SSV Sunlight Yellow, September 9, 2192.
General Henry Williams walked into the AWACS Center (Active Warfare and Control System) and was greeted by the salute of a platoon's worth of Marines.
"As you were gentlemen." The General simply replied.
Admiral Kahoku stepped away from the holo-table and shook Williams' hand.
"General Williams, it's good to have you back." The Admiral said.
"Admiral Kahoku, I'm guessing that I've missed a lot this past year and a half?"
"Not as much as you think, if what our 'guest' says is true." Kahoku replied.
"Is that so?" Williams asked
"Yes, he's been cooperative, if rather reserved thus far. He says that you can vouch for him."
"Hmm, I probably could." Williams said as he looked around the AWACS center. "Send the files to me, I'll look over it once Armed Forces Command debriefs me fully."
As Williams turned around to exit, Kahoku interrupted him.
"I hope you know that you're playing with fire, Henry." The admiral said.
Williams chuckled a little at that.
"Trust me Tatsu, I didn't become a general without getting burned."
Having said that, the general left the room, creating an awkward silence in the AWACS Center. Kahoku realized that most of the sailors were looking at him.
"Don't just keep gawking, get back to work!"
-000-
ASV Guiding Light, in orbit over Sur'kesh, September 12, 2192
"Sur'kesh control, this is the Guiding Light, requesting permission to enter atmosphere." Aethyta announced through the communicator.
"Copy that Guiding Light, any particular reason an Asari Cruiser is attempting to land in Sur'kesh?" the flight control officer asked.
Tela cut her sister to answer the Salarian.
"Official SPECTRE business. SPECTRE Agent Tela Vasir, authentication code Armali-Nineteen-Eighty-Four." the younger Vasir answered.
The officer verified the codes.
"That's an awfully polite way of saying mind your own business." the Salarian over the communicator joked lightly. "You have permission to enter orbit, but I must remind you, agent, that I am legally required to inform the Dalatrasses of your arrival."
"Understood control." Aethyta said and closed the line. She then turned to her younger sister. "I could've handled that myself you know." The elder Vasir chastised.
"We're short on time. The moment the Dalatrasses know a SPECTRE that isn't in their paybook is in Sur'kesh, they're going to be sweeping every single 'less-than-legal' activity under the rug while we're here. So we best make this quick." Tela replied.
"Fair enough." Aethyta simply answered.
The Guiding Light entered the atmosphere and headed straight for its destination; an unregistered STG base in the depths of the largest rainforest in Sur'kesh.
Tela and Wrex gathered their landing party in their shuttle where the SPECTREs briefed them. Coming with them were 8 Asari commandos and a dozen Krogan Shocktroopers, all of which hand picked by their respective agents.
"Alright soldiers, here's the deal!" Wrex said, gathering attention. "We're dropping into an STG base, right here in Sur'kesh. It's a Bio-Research blacksite, this base doesn't exist officially. We suspect that there's a rogue cell operating out of it."
"Should we expect resistance?" one of the Asari Commandos asked.
"I'm guessing they're going to cover it up and send us on our way, but there shouldn't be much fighting that a quick wit and a fiery tongue can't solve." Wrex said to some of the Shocktroopers' dismay.
"Doesn't mean we should be let our guard down." Tela added. "This is still a blacksite. So keep your eye out for anything out of the ordinary."
The shuttle then shook in its previously undisturbed descent.
"What was that?!" Wrex half asked, half exclaimed.
"We're taking fire from AA guns in that base!" the pilot said from her seat. "Do we abort?"
"Negative! These people think they'll scare us off with some puny bullets, we'll show them wrong!" Wrex answered. "Take us in close, we'll see them try to stop a Krogan air-drop."
The shuttle took a nosedive and went straight for the base. Weaving in and out, zigging and zagging, the shuttle flew through the defenses and took them straight to the base's courtyard. Once hovering only a few meters off the ground, the shuttle doors opened letting Wrex and his Shocktroopers jump off. Each Krogan landed with a loud thud, each one seemingly getting louder and louder. The Krogans shouldered their rifles aimed it at the STG operatives that had begun flooding the courtyard in scores.
The Commandos jumped in afterwards to back up the Krogans, though Tela stayed aboard trying to communicate with the Guiding Light.
"Lay down your weapons on the ground and get on your knees!"The STG commander leading the defense force demanded.
"The only place we'll be shoving our weapons is up your ass! We're SPECTREs, we have it on the Council's authority to be here!" Tela shouted from the shuttle, broadcasting her SPECTRE credentials via omnitool.
"We've heard that before, and we aren't falling for it twice. GET ON YOUR KNEES NOW!" the Commander demanded once more.
With things seemingly escalating even further, Tela shouldered her own weapon and aimed for the enemy from the shuttle. Wrex himself had his finger already lightly squeezing the trigger, ready to fire whenever.
Just as things were about to blow up, another Salarian ran in with his omnitool lit up shouting at everyone.
"Stand down! Stand down! Their codes are authentic, these ones are real!" the Salarian shouted.
"Are you sure?" the commander asked.
"I wouldn't have ran out here if I thought they would kill us." the Salarian engineer said as he showed the commander the credentials on his omnitool.
The commander started reviewing the credentials, and in the midst of that, the Salarian troops started easing up and relaxing a little. After a few minutes, the commander spoke again.
"Stand down soldiers, these people are authentic." he said.
The Salarian soldiers now lowered their weapons, no longer threatening the SPECTRE agents in their base.
"Apologies for the improper welcome, agents. We've had issues with spies using false SPECTRE credentials recently. We're on edge, is all." the Commander explained.
"You're just doing your job Commander, but hopefully you won't jump the gun so early next time." Tela said as she dismounted from the shuttle. "I want a full run down on what's being done here. If we have spies running around with fake SPECTRE credentials, I want to know why they're doing it here."
The group now exited the courtyard and entered the base proper.
"I'd stay and explain, but we have other security issues at the moment. Lieutenant Valern will have to take it from here." the commander said before leaving.
Valern, the Salarian that defused the previous situation, stepped up and led the group to the elevator down.
"Valern." Tela said.
"SPECTRE, good that you received my message." Valern stated.
"So he's your insider here?" Wrex asked.
"Yes, I approached agent Tela with information about some very suspicious bioweapons research being done here." Valern answered.
"I thought 'suspicious bioweapons' are a regular thing for Salarians." Wrex inquired.
"It would be, if the Dalatrass Circle authorized it. In this situation, it wasn't."
"So who did?" Tela then inquired.
"That's the question we're all asking." Valern answered. "Even though this research is likely unauthorized, a lot of people are turning a blind eye to it. Powerful people no less."
The lift stopped and opened to reveal massive lab with plenty of instruments. Salarians left and right are rushing around, doing their job. Valern led through the circus that was the facility and into another section of the labs.
"Head down this hallway and take a right, afterwards keep going until you reach Section 4-Z. I can't be seen leading you there." the Lieutenant said finally. "Good Luck."
The SPECTREs nodded and went off as directed. Reaching Section 4-Z, they were halted by security guards.
"This section is restricted to class-5 personnel only." one of the guards said.
"We have SPECTRE clearance. Let us through." Wrex informed the guards.
"No can do, get clearance, then we'll let you through." one of the guards said, challenging the agents.
"You do understand that we could have you arrested for obstruction of SPECTRE operations, right?" Tela then said.
The guard simply replied.
"We have our…"
A loud crash was heard throughout the facility, followed by a large tremor that shook the buildings to its foundations.
"What was that?" Wrex asked.
Meanwhile…
"Preliminary bombardment complete, Operation Stinging Truth is now live!"
A voice on the local Blackwatch network announced.
With that, Nihlus and his team got out of the dirt and greenery of the Sur'kesh rainforest and began their attack. They ran out of the treeline and straight through a hole that one of the three stealth frigates supporting them managed to blow open.
For this operation, 5 Blackwatch squads has been assigned to it, the most in a single operation recorded thus far.
5 squads, each with their own objectives.
Squads Testudis and Scutris were assigned to distract enemy security as much as possible. The more guards hunting them, the better.
Mutis Squad was to disrupt enemy communications, they were already on their way to the base's communications array and had enough explosives to level an apartment complex.
Ephi Squad was yet another distraction. They were to make it seem like the Turians were here for military information, troop movements etc. This would draw away from their true mission here:
Pila Squad's job was finding out whatever happened to missing Turian prisoners of war.
During a POW trade deal some months ago, some 117 out of 998 prisoners were unaccounted for. The SPECTRE in charge of the trade off said that they died weeks before the deal because of a lack of Dextro medical care available.
Nobody from the Hierarchy bought into that.
Then they have it from an STG operative who was encouraged give up information, that they'd find out whatever happened to the POWs starting here.
Needless to say, Blackwatch moved swiftly.
It took them awhile to get the stealth frigates and squads to pull this off in what is essentially the center of Council intelligence, but they managed to pull it off.
Nihlus took one look back at the sky and saw one of the stealth frigates zooming away with several gunships in tow. He and his squad jumped in and went down the corridor. Their tech expert, Haliat, brought up the building's schematics.
"We need to go that way." Haliat pointed.
The squad traversed the buildings avoiding STG guards where possible, and quietly dispatching them with suppressed weapons when necessary.
Finally the squad entered an empty room. Their explosives expert planted a breaching charge according to instruction as well as mounting rope harnesses to nearby walls. Dust was kicked up and sent flying as the charge blew a large hole in the floor, connecting directly to the room below. They connected a rope line on the ceiling before dropping down and opening fire to any and all Salarians inside, killing or incapacitating all of them. With green blood oozing on the floor, Haliat turned to the computers, locked down the room, then began data mining. Nihlus on the other hand opened his communications tool and listened in. Ephi squad was facing a lighter force than expected. Scutris and Testudis was doing a bang up job with the distraction, they might even pick up their secondary objective if things keep going this smoothly.
Just as Nihlus thought of that, the room's door was blasted open, when the dust kicked up by the explosion had settled down, several Asari commandos and Krogan Shocktroopers streamed into the room. One of the commando's armor had an insignia that Naval Intelligence told them to look out for in particular. The hawk wing formed out of 6 bars. The council's elite was here.
"SPECTRE!" Nihlus warned his squadmates to the gravity of their new situation.
The Blackwatch operators immediately ducked into cover as a hail of Mass Effects propelled lead rained upon them. Nihlus pulled out a grenade disk and threw it at the commandos' general direction, forcing them into cover. Using the distraction, the team's LMG operator deployed her weapon and began suppressing fire. With the commandos mostly pinned down, Nihlus and another operator slid around and took up flanking positions near the Shocktroopers. Using their new advantage, they too suppressed the SPECTRE's forces, evening the playing field somewhat.
"Haliat, how much longer is that download?" Nihlus asked out loud between gunfire.
"It should be done any second now!" Haliat shouted out his answer.
Right as he spoke, a loud ping rang out and notified Pila squad that the download was complete.
"That's about it." Haliat said as he made a dash for the console.
Nihlus and the other operators threw out a volley of smoke grenades to obscure the enemy's line of sight. Haliat took the data drive he plugged in earlier and quickly skimmed through the data.
"Ephi Squad, do you copy?" Haliat asked on the communicator.
"Copy that Pila Squad. What do you need?" their squad leader replied.
"I need you to pick up an HVT at these coordinates." Haliat said, sending the coordinates.
"How important is this HVT that we're diverting my squad for it?"
"This has everything to do with our missing POWs, and likely runs deeper." Haliat answered.
After some brief discussion on the other end, Ephi Squad's leader answered.
"Affirmative Pila Squad, diverting now."
With the smoke slowly dissipating, Pila squad quickly climbed up the line they had and then quickly cut it off, throwing a hurdle on the pursuing SPECTRE forces. Now with the data drive, Pila squad made a break for their exit.
Getting the notification that Pila Squad had finished their objective, Squads Testudis and Scutris began pulling back and out of the engagement. They left a few drones to shoot at the Salarian guards and cover their retreat.
With their leftover explosives, Mutis squad blew another hole in the outer wall and jumped out into the Sur'kesh rainforest. All the squads would drop out of the grid and rendezvous in a predesignated location after exfiltrating the area of operation.
Later…
It was now midnight. Pila and Mutis Squad had already been waiting in the rendezvous point for a few minutes now. Testudis and Scutris squads had just arrived and basically collapsed onto the ground. This was understandable to Nihlus, after all the two squads fought off almost an entire company's worth of hostiles just several hours ago. Now they were just waiting for Ephi squad, who had gone to fetch whatever HVT Haliat told them of.
Nihlus approached the tech expert to ask about it. Said tech expert seemed to be in deep thought at the moment.
"So, you still haven't told me what you sent Ephi squad after." he asked.
This seemed to have shaken Haliat a little.
"I… I can't find the words to explain it." Haliat answered, stuttering a little. Clearly whatever it was shook the tech expert's core.
"It's…" Haliat tried to say but his gaze moved away from Nihlus and onto the forest behind him.
The rustling of leaves and plants alerted the Blackwatch operators and they quickly drew their weapons on the noise's general direction.
Out of the shadows appeared Ephi squad, one of which was carrying a body that was clearly Turian. Haliat got up and approached the newly arrived squad.
"Is that him?" he asked the squad leader.
"It's a her." the leader replied, dropping the body.
Upon closer inspection, it was clearly a female Turian, but her body was radically deformed, with limbs either growing too long, shriveled up, or just looking wrong. Blue lines raced up and down her body, unnatural blue lines which disgustingly enough, looked like wires. She was breathing, but she wasn't reacting to anything. Her eyes had an empty gaze in her, and her expression would convince someone she was simply an empty shell. It was alive but it wasn't 'alive' so to speak.
"Phaeston preserve us. Who was she?" Nihlus said.
"Nobody." Haliat answered, to the other's confusion. "She looks Turian, definitely Turian in DNA, but from what little I've read so far, she never came from one of us."
"What in damnation is that supposed to mean?!" Ephi Squad's leader half asked, half exclaimed.
"What I'm saying is, those sick Salarian fucks grew her in a vat."
-000-
A/N:
Dun dun duuun. So there it is, the third party that is going to fuck stuff up big time in the future. If you're worried that it's another sub-story unimportant to the main plot, trust me, it'll come back to bite everyone's asses. I'll try to explain more next chapter, speaking of which.
I'm really sorry for taking so long to update, I got drafted into an internship by my Dad and barely had any time to write. Hopefully I can write down another chapter before middle august (which is when I start Uni).
Basically put, over the next few chapters I'll be kicking off the Batarian civil war, around the same time the official first contact with the Turians, afterwards with the Council.
As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.