Chapter 5-
Ruby held up her hand and counted down from three and on zero Kaiden opened the door and the group moved into the room with their weapons trained and ready.
"What the hell?!" One of them yelled out and immediately moved to grab the doctor but at the same time, Garrus popped up and shot the man straight through the brain, right next to the doctor's head.
The woman screamed as she ducked down and attempted to cover her head from danger as she cried out.
"Get them!" One of the other attackers yelled out but as soon as the weapon was raised he was killed with a bullet to the chest and head.
The others soon engaged as well, with William's and Kaiden both taking down another attacker with their assault rifles as Neo charged forward and struck the man before ending him with a pistol shot as he attempted to recover from the biotic charge.
"Nice timing Commander's, gave me a clear shot on that bastard." Garrus said as he came over to them.
"Williams, check the doctor." Ruby barked out, "You could have shot the doctor if you missed, especially with such a snap shot like that. Do that shot again and it might not be as lucky next time." Ruby chastised, angry at the risk.
"I'm sorry. Dr Michel, are you alright?" Garrus asked, immediately realising his mistake.
"It is alright Mr Vakarian. I am fine." The doctor replied, waving off William's concern.
"So, what was it that those guys wanted?" Neo asked.
"They were thugs working for Fist." The doctor explained.
"Fist?" Kaiden asked.
"Shadow broker agent who runs Chora's den." Ruby answered.
"Right. He was interested in looking for a Quarian I treated who has information about Saran and his involvement on Eden Prime. She wanted to trade with the shadow broker." The doctor answered.
"Right. So, to find Fist then, before that meet." Ruby said.
"There's a problem though. Fist isn't an agent of the Shadow Broker anymore, he sided with Saran and cut his ties, it's why she's not safe." Garrus explained.
"Right. So, let's go get Fist, hopefully we can beat him to the Quarian." Neo said.
"There's a Krogan bounty hunter after Fist, we could get him to help." Garrus suggested.
"I know him, saw him at the club. Neo, want to talk to Barla or do you want the Krogan, Wrex?" Ruby asked.
"Wait, what could Barla possibly have for us now?" Kaiden asked.
"Nothing but we need to speak to him regarding other issues, so which will it be?" Ruby answered.
"I'll take Wrex, you're always good at talking with Barla and plus the investment stuff goes over my head sometimes." Neo replied, smirking at Ruby.
"Right. Let's meet by the taxi point outside Chora's, let's say an hour?" Ruby suggested.
"An hour, let's go." Neo said, and everyone followed her as Ruby went off on her own.
As Neo started leading them all towards C-sec headquarters or at least one of them, she was answering Garrus' questions.
"Does she normally just go off on her own?" Garrus asked.
"Sometimes. Depends on what we're doing but if you're wondering if she works well with a team, you have no issues." Neo answered.
Garrus remained quiet as they exited the elevator and approached the only Krogan there who was arguing with an officer.
"You Wrex?" Neo asked, the Krogan was a giant next to her short frame but that didn't matter to Neo as she easily stared him down.
"And what if I am?" Wrex rumbled out.
"Commander Gelato, I hear you're going after Fist." Neo said.
"I'll give you the same warning I gave to them officers. Stay the hell out of my way if you know what's good for you." Wrex warned.
"I'm not planning on getting in your way, I want Fist as well but before you kill him I'd like to actually speak to him. I was thinking we could team up, much better then you going in all alone or me getting there first and killing him." Neo said, standing tall next to the deadly Krogan.
Wrex stared down at the small woman, mismatched eyes staring right back at him and something seemed to stand out to him, so much so that she barked out a laugh.
"I like you human." He laughed, "Alright. I'll help you, but after that we part ways." Wrex said.
"Agreed. Now we are to meet with our leader, Commander Rose." Neo said, leading them all back up the elevator and towards Chora's den.
On the way there though Kaiden asked Neo, "So did you and Commander Rose meet at the academy? You work together seamlessly." Kaiden asked.
"No, we didn't actually but before that. I uh, sort of broke into her house or rather Captain Qrow's house." Neo answered sheepishly, remembering the day as if it was yesterday.
She had scoped this place out for well over a month. She knew who it belonged to. Captain Qrow of the alliance but she had seen him leave the week before and he hadn't been back which meant he was on deployment which meant the house was empty.
But she gave a week's grace period just in case but since he left there had been no movement of any kind in the house, nothing changed so she carefully moved up the building until she reached the man's bedroom window.
She carefully checked for any sort of security systems set up, but she found none or the ones there had been deactivated for some reason.
He probably forgot to set it up, Neo thought to herself as she listened out for any noises inside the flat but found none so far. That was one thing she liked about her hearing, she could hear through windows and doors to the point she could be accurate on the number of people inside.
Gently prying open the window she slipped through noiselessly as her heeled boots made no sound on the floor. She closed the window silently but made sure she could still make a quick escape out of it just in case.
Once certain she was alone, Neo carried on through the bedroom to start her job but before she could even pick up anything she heard a slight noise.
It was nothing, barely even there but Neo knew that any little sound could give her away and she didn't know what it was that caused the sound, so she remained still and silent as she listened out for it again.
There! She could hear it, it was barely there but it was there nonetheless. As the minutes slowly went by she slowly tracked the source of the sound down and what she saw surprised her.
Buried underneath a mountain of bedding, which Neo was hesitant to move because of the crying that was coming from underneath it all but something in her told her to move the bedding instead of just leaving as silently as she entered.
So carefully Neo slowly removed it all until she was faced with a brunette-haired woman with red highlights in her hair, silver eyes hidden beneath rivers of water and a frightened look as she took in the woman above her, but then something changed in her look.
It changed from being frightened to one of hope as she bolted forward and latched onto Neo, crying into her shoulder.
Unsure what compelled her, Neo raised her arms up and hugged the woman as best she could, although with the height difference it was a little awkward, but she just hugged the woman and offered whatever comfort she could.
What she didn't know at the time was just what a life altering event this was and how much would change because she simply decided to stay and comfort the upset woman instead of leaving.
"Wait, you broke into the Captain's house?" William's asked in shock.
"Well it was an apartment, but yes I did. It was how Ruby, and I met, and we've been inseparable ever since." Neo explained as they were pulling up, Ruby wait for them just outside. She left out the details involving Ruby in tears but that she broke into Qrow's house.
"Wrex, Ruby. Ruby, Wrex." Neo introduced briefly.
"Let's get on with it, the place is closed so they're expecting us. How should we play it?" Ruby asked the group.
"Break through the main door and follow it up with flashbangs and hit them quickly." William's suggested.
"I like it. Neo, you go right, and I'll go left. Biotic charge into the middle of them all. William's and Garrus, set up covering fire position from the entrance and break out either side to support us. Kaiden follow behind Neo and support her with biotics. Wrex, you'll be up front with me pushing through them towards Fist. Everyone got it?" Ruby said, coming up with a battle plan.
"Understood." Everyone said in their own way, though Wrex only grumbled.
Moving up together, Ruby and Neo took point leading them all up to the door. As they stood there though they all got into position as Ruby opened the door to allow Neo to through the flashbangs in.
Waiting for a second the team all pushed forward into the room. Ruby and Neo took separate routes around the centre stage, charging the first person they could see and blasting them with their shotguns before moving on.
Wrex laughed as he killed any resistance that dared to attack him, but simply failed to get anywhere close.
It barely took a minute to clear the first room, "William's, Kaiden, Garrus. Watch our backs. Rest of you, on me." Neo ordered as she led the way through into the next room.
Inside Neo easily talked the two other guards down and to leave, Ruby warning the others of the two leaving the room. In the next room however came Fist, who refused to surrender.
"Turrets won't stop me!" Ruby growled out, her body glowing red as she charged into a turret, blowing it up on pure impact alone. Moving Ruby flipped off the wall and to the other turret where her shotgun barked again and destroyed the final one before rounding on Fist, not giving him a chance as she punched him onto the ground.
"The Quarian, tell me and I might just spare you." Neo growled as she came to stand next to Ruby.
"I…I don't know." Fist cried.
"Wrong answer." Ruby said, firing at the ground right next to his leg but only just missing.
"She…she's not here. I already set up a meeting." Fist cried out.
"Where?" Neo asked, pressing her foot on his knee.
"The…the alley between the lower markets! Fuck!" Fist yelled, his knee being bent the wrong way.
"Come on, we got what we came for. He's all your Wrex." Ruby said, moving away from the crying man as Wrex walked up and finished him off with his shotgun.
"We better hurry, those will be Saran's men there." Neo stated.
"William's, we're on our way out now." Ruby radioed in.
"Copy Commander, we've been engaged by more hostiles, we're holding but some help would be nice." Williams called.
"Confirmed, coming now." Ruby said, "Let's move, we've got to fight our way through to her." Ruby said as she started moving back the way they came and once they entered the main club area they were already taking fire. "Take them down!" Ruby yelled.
Switching out to her pistol Ruby started to open fire until she got a clear line on some of them however Neo had beaten her to the punch.
Neo's biotics propelled her forward and into the mass of enemies firing at them. Her pistol and shotgun were hand in hand as she gracefully danced around the incoming fire and those bullets that managed to hit were absorbed by her shields.
Once Neo had eliminated all those remaining there she called out, "You alright?"
"We're ok. What's going on?" Kaiden asked, looking over everyone.
"Good. Quarains in the alley not far from here. Everyone on me, we need to go save her." Neo called out as she moved out the club and immediately started heading in the direction of the alley.
It barely took them a minute to get there but Neo stopped them before they engaged. "We need to hit them quickly, but at the same time. We don't want her to get shot." Neo said.
"Wrex, are you able to biotic charge?" Ruby asked.
"I can." Wrex grumbled.
"Right then, which do you want Wrex?" Neo asked.
"I'll take the Turian." Wrex said, chuckling a little as he looked down at then.
"Right, Neo go left. I'll go right." Ruby said, and the trio lined up as they found their targets. "Everyone else, cover us." Ruby finished off and within seconds the three of them charged into the enemy and within that same amount of time they killed them all. But with how quick they were, they caught the end of the flashbang that the Quarian had used.
"Are you alright?" Neo asked as she turned to the woman.
"Who are you?" The Quarian asked immediately, not releasing her weapon.
"My name is Commander Rose, and this is Commander Gelato. We're part of the Alliance but we're investigating Saran, we were told you might have some information, but we heard about this attack, so we came to help you." Ruby explained first.
"Thank you for helping me. Maybe I have a way to repay you." The Quarian said in reply.
"We heard you had information about Saran, Miss…" Neo asked, trailing off as she was unsure about her name.
"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." Tali replied.
"Right. We heard you had information, but we wanted to get you safe first. If you come with us to our Embassy we can talk more there, if that is alright with you." Neo asked kindly.
"Alright." Tali replied.
"Let's move, double time and form a protective ring around Miss Tali'Zorah. We don't know if Saran has anyone else around." Ruby ordered as they all made it as fast as possible to the Embassy.
They made for an odd group moving through the Citadel towards the Embassy in quick time, though they weren't stopped at all but rather avoided as they made it to the human Embassy.
"You aren't making my life easy Red. Firefights in the wards and an all-out assault on Chora's Den. Do you know how many…" Roman started to say as he turned around though as he noticed Tali he asked. "Who are you?"
"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." Tali answered.
"So, no offence meant but what exactly are you doing here?" Roman asked.
"She has evidence proving Saran's involvement with Eden Prime." Neo answered for her.
"Really, and what would a Quarian leaving the flotilla want with something like that?" Roman asked once more.
"I was on my pilgrimage and heard about reports of the Geth, so I was curious. I managed to isolate one of the Geth from its group and salvaged the memory core." Tali explained.
"But they destroy their memories upon termination, how were you able to salvage it?" Qrow asked next, remembering that part about the Geth.
"You know a lot about the Geth don't you? And not just because of your people." Ruby asked as she spoke up.
"I was just lucky and knew where to look." Tali said modestly.
Ruby shook her head a little as she said, "Luck has nothing to do with it. You're skilful." Ruby said and Tali looked away from Ruby as she finished speaking, growing shy at the compliments.
"What is this evidence?" Roman asked as he got back on topic.
"Here. It's an audio recording." Tali said, playing an audio recording of Saran talking about Eden Prime and how it was a major victory for them and the Geth.
"We've got him dead to rights now." Qrow said enthusiastically.
"There's more." Tali said and another voice came up, this time female.
"And one step closer to bringing back the Reapers." The second voice said, and everyone could see how Ruby visibly paled at hearing the voice but Roman wasn't focusing on her.
"I don't recognise the second voice. But we should go to the council immediately and present this to them. Then we'll be getting somewhere." Roman said as he went to set up a meeting and leaving everyone else to go.
"Hey, Garrus, Wrex I've got your contact information, but I think we'd better go ourselves. Thank you for our help and I'll let you know what happens, if we're going after Saran I'll contact you." Neo explained to the two who simply nodded and left.
"William's, Kaiden. Could you escort Tali, Qrow and Roman to the council chambers please, we'll be just behind you." Neo said as she dismissed them all to leave her alone with Ruby.
Once they had all left alone in the office, Neo turned to Ruby and asked. "You recognise the second voice." Neo stated bluntly.
"I do." Ruby said quietly.
"Want to share?" Neo asked, not asking Ruby to tell her but letting her know simply she was there.
"It was when I was young, my family were at Arcturus Station visiting Qrow. I got into a fight with some cadets there who were pissed at Summer, and because I was her daughter they thought to get payback they would attack me. Kids are messed up, aren't they?" Ruby said, laughing a little at the memory.
"I was about nine or ten at the time and well, my biotics decided it was time to make themselves known to me. Suffice to say that they ended up in the infirmary with several broken bones and I was scared shitless. So was everyone else as my biotics weren't blue but red and I had near perfect control over them which was strange because I had no chip or anything." Ruby continued explaining it all.
"So, what happened?" Neo asked gently.
"An Asari Matriarch was on the station at the time and she happened to be nearby when the fight broke out. She never did explain why she came over to watch but in a way, I'm glad she did. She said something a little weird to me as well when she noticed my biotics and then my eyes." Ruby continued once more.
"What was that? Admittedly I've never seen anyone with silver eyes before like yours, or biotics." Neo said.
"She said that I was the Warrior for this time. That something big was destined for me, that I was special because of my eyes and biotics. She put me in contact with another Asari Matriarch." Ruby answered.
"Who were they?" Neo asked however they were interrupted by the door sliding open and someone putting their head in.
"Commander's, the council meeting is due to start. The ambassador asked me to tell you to hurry up." The assistant said to the two women.
"Alright, come on. Let's go." Ruby said, knowing the conversation wasn't over but for now it was.
The pair made their way to the council chambers where Qrow was waiting for them, "Come on. It's already started, they're presenting the evidence now." Qrow said as the trio made their way to the stand.
"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." Saran was heard saying to the assembled councillors. "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." The second voice said.
"You asked for proof and there you have it." Roman stated proudly.
"This evidence is irrefutable. Saran will be immediately stripped of his Spectre status and all efforts made to bring him to Justice." The Turian councillor said.
"What are the Reapers? And this Conduit." The Salarian councillor asked.
"Only what the Geth knew. The Reapers were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans. Then they vanished. And I can only guess that the Conduit is a way to bring them back." Tali answered.
"Who was that second voice? I don't recognise it." The Salarian councillor asked.
Neo watched them all carefully as the Asari councillor looked towards Ruby and for some reason had some sort of concern in her eyes.
"I recognise the other voice, a Matriarch called Benezia. I'm not sure what her involvement is but that is her voice, I would recognise it anywhere." The councillor answered, not adding anything else.
"You should get the Citadel Fleet to lock down the area and prevent the Geth from attacking again." Roman said immediately, demanding more of a response from the council after revoking Saran's Spectre status.
"That could start a war with the Terminus system, we can't do that." The Salarian said.
"There is another way. Subtler then a fleet." Ruby suggested to them all, cutting in before it got more heated.
The councillors all looked to each other and the Turian councillor immediately spoke up, "They're not ready." He said.
"Then send someone else. But first tell me who else is better equipped to go after them? A ship with the most advance systems in the galaxy and two of the most highly trained individuals in the galaxy right in front of you with first-hand experience fighting the Geth like this and who is also…" Ruby said, but stopped herself before she went further.
"She's right. They're the best ones to go after them and with Nihlus injured there isn't anyone close by." The Salarian said.
"Commander Rose, step forward please." The Asari councillor requested and Neo spotted more people gathering around the galleries above them and even spotted a camera or two recording it.
Ruby didn't even hesitate as she stepped forward in front of everyone else and looked up to the council, though focusing on the Asari councillor as she spoke up first.
"It is the decision of the council that you be granted all the power and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel." She started off.
"Spectres are not trained, but chosen. Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle; those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file." The Salarian councillor continued.
"Spectres are an ideal, a symbol. The embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the council, instruments of our will." The Asari councillor said.
"Spectres bear a great burden. They are protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last line of defence. The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold." The Turian councillor said as he spoke up first.
"You are the first human Spectre, Commander. This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species." The Asari councillor said.
"It is an honour Councillor." Ruby said as she bowed her head with a hand resting on her heart.
"We're sending you into the Traverse after Saren. He's a fugitive from justice, so you are authorized to use any means necessary to apprehend or eliminate him." The Salarian councillor said as he issued her orders.
"Have you any leads?" Ruby asked.
"We will forward any relevant files to Ambassador Torchwick." The Turian councillor informed her.
"This meeting of the council is adjourned." The Asari councillor said.
"Congratulations kid." Qrow said as he patted Ruby's shoulder.
"We've got a lot of work to do, Red. You're going to need a ship, a crew, supplies…" Roman started trailing off.
"You'll get access to all the special equipment and training now. You should head to the C-Sec academy and speak to the Spectre requisitions officer. Look at all the shiny new toys." Qrow said cheerfully.
"Qrow, come with me. I'll need your help to set all this up." Roman said, immediately walking away with Qrow in tow.
"Ungrateful bastard." Neo said as she watched the man walked away.
"Leave it be, ever seen the man happy?" Ruby asked as she turned to her team. "Right we should head to the Spectre requisitions officer to…" Ruby said but was interrupted.
"Commander Rose, Councillor Tevos is requesting your presence in her office." An Asari asked as she walked up to the group.
A/N
I'm sorry for taking so long to update this, admittedly this isn't an overly popular story, but it isn't any reason to not post it considering that I've already got it all written it just needs to be edited into chapters and stuff.
I will be attempting to publish this more though and hopefully in the coming days I'll post more of this as well.
There's another story I'm working on that I'm rather enjoying and because I'm following the main canon to a point it's not too bad to write whereas my other story is a little harder, but I want to finish my current work because I'm enjoying it.
Anyway, end of my monologue. Hope you all enjoyed and until next time.