Chapter 13: Unknown Family

Author's Note: And I'm back. Short chapter this time around, sorry about that.

'The Krogan were here' proved to be both more and less of an exaggeration than Shepard had expected. The New Dawn pursued its general practice of not remaining anywhere for very long, in order to ensure no one could eliminate the Alliance's main means of detterance (though the New Dawn, like the Destiny Ascension and the Hegemony's superdreadnought, was so large that any ship coming out of jump drive needed to do so at a range which exceeded that where a nuclear blast would be effective; so long as point defense systems remained intact, it would take a massive assault to sneak a shuttle loaded with nukes in close enough to do any damage).

Instead of that massive ship, there was a small, if heavily armed, courier vessel, hence less Krogan than he'd feared. Unfortunately, that ship carried Urdnot Wren, third son of Urdnot Wrex, come officially on behalf of his father to discuss matters with the Council. Hence, more Krogan than Shepard had hoped. And more ceremony than the commander ever liked to see. At least it had bought him time to get to the meeting.

Codex: Urdnot Wren, Unlocked.

Wren came to meet with the Council in their chambers, with them standing on the platforms above the Krogan, casting him in the role of supplicant. It didn't fit well, as he was surrounded by his krantt armed and armored, for cultural reasons, while the Council's guards were not visible.

Ambassador Udina was likewise surrounded, though Shepard and his squad were in dress uniforms and weren't carrying weapons. Tali was also there, for no particular reason, other than Udina wanting every bit of power on his side of the room that he could justifiably muster. That probably also explained the pair of armored guards from his own troops, though they were likewise unarmed (though their movements screamed 'combat biotics' to the trained eye).

Urdnot Wren was announced by a larger Krogan, who led the younger, smaller Krogan to the front of the Counil chambers, then stood aside. Wren was flanked by a red-haired Human and a squat, powerfully built Vorcha.

"Welcome to the Citadel, representative of Overlord Wrex," Councilor Tevos said.

"My thanks," Wren growled. "Be it known that these are my krantt, Nakmor Drack," he waved at the Krogan, "Elder;" the Human, "Jane Shepard, Warrior;" the Vorcha, "Wrecker, Youth." The fact that his krantt was made up of three warriors, with those specific titles said something about which of the various Krogan traditions Wren followed, but no one in the room, except the Geth, was sufficiently conversant with the various Krogan traditions to know what exactly it indicated.

Codex: Krantt, Unlocked.

Shepard kept himself from reacting in any way. The rest of his squad was not quite as disciplined and visibly twitched at the mention of a Shepard amongst the Urdnot warrior's krantt, the warriors who would kill and die in his name. Shepard's eyes didn't move and he continued to examine this krantt. Jane was about his age, and strongly built, a Carnifex on her hip and a heavy sniper rifle on her back, she was clearly an infiltrator. Drack had the build and scars of an old school soldier, and old Krogan warrior, cradling his Ruzad shotgun, with a heavy assault rifle on his back. Wrecker was carrying the standard Vorcha flamethrower, but something was missing…the creature lacked the Mind Shield the others wore. Odd, only psionics routinely went without the devices...A Vorcha psionic would truly be an oddity, but a team made up of a sniper, soldier, biotic (assuming Wren shared his father's abilities) and psionic would cover most potential threats, as well as posing a potent one.

"Honored," Councilor Tevos said politely, introducing her fellow Councilors and Ambassador Udina, leaving the more awkward portions of the conversation to her fellows, or even better, to the Combine ambassador, to permit her to maintain her position as the mediator and voice of reason.

Councilor Sparatus beat the Human to the point. "You're here as a representative of your father. What does Urdnot Wrex want from the Council?"

Kohrvan did not mutter something about his wanting all their heads on plates, because Ash gave the other woman a silent look that, in turn, silenced her.

"Overlord Wrex requests access for myself to this beacon. I understand it shows visions to those biotics who touch it with their power. Biotics such as myself," Wren explained.

"The beacon is the property of the Council. Its knowledge is the property of the Council. Why should we share it with you?" Councilor Valern put in bluntly.

"Besides the fact that you wouldn't have it without our intervention?"

"Untrue!" Udina interjected. "Despite what the news may have said, the beacon was already out of the system before your ships even arrived."

"But that's not what everyone knows, is it?" Wren asked, sweetly.

"Since 'everyone' doesn't know about the beacon, what they 'know' is that you saved an independent colony. Which is awfully nice of you, but doesn't have anything to do with access to Council secrets," Udina countered.

Wren grinned, a friendly, but aggressive, movement and abandoned that line of attack, for his main argument. "There's also the fact that we know where the Hegemony Fleet ran off to. And that they aren't alone."

Sparatus, who'd stayed out of the debate over newsmedia and public relations, because he didn't care, did care about military movements, "And who's with them? A few Terminus gangs?" he fished, unsubtly.

"One, or more, of the factions of Geth," Wren put in, quite precisely.

There was a moment of silence as everyone absorbed that. Besides the Geth-Unity, the Geth factions did not work with organic species (though the Geth-Slaver made use of organics).

"That is…improbable," Councilor Valern noted.

"So we thought, and yet it has occurred. Even more worrisome, is the unidentified ship, tentatively identified as belonging to the Collectors."

"The Collectors are little more than a myth. Cover for whatever criminals can convince the public that their crimes were committed by aliens from beyond the Omega 4 relay," Sparatus argued.

"And yet, our scouts have positively identified the ship as the same one which has been spotted entering the Omega 4 relay. And I would have thought the Salarians would have shared their proof of the Collectors' existence with this Council."

"What?" Tevos asked, when Valern declined to invite the Krogan to continue with his accusation.

"It was an STG unit which kidnapped Okeer and the Collectors he was trading Krogan children to right out from under my dear brother's nose, wasn't it? If not, I should know so that I can properly mock him for that loss, regardless of how much he now bleats that all he wanted was to recover the children."

"The Hegemony, a faction of the Geth and the Collectors all in one system. Is this the beginning of a joke, or are we meant to take these unevidenced claims seriously?" Valern said, turning the discussion from matters he truly did not wish to discuss with the Council as a whole. The rest of the Council let him get away with it, at least in front of representatives of the Combine and the Alliance, there would be more discussions, in private, he was sure.

"I will happily provide you not merely evidence, but the system location, once I have gained this…vision of the Protheans," Wren said.

Tevos spoke before her fellows could. "Unfortunately, a trade is difficult to support here, where there is no true trust. Once you have gained access to the beacon, we can hardly call back the knowledge of what you've seen, even if your claims all prove false."

"Not without actions which would violate your status as diplomatic envoy, at least," Valern put in. "And which I doubt you would volunteer for?"

That last question had a hook on the end, which Wren dodged. "No need, no need, for, so long as the Council agrees to my terms, I'm more than happy to go first and trust to the Council's honor that they will fulfill their side of our bargain."

"Even so, the business with the Hegemony is of little concern to the Council and though we, along with the Council, fight those factions of the Geth which fail to follow the true path, finding some minor nest of the Geth-Slaver, or Geth-Genocidal is hardly something worth what you ask. As representative of the Combine, I would be willing to purchase the information you claim to have, but your price is too high and you offer it to the wrong party," Udina corrected the Krogan, despite the alien being decades older than Udina..

"Except the superdreadnought is there. Everyone wants to take it apart and figure out how that thing works. And I know everyone's wondering where it came from, because it surely wasn't built by the Hegemony. And I know everyone's wondering why the Hegemony was willing to risk it to attempt to capture a Prothean Beacon. Go there, take the ship and find the answers to all those questions. Or let the Hegemony, which you," he turned to Udina, "invaded and you," he turned to the Council, "betrayed, gather forces and allies in the Terminus systems unmolested until they are prepared to act."

There was a moment of silence in response to that. Then Udina jumped in before the councilors could. "The Alliance gives us questions. The Combine provides an answer, without asking for payment. There is no Hegemony any longer."

The blunt statement drew stares. "What have you done?" Sparatus asked, always paranoid, always hostile.

"With their fleet elsewhere, we sent in scouts and found Khar'shan depopulated. We have solid reports that three of the four previously occupied systems within the cluster are likewise depopulated and will have reports on the fourth by the end of the day and from all previously unoccupied systems in the Kite's Nest within five days. We have no basis to expect anything other than what we've already found. Preliminary indications suggest some sort of civil war, but civil wars don't entirely depopulate a sector. There were orbital strikes on Khar'shan, but beyond that, we have no evidence as to what happened to the population. Complete files will be transferred to the Council at the end of this meeting."

Kohrvan did move a little at that, jaw dropping, almost speaking, but a slight twitch of Ash's hand had Shalira's bulk between the Batarian and all observers, giving her a little privacy to react to this news, unkindly delivered. But none of the soldiers could rightfully speak in this gathering of politicians.

"I assume this was not the action of the Combine?" Valern asked, more to get the formal denial on the record than because he expected any other response, regardless of the truth of the matter.

"Indeed not. Besides being completely unethical, if it were us, that fleet out there would be screaming it to the high heavens. Frankly, I'm a little surprised they're not, even though it would be a lie."

"There were billions of people in that sector when it was sealed off. You say they are now all dead?" Councilor Tevos asked, actually shocked and letting it show through.

"I say they are now all gone, perhaps into death, perhaps somewhere else, though moving billions is no easy task, especially given how few ships they had left and how much damage the rebels and X-Com alike had done to their infrastructure."

"A mystery indeed," Valern muttered in the tone of one who hated mysteries.

"One whose answer lies in the only remaining Hegemony fleet," Wren put in, as Tevos began to believe Udina had set him up for, to get the Council to buy the information she was beginning to believe the Combine actually wanted, without the Combine having to pay for it, despite his earlier claims to the contrary.

"Commander Shepard," she said.

He stepped forward and stood at attention before the Council, ignoring the Krogan and his krantt. "Yes, ma'am?"

"You saw this 'vision,' did you not?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Will you permit a Council psionic to take a copy of the vision from your mind, for our review and, perhaps, to be shared with the Krogan, if we so choose?"

Shepard tried to keep from reacting to the idea of letting some other asshole into his head to poke around. He failed, but he did manage to keep his voice steady. "If ordered to do so, by my superiors, ma'am."

The Councilors deliberately turned to stare at Ambassador Udina. Silence stretched uncomfortably. Wren smiled broadly at the air of conflict in the room. "Of course, such an order can be forthcoming, as a favor to our friends and allies on the Council," Udina said after deciding the Council wasn't actually going to request that he order a Combine soldier to let them probe his mind, just because such an order was possibly illegal absent a court order on the Citadel.

"The information in his head is Prothean technology, which you're required to turn over to this Council. I don't believe anything is owed for that, but that's a matter that doesn't concern the Krogan," Sparatus interjected.

"Are you willing to accept the vision transferred from the commander's head?" Tevos asked, as she silently received confirmation from her fellows, that the compromise she'd proposed the moment she heard what Wren wanted was acceptable. "We will not, however, give you physical access to the beacon."

"So long as my own psionic oversees the transfer as well, yes, I will."

Tevos considered for a moment. Liara had reported the vision was jumbled and the current thinking was that that was a result of the message being designed for a Prothean brain, which originated from a different culture and were physically different. There were sometimes psionic miscommunications between species and all of them shared a far greater base of commonality than anyone had with the extinct Protheans.

"We have an agreement then, yes?"

"Agreed," Urdnot Wren said, before either of the other councilors could interject, as if he imagined she was making the choice without reference to the others.

"Good. I will ask your aid, Ms. Zorah, in transferring the vision to Urdnot Wren and several dozen Prothean experts of all species to attempt to make more sense of it. If you should decode anything out of the vision, please let us know, Mr. Wren," Tevos chose, having achieved the agreement to let him know that the prize he sought would be more widely shared, though she didn't mention that at least one of the people she'd ensure was on the list to get the vision would be another Krogan.

Shepard, trying to distract himself from the impending repeated mind-fuckery, wanted to turn the conversation to what exactly was going to be done with the location once it was found. X-Com, the STG, Turian Intelligence, and Spectres all operated large forces within the Terminus (which was where the remains of the Hegemony fleet had to be hiding) and any approach except a single, unified one risked turning into a literal farce. He did not say anything, as his opinion had not been requested.

Codex: Turian Intelligence, Unlocked.

Sparatus, despite clearly having something large lodged someplace uncomfortable, did note the potential problem and was even willing to bring it up. "All the powers capable of significant power projection into the Terminus are present here. I expect we all have questions regarding this matter. We should ensure we coordinate our…responses to avoid accidentally have any sort of interstellar incident."

"The Hegemony has never withdrawn from this Council, even if their ambassador was never replaced," Tevos pointed out. "We can hardly attack them—" Wren started to say something sardonic, she could see it, but she got there first, "regardless of the unfortunate involvement of the Combine and the Hegemony in each other's internal affairs."

"Did anyone even see any of the crew of the fleet that attacked Purasi?" Valern asked. "How sure are we that they were Batarians and not whomever destroyed the Hegemony?"

"A review of the scans of the debris from the destroyed ships should answer that question," Sparatus said.

There was an awkward silence until Wren explained that no, the Alliance didn't follow Hierarchy protocols and hadn't done any scans of the debris field beyond those necessary to determine that there wasn't anything valuable to salvage from them. Udina admitted, without any shame that the Combine hadn't done scans either, as they'd been a bit busy escaping with the Citadel's prize.

"We will need to contact the Purasi authorities and dispatch our own investigators then," Valern said, a little irritably.

"Regardless, there are questions which we need answers to, and fast," Udina put in.

"That's what Spectres are for," Valern pointed out, without mentioning that it was also what the STG was for.

"Saren is here and read into…some of this," Sparatus argued, considering the sheer amount of new information which they'd received. "And I'm sure he would would be pleased to accept the assistance of more crewmembers from the Combine, for his new ship." This offer would give everyone the same information, while on a ship under the command of a Turian Spectre where…anything could happen.

"An interesting suggestion," Urdnot Wren said. "Let's see this vision first and learn what these people wanted to see so badly." Whether he meant that, or he was just buying time to get what he wanted wasn't clear.

"When we have the information you promised," Tevos said, then continued as if she was not scrambling to get representatives of Republics into position to ensure that no information was lost between Saren's eyes and the reports he made to the Council, "If this is a third party, then we may need to make first contact. We can send along Matriarch…" she almost said Lan'asi, as the woman had handled the Combine situation well enough, but remembered that Liara would be staying here, heavily involved in this, dangerous, matter and that she really didn't want to have to deal with the archaeologist's mother, after permitting that, "Benezia and a team of experts to handle that if it becomes necessary."

"If there's new tech, you will need experts to decipher it. The Union will provide," Valern put in as they sweetly split the work between them along the usual military-political-scientific angles they each tried to play. Of course that wasn't completely accurate. Benezia would have techs and commandos in her entourage, and there would be STG shooters and political analysts in the Salarian team. Only Saren would probably stick to his assigned role, confident in his ability to gain compliance and information from the experts the others would send.

With the Combine providing much of the crew, each power would have independent confirmation of what was found. It would minimize the chance of a brilliant discovery unshared by the others, but also minimize the chances that they'd end up shooting each other, or suing each other over a stolen discovery. At least on that ship. Whether other ships would be sent was a matter for their respective governments to decide.

"Well, then, the only question is where they will be sent," Sparatus agreed and the Councilors turned the full force of their attention on Urdnot Wren, who smiled and politely agreed that he would, indeed go first, as soon as they'd restated their agreement for the single-use legal recorder he'd brought along.

Codex: Legal Recorder, Unlocked.

A few minutes of awkward legalese and negotiation over phrasing followed, which the Combine managed to stay out of, though their eyes were beginning to glaze over by the time they agreed on wording and spoke the agreements into the device which would give it at least a presumption of legality and authenticity.

A moment later, Urdnot Wren had passed over the location of the fleet on a connectionless omni-tool he'd been carrying in his mouth (on the correct theory that a Krogan stomach would leave nothing of the device to be recovered if he needed to destroy it and that the Alliance's electronic security really wasn't up to modern electronic warfare standards).

"Then we'll hold up our end of the agreement as soon as we have confirmation," Tevos said.

"Of course, I have complete confidence in that. And I will enjoy the…hospitality of this station until then," Wren's grin was a savage thing which suggested that his enjoyment might involve fire, explosions and large quantities of alcohol and/or blood.

"We'll contact you as soon as we have confirmation," Tevos said, dismissing the Krogan and only wishing she could as easily dismiss her concern over the damage he might do and the complaints the Council would receive regarding the behavior of someone who they were going to have to handle with kid gloves.

XXXXX

Codex: Urdnot Wren:

Unlike his older brothers, little is known about the third son of the first clutch of Urdnot Wrex. Though all the first clutch were born in the 2110s when Wrex's scientists successfully 'cured' the genophage and altered Krogan breeding patterns, Wren has remained mostly out of the spotlight for the seventy years of his life. It's not even widely known which of the Urdnot Female Clan's women birthed him and his siblings.

His eldest brother, Urdnot Wrince has made a name for himself by leading reprisals against those who attacked the Terminus Alliance, most famously leading his krantt against Dahlia Dantius and her band of slavers, culminating in a recorded duel do the death, in which he killed the Asari, messily, despite lacking his father's biotics.

The second oldest brother, Urdnot Wring has made a name for himself by bringing various independent Krogan groups under the dominion of Overlord Wrex. Most Krogan followed Overlord Wrex from the moment he returned with a 'cure' for the genophage. However, some remained independent, especially those who believed the 'cure' should return the Krogan to the days of thousands of children in a clutch. Most famously, Ganar Yulaz, leader of the Blood Pack attempted to maintain his independence by seeking to gain control of Heshtok and its almost infinite supplies of Vorcha. Wring arranged a meeting and, when Yulaz inevitably attempted to ambush him and his krantt, discovered that Wring had suborned several senior Vorcha leaders, who blocked the arrival of the mercenary's reinforcements, leaving Yulaz to die writhing on Wring's claws.

Meanwhile Wren has never been recorded as leaving the New Dawn. Despite this, he apparently keeps out of both Krogan politics and religion. The only thing known about him is that, like his father, and unlike his elder brothers, he is a biotic.

Codex: Krantt:

A krantt consists of warriors who will fight for, or speak for, a Krogan. Though a Warlord may have thousands of warriors under his command, and an Overlord even more, a krantt is more than that. It consists of those the leader trusts not merely to kill for him, but also to represent him where he is absent, or stand at his back without putting a knife in it. Besides serving as bodyguards, they are often advisors, or ambassadors, trusted not to embarrass their leader, as much as fight beside him (though a Krogan definition of embarrassment may not track with that of most other sapient species).

Traditionally, a krantt is a small number of followers, with the number and composition varying depending on which rites the Krogan leader observes. The most common are two person krantts, (which, with the leader, form a three person team, representing a Krogan hand), with the remainder being made up mostly of three person krantts (with the leader represented the closed fist which his followers make up), four person krantts (one for each limb, with the leader being the Krogan body), or six person krantts (both hands, with the leader being a disembodied controller).

Even amongst those who agree on the number of a krantt, the internal structure varies wildly. The most common, two person krantts have two main types, one dualistic with each members of the krantt arguing opposite sides in any course of action and the leader making a decision based on who he thinks was victorious, to ensure decisions can stand up to conflict, as the Krogan say. The other, directly antagonistic requires the two members of the krantt to argue with every major decision (outside combat) the leader makes, to ensure that the leader's decisions and the leader himself, can overcome hostility and triumph despite being outnumbered..

All of the above is philosophy and ritual. Krogan follow it to much the same degree other species do. That is, some follow it religiously (literally and figuratively) and some ignore all but the outer bounds of the forms.

Though a krantt is usually hierarchical with a single leader, it is not uncommon, in instances where a member of the krantt requires the services of a krantt of their own, for the usual leader to serve as a member of their, the usual member's, krantt.

Codex: Turian Intelligence:

Turian Intelligence is, as the name suggests, the intelligence branch of the Hierarchy. Historically spies were of minimal value in Turian conflicts where strong internal, hierarchical loyalties, and controls on external travel and communication made spies extremely uncommon and generally ineffective.

So, when the Hierarchy needed to create its own intelligence services to handle dealing with other, more open, powers, it turned to what it did have in skilled abundance, scouts. This did not prove terribly effective. However, as more Turians moved outside the Hierarchy and the Vol Protectorate joined the Hierarchy, their pool of recruits grew. Volus and external recruits make up a plurality of the field operatives.

Turian Intelligence is not the equal of the STG, or the Spectres, however it has grown into a respectable organization, with unparalleled reach in financial intelligence and external observation due to their access to Hierarchy Fleet observations.

Codex: Legal Recorder:

In a universe of easy digital, physical and psionic manipulation of witnesses and recordings, the legal recorder is the non-Combine answer to the question of how the law can know what really happened. Where Combine citizens generally ask for the Geth to witness important document signings and such, the rest of the Citadel relies on single use, non-receiving recorders, with built in holo-detectors.

Legal recorders originated as cameras for various news organizations, dealing with issues of edited footage from field reporters. However, they are most commonly used now to record agreements. Their complete lack of receiving capability makes them also useful as security cameras, but their expense means that they tend to be used only for very high end areas.

Though legal recorders are generally effective, there are still ways around them and therefore their records are only granted a presumption of accuracy. The legal recorder is only granted a presumption of accuracy if the original recording device is presented to the court and therefore destroying, or stealing the original is a common fictional trope, as well as an actually common goal of criminal actors, or just people who want out of their contracts.

Author's Note: Sorry for the short chapter folks, but I'm back and mostly recovered from the last months. Reviews are always welcome.