Scientist Salarian
So, shuttle to the Citadel, right? Yeah, that was an experience. I had to sit next to a Turian, a snoring Turian. On the bright side, I saw a Turian in real life, and holy crap, I don't know if this applies to all of them, but this guy was tall. I'm no short guy, being 6 feet, but he was a good 6-7 inches above me. And they have plates of natural armor, of which I knew about, but seeing it up close is a whole different story.
Other than the snoring Turian, it was all humans and Asari. I've gotten used to seeing Asari, so that wasn't anything new, but I knew once I hit the Citadel, I was going to basically be walking into a different world. My flight attendant must have felt bad for me, because about 45 minutes into the flight she came and gave me some noise canceling headphones. I don't know what's scarier, the fact that this happens often enough that they have some on hand, or that all turians are this loud when they sleep. And to be honest, I don't know which option is better or worse.
So, all in all, it's about a 12-hour shuttle between the Citadel and Arcturus. Well, at least a cheap shuttle is, what can I say, I'm a bit frugal right now. But the Citadel Is a sight to behold though, I wasn't as mesmerized as I thought I'd be flying up to it. Maybe seeing Arcturus kinda took that out of me. Eventually we dock, and seeing so many different races is going to take a while to get used to, I mean there's basically floating jelly fish here!
Going through customs was surprisingly easy, perks of being in the Alliance, and as soon as I got out I went straight for an skycar. While I wanted to walk around and see the sights, I was on a mission, so I ordered the car for the Financial District in the Presidium. Those skycars are flipping fast, when I jumped in, it just took off, it's like a rollercoaster meets need for speed, I like it! Arriving on the presidium was surreal. It was so similar to the game, with minor differences here and there. Mostly making things realistic, like a lot less wasted space. And soon there I was, standing in front of Barla Von's office, I open the door and quickly realize that it's a lot smaller than in-game.
"Ah, Earth-clan – welcome to my office – I'm Barla Von, how may I be of assistance?" He spoke, straight to business, nice.
"Yes, I was planning to purchase some information from you." I responded.
"I see – what kind of information were you seeking?"
"I'm looking for the location of one Dr. Mordin Solus." I said.
"Of course – please give me one moment while I contact – the broker. If you don't mind – why do you need to find – this Dr. Solus?" he quizzed.
"I have my reasons." I replied. He nodded, failing at his attempt to fish for information. We waited only a minute until his console beeped.
"Ah yes, we have the location – it will cost you 100,000-credits – for the information." He stated, and damn info isn't cheap. I pull up my omnitool to transfer the credits, and the transfer was good. I couldn't help but notice since I've been here I've spent nearly half a million credits, man this universe is not going to be cheap to save.
"Excellent, Dr. Solus – is currently on Earth, more specifically – Rome. According to our sources – he has a shuttle booked three days from now -to leave, anything else?" he asked.
"No, thank you." I said as I was walking out the door. Rome? Maybe he's at the Vatican? I know he had a crisis of faith at some point and went towards most main religions, though if I remember right, it just makes it worse. I immediately pull up my omnitool and book a flight that leaves for earth in one hour, it says that it's a 17-hour flight, great. I go and grab the first skycar I can get, and make a beeline for the dock where the shuttle is.
So, few good things about flying shuttles in space. One, food is surprisingly good, and there's no turbulence at all, while in space at least. Not that you can't get turbulence in space, but the tech is so advanced that they just circumvent it. Which translates to, I basically slept for 12 hours. So, the shuttle arrives at some space station above Earth, where from there I have to catch a ride to Rome. About an hour later I'm groundside in Vatican City, trying to spot a Salarian, not my best idea. After about three hours of searching I decided to take a break by relaxing in the Gardens.
While there's not a lot of people here, I guess it's not that big of a touristy spot anymore, it's still quite big. I decided to pull up a map on my omnitool, seeing if there's a spot high up with a view of this place, I really didn't think this through. While doing this I notice that someone sat at the other end of the bench, but I didn't give them any attention, I was focused on finding a high spot.
"What are you looking for?" The voice to my left asked.
"An elevated position with a view." I said, not even looking up to the person speaking.
"Ah, St. Peters Balisca's dome would be perfect, however it's currently closed for repairs." He said.
"Yeah, I tried there," I said looking up at the voice, just realizing I'm an idiot, "so, what brings a Salarian to Rome?"
He looked at me, and I couldn't help but feel butterfly's in my stomach. This is Mordin Solus, personally one of my favorites, if not favorite, characters. "I'm just looking into human religions, I guess the best way to put it is that I'm 'testing the waters' as you humans say."
"Crisis of faith?" I asked. He turned to me, with some glare, it's now come to my attention that it's borderline impossible for me to read Salarians right now.
"Yes, how did you surmise that?" he asked, I think I've caught his suspicion.
"Well," I started, "you can look into human religions from pretty much anywhere, but you decided to come to the most important place in Roman Catholicism, so I doubt it's for the sights."
"Yes, I suppose that's very astute of you" he replied, looking over at the flowers.
"That, and I know modifying the Genophage because the Krogan were evolving past it could really put a damper on ones' outlook on life." I confidently stated, and now I have his full attention. He was about to say something, but I started before him. "How do I know this? Well I know a lot of things about you Mordin, may I call you Mordin?" He nods at me. "I'm not judging you, I know it was necessary in your eyes at the time."
"How?" he asked.
"All in due time, once you can fully trust me, and equally important, I can fully trust you, I'll tell you how I know a lot of things. For example, I know it only took you a single week to come up with the modified Genophage. I know that while on Tuchanka, you were faced with that female Krogan who gave you your new scars, and the one who seeded the doubts about the ethics of the Genophage. I know that's why you've turned to religion. It's not going to help by the way, religion, it's too differing and will be too contradicting, it's just going to make it worse." I stated, if I could read Salarians, I'd say he wants to kill me. "Do you want to kill me?"
"No, first I'd want to find out how you got classified STG files, then kill you." I couldn't help but start laughing out of control. "What's so humorous?"
"I can't even set a password on my omnitool, let alone get my hands on classified files."
"Why are we having this conversation?" he asked, glossing over my last statement.
"Oh, I've come to recruit you." I said.
"Recruit me? For what?" he responded.
"By 2185 an ancient race of machines, called the 'Reapers' by the protheans, will return in strength and commence with their plans that they've been doing for at least a few million years, give or take. I need your help to prepare the galaxy."
"And what is this so-called plan of these 'Reapers'?" he asked.
"Oh, you know, just the destruction and complete annihilation of all sentient and spacefaring species, just like what happened to the Protheans, and the Inusannon before them, and thousands of species before them." I stated emotionless, taking a sip of some water.
"Impossible, there would be evidence of this, and nothing can last that long without degrading." He said.
"Wow," I said, "I'm a little disappointed, I thought you'd see the logic behind it. You know about Feros, how there are cities tens of thousands of years old. If the protheans can construct something that solid, imagine the species that had wiped them out almost completely, with little to no evidence, they had to been at least tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years of technology ahead of them, you think they wouldn't come up with a way to stay dormant for long periods of time? Plus, you're forgetting one important factor. Lack of evidence, is also evidence."
"No, we'd have found evidence, warnings in what the protheans have left behind." He stated.
"They did, and it's all been hidden, or not found yet." I said.
"Hidden?"
"Yes, the Asari have a hidden beacon on Thessia, that's also how they've kept dominance in the galaxy this long." I said. He immediately put his hand to his chin and looked down.
"That makes sense, if it's true. But that doesn't explain how you know all this, or why you approached me." He said, I think I'm making progress. "Anything else you have on me?"
"Like I said, in due time I'll reveal how I know all of this. As for information on you, the only tid-bit I have left is that I know you're a talented singer. And why I chose you? Well, has to be you, someone else might get it wrong." He seemed to mull over what I just said. "You wanna see one. A Reaper?" I asked.
"You know where one is?"
"Yes, I know the location of a dead one. I'll show it to you." I said, and his eyes just went wide. "However, there's some ground rules. One, we will not board the ship, and stay at least 10km away from the ship. Two, you will not let anyone know, especially anyone in the STG, I can't have anyone board the ship."
"I understand the secrecy, but why can't we board it?" he asked. I think I got him.
"Indoctrination." I stated. "The reapers are able to indoctrinate and subvert minds of organics, I don't know how so don't bother asking, but that's possibly their greatest strength, especially given the fact that people don't even know that they're indoctrinated."
"That's disconcerting, assuming this is true. Is there any way to detect it or avoid it?" he questioned.
"Yes, we could detect it, not now though, but I have a plan for that. And I don't think if it can be avoided. But, to show you the reaper we'll need access to a ship for about two days, and I don't have one." I looked over at him. "And I'm not going to charter one to bring in someone I don't want on this."
"I have a ship, we can leave in a few hours."
"That's good." Wait a minute. "Why do you have a shuttle booked if you have a ship?"
"So that people don't know that I have a ship, they think I take a shuttle, very effective at keeping it hidden." He stated. Humph, smart.
About two hours later we were in his ship heading for the sol relay, the ship was about 20 meters long, nothing big, but very advanced.
"So where are we heading?"
"Hawking Eta, Thorne System, Mnemosyne." I said. "This is quite an impressive ship, where'd you get it?"
"I stole it, it was slated to be decommissioned by the STG, so I went and took it off their hands for them, I considered it my retirement gift, they just don't know about it" he claimed, with a grin on his face. "assuming a Reaper can subvert minds, how can this one if it's dead?"
"Even a dead god can dream." I stated. He seemed confused, maybe scared? I can't read this guy.
"It'll take about 10 hours to get there, if I'm going to help you with this, what is the plan going forward?" he asked.
"Well, I have a rough outline, nothing definite. I plan on starting a company, using the information and resources of the shadow broker. We'll then use those resources to purchase companies, streamline and cut the fat off those companies to increase profits that are being wasted. Maybe have them run by some advanced V.I. under someone's supervision, or an A.I., that'd be cool. Use those profits from those companies to fund research into extremely advanced tech, and other areas, to assist with the coming war with the reapers, and build our own army/mercenary group. Start my own little empire of sorts."
"That's an interesting plan, and quite an undertaking at that, but it sounds like your plan hinges on resources from the Shadow Broker, how exactly do you plan on getting those?" he asked.
"I plan on taking over his network, and place a trusted person to run it." I said.
"Taking over his network?" he interrupted.
"Yes", I said, "but one big thing I want the company to do is research defenses and weapons against the reapers, and gather more evidence."
"Evidence?" he butted in.
"Yes, sometime in 2183 a rogue spectre, indoctrinated and working with the reapers, attacks Eden Prime with a rogue faction of Geth. I won't go through the whole story, but it ends with the Rogue Geth attacking the Citadel, with a Reaper as the flagship of the invasion fleet. After the council declares the reapers a myth, and that the reaper that attacked the citadel was a geth construct."
"That's a lot to take consider," he said, "and we plan on stopping the attack on the citadel, correct?"
"No," I answered, "I plan on letting all the events until then proceed as it should, including the attack on the Citadel. After the attack, we will reveal evidence of the reapers that's irrefutable, as well provide our designs of shields and weapons, helping everyone with the coming war. They won't be able to declare the reapers a non-existent threat, and hopefully will start preparation."
"That's a good plan, I see some issues with it, but how could you have knowledge of future events?"
"Well, I'll tell you the truth eventually about how I know what I know, but let's just say I'm not from around here." I claimed. "Also, I'll never lie to you, you have my word on that, if there's something I can't or won't tell, I just won't. I've been told I can be blunt at times."
"How about you tell me about yourself, besides your name, I don't know a thing about you, where as you know quite a bit about me." He deadpanned. I didn't realize I haven't even told him about myself.
"Well, I was on Mindor when the Batarians attacked, saved a random girl and escaped to the woods, we were eventually saved by the Alliance. Eventually was taken to Arcturus, took custody of said girl, and I joined the Alliance. I just recently graduated boot camp, was offered 'N' training, so I'm on leave basically until then. Then I came and found you" I spurted out. Listening to everything I just said, I'm not sure I believe it myself, it's kind of out there. We just sat there for hours in silence, not awkward silence mind you, but definitely not a comfortable silence either.
"Do you actually believe me?" I asked, because if I was in his position, I'm not sure I'd believe me. I looked over at him and he just had his classic thinking look, looking down with his hand on his chin.
"That depends on what your seeking." I looked over to him, eyebrow cocked, "if this reaper does exist, then it's safe to believe what you've said, with some caution. However, if you're wondering if I trust you, no, I don't yet. That is something that has to be earned."
The rest of the way was either just small talk or just silence. When we finally arrived he was ecstatic, he was literally jumping from station to station. It was a sight to behold, it was nearly 2kms long, unmistakably a reaper.
"Amazing, massive core, made of what seems like an organic-synthetic material, multiple weapon systems, nothing like I've ever seen." He looks over at me. "This is amazing, it's safe to say I believe you Jarrett. But the big question is, where do we move from here?"
"Well," I trailed off, "we'll need those resources from the Shadow Broker, but we need another to recruit. But first I need to go back to Arcturus, and I need you to go to the Citadel to get the information, I don't want them to think that I'm a repeat customer."
"Very well," he said, "I take it that I need to buy the location of this other person?"
"Exactly, and from there we will prepare to take over the Shadow Broker's network." I stated confidently. This is working!
"And who is this person that is part of our little group?" he asked.
"Well, what do you know about Kepral's Syndrome?" I answered, grinning from ear to ear.