Illium Orbit- 2192
"Report." The order came out naturally from the turian. Garrus might have been a new spectre but he was no stranger to leadership. From his group in Omega to his Reaper task force he knew how to lead.
The armored woman who stood in front of Garrus snapped a salute before she spoke. "Our orbital survey tells us that the coordinates are within a large industrial center on Illium. The facility is run by the Siame Corp."
"Never heard of them." Garrus said.
"They're a well funded but relatively unknown asari corporation. They're based out of Nos Astra and do most of their business in the Terminus." The female turian told her captain.
Garrus strolled into the cockpit of the ship and looked out the viewport as his pilots brought the ship into Illium's atmosphere. "What does this Siame Corp do?"
"Anything from military tech to high-end skycars. It's regulated by matriarch's on Thessia which is odd for a Terminus based corporation."
"Usually if a company works in the Terminus it's because they don't want regulations to get in the way." Garrus agreed.
"Siame works closely with the Matriarchal council in Armali." The woman said.
Garrus crossed his arms and looked away from his white plated subordinate. "So the asari spies our people picked up were working for this company?"
"Hard to say. Guess we'll find out when we get there."
Suddenly Caius Metna, Garrus' XO joined the discussion. "How do you want to play this boss?"
Garrus thought over the options. Stealth wasn't usually his area of expertise but he doubted barging in would yield any results. They might respect spectre authority but if he gave them time to prepare for their arrival this Siame Corp would have enough time to hide whatever they don't want them to see.
"We'll go in under the radar. A small team no more than three will infiltrate the facility and follow the coordinates. Hopefully we'll be in and out before they know we're there." Garrus said.
Caius nodded. "Looking forward to the fun."
Garrus looked back to the woman with the white plates and black face paint. "What was your name again?"
"Specialist Vivia Feltis, sir." She introduced herself with a salute.
"Well Specialist, you and Caius better suit up. You're coming with me."
"Aye aye."
Illium- Nos Astra
The old turian couldn't see anything, he couldn't even cry out for help, not while the gag was still shoved in his mouth and a bag was over his head. Sparatus kicked his legs, a desperate and futile attempt at defiance as he was dragged forward. A pair of strong hands was pulling him by the arm.
Suddenly the bag was pulled from his face and light flooded his beady eyes. The turian looked around in shock at his surroundings. A comfy and luxurious looking bed with satin sheets resided in one corner, a digital fire display illuminated the room with an orange hue and the entire space was furnished with expensive taste. To the left a large one way window overlooked what appeared to be an industrial production line below.
Before he could investigate further a short asari stepped in front of him. She had purple markings around her eyes but nothing more and her body was slim and toned. She wore a set of gold plated armor and with gloved hands she untied the gag in the turian's mouth.
"What is this?" Sparatus barked as if he was still in charge.
The asari's face was blank when she spoke. "Welcome home. You'd do well to make yourself comfortable."
"Who are you? Where are we? Why did you take me here?!"
The woman frowned. "My name is Korria. But I'm afraid that's the only question you'll ever get the answer to. My apologies for getting rough back there with Aquilla, I only meant to impress her."
Sparatus's voice shrank and his shoulders slumped. "My family, can I speak to them?"
Korria shook her head. "I'm sorry. No."
"Please."
The asari uncuffed the man. "The time for that has come and gone. You should just try and relax."
"Relax? I'm not a fool. I've made my bed, it's appears the time has come to lie in it. I'd just like to have the chance to explain to my wife and daughter."
"Your family has already been taken care of."
Sparatus leapt at her. "If you've hurt them!" he screamed as he charged.
Korria dodged his first blow and blasted the turian back on his ass with her biotics. "Are you done?" she asked. "I'm not here to fight with you, turian."
"What have you done to my family?" The turian asked, he couldn't meet her gaze.
"We have done nothing. Don't worry about them. Aquilla recognizes your family is innocent in all this."
"I thought you fanatics hated aliens. Aquilla most of all."
The asari shook her head. "Hatred is for the weak and foolish. Aquilla is neither."
"And you?"
Korria watched the digital fireplace with brown eyes. "My actions belong to Athame, not myself. I bare no ill will towards you or your people."
"Hiding behind your faith? Is that how you monsters justify this madness?!"
Korria shook her head. "Aquilla showed me it herself. It is not faith, It is truth. And there is no greater justification. Don't you agree?"
"Please, what you're doing is wrong-"
"No. What you've done is wrong. You betrayed your own people and for what? Secrets? Credits? If you'd indulge my curiosity, What was it Aquilla promised that spurred your cooperation?" Korria said, her arms crossed with her back to the man.
Sparatus rubbed the raw flesh on his wrists. "She told me the asari and turians could enter a compact. A deal that would benefit both our species and put our militaries in an alliance that would outmatch the other races."
"You sought to control the galaxy? Why?"
"I was doing what was best for my people."
"If this that what you must believe then do so." Korria turned around and found the man on his knees with his head hung low. She extended her hand to him. "Come."
"Why?" the former councilor whimpered.
Korria pulled the man to his feet. "There is something you must see."
Vancouver
A high pitched tone cut through the air above Vancouver's international spaceport. A red skycar began it's descent to the car park with three silent occupants inside. Kaidan Alenko had to fight the urge to stare at the bearded man in handcuffs seated behind him but instead he choose to look at Miranda as the autopilot brought them down.
He had known Miranda for years. It had been strange at first befriending the Illusive Man's right hand woman. Kaidan always had a deep seated hatred for Cerberus, however Shepard had done a good job of teaching him that things were not always as simple as they appeared. With the war over and Shepard still in a coma, Alenko had taken pity on the beautiful woman who the other soldiers treated as less than dirt because of her prior employment. But back then he never could have predicted what the woman would come to mean to him.
It wasn't a romantic love. Miranda was an almost unbelievably beautiful woman, but his feelings for her weren't like that. It was respect he felt for her, admiration and extreme fondness. He'd grown to love her stoic attitude and blunt manner, everyone who met Miranda usually dismissed her as a snooty smug bitch but Kaidan knew differently.
It was because of this that Kaidan had become unnerved by the woman who had returned to him. Miranda always was confident and that bravado always came genuinely but something was different about her now. Miranda hadn't looked at him since they picked up this Victor Reed man. And Lawson's usual confidence somehow felt off, like an act or a front she was putting up to maintain the illusional that all was well. But one look at her said otherwise.
He wanted to comfort her, but he didn't know how. Kaidan was drawn from his worry when Victor spoke from behind him.
"So what's he like?"
"What?" Kaidan asked.
"Miranda's husband." Victor clarified. "Ace, is being all tight lipped. But you must know what he's like?"
Alenko chuckled.
"We have more important things to be concerned with." Miranda said.
"I'm just wondering is all. What's his name?" Victor leaned in.
Miranda didn't answer.
Kaidan sensed Miranda wanted the subject changed so he did so. "Tell me, Victor, how much did you get paid to kill Hackett?" he asked, an almost uncharacteristic edge coating his voice.
"I didn't get paid shit." Victor said.
"I'm just curious how much being a gun for hire pays." Kaidan said.
"Why? You looking to get into the business pretty boy?"
Alenko shook his head. "I'd never."
"Never kill for credits? You hear that Miranda? The boy must not know you that well."
"Victor, enough." Lawson snapped.
Kaidan looked to his friend. "What's he talking about?"
"Later." Miranda answered.
"For your information, Hoss, I didn't kill your admiral." Victor said. "And speaking of admirals, you mind telling me what the sudden hurry is in taking down Shaw?"
"None of your business." Kaidan said defensively.
"On the contrary, I think it is. Otherwise you wouldn't have sprung me out of the joint. So tell me, Ace, what's up?"
Miranda tucked her short hair behind her ears. "Shaw is under the influence of an asari. Someone who needs to be stopped."
"Ah so you already know about the asari?" Victor grunted.
Miranda turned around and looked over her seat so she could face her mentor. "What do you know about them?"
"I know some bitch named Ereyla threatened to make me eat my own severed cock if I didn't kill Hackett for Shaw. Call me crazy but something about that struck me as little odd."
"Ereyla?" Miranda repeated. The name sounded slightly familiar to her.
"Yeah, she had those white tattoos you sometimes see them with. Scars peeking out from under her armor too."
Kaidan killed the engines as the skycar made a gentle landing in the carpark outside the spaceport's terminal. "Let's get this over with." he said and opened the doors.
He watched Miranda help the shackled Victor out of the car. There was something about the way Miranda looked at him that Kaidan couldn't place.
"Things would be a lot easier if you took these damn things off." Victor said and raised his cuffed wrists. "Not that it won't be a hoot passing through a spaceport in cuffs."
"Not happening." Kaidan said.
Victor looked to Lawson. "Miranda..."
"You're under my supervision, Victor. Not Miranda's." Kaidan reminded him. "You said we need to go to the private hanger bay right?" Victor nodded. "Then I'll use my spectre status to get us there and then we'll get what we came for and send you back to prison."
"For what? The murder I didn't commit?" Victor protested.
"No. For the ones you did."
"Well you gonna clamp irons on your best gal pal too?" Victor asked and gestured to Miranda.
"Miranda's not like you." Alenko argued.
"Kaidan..." Miranda stopped him. "Enough, We don't have time for this. For the time being we are working together so get along or be quiet." She turned to Kaidan. "You should go clear things up inside. Make sure we'll get through security without a problem. I need to speak with Victor in private."
Alenko glared at the older man before he nodded in agreement and headed for the entrance.
Miranda crossed her arms and looked to her mentor. "Victor, I understand if you hate me for what happened between us. But Kaidan means a lot to me and I'd rather have my past stay in the past."
"Why? He wouldn't approve of the old you?"
Miranda shook her head. "He'd never be able to forgive me if he knew who I used to be."
"Say no more, Kiddo."
Miranda gave an appreciative nod and turned towards the entrance before Victor spoke again.
"I don't hate you by the way."
Miranda looked over her shoulder and noticed the way Victor looked away from her. "I wouldn't blame you." Lawson said.
"You did what you thought was right."
"I did."
"She cared about you too ya know. I know she didn't say it or hell even act like it. It tore her up in her own Jill way after we split." Victor said before he cracked a smile. "You remember that one year, right after you turned 17-"
"When all three of us had to track the Elcor prostitute." A chuckle escaped Miranda. "How could I forget?"
"It wasn't all bad memories and regrets back then." Victor reminded her.
"I suppose it wasn't. Let's get moving." Miranda said and began to lead her old friend inside.
The big automated doors opened up to a thriving transportation center. Shiny metallic walls sloped upwards and several odd pieces of abstract art hung above their heads as they stepped inside. Kaidan was talking to a security officer when they found him. It took some convincing but once they ran his spectre codes they were on their way to the private lot. In a galaxy where interplanetary travel was needed for business affairs many wealthy travelers owned their own private shuttles that could be docked and stored in one of the spaceport's several private hangers. For a monthly fee the vessels were maintained and secured behind VI controlled hanger doors.
When Miranda, Victor and Kaidan stepped out into the private lot they were greeted with a small crowd of well dressed stuffed shirts. They were flanked on each side by massive hangers connected to a private runway. As they moved down the pathway one particularly bitchy woman stared in disgust at Miranda's mutilated appearance and grunted as she passed. Lawson's head dipped before she felt Kaidan's hand land on her shoulder and give a comforting squeeze.
"This is the one. Hanger J11." Victor said as he came to a stop.
"You sure it's still in there?" Kaidan asked.
"Guess we'll find out." Victor said and stepped up to the biometric reader. A scanner read the main and a VI's voice rattled out of the device.
"Welcome back Mr. Sato. It has been four years, seven months and sixteen days since your last visit. We remind our guests that all takeoffs must be approved by spaceport Personnel."
The grand door screeched as it lifted and inch by inch it revealed the old modestly sized ship inside. It was an out of date model, a pet project of Victor's for a time had been fixing the vessel up. A Orange plated beauty Victor named El Paso after his Texan home town. Cobwebs had formed in the corners of the hanger and a fine layer of dust coated the ship but that didn't stop the trio from approaching.
Miranda opened up the ship's hatch and they all stepped inside the airlock. The lights inside flicked on as the group was brought through decontamination. Soon enough the entrance swooshed open and revealed a homey little living space. Christmas lights hung from the ceiling and lit up when they stepped inside. A bay of computer terminals and vid screens decorated one wall while a worn out bed rested against the back wall. A large assortment of weapons were displayed on a rack next to the airlock.
For a moment Victor lost himself. The older man's eyes filled with something akin to nostalgia and devastation. He walked as if in a trance to the bed, the sheets were kicked down to the foot of the mattress and some of the pillows were on the floor. Miranda came up next to Victor.
"She never made the bed." Victor said in a whisper.
Miranda crossed her arms. "Jack's the same way." she admitted. She didn't know why she said it but something in her made her want to reach out to the man who helped raise her.
"Jack? Is that his name?"
"You kept the greybox in here?" she said, changing the subject.
Victor nodded and headed for the bay of terminals. "Down here." he said and pointed to an old fashioned safe. To Miranda's surprise he didn't make any further demands before he entered the combination. "There she is." he said as the door opened.
Miranda fished out the graybox and handed it to Victor. "Make it quick." she said.
Victor powered on the device and it auto-connected to his bio imprint. A holographic display was projected in front of Victor's face as he sorted through the memories of his dead lover. He was quickly distracted by a memory of Jill and himself making love in the messy bed and another of Jill singing in the nude with a half drunk bottle of gin in her hand, she smiled at him, her short dark haired pixie cut was ruffled and she wore no make-up. As the scenes played in front of his eyes like a ghostly montage he quickly found them to be too painful to watch so he instead focused on the task at hand. Soon enough he had sorted through the data and found what he was after.
He saw though Jill's own eyes as she stared at the terminal screen, a male voice spoke to her on the other end of a call.
"Let's talk payment." Jill said. "We're not in this game for charity."
Shaw's voice responded on the other end of the line. "Of course. I can offer you 100,000 credits."
"We're talking about killing the Navy's fleet admiral not a kindergarten teacher, pal." Jill said.
"150?"
"Keep talking."
Shaw sighed on the other end. "Listen, if you kill Admiral Hackett for me I will pay you whatever you want. I just need it done and done fast."
"300k and not a unit under." Jill demanded.
"Fine. You'll have it."
Victor powered off the device. "You wanted your evidence? You've got it."
Miranda took the graybox from him. "It will take some time to extract the raw file so we can use it. But assuming you're telling the truth, this might be enough to take down Shaw for good."
"That's good news." Kaidan said.
Victor stood up. "Now on to what I was promised. You have something to say to me, Ace?"
"Not yet. We'll need continued access to Jill's graybox until we can extract the data so you're stuck with us."
"What are we supposed to do with him in the meantime then?" Kaidan asked.
"We'll take him home." Miranda said.
Victor smiled. "So I do get to meet the hubby after all? It really is my lucky day. I've always wondered about the guy lucky enough to land you."
"You won't be meeting my husband. I didn't marry a man." Miranda finally admitted.
"What's up with the ring then?" Victor asked.
Lawson placed a hand on her hip. "If you must know I'm a lesbian, Victor. I have a wife."
Victor's eyes widened in surprised. "You're gay?"
Miranda nodded, clearly annoyed at the man's surprise.
"You know that actually makes a lot of sense now that I think about it." Victor said. "Who's the lucky lady then?"
"Hopefully we'll be meeting with her soon. Let's go home, Kaidan." Miranda headed for the exit.
"You mind if a take a moment alone to say goodbye?" Victor asked. "A lot of memories in this old ship."
Kaidan looked at Miranda with unease but Lawson didn't carry it. "Just make it quick." she said and they both stepped outside.
As soon as he was in the clear Victor moved over to the weapon rack. He ignored the guns on the display and instead his cuffed hands reached out to the small and incredibly sharp knife Jill always favored. He picked up the blade which still rested in it's leather sheath and stared at the weapon longingly.
Victor tucked the knife in the waistband of his boxers and covered it up with his shirt. "Don't worry, Ace, I'll make it quick."
Illium
By the time Korria had escorted the former turian councilor back to his room the man was shaking.
"You can't..." Sparatus whimpered.
Korria crossed her arms. "It's already been done."
"How?! How can you be a part of this?!" The turian screamed.
"As I've told you. My path is the righteous one. This does not make it the easy one."
"Righteous?! What you're talking about...what you just showed me, how could that ever be righteous?! Millions of innocent people will die! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
Korria nodded. "Of course it does. But change does not come easy." The asari came to a stop before the large wall sized window that overlooked the assembly line below. "The time has come for you to play your part."
"Part? I will not be a part of this."
"You will. We all have our parts to play, but unlike myself you have a choice." Korria unholstered her gun. "Tell me, Sparatus, what kind of man do you want to die as?"
"Are we in?" Garrus asked.
Caius was hard at work on his omni-tool hacking a lock when the door popped open. "Easy money, boss."
Vivia came up from behind them wielding a shotgun. "We're clear. Let's make this quick."
Garrus nodded. "Follow me."
The three turians moved inside. They had entered the Siame corp facility from the roof and had carefully made their way down to the sub floors of the facility. Wherever the signal they were following came from it was deep underground. What troubled Garrus most wasn't the resistance they had faced so far however, it was the lack of resistance. Sure they had dodged a few guards and Caius had been taking out the security cameras as they progressed but something was off. As they moved though another empty room that familiar feeling formed in Garrus' gut.
It was a large room containing an assembly line maintained by robotic arm mechanisms that constructed what appeared to be skycar parts. With no guards around to hear them Garrus decided to voice his concerns with his team.
"Something is off."
Caius kept his rifle raised as Vivia tracked the signal on her omni-tool. "Off?" Caius said.
"All our people were able to pull from those asari spies were these coordinates." Garrus continued.
"And?"
"And we get here and find nothing out of the ordinary. Not even any resistance. This is a trap."
"Let's hope." Caius said. "I've been itching for some real action."
"This is it." Vivia said. "Coordinates lead to this point. If there's something to find we'll find it here."
All three turians looked around at the empty room. The only sounds to be heard came from the robotic assembly line and the turians themselves. "This doesn't make sense." Garrus said.
"Maybe we should split up. Cover more ground." Vivia said.
"Alright. Caius stay with me. Vivia look around."
"You got it, sir." The woman said and then disappeared.
Garrus and Caius moved through the open room looking for anything of importance but quickly came up dry.
"You really think this is a trap, boss?" Caius asked.
Suddenly a good 40 feet away a large door swooshed open and out stomped an asari platoon dressed in black armor and armed to the teeth.
Garrus and Caius jumped for cover. "Never mind." Caius said as he readied his gun.
Another squad marched in from the back and aimed their guns at the two turians. "These don't look like security guards." Garrus quipped
"You shouldn't have come here, turians." One of the asari yelled.
"Why's that?" Caius screamed.
The asari didn't answer, instead they opened fired. A hail of bullets flew over the turian's head from nearly all angles. The two men dove under the assembly line for cover as the room was torn to shreds.
Notes- So I ended up writing over six thousand words for this chapter and that's just too damn long so this was only part one. I'm gonna work on part two a little more but It will be coming very soon. I apologize for my late posting I try and get an update out a week but sometimes life happens. I recently posted my first ever "Legend of Korra" story "Healing" and I'd love it if you gave it a read. Anywho, what are your thoughts on the old turian Councilor's situation? Of Victor and Miranda? Tell me in the reviews! Things are about to heat up once more!