself, I see" she said.
"I'm only friendly until someone puts a gun to my face" Shepherd said. "Anyway, I'm looking for Matriarch Benezia, I heard she was here" Parasini went through the systems.
"Ah, yes an asari by that very name is here, she left for the Peak 15 reseach complex a few days ago, to the best of my knowledge she is still there"
"Good, show us the way and we'll take it from here" Shepherd said.
"I'm sorry, but you will need Administrator Anoleis permission to leave this port, I can show you the way"
"Good, do it" He then saw Liara, her head was lowered.
"So my mother is indeed here," Liara said softly. In all the confusion, Shepherd had forgotten Benezia was there, and that Liara may have to do the unthinkable when they meet the Matriarch.
Shepherd sighed. "Liara, when we face your mother, and we can't talk her down, can you fight her?" he asked seriously. "Can you kill her? This mission is too important"
Liara looked at him and nodded. "If it come to that, I will." She said hesitantly.
"Then let's hope it doesn't come to this then" he said. The team made their way through port Hanshan. While walking to Administrator Anoleis office, the team was getting looks of suspicion that was unnerving to Shepherd. 'This must be what Tali feel all the time' he thought. They made it to the office, it was time to start their mission.