Chapter 22

Illium Entertainment News Update – Krogan actor Jorgal Dreed single-handedly foiled an attempt by a trio of Eclipse mercenaries to take two dozen people hostage in a downtown Nos Astra restaurant today, multiple eyewitnesses told our correspondent. The mercenaries, who were sought by police in connection with a separate shooting incident, had fled to the restaurant and intended to use the captives as bargaining chips to escape arrest. Dreed, who was unarmed and among those dining in the restaurant at the time, wrestled a weapon away from one of the mercenaries and then killed all three in self-defense despite being shot twice in the process. "He saved a young quarian's life," one witness said. Asked by our correspondent to demonstrate precisely how he was able to disarm the mercenary, Dreed replied, "Trust me, you don't actually want me to do that."

The streets surrounding Dantius Memorial Hospital in downtown Nos Astra were swarming with city police officers following reports of shoot-outs earlier that evening in both the hospital and at a restaurant in an adjacent building. Even before those incidents, the street in front of the hospital had been crowded with fans of hanar superstar Blasto, who was inside recovering from what 6th Dimension Vids studios referred to as "stress brought on by overwork," but was more commonly known as a "drug overdose."

The general chaos on the street made it relatively easy for Special Tasks Group agent Solik Vass to use a cloaking device to snake his way through the crowd and past the police. He found the 6th Dimension Vids company skycar he drove in his capacity as a studio intern parked right where he left it, but now with a sizable ticket on its windshield. No gun battle in a public location was large enough to distract the Nos Astra police from its duty to ensure that all on-street parking regulations were fully obeyed, Vass realized.

"Agent Vass, what is your status?" Major Kirrahe asked through their secure omni-tool communications line.

"I'm unhurt and on the ground, two blocks east of the hospital. I have the skycar," he replied.

Kirrahe told Vass to wait there and he showed up a few scant minutes later. He told Vass to drive them back to the major's hotel room. Along the way, they filled each other in on what happened after they were separated during the shoot-out with Eclipse mercenaries. Kirrahe had remained surrounded on the hospital's 17th floor the entire time. He nevertheless managed to hold the mercenaries off just long enough to get relief in the form of the Nos Astra police finally charging in. The major surmised that whatever deal the mercenary group initially had with the law enforcement that allowed them to freely search the hospital had expired once the situation had escalated to firefights that were visible to onlookers in the neighboring buildings. After the police arrived in force, Kirrahe had simply used his cloak to sneak past them.

"It wasn't nearly as dramatic as your means of escape," he remarked. "Surviving a 17-story fall? You impress me, Agent Vass. As for the outcome of the situation in the restaurant, well, next time, try to avoid rushing armed into a room filled with civilians. You got lucky. You can't always count on krogans popping out of restrooms to help. That said, good thinking on getting Dreed to take sole credit for stopping them. Regarding Dreed and Suzra'Bonah now knowing you're an agent, I guess that couldn't be avoided under the circumstances. At least they're friendlies. And after what Dreed did, I don't think the mercenaries will bother either one of them."

Vass took a deep breath. "There's something else, major: Linia T'Pala knows I am a STG agent too. It was an accident. You see, we melded today and ..."

Kirrahe interrupted him, his voice now stern. "That was entirely avoidable, Agent Vass, and I warned you about it several times. You have put her life in danger," he scolded. "We'll protect Ms. T'Pala as best we can, but I don't want you falling apart if something happens to her as a consequence of this. Are we understood?"

Vass winced at the mere implication that he could get Linia hurt, even indirectly. He nevertheless told Kirrahe, "Yes, sir. Understood."

He pulled the skycar into the hotel parking lot. "There's one other thing, major. When I went to your hotel room to get the hacking software, I took a call for you marked 'urgent' from your contact on Omega. He warned that the Special Tasks Group's Directorate is becoming upset with you. They think your efforts have resulted in the script for Blasto: The Hunt for Saren becoming 'too realistic.' They feel this is compromising 6th Dimension Vids' usefulness... as a STG front."

Kirrahe drummed his six fingers across the dashboard of the skycar. "Well, Agent Vass, it seems you are not the only person in the STG who has trouble keeping classified data secret. Or following orders from their superiors. Come on up to my room. Might as well be comfortable and have a drink while we talk."

The major poured them both glasses of asari brandy. He gave Vass one, then sat down into a chair opposite the junior agent.

"What exactly is 'espionage,' Agent Vass?" he began. "Give me your definition."

Vass took a sip and pondered the question. "It's getting information about your enemy without them knowing, right?"

Kirrahe swirled his glass and watched the liquid slosh around. "That's part of it, yes. But hardly all of it. Espionage - as the Special Tasks Group sees it, at least - is about the control of information. It's about learning our enemy's secrets, yes. Sometimes it is about learning our friends' secrets too, because sides can switch. It's about controlling access to our secrets. It is also about controlling what things others *think* they know." The major sniffed his brandy, then took a sip and smiled faintly. "You see, we salarians have never been a great military power like the turians. Not in terms of fleet size or number of troops. But we have won almost every conflict that we have been in. We have been able to do that because we have superior information. We know where, when and how to strike our enemies in the way that cripples them the most. We use superior tactics, stealth, and misdirection to keep them from doing the same to us. That last one, misdirection, is particularly important. It doesn't matter how large and powerful your opponent's fleet is you can just trick them into deploying those ships to the wrong place."

Vass mulled that over. "That was what you did on Virmire, right? You led your STG troops in an attack on Saren Arterius' base as a ruse to distract the rogue Spectre and his geth forces. This allowed Commander Shepard and the Alliance marines to sneak in and plant the bomb. That was how you were able to destroy the base despite being heavily outnumbered, correct?"

The major slowly nodded. "Superior information won the day. Arterius lost because he sent most of his troops to the wrong place. Now, from the STG's perspective, what went wrong with the Virmire mission?"

Vass was perplexed. "Wrong? I'm not sure I follow. You *did* win, after all."

Kirrahe took a long sip of brandy. "What went wrong, from the agency's perspective, is that I am the only person in this room who should know how Arterius was defeated. Yet, you, who were never there, know all about it and can explain it in detail. How valuable are those same tactics now? If I were to try them in the future, would the odds for their success be as good? No offense, Agent Vass, but, until recently, you were a vid studio intern who chauffeured people around and delivered lunches. If you could know the tactics the STG employs, what are the odds that a leader of a mercenary group or a ring of batarian pirates would know them as well? Or a rogue Spectre agent? Much greater, I should think."

"I never thought about it like that," Vass replied.

Kirrahe eased back in his chair. "Realistically, classified information about the STG's methods, tactics, technology and so forth will leak out from time to time and for one reason or another. The information about Virmire became public because our human allies put it out. The STG asked the Systems Alliance not to do this and they ignored us. Publicizing Commander Shepard's exploits was much more important to them. So, the STG did what it has always done whenever classified information has leaked out: sow confusion about it. Make public competing versions of the information, each diverging from the truth in different ways. Make people wonder which version is correct. Or if any of them are. 6th Dimension Vids is one of tools the STG has employed to do that. Blasto: The Hunt for Saren isn't the first vid by this company that was based on a STG mission. It's just the first one where that has been acknowledged. Every time the details of a covert mission have leaked out in some manner, within a year or so, 6th Dimension Vids has released an action thriller based on that leaked report. The vid will be true the facts of the STG mission in some ways, usually just enough for the similarity to be noticeable, but wildly off in other areas. All across the galaxy, people will think, 'Did the STG really do that? Or am I confusing that with something I saw in a vid once?' Salarian Union spokesmen often brush aside questions about the agency by accusing the questioner of confusing entertainment with reality."

Vass shook his head. "That just can't be. I've been at the studio almost every day for weeks now. I've watched from the inside as Blasto: The Hunt for Saren has been made. The STG is not directing it from behind the scenes. The vid is barely being directed at all. I mean, you are a STG agent and while you've managed to get a few changes made to the production, the vid's producer and director have mostly spurned your efforts. So, they're clearly not doing the STG's bidding."

The major chuckled. "All true. The studio's upper management treats me, a senior STG agent, as an unwelcome guest. That's because none of the people at the studio, from producer Mlax Ventkad on down, know that they really work for the STG. And the agency doesn't want them to know this because it doesn't trust any of them to keep a secret," he explained. "You see, the brilliant part about the STG's set-up is that the agency is very 'hands-off' regarding how the studio is run. In fact, for the most part, 6th Dimension Vids *is* a legitimate studio and most of the vids it releases are of little interest to the agency. It's actually the studio's investors who are the STG front organizations. They push the studio to buy properties and develop projects that are based on leaked STG missions. They also hire the talent and management who make the vids. Vulgarians and hacks like Mlax Ventkad and Bik Orbal don't have to be told to turn the scripts that they're given into trashy potboilers. They do that all on their own. To further ensure that 6th Dimension Vids' releases are as eccentric as possible, the investors/front groups have also made the studio into a haven for people who couldn't get jobs elsewhere in the industry. No other company would employ people as recklessly dangerous as Dar Rarbin, Mara T'Rue or Telak Gaffno. Where else but at this studio could a quarian become the top makeup artist? Before the Blasto series took off, what other studio would have even considered casting a hanar as an action hero? Incidentally, the success of the Blasto vids really surprised the agency. Even our best analysts never anticipated that. Thanks to their success, the STG could afford to get all-new office furniture for its headquarters last year."

Vass sat stunned. It turned everything he thought he knew about the studio upside down. And it yet explained so much about what happened there. Suddenly, the fact that the famous heroes of the Assault on Virmire, a human and a salarian, were being played in a vid by an asari and a hanar made its own kind of weird sense. But it raised other questions.

"So, if the STG intentionally keeps the studio at arms-length, what exactly is your mission, then?" the young salarian asked. "What are we supposed to be doing?"

Kirrahe frowned. "What we have been doing all along, Agent Vass: investigating Eclipse's secret smuggling operation at the studio."

"But... The studio is a secret STG front!" Vass exclaimed. "How can it also be a front for Eclipse? They can't both be true!"

At this, Kirrahe smiled slightly. "Actually, they can," he replied. "You see, the problem with running things from the shadows is that it means you can't control things directly. At some point, operatives secretly working for Eclipse wormed their way inside the studio and began to use it as a front for their red sand smuggling. The Eclipse operatives did this not knowing the studio was secretly controlled by the STG, because, well, that is a secret. The STG keeps its influence over the studio secret by not directly overseeing things. This meant we didn't discover that Eclipse had set up the smuggling operation until it was well under way. And this was a major problem for the STG. If the Eclipse operation ever gets busted - and it nearly has multiple times - that would bring all manner of attention to the studio and its inner workings by law enforcement organizations and the media. That could expose the STG's connection to the studio, compromising its ability to help keep agency operations shrouded in secrecy. So, the Directorate decided to send an agent to investigate the smuggling and, ultimately, put an end to it. I was given the assignment because I had the perfect cover - military adviser to Blasto: The Hunt for Saren."

Vass mulled this over and knocked back the remainder of his brandy. It was more than he was accustomed to and that prompted a brief coughing fit. "Okay, I think I understand," he eventually announced between coughs. "But why is the Directorate upset with you?"

Kirrahe poured Vass a glass of water and handed it to him. "We have a difference of opinion," the major explained. "They want Blasto: The Hunt for Saren to confuse people regarding what the STG did on Virmire, to obscure the details of an agency operation as these vids usually do. I have decided that in this one case that is a bad idea. The reapers are out there and the galaxy needs to be better prepared. Blasto: The Hunt for Saren will be seen by billions. So I told Tyruss Aklaysius about the true nature of Sovereign and the reapers, so he would in turn talk about them in the vid. As you already correctly guessed, I arranged for the studio to hire Dreed because we need people to start thinking about the krogan as heroes again. We will need them when the reapers arrive. I've pushed for other changes here and there. If the STG Directorate wants to censure me for this, so be it. When the reapers arrive, those kind of things won't matter."

A thought occurred to Vass. It was a question he had often wondered previously, but never had the courage to ask. "Major, if it is so important to you that everything else about Virmire be accurate in the vid, then why doesn't the fact that you are being played by Blasto upset you more? He mangled your 'Hold the line!' speech, for instance."

With that, Kirrahe got up and wordlessly poured himself another drink, then walked over to a window and began starring out at the city skyline. "You think of Virmire as a smashing success, an example of valiant heroism," he eventually began, his back to Vass as he looked out the window. "To me, it was a near-total disaster."

"That's not true!" Vass interjected. "You stopped Saren..."

Kirrahe shook his head. "My regiment was sent to Virmire on a reconnaissance mission to investigate evidence that Saren had a base of operations on the planet. What we discovered was a vast cloning factory about to begin mass production of krogan warriors. A facility that was being guarded by an army of geth soldiers that vastly outnumbered us. We were discovered and half of my men were lost or killed just trying to retreat. I sent a top-priority message to the Council to dispatch a fleet in order to bomb Saren's facility from orbit. We then hunkered down and waited. And waited. And waited. All the while, we could see that Saren's factory was getting closer and closer to kicking in to high gear."

The major let out a heavy sigh and continued, still facing away from Vass. "Eventually, the scanners at our camp picked up an incoming Systems Alliance frigate. The specs showed it was designed for stealth missions, so I assumed it was the fleet's advance scouting vessel. It landed at our base, I introduced myself to the ship's Alliance Marine commander and gave an update on the situation. The Alliance commander then asked what our next move was. I very matter-of-factly replied that we wait until the rest of the fleet arrives, then evacuate just before they begin bombing."

In the reflection of the window, Vass could see the major's face. The expression it held was one of pure anguish. "The Alliance commander then said, 'You don't understand. We're all they sent.'"

Kirrahe slumped his shoulders and lowered his head. "The Systems Alliance report on the Virmire mission that you are so fond of, Agent Vass, merely says that I sent a 'distress message.' That much was true. What the report doesn't say was that the message contained a detailed assessment of Saren's base and an urgent warning that the Council fleet had a limited window of time to destroy the clone factory before the geth fleet began transporting the krogan off-world. I sacrificed the lives of many young men just like you to be able to send that message. Not a word of it got through. The transmission was pure static. All the Council knew was that I had tried to send a message on a top priority channel, so they sent Commander Shepard to investigate."

The major finished off the rest of his brandy and put the glass aside. "You know the rest. With no other options, Shepard and I launched an attack on the base with what forces we had. Half of my remaining men died in that assault. Shepard was forced to leave one Alliance officer behind to die in order to evacuate me and what remained of my troops. There were no celebrations during the trip back to the Citadel. I spent most of the journey writing condolence letters to the families of the men who had died under my command. Along the way, I discovered from Shepard that Saren had captured and brainwashed several of my troops. Those 'indoctrinated' salarians had attacked the Alliance marines."

The veteran soldier paused for a few moments before continuing. "In the letters, I lied to those soldiers' families and told them that their sons and nephews and brothers all bravely died fighting off geth and krogan troops."

"That wasn't your fault, major," Vass argued. "It was just bad luck."

Kirrahe continued to stare out the window. "No, it was my fault. I knew the geth had sophisticated jamming technology but I didn't think to check if it extended to the frequencies we used for priority messages. If I had, I could have figured out an alternate way to send a coded message. Or a way to neutralize the jamming long enough to get a message out. And I should have realized that my message didn't get through when I didn't get an immediate response from the Council. I could have made contingency plans earlier. Instead, I remained clueless until Shepard arrived, at which point I had to throw together a desperate, last-minute plan. Yes, it worked and the account of it reads rather heroically but it was something that should never have been needed in the first place. We should have just bombed it from orbit."

The major stepped away from the window and sank into a chair opposite Vass. "I've mentioned before how I've never needed to pay for a drink at a bar or a cafe on Sur'Kesh or a salarian colony since Virmire. I would trade in every one of those free drinks if it meant I never had to write just one of those condolence letters. So, if 6th Dimension Vids wants everyone to think that it was Blasto that lead the Special Tasks Group forces on Virmire, that's fine with me because the battle is not a pleasant memory."

Kirrahe stopped with that. The usually energetic veteran soldier and spy now looked tired and drained.

Vass had long viewed the Virmire battle as the standard by which heroism was judged. It had never occurred to him that the hero of the battle didn't view it the same way. "I don't know what to say, major," he eventually replied. "I'm sorry, I guess." He contemplated the major's words for a few minutes before a new thought struck him. "Major, have you ever considered that, if the Council fleet had arrived and bombed Virmire from orbit, Commander Shepard never would have learned that Sovereign was a reaper and they were planning to invade our galaxy again? Even if the Council ignored Shepard's warnings, you and others in the Special Tasks Group haven't, and you're working on plans and contingencies. Your soldiers didn't die in vain."

A slight smile creased Kirrahe's face. "You make a good point, Agent Vass. This is why I like having you around. You bring a fresh perspective." The major sat up in his chair. "That's enough introspection for one night. Go home and get some sleep. I'll ponder our next move in the meantime."

Vass was halfway through the drive to his studio-provided dormitory when he received an anonymous ping on his omni-tool. "Yes, who is this?" he asked, more than a little warily. Most omni-tool messages identified the sender.

"It's me, Suzra'Bonah," said 6th Dimension Vids' quarian makeup artist, who maintained a room in the same dormitory as Vass. "I was just worried. It's late and nobody has seen you come in. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Vass replied. "I just had a long chat with the major, that's all. I'm heading to the dormitory now."

The quarian breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. After all that has happened lately, Keelah, I guess I am getting a little paranoid."

"It's understandable," he responded. "When I first saw your message, I was a little startled because it didn't identify the sender. Do you use that Ariake Tech SecureMessenger program you bought for all of your communications?"

"Ehhhh... Unfortunately, yes. I don't know how to turn it off," Suzra'Bonah sheepishly admitted. "I know, I know, but this is highly sophisticated tech and, contrary to what everyone thinks, not all quarians are engineers. Some of us become makeup artists. I had to have help getting it installed."

Vass was so startled by this news he nearly drove his skycar into an on-rushing traffic lane. Suzra'Bonah's use of the anonymous messaging technology favored by smugglers had briefly caused him to think she was secretly working with the Eclipse mercenary gang. He had instead discovered that she used it to mask the fanmail she regularly sent to her idol, Tyruss Aklaysius. Vass had never bothered to ask, however, how she got the technology. He knew that it was available under the counter on Illium and just assumed it wouldn't be difficult for any quarian to install it.

"So... Who helped you?" he asked.

"Oh, it was that asari special effects lady, Mara T'Rue," Suzra'Bonah replied. "Yeah, she knew all about it. Helped me to adjust the settings just right and everything."