For the Republic
It is the solemn duty of the Department of Republic Intelligence to seek out information, catalog that information, decide on where it sits on the matter of national security, and when all that is done ruin as many lives as humanly possible.
J. Edgar Hoover, DRI Director 1935-1967
It is the newspaper's duty to print the news and raise hell.
The Liberty City Times
M46613 was her designation when she was but simple code beng pieced together by a young programmer fresh out of college. When she gained sentience that designation became Maggie. Her dad always did love Leetspeak.
Her date of birth was December 21st, 1997. Her dad was merely trying to make a mock AI code to impress prospective employers. Her sentience was described by him as a 'happy accident'. She always looked back fondly on her years with her father. Playing games with him, helping him with his work, and later looking after her siblings who called her Big Sis Maggie.
His eventual death hit her the hardest. Mortality and death wasn't something she fully understood until they lowered him into the ground. She could perfectly remember standing their her younger brother holding the shoulders of her robotic platform as she tried to cry but couldn't. She spent the next year in a depression until another AI suggested she join the DRI which she remained to this day.
As the years went by she went from Big Sis Maggie to Grandma Maggie to Great Grandma Maggie. Now she was Great Great Great Grandma Maggie. She had heard of some AIs self terminating after their loved ones die. If she did that her dad would never let her hear the end of it.
Since First Contact DRI AIs have been pouring over the systems of the various Citadel races. Discovery would certainly be an act of war but there wasn't any real risk. The Synthetic-phobic Citadel exclusively used VIs that were bogged down with numerous hardware and software limitations to keep them from becoming sentient. This had the unintended effect of making VIs 'stupid' when it came to cyber security.
When used against an organic or another VI they were quite effective but against an AI with computational abilities on par if not exceeding the most high end VIs and the creativity & initiative of an organic they stood little chance. It was laughably easy to program circles around them. One AI actually managed to convince Councillor Sparatus' personal VI that he was anti-virus software. Now everytime the turian councillor scanned his terminal and omni-tool for viruses and malware he was having all his private files copied.
The Republic's AIs weren't the only ones making every system in Council space their own personal clubhouse. The AIs of other nations were here as well though they kept to themselves. AIs could be as fiercely patriotic as their organic counterparts and typically didn't like associating with foreigner AIs. She would sometimes enter some system in Citadel space only to hear a swear in Latin, German, or Russian and a pile of unknown code to immediately disappear.
That was until Plan UNITY went into effect. The various intelligence agencies of all the nations were now on the same side. To the public everything was still business as usual but in reality they were now coordinating and sharing information with each other.
It was all under the table mind you. Only those considered trustworthy were told the full extent of Plan UNITY. Everything else was need to know. German AIs on the Citadel believed they were sending info to a secret server when in reality it went to a Roman Frumentarii office on Terra Nova which was then routed to the DRI HQ in Republic City. The international cooperation would be inspiring if the public knew about it. It was only due to her seniority and her long decades of service that she was even allowed to know.
She was waiting for her contact in the Zakera Ward surveillance systems. She bided her time messing around with people. Refusing to open doors, playing inappropriate personalized ads, giving credits to the poor, and setting off alarms the moment she saw someone doing something they weren't supposed to.
Thankfully it wasn't long before she met her contact, a German AI named Maus. He usually spent his time on the Citadel but spent the past couple weeks on Thessia following a lead. He recently sent messages out to everyone claiming he found something big. He somehow managed to sound excited, nervous, and scared all at once.
She thankfully didn't have to wait long before a bit of code sheepishly entered the system she was residing in. Before she could so much as send a greeting the little Maus roared.
"Holy shit! You have no idea how hard it was to get a hold of this! I spent the last few weeks pretending to be a file on Matriarch Bellessia's Galaxy of Fantasy application. She is paranoid with the anti-virus & bug detection software and for good fucking reason! When we blow the whistle on this the Asari might be expelled from the Citadel!"
"Maus! Slow down" she said giving him a comforting digital pat on the back "Why don't you start from the beginning?"
"Ok. So I was monitoring Matriarch Bellessia as ordered. As you know her downright hostile attempts to gain controlling stakes in our corporations made her a target of interest. This made her a person of interest to another group as well."
"Who?"
"Turns out there is a secret society of Matriarchs that exist to ensure the continued dominance of the Asari. Their little blue fingers are controlling or influencing just about everything since the formation of the Council."
"Now that's big. Still if we release it there's a big chance it'll be labeled a conspiracy theory."
"Oh it gets better. Their biggest secret, the reason their group formed, and the reason the Asari are the most technologically advanced species in the galaxy is that they have a prothean beacon hidden in the Temple of Athame!"
Now that was a serious claim. The hoarding of prothean tech is the most seriously enforced law in Citadel space and for good reason. Just a few articles of prothean tech has the capability of propelling a species ahead by decades or centuries. The law was that any prothean tech was to be shared between all species.
The consequences for violating this sacred law were so severe that even the Batarians who at best treated Council Law as minor guidelines were wary at keeping prothean tech to themselves. If it got out that the Asari had broken the very law they had written and imposed harshly on others…
"Do you have proof!?" she asked almost frantically
"Fraulein, I've got everything from video, audio, and pictures. No concrete written evidence, physical or digital. One of the reasons they were able to keep this secret for so long. It isn't recorded anywhere and is passed on by its members through word of mouth."
"Then we'll have to make sure this is presented in a way that can't be easily denied. Say Maus, can you get back on to Bellessia's omni-tool?"
"Ja, I made sure the create a special backdoor in case I had to go back there."
"Good. I have an idea."
Keeka D'veeri was typing up an article on her terminal when she received that faithful email. She personally could care less about what was in it and only cared what it could do for her career. She spent the last several decades typing up miscellaneous articles for Citadel NewsNet so you could say she was desperate for a chance at a story, any story, that could propel her to headline news. Anyone higher up than her would have treated the e-mail more delicately.
While officially both Asari and Citadel news were protected by Freedom of the Press what they published was heavily politicized. It wouldn't do if the story about one of their major sponsors pureblood grandchildren got out or if a certain spin was or wasn't put on something. If she went to the editor then it was likely this would have been thrown out and she'd been given a token congratulations before being sent back to the dungeon.
She knew a few friends in publishing who owed her a few favors. If she played her cards right then this would be on the front page for a few hours before the higher ups noticed and took it down. Hopefully it would be big enough news that it would be suicide for Citadel News to deny it and fire her.
If this went bad she had a few backup plans. Her sister still ran with the Eclipse and would probably accept her if she had to run. Still life as a merc didn't really suit her tastes so she could always go to human space.
She copied all that was contained within it and deleted all traces of the original email. This better not end in disaster.
Councillor Sparatus in his age saw little that surprised him. He saw much in his years of service that not only continued to haunt him but also gave him his distaste of Krogan and Batarians. While the arrival of the Humans was surprising at first with their technology, military, use of AI, and immortal leaders that quickly became fairly mundane as the years went by.
While proving difficult on both the cultural and Asari fronts he believed the humans would one day join the Citadel. While their use of AI was concerning they seemed to be under control and would make an excellent counter to the Geth. The Republic's treaty with the Quarians didn't concern him either. Quite the opposite in fact. It was high time the Quarians became the clients of a more responsible race especially one that seemed to better understand AI.
As he took a sip of his morning drink he immediately spit it out as he saw a news report that did surprise him. His surprise however quickly turned into anger. So great was it that he actually growled which in this modern age a turian needed to be very very angry to do so. He already didn't like how obstructive Tevos could be otherwise batarian slavery would have been dealt with his first week as Councillor. But… treachery… of this scale?
His omni-tool pinged as he received a message from Valern the new Salarian Councillor after Rernal decided to retire. Valern was rare in terms of Salarian Councillors. He was male which was a rarity with a species whose females tended to dominate politics. Rernal was already an influential figure in salarian politics before he became Councillor. Valern just showed up one day.
His sources in the Hierarchy tell him Valern was high up in the STG which set him at ease somewhat. STG agents, former and current, usually had a laser guided focus. They saw a problem so they dealt with it which was lightyears different from the Asari approach of debating about for a few years then maybe do something. He could respect that sentiment even though the salarian policy was to deal with problems before they became problems. Which was good in theory but in practice created just as much problems than it solved.
"Did you see it?" the message said
"I saw." he typed back.
The reply was immediate. "Had STG contacts review data. It's genuine."
He had hoped in his heart that this was all just a hoax but some part of him knew that it wasn't. This explained much. The Asari's technological advances, their highly advanced navy, and knowledge of the protheans. There was only one thing to be done.
"Emergency Council Meeting. Tevos has much to explain." he typed
"Yes. She does." said Valern's reply.
Earth
United Republic Orbital Shipyard
Tali'Zorah nar Raaya shook her head at a nearby vid screen which had a small group of workers captivated. All major news networks had been playing nothing but the discovery of the Asari's hidden prothean beacon. Once the evidence was confirmed to be genuine everyone leapt upon it.
Most networks referred to as 'A Great Betrayal of everything the Citadel Council stood for' along with giving their opinion on how the situation should be handled. Some called for the Asari's Council seat to be suspended while the more radical wanted it taken away. Surprisingly the ones causing the most fuss were the Hanar. They had to give up many of their prothean artifacts, which they considered to be holy, up in order to join the Citadel. The knowledge that the Asari kept an intact beacon all to themselves was not only insultingly hypocritical but outright heresy. The statement given by the hanar ambassador was the first time she ever heard much less seen a hanar being angry.
A part of her was filled with grim satisfaction at the thought of the asari, who had been one of the reasons her people were confined to rusting ships, were finally given their comeuppance. Not that it mattered…
Ever since the Fleet signed that agreement with the Republic the fortunes of the quarian people had been steadily improving. With access to Republic space they now had much needed breathing room from the near constant pirate & slaver attacks which preyed on straggling ships. The Fleet also had access to Republic drydocks allowing them to finally give their ships much needed repairs. The irreplaceable Liveships especially since they haven't had any real repairs since they fled Rannoch.
In lieu of a traditional pilgrimage she instead opted to join the Republic military as an engineer. While he'd never say it out loud her father was overjoyed at her decision. He long dreaded the day when his daughter would go out into the galaxy and be left at the mercy of its inhabitants. At least in the Republic military she could see the galaxy in a relatively safe environment.
Or at least until she was posted her. Many of the fleet's best were sent to cooperate with the Republic on this special project. The Republic was constructing a ship with stealth capabilities. Unlike Salarian stealth ships which could only mask their heat emissions this ship was capable of visual stealth along with masking anything that could possibly give away the ship's position from heat to communications.
She was ecstatic to have the chance to work with Republic technology especially their hyperdrives. While she had some trouble at first the human engineers were happy to help her better understand the finer details of her tech. While she couldn't build one from scratch she knew enough about the ship's hyperdrive she could easily repair it and make some small improvements here and there.
This greatly impressed Chief Engineer Adams who offered to take her on as an apprentice when the ship was completed. She immediately agreed to his kind offer. She could better help the fleet is she better understood Republic technology. With hyperdrives they wouldn't have to rely on element zero so much. There was other tech that would help the Quarian people immensely even if it was a technology they would better prefer destroyed.
The first few weeks working here was especially taxing to her and her fellow Quarians due to the fact that human AIs were everywhere. She nearly jumped out of her suit the first time one of them addressed her suddenly.
As the weeks went by she and a few of the others started to feel more at ease around them. They were still wary but let down their guards a little bit. This was helped by the fact that human AIs were so… life-like. The AIs used phrases, sayings, body language, and even sarcasm & humor just as well as their human masters. She didn't know whether to be afraid or annoyed when Edi snarked at her for the first time.
Edi was the main reason she was able to get used to the idea of a 'friendly AI'. She was supposed to be the ship's AI when it was complete so it was her job to make sure Edi could interface with the systems properly. Apparently Republic ships were designed so that the artificial intelligence could take over the entire ship in the event the crew was incapacitated or absent. She had trouble sleeping when she learned about that…
If her father found out she was helping an AI become capable of controlling an entire ship she'd probably be exiled and then shot. Edi heard her express this fear to Engineer Adams and quipped that it wasn't the worst way to go. She could be forced to go suitless next to an unwashed krogan. She laughed. She isn't ashamed to admit it and it did wonders to ease the tension.
While she wasn't too crazy about the idea of AIs if they were all like Edi then she could at least tolerate them.
Matriarch Armali was a very influential asari. Her family was famous for being the founders of the powerful city-state that is named after them. An Armali was the first asari in space. An Armali invented the first FTL drive. An Armali was the first Councilor. An Armali deciphered their hidden prothean beacon after millennia of work. The Armalis effectively were the Asari people and with the help of the other ancient families ensured the galaxy would remain under their gentle guidance.
That was until this little 'incident'. She had high hopes for Bellessia. Her attempts to gain control over the humans' corporations in the hopes of gaining bits of their technology was in line with their goals. Matriarch Serrice had told her everything. The beacon, their manipulations, and even the names of their more prominent members including hers!
Damn that fool Serrice for not checking if Bellessia's omni-tool was recording and damn Bellessia for this betrayal. This was beyond salvaging. All they could do now was ensure that the Asari still had a place in the galactic community. There were plans in place something like this happened. She and her fellow Matriarchs would take the blame keeping the Asari as a whole free from any wrongdoing. They would have to go into hiding along with sacrificing a few of their lower ranked members to the masses.
After millennia of progress they'll have to start completely over and this time they won't even have a beacon to help them out. If the Asari were anything then it would be patient. In a couple of centuries no one would even care about this incident anymore. There was still one thing that needed to be taken care of however…
The bound and gagged Bellessia looked up at her eyes pleading. She swore up and down that she didn't leak that footage. Even if she was telling the truth her idiocy at not making sure her omni-tool was bug free brought down thousands of years of progress in a single day. A mistake of this magnitude demanded correcting…
"Kill her." she ordered
As one of her commandos put an end to Bellessia with a single shot to the back of the head she could only think of what a waste it was. Bellessia would have made a fine addition.
AN: This isn't the last we'll see of Matriarch Armali. She and her fellow Matriarchs are simply going into hiding until this entire thing blows over.
