Shepard Normandy February 19th 2183
"Entering the Pax system Commander. ETA to Noveria forty-five minutes." I nodded to Joker as I stood over his shoulder, watching the planets of the system come into view. The crew had all but avoided me and I hoped to keep it that way. My mood hadn't changed through the few days it took to get from the Citadel to Noveria. Instead, growing and manifesting back into the anger I kept before I had met the young asari who seemed to have a swaying effect on my emotional spectrum. Some even whispered that I was ruder than before. Apparently rejection was a bit of a weakness for me, no one dared say it though. I turned from Joker, before heading to the mid deck to grab my armor, ignoring all of the main crew seated in the galley eating protein packs and energy boosters to prep for the mission. Everyone except one person.
I wanted more than anything to speak to her, knowing she was going through a hell of a mental struggle. Something of which, shouldn't be done alone and I had the most experience on dealing with. I sighed silently as I grabbed the last bits of my armor, kicking my locker door closed as I tossed most of the pieces to the ground while holding on to the legs of my armor. I slowly and deliberately made sure every piece fit perfect. At least I knew their was one thing I couldn't fuck up; killing. "Alright when everyone is done, meet me near the shuttles fully armored." I walked out of the galley and into my room, noting the ping of my email server.
From: Councilor Tevos
Re: Contact
Commander, once your have made it to Noveria, I have a contact that will get everything you need to get Benezia out alive. She will be in the directors office, attached is a passcode to pass on to her, she'll understand exactly what it means.
Good Luck Shepard
The councilor using my name so informally was something I still hadn't gotten used to. I resigned myself to downloading the dat from the email before leaving my room, running into the one person I really didn't want to see. "I- oh ma'am." The woman snapped to attention quick. "I just came to find the doc, and see if she needed help with her armor." Ashley flinched as I walked right through her and towards the elevator. "You two have five minutes." She scurried off into the med bay as I felt a fresh wave of anger rush through me. 'If she had only been this civilized from the beginning we wouldn't be in this position.' I thought to myself as the lift opened. I got out and walked towards the pool of people waiting at the shuttle.
"Joker, ETA?" I called out to the ships intercom. "Should be about fifteen more minutes. I'm getting hailed by their docking security, you might wanna come clear that up before we're blown to bits." I ignored his joke, walking back to the lift as it came down, opening to the two women I had spent the most time avoiding and dying to see. I ignored them both. Not even giving so much as a head nod as I walked into the lift and headed back up.
"Opening Comms." Joker clicked a few buttons before the man's voice came through. "Normandy you are not scheduled or authorized to land. State your business."
"Council business, i'm a spectre, commander Shepard. I'm landing." I said the words dryly and the voice stopped for a moment before turning their defenses away. "Our head of security will meet you at the docks." We docked shortly after, not giving me enough time to go back to the crew. "Joker tell the crew to take the mako to the garage and meet me at the entrance." He nodded and gave an aye, as he walked through the doors onto the docks.
"That's close enough 'spectre'. Relinquish your weapons." The blonde haired security woman aimed their guns directly at me and I followed, pointing the laser right over the blonde woman's heart. "Step aside, I have business that doesn't concern you." She tried to stand a bit taller, although I could see the nervousness seeping through. "Everybody weapons down! I'm captain Matsuo. We only heard of your arrival moments ago, we need time to clear and confirm that it's true. Once your spectre status is recognized, you are authorized to carry weapons now stand down, everyone. I wont say it again." Everybody tensed for a moment before a woman in a snug hot pink shimmering dress rushed through. "Captain Matsuo tell your team to stand down, commander Shepard's spectre status is confirmed. I watched silently observing the turian next to the her wait for the blonde woman to nod her okay. "My apologies spectre, we don't usually see a lot of your kind on our planet so you can understand our caution. Giana Parasini will meet you at check in." I walked pass the group, observing how the blonde woman looked at me.
"Gianna Parasini, secretary to the administrator. Nice to meet you." I gave her an up and down stare and she blushed under my dull gaze. "I was sent to find Matriarch Benezia, where is she?" I slid a piece of paper into her hand smoothly disguised as a handshake. "Uhm yea, I believe she left to peak 15 days ago, there's been a severe weather alert out since however. No one has been allowed in or out of Peak 15 since. So, i'm sure she's still there. Unfortunately the way to peak 15 is unavailable unless you have a land vehicle. Even then, I can't allow you to go without a garage pass. Anoleis' orders."
"But my crew just parked my vehicle in the garage why do I need a pass to access it?" I was confused until I felt my hand; where the note was once place easily between my fingers was now a thin square of plastic like material. "Sorry, Anoleis' orders as well, if you would like to speak more about it, you may meet me in the director's office." She gave a nod, hoping I had caught on to her carefully placed message, and I did. I nodded back, calling for my ground team to meet me at the entrance. "Dr. T'soni, Tali, and Wrex, I need you all weapons ready. Williams, Alenko you two are on surveillance. Garrus, stay with the vehicle."
"Surveillance ma'am?"
"Yea, something's not right here and until I know what's going on, we can't leave to find Benezia." It only took a few minutes before my ground team met up with me. Suited and ready. We walked through the check in point, ignoring the sirens and heading straight to the director's office. "It is nice to make your acquaintance again spectre." The woman stood up from her desk offering her hand once more. I took it, feeling a note left behind. "I do apologize for the inconvenience, but Mr. Anoleis is very busy at the moment. Perhaps you can visit back sooner, until then feel free to check out our corporate bar." She smiled as she sat back down, watching me leave. I opened the note that prompted me to find evidence of Anoleis corruption. 'Should've known that garage pass was gonna cost me some kind of favor.' I thought for a moment before speaking out, confusing the rest of the team. "Corporate bar." The others gave me puzzled looks but I didn't bother to explain to them what had came across my mind. I opened my omni-tool, pulling up a small map of the important places, memorizing it.
As I passed into the bar, I was called on by an Asari standing in the cover by the elevator. "You, spectre." I turned, towering over the woman as she spoke to me. Before she could get through the full sentence though I cut her off. "Do I look like your little helper? Do it yourself." I walked off before she or the crew could say something. I was in no mood to be a helping hand, in fact, I was even more pissed that I couldn't just shoot my way through everything to get to the Matriarch. This would take a level of finesse I didn't quite have in me at the moment, otherwise she would be alerted. I took a few more steps before getting stopped again.
"You're that spectre that just landed?" A Turian that looked to be of an older age, sitting at a table began speaking to me.
"In the flesh." I said the words plainly. "Yes you humans tend to be covered in that. My name is Lorik Qui'in. I have a proposition for you." I looked at the man for a moment then I looked around, before taking a seat, sighing the entire way down. "Alright, i'm all ears." He looked confused for a moment before brushing off the words. "I have evidence that proves that Anoleis is corrupt, about a week ago, their were accusations put against me, saying that I was corrupt."
"Quite the coincidence. Let me stop you their old timer, i'm assuming you want my help in some way, shape, or form. So, let's just cut to that yea?" He was taken back for a moment at my crudeness, even Wrex looking a bit stung. I didn't care at all, I just wanted to get off of this god forsaken world. "I... well I need you to take this OSD drive and upload the data from my computer onto it. Here is my key card as well." I took the items, as I made my way to the other side of the bar where the drinks were being served. "Scotch. On the rocks." The crew looked between me and the bartender as I took the drink from his hands. "Order away." They stood there with bewildered looks on their faces.
"Uhm Shepard. Did you forget we're on a mission." Tali stated incrediously. "To kill my mother." Liara gave me a pained look and it cut through my searing anger for a moment. "Right. My apologies. If i'm too stressed, this mission isn't going to go right for anyone. Also Councilor Tevos orders, mission parameters have changed. Once we're in the mako, i'll brief you all more. But I can't do it here, and I can't do my job tense." The irritation in my voice was clear, and it quieted the trio as I ordered a refill.
"Alenko, you and Williams are on special assignment. Meet me at the corporate bar and i'll brief you on what you need to know. We're heading to Peak 15 after."
"Aye ma'am. Their were geth in the garage but we cleared them out, should be good to go." Kaidan didn't hesitate to answer. I threw the rest of the drink back, ordering one more for good measure. "Let me get that one for you." Gianna Parisini appeared from seemingly nowhere as I looked down at my empty cup, the bartender throwing another my way at her signal. "Alright, I set up a crew to put the cryopod in your mako, oddly enough. Look, it's not exactly part of me and Tevos deal, but could you find evidence that can prove Anoleis is a criminal?" She leaned in closer, our faces slightly brushing each other. "Noveria internal affairs would appreciate the information very much." 'Of course she's playing two sides, but if I would've known this was optional, I would've left it alone.'
"Already on it, Qui'in has info, i'll retrieve the data from his computer using the OSD drive then let him know to talk to you. My people are already on it. Now excuse me, i'm going to peak 15 so I can get the fuck off this icicle." I got up from my seat, waving my omnitool to pay before heading to the elevator's entrance. At the entrance, I was greeted by the soldiers, eagerly to speak with me. "Alright listen up. Take this OSD drive and this key and head up to synthetic insights. Their should be an office that's taped off; that's where you need to go. Once you make it there, use the OSD drive to copy the files from the computer onto it and bring it back to that nice old turian sitting alone. We're going to go ahead and make our way to find Benezia. Once you're done, go back to the Normandy. Kaidan, you're in charge, we won't be able to communicate through the storm." The pair nodded before breaking off as we made our way into the elevator.
Once we made it, I looked around for a moment as Garrus jogged towards me. "Shepard. A bunch of geth managed to make their way in here. Me, Williams, and Kaidan managed to take them out but there's bound to be more. I'm assuming they came with Benezia." A few of the security guards scanned the dead geth. "Yea Alenko informed us, let's head to the mako so we can get to Peak 15." Garrus hurried to the mako, hopping in the driver's seat before I could make my way in. I was slightly annoyed before remembering our agreement on letting him drive for now, as everyone felt more comfortable that way. I walked around to the back passenger door, peaking in to see the cryopod and the rest of the crew already seated. The cryopod took up one side of the mako, leaving the only available space near Liara. I sighed, resigning myself to the tight spot, our bodies touching in awkward silence that Garrus thankfully broke from the driver's seat as we headed into the snow storm. "So what is with the cryopod Shepard?"
"Alright, I guess now is a good time as any. The mission has changed. Councilor Tevos is asking us to bring the Matriarch back... uhm alive." Their were a few awkward shifts as I looked off into the distance, trying to avoid Liara's stare. That failed of course, once she began speaking directly into my ear, wishing I had never took my helmet off. "I... why would she ask you to do that? What are they planning to do to her?" I could feel the fear in her voice as I tried to push the confusing emotions bubbling up in me back down to where they came from. I sighed as I pushed on, Tevos had to know I didn't plan on keeping secrets from my team.
"Look, what I am about to say stays here. Understood?" Their were nods between the crew as they waited for me to speak. "The council have known about the reapers for some time. Well not all of the council, but the salarian and asari councilor do. I'm guessing the turian councilor is either indoctrinated or just too stubborn. Matriarch Benezia alerted councilor Tevos to the approach of the reapers, but she said that some of the older matriarchs have know for way way longer than that. The revelation from Benezia prompted Tevos to enlist the help of the salarian councilor. They then began forming what they call the shadow council. Benezia isn't deeply indoctrinated, and Tevos thinks their is a way to save her... so we are going to be putting her into a cryopod and taking her back to Thessia where the shadow council holds their meetings." The group looked shocked at first, then determined. If their was a way to save Benezia, the whole crew had decided that they would without protestation.