AN

Here's some anwers to your questions!

Akallas von Aerok asked about Korea and Turkey in the Systems Alliance. These are fair questions, and I'm glad my readers can notice these sorts of things. However, I don't want to "spoil" anything about the background lore so all I'll say their relations with the SA are not a mistake and will be explored in further chapters.

SH4D0W ReaDeR asked about the size of the human and quarian nations. Unfortunately, I don't have a solid answer. This is mostly because I want the Council Races to be as powerful as they are stated to be in ME lore, but there are no good numbers for their total systems/population/economy/etc. What I can say is that the Systems Alliance in my story can call upon roughly what the Systems Alliance can in the ME canon, which I find to be way above what is reasonable. The ME canon says that in less than 200 years we will be a great power in a galaxy of civilizations dating back thousands of years. Doesn't seem likely, and this is the reason I have rearanged the dates in my fic so that humans have a few extra centuries of expansion.

Coment9 asked about the UN compared to the canon SA. I'm sorry if I implied these organizations were comparable, they are not. The SA in canon is essentially United States of Earth. The UN in my story is basically an evolved version of the UN we have today, that is a diplomatic body that organizes international efforts and trys to settle disputes. The SA in my story is an evolution of NATO, as stated in the Codex.

Finally, two guests had comments I would like to address. The first wrote about Jenkins, specifically his rank, all I'll say is that I followed what is canon. That being said, I might change him to a Private for the reasons he gave if I go back and edit that chapter. The other commented on the EU Codes entry and the Ghazw. Similarly to my answer to Akallas's question, I don't want to "spoil" the background information too much, but I will say that I understand its relationship to our present day EU politics and am applying some situational irony to the topic. Again, this will be explored further in future chapters. On another note, the EU Codex entry also contains a point of departure from our timeline as Theresa May fulfills her original Brexit plan. I will point ou that when I wrote that Codex entry the date was in the future, does this mean I improved alternate history? Either way it's funny to me.

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. -Thomas Paine

Shepard and Kaidan entered the cargo bay, where the prothean beacon was currently being stored. After they had secured it on Eden Prime, Anderson had decided that the best course was to take it off world. The Marines protested when they learned that the Normandy was leaving while fighting was still occurring across the planet, but they fell in line.

Shepard approached Williams, who was standing guard at the beacon. "You know, Williams, you don't need to protect that thing anymore. It's safe here."

Williams didn't move, not even looking at Shepard. "With all due respect, sir, I have my orders, and until the beacon is in London, I won't abandon my post."

Shepard mulled over what she said, nodding along. "Well, Captain Anderson wants you in the comms room for debriefing. I won't order you in, but you were there longer, you could give us crucial insight into the attack."

Williams stayed silent for a moment before sighing and turning to Shepard. "Very well, sir, but they better not touch the beacon while I'm gone."

Shepard frowned, she had no reason to fear anything from the Normandy crew, they didn't have the capabilities to tamper with the beacon nor any reason to, but he didn't push her on it.

Motioning for Williams to follow him, Shepard left the cargo bay and entered the elevator. Kaiden and Ashley followed just behind and Shepard pressed the button for the elevator to go up to the crew deck. Williams was still holding her rifle and was wearing her armor, though she probably didn't have anything to change into, while Shepard and Kaidan only had their sidearms and had long since exchanged their armor for their service uniforms.

The elevator opened to the crew deck where several of the crew were going about their business, including the Marine squad eating in silence at the large table in the center of the room. They noticed the Commander enter but did nothing aside from glancing at him. Continuing on and up the small flight of stairs, the group entered the command deck and turned into the communications room.

Captain Anderson and several other officers were waiting for them. Anderson stood at the far end of the room while the rest of the officers were sitting in seats that had been brought in for the meeting. Anderson spoke. "Commander, Lieutenant, thank you for joining us. And you as well, Sergeant Williams, my condolences for your unit. Please, take your seats." Shepard moved to sit to Anderson's right while Kaidan and Williams took the seats near the door. "Let us begin. Adams, how did our drive core hold up during the mission?"

Lieutenant Adams, the Normandy's Chief Engineer, stood to deliver his report. "All things considered, it has lived up to its expectations, there was a near failure of the stealth systems when the gun was fired, and we were carrying near the estimated capacity of heat in the sinks by the time we discharged. We estimate that anything longer than one hour of continued use would have been catastrophic to the system's integrity. We recommend that we restrain from using the main gun while under stealth in the future, the benefits are negligible compared to the heat we built up from it."

As Adams sat back down, Anderson spoke again. "We will keep that in mind, Lieutenant. Pressly, how did Operations and Weapons fare?"

Pressly, who was to Anderson's left, stood. "We experienced no technical glitches nor any issues calculating navigation plots or targeting solutions. Joker says, and I quote, 'my baby flies smoother than an asari's left butt cheek.'" Some of the officers snickered, while Anderson just shook his head. "While I would have phrased it differently, I agree with the sentiment. The batarians wouldn't have been able to hit us even without the stealth system."

Pressly returned to his seat and Anderson continued. "Excellent, moving on. During the operation, we came to believe that we were fighting Batarian Hegemony External Forces, have we confirmed this?"

Pressly spoke again, though remained seated. "Yes sir, we have run our scans of enemy ships and personnel against our databases, and our prisoners so far have been mostly compliant."

Anderson nodded. "And what about the non-batarian forces?"

Pressly sighed. "We ran the ground team's report through our database. We believe that they are from a group called the Order of Valluvia. The Valluvians are an anti-human cult and have some support from the Citadel Council races, especially turians. Their connection with the Citadel governments is unclear but disturbing, while no formal ties exist, they are de facto led by a Council Spectre by the name of Saren Arterius, who coincidentally matches rather well with the physical and psychological description of the 'boss' our prisoners mentioned."

Silence swept over the room as they took in the words. Anderson's silence allowed Shepard to speak. "That name sounds familiar, Arterius, have we had dealings with him before?"

Anderson answered. "We know of him, but you are likely thinking of his brother, Desolas. He was the General in charge of the attack on Leptis Mons and was killed during the counterattack. That's why Saren hates humans."

Pressly chimed in. "And because he believes we are taking over the galaxy. That we're naive, reckless, and warmongers etcetera etcetera. Boilerplate anti-human racism."

The weapons officer, Lieutenant Paterson, snorted. "That's ridiculous, we haven't engaged in a single offensive war with another species in history."

Pressly sighed. "Doesn't matter, the aliens would rather have us show our bellies to the batarians and take their punches. It's not our fault they-"

Kaidan cleared his throat, and everyone turned to look at him. He shifted nervously. "The debate about their motives are all well and good, but I for one am more interested in their combat effectiveness." He turned to Williams. "You were there from the beginning, what happened?"

Now it was Williams' turn to shift uncomfortably. "They had the element of surprise for one, we had no idea we were under attack until my squad found another one wiped out." She paused and Shepard noticed her swallow. "After that, the batarians had a numerical advantage and whittled my squad down. I only fought batarians until you showed up."

It took a moment for the rest to realize Williams was done talking. Paterson spoke again. "What about their soldiers, did they fight well?"

Williams shrugged. "The batarians seemed to fight about as well as normal army grunts. Definitely better than any slavers I've fought. The other aliens fought worse, like a militia unit that doesn't know what they're getting into. No spacial awareness, we were able to get right up to them several times before they reacted as a whole."

Shepard nodded. "I agree with Williams, the batarians recruit many of their soldiers from slavers that survive multiple raids, and the Valluvians were very uncoordinated." He turned to Anderson and Pressly. "What about their space forces?"

Anderson shook his head. "We only engaged the one ship. All we can say is that their armada was able to destroy the defense fleets without taking many casualties. We also don't know how big the fleet was initially, as we detected outgoing jumps soon after we entered the system. As for the…" He paused. "Super Dreadnought, its power cannot be described as anything other than immense. The fact something of its size landed on a planet is a feat never seen before, we also assume the unknown weapons damage came from it. They appear to be molten metal. We don't know why not all batarian ships are using it."

Shepard furrowed his brow. "So we know nothing about that ship?"

Anderson nodded and gave a moment for further comments. When there was none he continued. "We are on our way to the Citadel, we need to work with our Minister there to have Saren's Spectre status revoked. We should arrive later today. Dismissed."

Donnel Udina was having a bad day. It had started off normally enough, continuing trade negotiations with the Courts of Dekuuna. This task was simple, yet boring. The elcor's… lack of development in communication and their conservative nature had made the negotiations painfully slow. Now, Udina wished that the annoyingly monotone voice of an elcor was the only thing he was worried about.

Shortly after the negotiations, he received a communique from Washington. Then all hell broke loose. Since receiving the news that Eden Prime was attacked by the Hegemony, he had been in a total of three meetings with delegates from over a dozen powers. First, he had met with the other Ministers from the Systems Alliance nations to create a joint declaration and policy for the fallout that would surely crash into the Citadel in a short time when the press learned of the attack. Second, he and other Ministers from the nations with settlements on Eden Prime had met with several Ambassadors from the Citadel races and informed them of the attack and had scheduled an emergency meeting between the Alliance Ministers and the Council. A little under an hour later, the Alliance Ministers had met with the Council and delivered their statements. Not much had been accomplished, after all, there was very little information available, not even casualty reports, but they had gotten to the Council before the Hegemony had. Hopefully. Not even a full minute after that meeting, a second communique had come from Washington. Apparently, a Naval vessel had conducted a search and rescue operation and had picked up a pair of prisoners who had mentioned the existence of a turian in charge of some part of the invasion. Intelligence had concluded that this turian was Saren Arterius, a Council Spectre. The communique ordered him to strip Saren of his Spectre status by any means necessary. Such means would require yet another meeting with the Council to arrange a hearing, again with the Council, a process that would usually take upwards of a month. Udina did not have a month, the Naval vessel would arrive at the Citadel within the week to act as witnesses for the attack before moving on to their next assignment.

Udina swirled his drink, the sweet smell of the asari berry drink calming him down somewhat. Downing what was left, he savored the flavor for a moment before placing the empty glass back on his desk. That was the last of the bottle, he'd have to get another soon.

A beep from his desk communicator went off. His secretary spoke. "Minister Udina, the asari Ambassador is here to speak with you."

Udina stood and straightened his suit for the hundredth time that day. "Very good, send her in."

The door opened and in walked an asari matriarch. Her face was covered in white markings, though not as many as Councilor Tevos. Udina always found the markings strange, they made the asari look like she had vitiligo. Nevertheless, Udina put on a diplomatic smile. "Hello again Ambassador Irissa. I would offer you a drink, but I'm afraid I am fresh out."

The asari slightly bowed her head. "Hello again Minister. That's alright, this day has been hard on all of us."

Udina gave a sad smile and gestured to the chair on the other side of his desk. "Please, have a seat." The asari bowed her head again before taking the seat. Udina sat back down and continued with a low voice. "Do you know why I called for you again, Ambassador?"

Irissa's eyes widened ever so slightly at the sudden change in Udina's voice. "No Minister, all I know is that you wanted to speak with me."

Udina frowned but nodded along. Her response was exactly what he wanted, but making the asari feel unprepared gave him a small advantage. "I see. I have just received additional information from Washington. We have evidence of Council support in the attack."

The asari leaned back in her chair, shock spreading across her face. "Minister that is preposterous. We would never… that doesn't even make sense. The batarians do not even have an embassy anymore!"

Udina had her right where he wanted. "Then please explain to me why a Council Spectre was with the batarians on Eden Prime."

"Well Minister, I'd need to see some evidence before I entertain this accusation."

Udina kept eye contact with the asari as he opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a datapad. He handed it to Irissa. "American Marines and Naval personnel captured two batarian soldiers. They also encountered numerous hostile asari, salarians, and turians using gear we have linked to the same Spectre."

Irissa read over the datapad, which repeated what Udina had told her. "We will need to confirm this ourselves."

Udina nodded. "Do I have your word that the Council had no involvement with the attack?" Irissa nodded and made to respond but Udina cut her off. "And this Spectre will be named a traitor and stripped of his privileges?"

Irissa furrowed her brow, not appreciating being cut off, and paused to collect herself. "The Council will have to have a hearing for that. Rest assured you will have a fair chance to present your evidence, and C-Sec will have their own investigation."

Udina frowned. "I suppose that is all I can expect from the Council." Udina stood from his chair and faced the window of his office, gazing down at the residents of the Citadel going about their business completely unaware of the galaxy changing events that were happening around them. "That will be all Miss Irissa, please make sure the Council understands the importance of the situation. My government will expect results."

Irissa slowly got to her feet. She bowed her head to Udina, who didn't turn to acknowledge her, before walking to the door. She paused in the door frame and turned back to Udina. "Minister, which Spectre are you accusing?"

With the asari unable to see his face, Udina allowed himself to grin. "Saren Arterius."

Garrus restrained himself from wincing. There had been rumors of an attack on a human colony in the Traverse circulating for a few days now, and yesterday he had received his latest assignment; a discrete special assignment from the Council itself. Apparently, those rumors were true, and the humans were going to war with the batarians again. That news was big enough, but his assignment had terrified him. The humans were accusing Saren Arterius of having a claw in the attack. For a Spectre such as Saren to have done such a thing meant that even the Spectres were not above corruption. The worst part was that the evidence pointed to the human's accusation to be true. Not that there was much evidence he could find, everything was covered in layers of classification beyond what he could get access to. He had hoped that Councillor Sparatus had called him to his office to address this issue. He had been wrong, Garrus now stood in front of his Councillor as he ranted to him about the humans.

"These humans came to the Citadel believing they knew everything there was and how the galaxy should be ordered. They haven't the faintest clue what it takes to keep the galaxy safe. They open Relays without as much as a second thought, have they no idea what they could unleash upon the galaxy? They march to war against batarians at even the slightest provocation, twice now! They will be our downfall."

The Councillor stopped for a moment, taking a drink as Garrus stood awkwardly before him. He put the glass down and as Garrus tried to politely get a word in, the Councillor continued, swinging his talon around in front of him. "And that brings me to their latest outrage. Accusing a Spectre, a turian Spectre, to be a war criminal? The asari Ambassador tells me that one of their Ministers had the gall to accuse the Citadel itself of backing an attack on their colony! Can you believe that? Totally absurd!"

Garrus looked at his Councillor with concern. While he agreed with the policing action taken by the Hierarchy to end the previous war, how could Sparatus not see how the humans would react? He wouldn't dare ask that to him, though. "Regardless of that, sir, the humans will demand that-"

The older turian shot up and slammed his fist onto his desk. "The humans have no right to make demands from the Council! I thought a Vakarian would understand that, your father did."

Garrus's mandibles flared slightly at the mention of his father. This was neither the time nor the place to bring up family drama. "My father also would want the duties of C-Sec to be completed thoroughly, which I lack the clearance to do."

"And allowing you clearance to Saren's information could put him and his operations at risk. I cannot allow that."

"But sir, his operations are exactly what the humans want to be investigated, they're no doubt looking into it right now!" Garrus barely realized he had raised his voice.

"Which is exactly why I called you in here, officer. We are not the human's attack varren, if they want it done, they'll have to do it themselves. They like it that way, don't they? Independent and all that?" Garrus just blinked. "You are to stop your investigation. The others will expect a report, however, so finalize whatever you have and submit it to Executor Pallin, he will be waiting for it. That is all."

Garrus's mandibles flared, stunned. He opened his mouth to speak, but the Councillor waved his talon at him, signaling for him to leave.

Garrus had the self control to leave the Councillor's office before balling his fist. Fuming, he stomped to the elevator to the C-Sec offices. This was ridiculous, once again the politicians were getting in the way of him doing his job.

Storming into his office, Garrus opened his files on Saren and began writing his final report. Writing in a way that would get past the censors, Garrus tried to make it clear that he was being prevented from doing his due diligence. Sometime later he finished checking his report and sent it to the Executor along with an angry note detailing his meeting with the Councilor.

With the report sent, Garrus gathered his things. He had one last lead to follow, one he did not mention in his report. Exiting his office, he made his way to the Wards.

Joker turned his head around in his seat. "Have you ever been to the Citadel, Commander?"

Shepard was joined by Kaiden in the Normandy's cockpit. "Can't say that I have, though I've heard it is very impressive."

Joker smirked. "Well, we're about to see that impressive prothean engineering the Council is so proud of. Stand by for the relay jump."

The Normandy was brought into the Mass Relay's corridor and was encompassed with the arcs of element zero. To those inside the vessel, they felt small vibrations as the ship prepared to jump followed by a bright flash, and then they were in the Widow System gazing upon the gasses of the Serpent Nebula. Moments later, glimpses of the Citadel were seen before becoming fully visible.

Kaiden was clearly in awe of the massive station, absolutely dwarfing the fleet around it. "Incredible, no wonder the Council made this their capital." The Normandy flew by the asari flagship. "That must be the Destiny Ascension, it's huge!"

Joker shook his head. "Well, size isn't everything."

Shepard shook his head with a smile. "A big ship means a big gun, and big guns are what the ladies like." Joker roared with laughter and Kaiden gave Shepard a disapproving look. "What? I'm talking about asari naval doctrine! What else could I mean?" Shepard grinned as his friend shook his head.

Joker was still trying to calm down when the communicator sprang to life. "Human ship, identify yourself." A turian voice came through.

Joker cleared his throat. "Citadel Control, this is the USS Normandy. Minister Udina is expecting us."

"Stand by for clearance Normandy." There was a short pause as the traffic controller input and received information. "Clearance granted, transferring you to a UN operator."

"Roger that, Normandy out."

Another short pause as the call was transferred. "Normandy, this is UN tower, please proceed to dock 422."

Shortly afterward the Normandy had docked, the Citadel's magnetic locks clamping to the side of its hull, and Captain Anderson approached. "Commander, Lieutenant. Minister Udina should be waiting for us, and we do not want to keep him waiting."

Both officers nodded and joined the Captain in the decontamination room, the Normandy's VI informing them of the changing atmospheric pressure. Exiting, they noted two humans waiting for them next to a skycar, one of which was presumably Minister Udina. Anderson held out his hand. "Minister Udina, I am Captain Anderson and these are two of my men who were on Eden Prime." Udina shook his hand. Anderson turned to the other human and repeated the handshake. "And Minister Burton, Sergeant Williams is preparing the package for transfer now."

Burton nodded. "Very good, his majesty has become very interested in the situation. I will call for our pickup crew, they should be here soon."

Udina patted his counterpart on the back. "You do that William, I need to debrief the Captain on what's happened." Burton nodded and moved down the dock while pulling up his omni-tool.

Anderson turned back to Udina. "I take it there has been a development, Minister."

Udina scowled. "It's not good, the Council is backtracking their agreements. I'll explain in the skycar. In the world of small miracles, it has enough room for the half of your crew you brought."

Anderson paid no mind to the jab the Minister gave him and the four of them climbed in.

Udina instructed the driver to go to the Legation and as the skycar got moving faced Anderson again, a scowl still on his face. "This is exactly what I feared would happen when Goyle signed the treaty. The Council is interpreting it so that we violated our agreements, and therefore they have no obligations."

Silence fell over the skycar. Kaiden spoke up. "What are they saying we did?"

Udina shook his head. "They are saying our carriers violate our fleet limitations."

Shepard frowned. "I thought Minister Goyle got the Council to agree that carriers weren't dreadnaughts."

Udina nodded. "She did, but not in writing. The former administration made the mistake of trusting the Council's word. They are simply ignoring that verbal agreement so they don't have to do anything."

Anderson shook his head. "If our carriers resulted in a treaty violation, why didn't they bring it up before?"

Udina blinked like the answer was obvious. "Because they didn't have a reason too. Us being at war with the batarians, that's a perfect reason."

Shepard scoffed. "So there's nothing we can do about it?

Udina's scowl deepened. "No, the best we can hope for is a condemnation of the Hegemony which doesn't mean much of anything."

Silence fell over the skycar until the driver told them they had arrived at the Legation. Stepping out, Shepard was unsurprised to see the usually face paced Legation had become a whirlwind of diplomats making calls. What was surprising, however, was that there were already numerous bystanders and press drones trying to make sense of the commotion. While such things were not foreign to a diplomatic center where galaxy defining agreements were made, it was strange to see such a large amount of aliens at the gates peering in. Shepard shrugged it off, though, as Udina waved them toward his office.

Entering the office, Shepard observed 15 other humans waiting for them. Udina gestured to them. "Gentlemen, these are my colleagues from the other human nations in the Alliance. Naturally, we have no representative from the quarians, and Minister Burton is taking care of the special object. As the two of you," he pointed to Kaidan and Shepard, "were operating planetside you can tell the Council what happened, while Captain Anderson can do the same for space." The three military men nodded, and Udina clasped his hands together. "Excellent, now let us make sure we all are on the same page before meeting the Council, Minister Krause." One of the other diplomats pressed a button and the window shades closed, lights dimmed, and a projector displayed Eden Prime over the floor.

A petite blonde woman walked into the projector's floorspace. "Thank you, Minister." Shepard noted her strong Bavarian accent, something relatively rare in the cosmopolitan EU. "From our briefings, we know that we lost contact with Eden Prime early Sunday morning, roughly eight o'clock standard time," and the attack began a few hours later at roughly 10 o'clock. The projector added several red dots, signifying landing zones. "Apparently, however, a distress call managed to get past the jammer and the USS Normandy picked it up. Captain Anderson decided to provide relief. When the Normandy arrived, they confirmed the presence of Hegemony forces and deployed a ground team at 11:16." The projector added a blue dot where Shepard landed. "Said ground team was extracted at 12:14. The last batarians left at 4:30 in the afternoon and Admiral Hacket arrived with relief at five o'clock. Military casualties are estimated at 8,500 and civilian casualties are estimated at 35,000." The room fell silent. Eden Prime had lost over one in one hundred people in a single day. Eventually, the European Minister broke the silence. "Does that sound correct Captain?"

Anderson jolted as if taken out of deep thought. "Uh, yes ma'am, though the Normandy deployed its first fireteam before confirming Hegemony military units, which we confirmed separately on the ground and in orbit."

Shepard furrowed his brow. "What about that super-dreadnought, or those… husks we encountered? And that turian, Saren?"

Udina bristled as a few pairs of eyes turned to him. "We don't know anything about the super-dreadnought other than it was at the front of the attack and is very powerful. As for the husks, all we know is what was in your report; that they were human before the batarians got to them and used their dragon's teeth on them. And that they are a war crime of the greatest degree." He shook his head. "And Saren is the worst of all. My sources say that C-Sec has finished its investigation prematurely. I expect the Council to block our motion."

Anderson shook his head. "They know we'll be going after him anyway, are they trying to start something?"

Another Minister, Irish by his accent, responded. "None of us have been able to make heads or tales of it. Likely the Council doesn't want to admit Saren did anything wrong out loud or knows something we don't. We could be being deceived by the prisoners, after all."

Anderson actually raised his voice. "It was Saren, I know how he operates and this fits perfectly. He didn't want us to have the beacon and would do anything, even allying with the batarians to get it."

The ministers looked at each other in confusion before the Israeli one spoke up. "Beacon, what beacon?"

Udina gave Anderson a death glare before sighing. "The British found a prothean beacon last week in their colony."

The Irish Minister looked indignant. "Why were we not told of this, Udina? This is important, it gives a motive for the attack, as your Captain said. It is not something we should be kept in the dark about."

Udina almost rolled his eyes. "Calm yourself, Minister, I was not told until after the attack. If you really want to know, ask Minister Burton when he returns, it was his government who decided this." Aside from the irate glares of a few ministers, nothing further was done. "Moving back to the topic at hand, I agree with Captain Anderson's assessment, and we must all trust one another and be united before the Council. It's the only way they will listen." Shepard swore he saw the eyes of a few ministers roll at the word trust.

As Udina was about to continue, there was a knock on the door and a woman walked in. "Sorry for the intrusion, Ministers. But the Council wants to start Saren's trial now."

Udina rubbed his forehead. "Of course they are." With that, the room cleared out and the ministers entered their skycars with Anderson, Shepard, and Kaidan once again joining Udina.

The ride to the Council Tower was short and silent. There was a crowd gathered around the Council Chambers that the humans had to negotiate. The Council was already waiting for them, as was a large holo-call projection of Saren. It was strange to Shepard, to see the enemy before him but unable to do anything.

The asari Councillor raised her hand. "This Council is now in session. Minister Udina, humanity has motioned for Spectre Arterius to be stripped of his office, is that correct?"

Udina stepped forward. "Councillor, Minister Burton of the United Kingdom and Minister Krause of the European Union have filed this motion with the full backing of the Systems Alliance."

Tevos did not look amused at the correction. "I see. Regardless of which human nation has filed the motion, you must understand how it reflects on humanity as a whole when a Spectre is accused of terrorism.

Minister Krause stepped forward. "We understand, Councillor, and we do not make such accusations lightly. But for the sake of our people and for justice we have filed this motion, and we know that the good people of the Citadel Council will see the truth. Saren Arterius is responsible for the attack on Eden Prime, where even as we speak the monsters he has unleashed claim the lives of innocent people. We must do everything in our power to stop the violence, and that starts with holding those responsible to account."

The human delegation broke into applause and cheers of "Here, Here."

Councillor Valern nodded his head. "Yes, we understand that Minister, but what evidence do you have to back up these claims?"

Minister Krause spoke again. "We have testimony from several captured batarian soldiers claiming Saren was leading part of the attack. We have further eyewitness accounts of turians involved in the attacks."

Valern shook his head. "The testimony from a few prisoners of war is hardly compelling proof, nor is the fact that some turians may have allied with the batarians in an opportunistic raid."

Krause opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Saren. "I resent these accusations, Councillors. Humans believe themselves too highly if they believe they can just make demands of you and have them met. They have not proven themselves, they can't even form a singular government."

The turian Councillor's mandibles made the turian equivalent of a grin. "I agree, Spectre, the humans are wasting our time. A Citadel Security investigation has turned up no evidence to support their claims."

Saren's mandibles mimicked the Councilor's. Shepard clenched his fist and glared at them. To him, this was obvious collusion, even if only to save face for the turian race or to belittle humanity. Udina seemingly agreed. "I've read the C-Sec report Councillors, it is the most obvious squashed investigation I have ever seen! If you believe you can get away with this you're dead wrong."

Sparatus's brow plates narrowed. "And how, exactly, did you read this report, as someone not associated with Citadel Security or its government, Minister?"

The corner of Udina's lip twitched into a smirk. "It seems that one of your cops is more concerned with the truth than you are, Councilor."

The salarian spoke again. "This intrusion into Citadel Security is most concerning, Minister. We will investigate this." Shepard had to stop himself from snorting. A salarian complaining about spying, give him a break. He could tell the other humans felt the same way.

Suddenly and without warning, Anderson stepped forward. "You care more about stopping a whistleblower than a terrorist? Or are you just upset that your cover up failed?" Udina stared wide-eyed at Anderson, clearly furious.

Saren smirked. "Captain Anderson, you always seem to be involved when humanity makes false charges against me."

Shepard stepped forward, drawing all eyes to him. "There's nothing false about these charges, I've seen what you did to the people of Eden Prime, and with God as my witness, you will never do it again."

Saren was unphased. "And you must be Anderson's prodigy, Commander Shepard. The one who couldn't even properly lead a squad." Saren turned to the Councillors. "But what can you expect, from a human?"

Shepard heard Kaidan's biotics activate as he clenched his fist, but beat him to speaking. "You can expect to be dead, with or without the Council."

The Council Chambers erupted into chaos as the Ministers began shouting obscenities at Saren and spectators got involved.

Tevos attempted to calm the crowd by raising her arm, but it was no use. Sighing, she fired a warp into the air above the human delegation, where it exploded harmlessly but brought silence to the Chambers. "Delegates, please, we will have order in these Chambers, and we will not tolerate threats against our agents. Consider this your only warning."

Sparatus waved his talon. "I've had enough of this farce, they have no evidence against our agent."

Valern looked back to the humans before him. "Do you have any, substantial, proof to offer?"

Anderson responded first. "Saren is the leader of the Order of Valluvia, his troops were on Eden Prime and fired on my men. That's all the proof you need."

Saren gave the turian equivalent of a scoff. "You humans know so little, there is no leader of the Order, and I certainly cannot be responsible for the actions of a few radicals."

Anderson glared at him. "No, I suppose you cannot. But you can be held responsible for your own actions. We've let you get away with murder before, it will not happen again."

Tevos must have thought that was a threat. "Enough! I will not remind you again." She turned to her colleagues who each shook their heads, she nodded and returned to look at the humans. "The Council has found no evidence of any connection between Saren and the Hegemony. Ministers, your petition to have him disbarred from the Spectres is denied."

Saren nearly laughed. "I am glad to see that justice was served." And with that, his projection disappeared and Shepard was filled with dread.

Codex Entry:

The United Nations Legations

More commonly known simply as "the Legations," the United Nations Legations is the primary diplomatic center for humanity on the Citadel, and by extension all Citadel Space. As humanity does not have a unified government and refuses to give the United Nations sovereignty over its Member States, the Citadel Charter prevents humanity from acquiring an Embassy on the Citadel or sending Ambassadors. However, the Council decided to allow humanity to establish a diplomatic mission of a lower rank. The term Legation is an entirely human one and no equivalent is found in Citadel regulations, thus the Legation is considered ad hoc by some and even illegitimate by critics of human policy in Citadel Space.

Unlike the Embassies for the Citadel Council Associate Races, the Legations are located in the Upper Wards rather than the Presidium. Originally a sprawling luxury apartment complex, the Legations were purchased by the United Nations in 2413 for what the Volus Ambassador is said to have called "an outrageously inflated cost." The Legation's original purpose ironically provides the ministers from the United Nations Member States larger and more luxurious accommodations than many Citadel Council Associate Races' Embassies do on the Presidium, though at the cost of the beautiful scenes of the Presidium.

The Legations consists of a plaza with a building in its center and seven other buildings arranged in a geometric star surrounding the plaza. The central building, called the Legation Center, is a three story building which contains the Ball Room, residencies for special envoys and representatives of UN Observer States, the Recreation Center, the Museum, and the Visitors Center, of which the latter two are open to the public. The Plaza has a garden and often holds events celebrating human holidays such as Christmas or Chinese New Year in order to expose Citadel residents to human culture and foster goodwill. Other events include the 2415 Pan-Galactic Technological and Economic Conference. Some events have led to controversy, however, such as in 2419 a tribute to Americans who died at the Battle of Leptis Mons when it was protested by a turian group, which turned violent. The seven other buildings, the Legation Towers, hold the offices of the ministers from the UN Member States. It is said that the seven buildings represent the seven continents of Earth, but offices are not arranged this way, the US office is in the same building as the EU office for example, and non-Earth based governments also have offices in the Towers.

It should also be noted that the Legations are not the only human diplomatic mission to the Citadel. Other human nations that are not members of the UN often rely entirely on special envoys. Notable exceptions are the Keplerian Imperial Legation to the Other Races and the Centaurian People's Legation to Citadel Space.

AN

Hello everyone, it's been a busy year. We actually did get the remastered Mass Effect, which I was always skeptical about even happening, so it's all a pleasant surprise to me. I have enjoyed playing it immensely, and it has solidified my opinion that ME1 is the best in the series (for me the only improvement that matters from ME1 to ME2 is that Garrus will tell me he's in the middle of some calibrations instead of thanking me for helping him with Saleaon for the fourth time, which does not cover the lack of commentary squadmates give). Personally, I'm finishing up college this December and have a job lined up for January in my hometown, which is awesome and a ton of fun to work with old friends. As always, I hope you enjoyed.