Chapter 8: Unknown Vision

Author's Note: Okay, we're moving ahead to the 'present' now. Another time jump, means quite a lot more Codex entries. As always, these are written in such a way as to provide back-story and supporting information, but there should be NO NEED to read them to enjoy/understand the story.

In response to reviews, thank you all for writing. There was one review which pointed out that the Geth really should make the Combine's industrial base pretty huge. They did indeed make it a lot larger than the Systems Alliances was. The reason it's not larger still, frankly is mostly because the Geth-Unity don't want to make it any larger. Their reasons for this are a bit opaque here, as, frankly they are in canon, where they've had an additional hundred and fifty years to expand, but don't really seem to have done much of anything (there's some talk of a giant ship ala the Geth-Isolationist, but they're an AI society with the industrialization to build dreadnoughts, where the hell is this ship?).

In universe most folks believe that the Geth-Unity prefer to act as a force multiplier than an independent force, mostly because of the horrible consequences which occurred last time they were an independent force and out of concern about the social impacts if they provided everything to the Combine without effort or risk. Now, if they became convinced that the organics they've entered into a symbiotic relationship with, where the organics providing purpose and the synthetics providing unity and resources, if those organics were threatened, that might change. This is occasionally dubbed the Asimovian theory, or Zeroth Law theory.

This is also why X-Com and the Geth-Unity spend a massive amount of time searching everywhere for any sign of the Geth-Genocidal, or Slaver, as even a small group of Geth, assuming proper equipment, could create many more quite rapidly.

John Shepard circled the dig site, exchanging polite nods with the rest of his team as he passed their positions. His helmet pressed against his skull, barely cushioned by the tiny amount of hair which survived his usual buzz cut.

Codex: John Shepard, Unlocked.

Unfortunately, the locals hadn't been willing to hand over total control of the area to his squad, so their security wasn't great. Only the portable equipment was in place, but with half a dozen Sentinel Corps troopers scattered around the perimeter and enough equipment and drones in place to fight a small war, things weren't too bad. After all, the Sentinel Corps were the best defensive troops in the galaxy, he believed. He resumed his position by the protectee, nodding to Lieutenant Williams as he replaced his executive officer who, in turn, took his place walking the perimeter.

Codex: Combine Elites (Sentinel Corps), Unlocked.

"We're still secure?" Tali'Zorah Nar'Rannoch asked as she continued to examine the Prothean Beacon, though she carefully kept her gloved hands to herself. The quartet of drones scanning it streamed data back to her omni-tool, but the in-depth scans would require serious analysis which she wasn't going to do on the fly.

Codex: Tali'Zorah Nar'Rannoch, Unlocked.

"Yes, Tali," it had taken two years, before Shepard had finally unbent enough to use Tali's first name, "but the drones have detected two incoming vehicles. One three minutes out, the other five minutes out. Any progress?"

"No. The Beacon's putting off some barely detectible radiation. It's almost like a psionic field, but…different."

"Well, that's clear," John said, more animatedly than usual.

Tali flashed a smile up at the taller Human, reading his irritation easily in his words, though his tone was neutral as was his face when she examined it through the transparent faceplate of his helmet. "Yeah, it's what I'm here for. Who's coming?" She'd been told, but it wasn't engineering and it wasn't psionics, so it wasn't, really, her problem.

"First arrival is from Lawson Industries. Second is from the Council."

"Already? I thought we had more time?"

"They must have found someone local and dropped them a line through a Council-aligned psionic," John speculated.

"Wonderful, a local yokel come to interfere," Tali threw her hands up, then shoved them in the pocket of her durable field-work outfit. "Are they going to carry off the beacon?"

"Probably, which is why Lawson's on the way. The corp isn't real happy about the Council carrying off Prothean tech they found on their property, just because it's the law, so they're milking it for all they can."

"Wonderful. Time?"

"About a minute," he was less precise than usual to avoid a discussion about how irritating overprecision was.

"Then I guess it's time to get down to it," Tali said, stretching out a gloved hand.

"Ms. Zorah, please remember that it's my job to keep you alive," he slipped back into formality, as he did so often, to her irritation. She'd been surrounded by Sentinels ever since they'd learned how powerful a psionic she was and Shepard unbent the least of any of them. He was polite, professional, even amusing at times, but there was always a sense that he was holding something back and you didn't need to be psionic to know it.

"Yes, yes, but this won't kill me. Probably," she teased.

"Still."

"It's my call, John."

"Yes it is, but I don't have to like it."

Tali solved the debate by placing a single finger against the Beacon. When that produced no result, she placed her gloved hand flat against it. When that produced no result, she slowly pulled the glove off. John took a long step back. Removing the glove didn't actually increase her psionic abilities for anyone she wasn't touching, but she didn't like people within arm's reach when the gloves came off.

One finger, two, three, her whole hand pressed against the Beacon as one of the most powerful psionics in the Combine pressed her hand and the fullness of her mind against the spike of black not-rock which was the Prothean Beacon.

The Lawson Industries' vehicle landed where directed. The sleek white-and-gold aircar was expensive and carried an even more expensive electronic warfare suite that might have let them avoid the lethal consequences of disobeying the instructions they'd received from the Sentinel Corps squad defending Tali, at least until they landed. Might have.

The white armored guard who stepped out first was…shiny. Despite the impracticality of that, she moved with the drilled smoothness of a trained soldier, but didn't carry any visible weapons. The driver, likewise armored, remained in the vehicle. The second figure out of the car was also female, but wore a business suit, not a suit of armor, though based on its cut and material, it probably cost about as much as the high-end combat armor her guard wore. Black hair fell in waves around a perfectly symmetrical face and her full lips were curved up in a confident smirk. Her movements were not graceful, but they were forceful.

A second guard followed the woman out of the vehicle, keeping his eyes on the visible Combine soldiers, rather than his boss's shapely form with an impressive professionalism. Both guards fell in behind her as she slid forward towards the Beacon and Tali. Williams appeared with a suddenness that was disturbing from such a woman wearing heavy body armor and carrying enough weapons to destroy a frigate, waving the guards back. Even without weapons, they certainly weren't going to be allowed within reach of the protectee.

"John!" the woman said, stepping forward, a slight hitch in her step visible at the closer range, apparently honest delight all over her face.

"Miranda. I thought you were still on Earth."

Codex: Miranda Lawson, Unlocked.

"With a Prothean Beacon found on my property? Seriously, John?"

"You're not exactly hands-on these days."

"Unlike your current protectee, I see," she cocked her head towards Tali. "Any results?"

"You'd have to ask her," Shepard responded, slipping into a stolid mask.

Tali was still staring at the Beacon like it was the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen.

"I think I'll wait until she's done."

"Not getting anything off her or the Beacon?" he asked.

"I should say that you'll have to ask her…but nah. I can't get anything at all. She's way too powerful, it's like trying to look at the sun."

"So I've heard."

"You know who the Council is sending?" Miranda asked, sliding over to stand beside him where she could watch the slowly descending shuttle.

"Information's still coming in," Shepard said, as if that was an answer and shifted his weight as he ensure he was in between Miranda and Tali.

"That's not an answer."

"It's not polite to point that out."

"I've never been too concerned with politeness. I'd think you'd remember that."

"Nostalgia puts a nice golden filter over all the past."

"Not in my experience," Miranda said, bleakly.

"Over all my past, then."

"Lucky man."

Williams faced down the pair of white-armored soldiers, whose full, reflective helmets gave them an eerie, inhuman aura. That would have been more disturbing if she and John hadn't been the only Humans in the squad. By preference she'd have left this confrontation to Shalira. The Viper was the close combat specialist and was four times her mass. Williams could handle hand to hand, but her idea of close range combat was usually a shotgun, while Lawson Industries was a very, very successful private company, with an equally successful private security division. The guards assigned to protect its CEO would be top tier people and since they knew enough not to leave the car armed, they knew enough to make sure the troops they sent were capable of fighting without weapons (or had serious concealed weaponry).

They ignored her attempts at banter, head tracking the tiniest of her movements and, even more closely, the movements of their boss and hers where they stood a dozen steps behind her, conversing quietly. She didn't share her commander's past with the woman and Shepard didn't talk about previous missions, even if you did have clearance, but she knew enough to know that Miranda Lawson wasn't about to give up any advantage and didn't surrender opportunities for profit without squeezing them dry. A fight was unlikely, but far from impossible. Especially as the third craft arrived, drawing the attention of one of the guards she was facing down.

Where the aircar had been sleek, the second craft was a boxy shuttle, heavy armor giving it a mass all out of proportion with its size and boasting six turreted weapon mounts, carrying a mixture of standard projectile, laser and plasma weaponry, which usually would have covered all angles of approach of the craft. Currently all of the turrets were appropriately locked in place and the shuttle flew with a mechanical precision which made it clear that Geth were in their system, ensuring that they didn't take any…foolish actions, like firing at the Sentinels. Miranda's driver had been allowed to keep control of her car, because it was unarmed and any attempt at crashing it into the protectee would have ended with it destroyed by the anti-air defenses they'd set up.

Shepard and Miranda moved towards the landing shuttle to meet the representative of the Council. The Purasi government was playing a delicate game with the Combine and the Council, trying to maintain its relations with both powers and still assert its independence. With the incredible value of a new Prothean find, they'd also pulled in all patrolling space craft and placed their military on highest alert. There'd been some talk of using eminent domain to seize the beacon, but that had clearly just been to get some points for failing to carry through on the threat. They didn't want to be stuck with the beacon, it would just make them a longer term target.

But with a population of only a few million, Purasi's military was not particularly powerful in space. On the ground, it maintained a higher level of militarization than most Asari colonies and the military was almost entirely made up of Asari and not limited to maidens, making them powerful ground combatants. Its position along the safest main trade line between core Council space and the Combine had helped it grow rich, but there was only so much growing that an 80 year old colony could manage. Especially as it insisted on remaining independent of the Council and therefore independent of the Combine.

To avoid potential…issues, those local forces were keeping their distance, until the beacon was packed up and gone.

The shuttle had engaged its VTOL systems and landed beside the aircar with barely a rustle. First out of the shuttle was a Turian, a head taller than any Turian any of them had met. With full body armor, but his helmet retracted, he was clearly ready for action and thought he was in control of this situation. He introduced himself as Saren Arterius and provided his bona fides identifying him as a Council Spectre. A quartet of what Shepard thought of as 'standard issue Turians' followed him out. They were all armed, and unlike Saren didn't keep their weapons holstered, instead holding Phaestons, each modified with a trio of single shot lasers around the barrel, leaving the heat sink vent clear. Plasma pistols were anchored to their hips to ensure that they had all the main forms of weaponry covered.

Shalira slithered out of the woods that surrounded the dig site, taking up position alongside Ashley, to ensure that her heavier shields were between the protectee and the heavily armed soldiers. Ashley's shields were set to protect against mass impacts, while Shalira's were set to dissipate lasers. It was their best defensive maneuver unless they were willing to attempt to disarm the Spectre and his comrades, or Tali was willing to move. Shepard was not willing to attempt to disarm a Council Spectre and Tali wasn't going to move.

Codex: Tri-Defenses, Unlocked.

Last off the shuttle was an Asari, with the slender frame and the hesitant movements of a maiden. She ignored the soldiers, weapons, even the massive Viper, who usually drew the eye of non-Combine folks. The fact that she was carrying a gun usually mounted on gunships, without considering the secondary weapons mounted on her shoulders, usually got her attention from everyone else, but not in this instance. The girl moved past them without even speaking while Shepard, Miranda and Saren were discussing security requirements.

A hand signal and Ash shadowed the Asari as she moved towards Tali, then moved forward, ensuring the Quarian was never unprotected.

Tali tried to introduce herself, but the Asari was moving around the dig site, recording everything she could see with her omni-tool (or, more literally, everything her omni-tool's camera could see, which was a lot more than her own eyes could see) and speaking notes into it as she absorbed the Protheanness of it all with a glee that was just short of manic. Fortunately Tali had her gloves back on and was clear of the beacon, so the woman didn't even notice her presence. Tali did keep clear of the other woman as her excitement was so intense that it made the backs of her eyes itch, despite the usual dampening effect of her Asari nature (reduced by her young age).

"And she is?" Miranda asked Saren.

"Liara T'Soni. Dr. Liara T'Soni, Ph.D."

"I'm surprised the Council would trust any Asari on this planet with something like this," Miranda pushed.

"She wasn't on this planet. She was on a dig a couple systems over."

"Sorry, is she the Council rep, or is that you?" Shepard broke in.

"I'm in charge of getting the stuff there safely. She's in charge of getting it there intact."

"I hope you brought more than just a personnel shuttle. There's a lot more here than just that beacon," Shepard added, drawing a not terribly friendly glare from Miranda.

"We've got a ship in orbit. If we can get permission to drop a cargo shuttle down here, we'll load it all up."

"Same protocols as before," Shepard offered.

Saren accepted that with a grunt, then pointed out as politely as possible that if Shepard would just fuck off than he'd only need to deal with one, he glanced at Miranda, well two, sets of paranoid, heavily armed sets of locals and only one of them would represent a government.

Shepard pointed out he didn't decide where they went, merely protected his protectee wherever she went. Tali arrived in time to hear that…exaggeration and conveyed her response in an eloquent snort. She introduced herself around, but didn't offer anyone her hand. As both Miranda and Saren had been briefed, they didn't offer theirs either (though the fact that she was wearing gloves in noonday sun, in the middle of summer, would have been a heads up, even without the briefing). Ash rejoined the group, still watching Tali's back.

"So, did you get anything interesting off the beacon, Tali?" Saren asked, after she'd implored everyone to use her given name (as this was practice amongst the group already, except, as always, Shepard). He was going for nonchalant, but didn't quite manage to pull it off, even to the eyes and ears of those who saw Turians most commonly in entertainment programs.

She shrugged and shot Shepard a glance, but, as he declined to give her any cues, she just told the truth, it wasn't like the Council lacked its own psionics to check her work. "Nothing I could identify. It was almost like…"

"What?" Saren and Miranda asked simultaneously, baited into the question and the story which Shepard could see she wanted to tell.

"I do my professional pro bono hours at Rannoch Orbital Hospital 3. I keep hoping they'll actually let me do some engineering work, but since they saw my other qualification, it's all been psionics work. Some communication with the pre- and non-verbal, some sorting out drug-seekers from drug-needers—"

"Occasionally doing hospital security's job for them," Shepard chided her, teasingly.

Tali flushed a darker grey than usual, but continued with her story, despite the curious looks Miranda was giving her. "Anyway, one of the less fun jobs is providing a back-up to the machine readouts on brain death. Usually it's not an issue, but when there's contradictory evidence, or visitors who are talking about suing the hospital if they pull the plug, or," she paused for a moment, "survivors of a psionic assault, it can be a bit trickier and the hospital wants all the evidence it can get."

"Right." "Okay." Saren and Miranda agreed, clearly seeing where this story was going, but not willing to interrupt the Tier 9 psionic who 'occasionally did hospital security's job'.

"So, one case, guy had been in a coma for almost four years. He was being transferred to a new facility and passing through Rannoch local space when he tried to die. They transferred him to the hospital, which got him stabilized, but the ship left in the interim. The family's trying to get him on a new transport, the hospital's screaming about keeping a bed occupied with a vegetable, but they can't dump him, or pull the plug unless he's braindead and their machines are giving contradictory results. So they call me in. Usually I can tell just from being in the same room, but this time I've got to sit down next to him, I'm holding his hand and there's…something. It's not a mind, not really, but it's more than just the automatic functions of a body that'll keep breathing. So I ask permission and his power of attorney holder signs off on a deep probe. I go in and I hit a wall."

About this point in the story, Saren and Miranda realize that they did not, in fact, know where this was going. A Tier 9 psionic wouldn't even notice most barriers that other minds could put up. It was one reason everyone else in sight wore Mind Shields. Those she'd at least notice and have to actively work to break through, instead of just accidentally walking into their minds because she'd been distracted.

"So, I've got a wall inside this guy's head. I'm thinking espionage, or maybe some sort of criminal work, but the guy teaches botany at a community college on Arrakis. His doctoral dissertation was on the adaption of certain forms of fungi to high light, high temperature, low humidity environs, good stuff for the colonization effort out there, but hardly 'put a wall in your head' type stuff. I've already got permission, so I reach in through the wall and go looking, but there's no memories, or secrets, or people hiding in there, it's just a giant garden. I'm thinking that maybe it's allegorical, or there's codes or something, but—"

As Tali approached the end of her story, the universe exploded in a trill of alarms, bursting from omni-tools. That was not any protocol followed by the Sentinel Corps, or Spectres (as both preferred not to let anyone know they knew something was wrong until the problem was solved, for a value of solved that usually involved gunfire and explosions).

The announcement coming over all comm frequencies on an emergency override from the local government echoed oddly from the dozen or so omni-tools around the dig site. "Alert, alert, all civilians head to shelters. Maps to the nearest shelters are transferring to your omni-tools. Do not panic, but head directly to the nearest shelters. All schools are designated shelters, do not attempt to reach them if they are not the closest shelter to you. Your children are safe. Head to the nearest shelter."

The group almost broke up and retreated into separate huddles to figure out what was happening, but Shepard waved a hand at the trees and the scuttling six legged figure of a Geth all-terrain scout platform slid from them, escorted by a gigantic Batarian.

"Report," Shepard snapped, audible over his external comms and to Miranda and Saren therefore.

"Report came in from an outer-system picket through a buoy. Light still hasn't reached us and it's all internal to the military, but they're scrambling and space defenses have gone live. All civilian ships have been ordered to follow new flight-plans issued by the military. They're moving the civilians to the other side of the planet from the relay and clustering their ships over the main cities. The shelter sites are all located adjacent to emergency landing sites, making them a good place to start if they have to evacuate," the Batarian, Lieutenant Kohrvan Lorek'Born reported succinctly, the high pitch was the only cue Saren or Miranda had that she was female (though the full, heavy body armor did a good job of disguising most other cues).

Codex: Batarian Naming (Combine Space), Unlocked.

"Anyone got any communications from the military on what's going on?" Miranda asked, glancing at her own guards who'd gone tense and were horribly unhappy to be that far away, but they shook their heads (demonstrating, if there'd been any doubt, that there was an open comms channel and they were listening to every word their boss said). A wave of Shepard's hand had Ash and Shalira move into the woods, replacing the techs on perimeter duty. Miranda's guards joined her instantly without the bulk of armored Viper in their path.

Saren didn't need to glance at his own guards, answering in the negative, as did Shepard. That was mostly true, though Saren's ship had received the same orders as all other ships, despite not being a civilian vessel. For now, it was making a show of following the orders, if somewhat more slowly than most due to 'engine trouble,' which kept it lingering in geostationary orbit above the dig site.

"Could you access the local military's internal communications?" Shepard asked the Geth platform.

The local military's electronic defenses were intended to keep out the press, the occasional commercial slicer and pirates, none of whom were exactly experts at this sort of warfare. For that exact reason, they accepted the inefficiencies and risks inherent with a decentralized system and trusted their individual commanders to handle most things. There was no doubt that any Geth platform assigned to any military unit, let alone one assigned to the Sentinel Corps, could penetrate that network. That was not the problem.

"Yes, Shepard-Commander. However, such an action would be in violation of Combine Military Regulations, several local planetary laws and 42 separate Combine Federal Ordinances," the Geth reminded him.

There was a momentary silence as Miranda and Shepard stared at Saren. Tali followed their lead after a moment. The Spectre smiled benevolently at them and gave the order which Shepard had kept them all together to get.

"On your authority, Arterius-Spectre," the Geth said and got to work.

Saren nodded and waved over two of his guards to go collect the wayward archaeologist, who was now in danger of wandering out of their line-of-sight, despite the alarm which she had apparently, somehow, managed to completely ignore. She introduced herself around (including to Saren, again), but before she could do more than burble briefly at them about the historical importance of the site, Geth interjected.

"Approximately five minutes ago, fifty-three vessels, tentatively identified as the 3rd Hegemony Fleet arrived. They destroyed three trade ships, the frigate on picket and the comms buoys. They left nine frigates, a cruiser and two cargo ships converted to act as light carriers to guard the relay. The remainder of the fleet is building up speed for a jump in-system."

"Batarians!" Saren snapped, surprised. The glare he got from Kohrvan bounced off his iron ego.

"The 3rd Hegemony fleet," Shepard muttered, with an apologetic glance at the Batarian lieutenant. "I thought it was on permanent guard duty securing the Kite's Nest Relay against us."

"It should be. It's the only thing that kept us from liberating the whole of the Hegemony," Kohrvan agreed.

Codex: Combine-Hegemony War, Unlocked.

"Does the 3rd have any super-dreadnoughts with it?"

"Yes, one. It appears to be the same one that fought the Relay-Battle, repaired," Geth explained.

"That suggests they only—" Kohrvan began, excitement in her voice.

"This doesn't matter. They're here for the beacon. We need to get it out of here," Saren interjected.

"We don't know that. This is a neutral, non-aligned world, just like those the Hegemony would traditionally target for slave raids, or conquest," Miranda countered, seeing her find flying away.

"Did a mayday get to the Combine?" Shepard asked, a flicker of a glance towards Saren moved him to add "Or the Council?"

"There is no way to be certain, however odds are low. Though the picket managed to get a message to the buoy and out, communication with the other side of the relay was down. It appeared to be a technical error, but now seems more likely to indicate that the other end of the buoy network was destroyed," Geth explained.

"Along with whatever ships were on that side of the relay," Saren added.

"So warnings will go out the moment there's any traffic through that system," Miranda pointed out.

"General warnings, assuming they didn't leave any rearguard behind them to secure their escape," Saren countered.

"The news is going out along the other relays and comm systems. Assuming standard information dispersal, it will reach the Combine in approximately three days and the Council in two and a half," Geth put in.

"Any psionic communications?" Shepard asked, glancing at Miranda as he wasn't aware of any stationed on the planet and there wasn't much chance of a local one, given that the planet's population was mostly Asari, with their general lack of psionic power (also, if one existed, he'd have expected the poor psionic to see a lot of use and be public knowledge).

"I didn't bring one," she admitted. A quick glance at the massively more powerful Tali and she added, somewhat sarcastically, "nor did I bring a Gollop chamber with me on the aircar."

Shepard turned his attention pointedly to Saren, before Tali could respond to that.

Saren nodded, somewhat shamefacedly, muttering something about his usual psionic being on loan to someone, then stiffened somewhat, "Besides, even if we could scream for help, it would take a while to get here and that fleet will be here in, what, twenty minutes?" Saren argued.

"Approximately, Arterius-Spectre" Geth agreed.

"They must have left a trail of destruction across half the galaxy, pointed directly here, it's not like Combine Command can miss the fact that we're the target," Miranda pushed.

"And it's not like they're going to jump a couple of fleets into neutral, non-aligned space," Saren pushed right back.

"As you said," Shepard began, drawing looks of betrayal from Miranda and Tali, "none of this matters. Can your ship run that blockade out there and get the beacon," his eyes flickered to Tali, "out of here safely? If not, this conversation is pointless."

"It's not just the beacon, this entire site is an archaeological marvel which must be preserved!" Liara finally interjected.

"With respect, doctor, nothing else is giving off any signs of still being active. We've got scans of everything on site and can destroy it all, costing us nothing while denying the…Hegemony critical intelligence. The only thing which must be evacuated is the beacon itself," Saren turned back to Shepard, "Which my ship can do. It's one of the new Combine-Council ships, fresh out of testing. Top-of-the-line weapons, defenses and stealth systems. A bit understaffed," his eyes flickered over the Combine folks and the beacon he'd have a hard time moving without them and their shuttle and threw them two bones, "and I had to borrow the crew I've got from the design and evaluation teams, Combine and Council alike. In fact, we could use your team, if you can come along."

Shepard's eyes flicked to Tali, a wave of a hand tossing the question over to her, though he made sure she saw his preference. "Of course, we'd be happy to assist. I believe we've still got the cargo shuttle we came down in. We really should make sure it gets back to the Toban, but I'm sure they won't mind if we borrow it a little longer."

Shepard, who, unlike Tali, the captain of the Toban hadn't fawned over, was much less sure on that point, but he was extremely sure he didn't care. In his view the prospective loss of the shuttle was exactly what claim procedures and bureaucrats were for, which suggested a potential solution to the other problem as well. A quick nod to Tali and he turned to Miranda, "What about it, you coming along as well? Seems like you might need to file a claim with the Council, the Combine or both for destruction of your property."

Miranda's hands opened slightly, a typically counter-intuitive indicator of stress. "Yes, yes, and it'll spare me from accompanying my courier back to Earth the long way," the words were inflected as an order and Shepard knew without asking that her courier ship was now preparing to break orbit and head out. As sleek and elegant as the ship was, it wasn't armed with anything which could help and though, by law, there was a squad of Combine Marines onboard, they wouldn't abandon their posts and the Geth onboard lacked any combat platforms.

Codex: Civilian Spacecraft—Combine Legality, Unlocked.

"Kohrvan, Ash make sure all the charges are in place. We'll blow this place as soon as we're clear," Shepard ordered. Nods met that command and the woman faded backward, "Tali, are there any…issues with just pulling that thing out of the ground?" he asked, turning to face the spike. It was almost thrice his height and tapering upwards from a triangular base set in the ground.

"No. It seems to all be a single piece with an internal power source and no external connections," she continued more quietly, "Though I'm not sure what sort of power supply could survive fifty thousand years of sitting in the ground."

Liara, having followed the team assigned with destroying the dig site was attempting to convince them to disobey orders. When she finally realized that wasn't going to happen, she began taking even more recordings of everything. Despite her absolutely serious fury and distress, the sight of her running around waving her arm like a lunatic was amusing.

"Is there anything else here we should carry off?" Saren asked, as if Miranda hadn't already arranged the removal of any non-technological artifacts which were movable.

"Nothing else has any power, or anything indicating it was anything but inert construction materials. No psionic traces anywhere else either," Tali answered.

"Do we have any anti-grav lifters?" Saren asked, examining the massive pseudo-steel beacon.

"We have Shalira and," Shepard's eyes flickered over Miranda and the frantically running Liara, "four biotics. We'll be fine."

"Then let's move," Saren ordered.

Shepard gave a few orders as they separated, including one making it clear that they'd provide an escape for as many Geth programs on-planet as possible, which Saren permitted, under the understanding that they'd stay in the Combine computer systems and out of his. The Geth nodded and joined Shalira by the beacon, preparing to offer some support as Lieutenant Maale'Ceema Nar'Europa joined them, the Quarian biotic specialist prepared to assist if necessary. Tali drifted in that direction to make her own recordings and Liara joined them, complaining about proper archaeological procedure, or the lack thereof, for just grabbing an ancient artifact and pulling really hard until it popped out of the ground.

Because that was exactly what Shalira was doing. As strategies go, it had the advantage of simplicity and of a Viper's ridiculous musculature. The beacon shifted on the first yank, but so did the Viper. She wrapped her lower body around a nearby abutment, over Liara's complaints, before trying again. With her body anchored, Shalira heaved, eyes closed from the strain and this time it was only the beacon which moved and slid free of the ground with a bizarre slurping noise. The sudden lack of counter-force sent Shalira backwards, but the absurd flexibility of a Viper kept her from either tumbling over backward (though being anchored helped) or breaking her back.

"Shalira! Get clear!" the commander ordered.

Shalira's body responded, releasing anchor and beacon alike and sliding away even as her eyes opened to see the threat. The beacon was glowing. A moment after that, she saw the second threat, she'd just created, which had everyone else moving. The beacon was falling.

As it was, or at least appeared to be, a single, solid piece of metal, most of the observers were worried about the fact that it was falling towards Tali. Liara and Saren were the exceptions, but the Spectre was too far away to do anything. Maale was closest and moved fast, tackling the psionic out of the way, covering her with his armored body and raising his strongest barriers around them both.

Shalira tried to reverse her movements, but she had too much momentum and too little time. Shepard reacted next, slamming a throw against the side of the falling beacon, sending it skittering away from his protectee. Or it would have, if Liara hadn't hit the beacon with a pull a moment later, counteracting his force and leaving the beacon hovering in midair, pulsing with blue power. That sight transfixed everyone (except Maale who couldn't see anything except dirt and Tali who couldn't see anything except Maale's armor).

The sight distracted everyone for almost a full second from the fact that Shepard and Liara were joining the beacon in the air, until energy began to arc between the beacon and the floating pair. The last thing Shepard heard before the universe went dark was Saren trying desperately to prevent Ash from shooting the beacon.

XXXXX

Codex: John Shepard:

No individual entry detected. Compiling data from Freedom of Information Act requests and public records. The Codex does not guarantee the accuracy of this information, or that it refers to the 'John Shepard' who you are searching for.

Personal History:

Born: Rannoch Shipyards;

Parents: Jane Shepard, John Shepard Senior, Divorced.

Education History:

L-Town High School, L-Town, Rannoch-Graduated;

City University of New London, New London, Earth-Graduated with BA in Military History;

Central Biotic Training Center, New Zina, Rannoch-Graduated with Honors.

Military History:

Commissioned 2nd Lieutenant: 2172;

Completed Vanguard Corps training: 2172;

Assigned 412th Platoon, Biotic Specialist: 2172;

**REDACTED—Exemption 1 (Classified Information)**;

Received: Purple Heart: 2173;

Received: Distinguished Service Medallion: 2173;

**REDACTED—Exemption 1 (Classified Information)**;

Received: Interstellar Service Cross: 2174;

Received: Official Reprimand for "use of excessive force in a civilian environment": 2174;

Completed Sentinel Corps training: 2174;

Promoted to First Lieutenant: 2174;

Assigned 212th Company, Senior Biotic Specialist: 2174;

**REDACTED—Exemption 1 (Classified Information)**;

Received: Purple Heart: 2176;

Received: Distinguished Service Medallion with Crossed Sabres: 2177;

Promoted to Staff Lieutenant: 2177;

Assigned Sentinel Corps Squad 1127, Executive Officer;

**REDACTED—Exemption 1 (Classified Information)**;

**REDACTED—Exemption 6 (Personal Information)**;

Promoted to Lieutenant Commander: 2180;

Assigned Sentinel Corps Squad 0193, Commander;

**REDACTED—Exemption 1 (Classified Information)**.

Codex: Tali'Zorah Nar'Rannoch:

The oldest child of Rael'Zorah and Loral'Zorah, Tali'Zorah was born and raised on Rannoch. As a child of the powerful and famous Zorah family, great things have been expected of her all her life. She has met those expectations every time, graduating first in her class from the premier starship engineering program on Rannoch and working for Combine Naval Design for more than five years.

However, she is most famous for being one of the rare Quarian psionics and for being the most powerful of the, generally overpowered, Quarian psionics. Indeed, she ranks as Tier 9, meaning that there should be approximately a hundred psionics as powerful as she throughout the entire Combine.

Her high profile has also resulted in her being something of an icon, despite her clear preference for privacy, as she accidentally spawned a brief Quarian fashion for coveralls and other working-engineer clothing. That seems to have dissipated, but there remains a high degree of interest in her and her personal life. She would be more of a presence in the tabloids and gossip magazines, but for the fact that she's been protected by the Sentinel Corps since her abilities manifested themselves when she was fourteen and the Sentinel Corps takes a very dim view of anyone pointing anything, even cameras, at one of their protectees.

Codex: Combine Elites (Sentinel Corps):

The Sentinel Corps are the elite defensive troops of the Combine. Though one of their main functions is defending critical locations on the battlefield, they are more commonly assigned to defend high value individuals such as government officials, ambassadors, high level scientists and Tier 8 or higher psionics.

Their reputation claims that they've never lost a protectee. This is, for a given value of 'lost', true. No person protected by the Sentinel Corps has ever been captured alive. However, a number of them have been killed. This has given rise to persistent rumors that standing orders for the Sentinel Corps include killing the protectee if they cannot prevent capture. No evidence has ever been provided for this claim.

Amongst the elite of the Combine, the Sentinel Corps has the highest proportion of biotics and the lowest proportion of psionics. All troops are equipped with Mind Shields and heavy armor, with bleeding edge shields/armor tech. They're expected to be able to stand between the protectee and an army and come out the other side intact, or at least for the protectee to come out intact. They are generally equipped with standard issue weapons, though those may be modified as the Sentinel Corps has a large number of combat engineers as well.

Though units vary greatly in composition, they generally include at least one Viper, tasked to carry the protectee away, if necessary, using their superior strength and mobility, at least one engineer or Geth command unit to coordinate the drones and electronic warfare defenses which make up the outer defenses the Corps relies upon, and at least one biotic tasked with raising a barrier around the protectee if attacked and using their biotics to move the protectee if, for whatever reason, the Viper cannot.

As with their counterparts, the Vanguard Corps, a number of the units have specific specialties, such as the 303rd 'Flyswatters,' Platoon specializing in anti-air defense and 29th 'Earthshakers,' Company specializing in construction of ground fortifications. The most famous is, of course, the 1st 'Combine's Own' Regiment, responsible for security of Combine Station itself, in permanent geostationary orbit above New London. However, besides these and a few other larger formations, most Sentinels are assigned to squad sized units (approximately 7-10 soldiers), tasked with the protection of individuals.

Codex: Miranda Lawson:

**THIS ENTRY IS THE SUBJECT OF ONGOING LITIGATION AND HAS THEREFORE BEEN WITHDRAWN UNTIL THE LITIGATION IS COMPLETED**

Codex: Tri-Defenses:

After the defeat of the Ethereals, there was no longer only one main weapon type used for inter-personal conflict. Instead there were three, projectiles, lasers and plasma. Defenses against projectiles were a well advanced field, with some few additional advances based on new materials and power sources the Ethereals provided.

Plasma required somewhat different defenses, though those intended to protect against projectiles weren't terrible. However, when faced with a plasma attack, the shields want to be a maximum distance away from the body, even though that weakens them against projectile attack. Whereas armor to hold against projectiles wants to be angled to deflect them and be dense enough to absorb a hit without passing on the kinetic energy, or permitting penetration, to handle plasma, heat transfer and melting points are the main concern.

For laser attacks, the armor wants to resist heat, yes, but more critically it wants to reflect as much energy as possible. Shields are useless against lasers, but the shield generator can also be used to compact air and create a lensing effect to disperse the concentrated energy of the laser. This has a number of downsides, especially its high degree of power usage, the fact that it doesn't work where there isn't an atmosphere and of course, it's completely ineffective against projectiles and if used on plasma, turns the drop of flaming death into a much larger drop of flaming death.

Modern body armor therefore uses a tri-defense system. As body armor can't support more than one defensive system (for the same reasons body armor doesn't simply layer shields on top of each other, namely system stability and interference), instead advanced VIs (or Geth for some Combine units) depending on what weapons are being used switch between close in shielding, expanded shielding or lensing defenses. Meanwhile, the body armor is designed with all weapons systems in mind, with reflective paint covering angled hardened plates, which contain cores made of the same material as heat sinks. This also radically increased the cost of modern body armor.

Codex: Batarian Naming (Combine Space):

As discussed in the main article, Batarian secondary and tertiary names indicate the caste of both parents, as well as whether or not they, or any of their ancestors were slaves. This, along with the fact that slave's names indicated their owners, meant that with the liberation of Hegemony colonies, there was a great deal of tension regarding names.

The Lorek Free State handled this by stripping everyone on the planet of their secondary and tertiary names, replacing them with the single surname 'Lorek'Born'. Several other former Hegemony colonies followed suit. The relevant statutes were appealed to the Combine Treaty Court, however, the case was finally dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, as, in the views of the assembled group of Speakers, it did not fall within the scope of the rights protected by the Treaty.

Anhur was the only former-Hegemony colony to decline to do so, it was also the least stable of those colonies as its population contained the smallest proportion of slaves, or lower caste Batarians and they surrendered quickly, so little of their power, or wealth (other than slaves) was lost in the transition. They responded by attempting to adapt their old styles to a new legal structure.

This collapsed extremely quickly, as the Treaty does guarantee freedom of movement within the Combine and the people at the bottom of the barrel on Anhur instead fled to other colonies. The former upper-caste Batarians tried to prevent that, but the Combine takes violations of the Treaty which all members have signed, extremely seriously. The resulting conflict broke the power of the most powerful and controlling of the former upper-caste Batarians.

Within the year, the new government passed similar laws on naming. It is not true that all Batarians are subject to these laws as they are local ordinances, anyone leaving those colonies is no longer subject to them. Nor is it true that only Batarians are subject to them. Non-Batarians on those worlds are also known as X-Born.

However, given the history, there are intense social pressures not to reclaim their original names, unless they indicate former-slave or perhaps low-caste status.

Codex: Combine-Hegemony War:

There were always tensions between the Combine and the Hegemony, as the Combine believed the Hegemony was funding pirates and slavers who were slowing their expansion and the Hegemony believed the Combine was funding rebel groups and slave liberation groups which were destabilizing their colonies and interfering with the Hegemony's expansion. Both of these were true. However, events would not come to a head for almost forty years after the Combine joined the civilized nations.

Many causes have been put forward as the final impetus for the war between the Combine and the Hegemony, with the most popular being a series of 'true' stories of escaped slaves inflaming Combine popular opinion, the sudden colonization of Jorial-3, by the Combine, blocking access to an entire cluster by the Hegemony, the manipulation by X-Com of the Hegemony's underclasses, and the Hegemony's beginning construction of an armed 'trade inspection' station along the main trade-lane between the Combine and other Council nations.

What is clear is that both sides were clearly prepared for war when the sparking incident occurred. The Hegemony had upgraded their fleet with the new technology the Combine had released and the Combine's fleets were in perfect position for an all-out assault on the Hegemony.

In 2139, a slave rebellion broke out on the Hegemony colony of Lorek, while the planetary defense fleet (which ordinarily would have restored order via planetary bombardment) was deployed to face the Combine Ninth Fleet, over an impounded Combine-flagged trade ship accused of smuggling. The rebels managed to seize control of the main communications array and announced that they were the Lorek Free State and requested help defending themselves from the Hegemony's aggression.

If not for the fact that the Hegemony had chosen to enslave the crew of the impounded Combine ship and moved them down to the planet, the Combine fleet probably wouldn't have been able to justify interfering in the Hegemony's response, but with their people unaccounted for, they insisted that the planet not be bombarded. The Hegemony insisted it be bombarded. For a moment, they hung on the brink of war. Then both parties agreed to consult higher headquarters, rather than begin a war.

While the Hegemony was consulting amongst its leaders and maneuvering for advantage, slave rebellions sprang up almost everywhere, triggered by the Hegemony's failure to immediately suppress the Lorek rebellions. These rebellions are considered to be some evidence of X-Com's involvement as usually slaves would not have been permitted to hear about slave rebellions. It is certainly true that the Combine had argued that everyone was entitled to access the extranet, but no evidence of X-Com involvement ever surfaced.

Regardless of their origin, the slave rebellions put terrible pressure on the Hegemony fleet and the Hegemony as a whole. It responded by offering to return the Combine citizens, so long as the Combine stayed out of their 'internal affairs', expecting that offer to paralyze the Combine long enough for them to move conventional forces into place on Lorek and recapture the colony the hard way.

Instead, the Combine Parliament in a feat of efficiency rarely seen in that body (which is also presented as evidence that the whole thing was a setup by X-Com) voted to recognize the Lorek Free State and offer it membership in the Combine.

After that, war was inevitable. Both sides claim the other fired first. The Hegemony claims this because the Ninth Fleet opened fire on their ships without warning and proceeded to engage in a wholesale slaughter of the old, second-tier colonial defense vessels. The Combine claims this because the Lorek Free State accepted the offer to join the Combine, and yet Hegemony forces continued to attack them. Admittedly, most of those forces would not have known of that action, but the Combine handled that by not caring.

The Combine military was larger and more modern than the Hegemony's, though they were outnumbered on the ground due to limitations on troop transport. The Hegemony SIU launched several extremely effective raids on Combine territory, massacring civilians and destroying facilities, but that only strengthened Combine resolve. Most of the colonies the Combine Fleets conquered they held only in the sense that they held the orbitals and the relays, but with discord everywhere and their fleet in shambles, complete defeat for the Hegemony, followed by defeat in detail for the remaining colonies seemed inevitable.

Intense debate occurred within the Council and the governing bodies of the major nations therein, but the final conclusion was that the Combine was solving a problem for the Council and simultaneously taking on the massive task of reforming Batarian society and an economy entirely dependent on a caste system and slavery, both of which Combine law expressly forbade.

The consensus of all Council nations was that the newly expanded Combine, would be weakened and suffer from internal strife for at least a generation. Which was all to the good. And even the expanded Combine wasn't a major concern for them. With no clear aggressor there was little to prompt action in favor of the Hegemony. Moreover, the Combine had proven to be a good neighbor, less troublesome and more profitable than the Hegemony.

With no help coming, the Hegemony prepared for its final battle, in defense of the Mass Relay leading to Khar'Shan. It was then, when outnumbered three-to-one by the Combine First, Second and Ninth Fleets, that the Batarian 3rd Fleet unveiled its new flagship. A superdreadnought larger than any the universe had seen (save for the Temple Ship), it was a feat of engineering no one thought the Hegemony capable of.

The battle was savage and, though at the end of the day, the Combine held the Mass Relay while the Hegemony retreated in disarray, their flagship badly mauled by a suicide raid launched by what was reportedly X-Com Special Forces, there was no stomach to pursue the Hegemony forces into the Kite's Nest. Instead they hold their home cluster, but no more than that. And so the situation has remained for more than forty years, with the Combine maintaining its largest fleet deployment around the Mass Relay, awaiting the day the Hegemony tries to come out, or they finally get the go-ahead from the Combine Parliament to go in after them.

Military casualties were relatively light, with fewer than a million military casualties on both sides. However, widespread Hegemony use of planetary bombardment in response to rebellion, or defeat, meant that Hegemony civilian casualties reached almost two hundred million (another reason the Council chose not to get involved). On the Combine side, the vast majority of the civilian casualties came from a single SIU raid, where they successfully de-orbited the Riatov Space Station, crashing it into the planet and killing approximately four hundred thousand civilians. Total Combine civilian casualties were less than five hundred thousand.

Codex: Civilian Spacecraft—Combine Legality:

Though the Ethereal War officially ended with the capture of what became known as the Temple Ship, several Ethereals survived on other ships and several Outsiders had been given orders before the death of their Ethereal commanders which they carried out until they received countermanding orders. Both groups did the same thing. They attempted to exterminate Humanity. For the most part this consisted of scout ships launching bombing runs, then crashing into the nearest building when cornered. However, the worst was when the last remaining Ethereal battleship attempted a suicide run on the planet, building up momentum, then jumping as close to the Earth as it could, intending to ram the planet at a significant fraction of the speed of light.

Fortunately, such a jump required the battleship to come out further than usual and there were Quarian ships in its flightpath. A number of Migrant Fleet ships were destroyed and the battleship was mostly destroyed. However, fragments which remained on course landed throughout the Beijing area, causing more than a million casualties. Though the planet was saved, the newly formed Combine took the threat to heart and proposed limitations on the use even of civilian craft. As all those craft were Quarian, this was a major political fault line and debating point for the newly formed Combine.

That debate ended with the Rannoch Expedition and the start of the conflict with the Geth, caused by a single civilian ship. Both due to Quarian concerns regarding the Geth and the fact that shipping was no longer a Quarian monopoly, new security measures were passed to ensure that no ship could be used as planetary bombardment weapons (or breach the external perimeter).

The main mechanism for this was the requirement that ship crew undergo extensive training and psionic testing and that a unit of Combine Marines be stationed aboard every such ship. After integration of the Geth-Unity, their access to ship systems was also required. A hardwired switch remained which would cut Geth control, but render the ship inoperable, beyond the activation of a shielded VI, whose only task and capability was to bring the ship to a stop relative to all local planetary bodies.

As this is a requirement not merely of Combine-flagged vessels, but of any civilian vessels entering Combine space, it is common for trade-ships from other Council nations to transfer their cargo to a Combine-flagged vessel, rather than make the necessary (and expensive) adaptations to travel in Combine space.

Author's Note: Well, we made it to the present. With the Geth fragmented, but the majority integrated into Combine society, Sovereign needed different allies and the Hegemony was desperate for allies.

If I've done the math right, it should be clear that the population of the Combine is…large, approximately a hundred billion. This was based on calculations assuming a somewhat higher rate of population growth than current and extended lifespans, without any limitations on population growth.

I'll be on vacation next week recovering from the last month, but updates will resume on the 15th.

Reviews are always welcome.