"We were damned alive, this fighting means death. All we could do was keep our heads down low. Charging their lines was the ultimate task... a pointless, synchronized sacrifice."
Memoirs of the Faceless Soldiers published 2200 by Independent Literary Society in Citadel and Turian Space, 2204 by Harper Multimedia Co. in Alliance Space.
-000-
The Fallout
The Silver Office, Arcturus Station, April 2, 2193.
The president was seated, leaning forward on his desk. Reading and rereading the reports, he wouldn't have believed it if it weren't for all the footage and images provided.
He put down the tablets and brought his hands up to his face. He was expecting something bad to come out of the whole situation... but nothing like this.
To say that he was shocked was an understatement. Harper had been stuck in a state of disbelief in the past few hours. Going through and essentially memorizing the whole damn report. He was looking for any evidence or weak links which would prove that the whole thing was a mistake, but he was repeatedly let down.
Grissom was sitting across the table, waiting patiently for his president to say something. His patience was starting to run thin.
"Sir, we need to send out a response, preferably soon." The High Admiral told him.
"Look strong and unwavering against the odds, I know the drill Grissom." Harper replied dryly.
Harper kept quiet for a few more moments, contemplating his options. He massaged his temples as thoughts swirled in his head like a cyclone on crack. Things were spiraling out of control, and he was barely getting a grip on things.
"Get Ambassador Goyle on the line, tell her I want her on the way to the Citadel first thing in the morning with all the evidence we have." Harper told the Admiral. "Have her upload it all into the Council extranet for all to see."
"That's it?"
"No, not yet." Harper corrected. "I'm going to draft a proposal to the speakers and the senate for a set of formal condemnation and demands against the Council's actions. The ambassador will receive a copy to give to them once it is ratified."
"How soon will it be passed?" Grissom asked, ever skeptical of politicians.
"Very soon." Harper reassured his friend. "I've called for an emergency session, which'll be later today. Voting against it is political suicide. The anti-war activists can't do anything about it now."
"We're really taking on the Council like this?" The Admiral asked.
"It's like you said, Grissom. It's about damn time we moved against them." Harper confirmed. "Optics is everything in politics. With all of this, we have the undeniable smoking gun we need for a cassus belli. If we can get the Council to acquiesce to our terms, we can avoid a war. We will play politically first, but get the fleets ready for when talks inevitably break down."
Harper heard the Admiral curse under his breath -something about politicians and their schemes- but didn't pry into it.
"I'll inform the Ambassador, and brief my officers on the development." Grissom said.
The Admiral got up from his seat, and Harper did likewise. The two shook hands before Grissom excused himself and left.
Harper sat back on his desk and rang up his secretary.
"Send Ambassador Nyx in. I want to talk to him as soon as possible."
A quick reply of confirmation was sent and it wasn't long until the Turian Ambassador was sent in. Harper gestured to the Alien to take a seat before sliding a datapad to the Turian. Nyx picked it up and read the title.
"You're activating our defense pact." Nyx asked for confirmation. "When was this signed?"
"Half an hour ago." The president answered. "Congress approved the Emergency War Powers Act yesterday. Since we're technically still at war with the Hegemony along side you, I'm allowed to approve the mutual defense pact without congress. Condemation of a faction we're not at war with is different, which is why the vote to enact punitive actions against the Council is still up to congress."
"I'd imagine that voting for these actions would simply be a formality. It's going to pass one way or another." Nyx commented.
"More or less. Protocol is protocol, it still needs to be followed no matter how much I want it over with."
"I understand, Mr. President." Nyx replied. "I'll send word to High Primarch Fedorian as soon as I can."
The two shook hands and concluded the short meeting.
President Harper's plan was starting to gain momentum. If things went for the better, war could be avoided.
But Harper was smarter than that.
Things never went for the better.
-000-
Meanwhile, somewhere in Sur'kesh...
"How did the Humans and Turians find us so quickly." The first sponsor spoke.
"You must have been sloppy, left a trail straight to the complex." The Dalatrass spoke to the holocommunicator. "My agents would never have been so foolish."
Saleon's holographic avatar looked between the Dalatrass and the disembodied voices from the other side of the call. They each have been passing the blame from one another, to no avail. Their rivalries from before the war had reared its ugly head at the most inopportune time. With the scale of the whole catastrophe, it was easy to understand why everyone was so upset.
"The ships I sent were all equipped with the latest in stealth technology... nothing could have detected them." The second sponsor spoke. "It's the mechs you deployed that malfunctioned, you should have known better than to have used it in such large numbers."
"My staff have thoroughly dissected and checked the Geth computing cores we used as the basis for out security VI." The Dalatrass defended herself. "Whatever code we used was utterly bastardized compared to actual Geth units. There was never a threat of them rebelling."
"Enough." The third sponsor silenced them. "Regardless of who's fault it actually was, the fact remains that we have a mess to clean up."
The other voices grumbled in the background.
"Our head of security was captured by the Turians." Saleon jumped in. "We must take measures to ensure he does not tell them of our operations."
"Does his family know anything?" The first sponsor asked.
"His family is missing." The Dalatrass spoke.
"Did the Turians get them too?" The second voice spoke.
"That, is uncertain." Saleon answered. "We have agents investigating their disappearance."
"Get our assets still in Minas-Kito, ensure Kangl's silence by any means necessary." The third sponsor finalized. "Saleon, finish your project, and finish it quick."
The sponsors ended the call, leaving the Dalatrass and Saleon alone in their Sur'kesh blacksite.
"How much longer until we can deploy the gene plague?" the Daltrass asked.
"I should have a working prototype in a few month's time, assuming the cloning chambers are functioning as planned." the Salarian scientist answered.
"They'll arrive at your location within the week." she bluntly told him.
Saleon nodded and ended the call.
The Dalatrass sighed before opening her omnitool again. She called up a close contact of hers. The call rang for a few moments before being answered.
"Dalatrass, this is not a good time to call." The voice answered.
"Councilor Yorgal, I have need of your assistance..."
-000-
Above Minas-Kito, A few hours later...
"They want us to go back down?" Vasir asked increduously.
"Prety much." Wrex told her. "It's from Councilor Yorgal himself."
Tela sank into her seat.
"We just got our asses kicked through the abyss and back." Tela replied. "Did you make that clear to the Councilor?"
"I did." Wrex shrugged. "He didn't budge."
The Asari SPECTRE took the datapad and looked over the message.
"Of the books VIP extraction?" Tela read out loud. "Who the hell are we pulling out?"
"Some Salarian security chief from that blacksite." Wrex informed her. "He's the only other person who knows the inner workings of the site still there. Apparently him and the rest of the upper staff got separated when the mechs went haywire."
"And the Humans have him now?"
"Yes."
Vasir groaned.
"It looks like there's a whole armored battalion down there, with air and naval support." She told him "How the hell are we supposed to get to the security chief?"
"The Councillor only told us to ensure he doesn't become an information breach."
"No limitations on how to proceed?"
"None." Wrex curtly answered.
Tela thought about it for a while. She considered all her options before settling on one extreme course of action.
"Get me three of my commandos." She finally spoke. "Stealth insertion, low profile gear."
"Anything else?" Wrex asked.
"Yeah." Vasir added. "Get me the biggest sniper rifle we have in this ship. This Kangl person won't be telling any tales if he's dead."
-000-
Minas-Kito Blacksite, Outside the outer wall...
With the whole 1st Marine Division deployed to secure the whole complex, the 404th could take a back seat and lick their wounds. Loosing one transport was bad enough. The extra firefights that came afterwards knocked a few more notches off of their number count. No word has come from the rescue team sent to the crash site as of yet. The waiting was killing Zaeed inside. He had a sinking feeling that Harper had something to do with whatever happened to that plane, but he couldn't be certain. Right now him and what's left of the 404th was just sitting there in the blacksite courtyard, waiting for new orders.
The N7 team that was their vanguard... Strider team, if he recalled correctly, sat across him flanking the Salarian which had supposedly defected to their side.
The leader of Strider team, some guy named Anderson, said he had experience working with Turians. Apparently he was there on Eden Prime when the Turians arrived and one of the first few to work with them. Now they're the first to fight all these new different aliens too.
Whether that was a good or bad thing is up for debate.
That Salarian was fidgeting in his seat. He clearly was antsy and wanted to get out of here. Frankly, Zaeed understood the sentiment. This whole God damned place gave him the creeps.
From the corner of his eyes, up on the walls, Zaeed saw movement. Squinting, he noticed that it was just group of soldiers patroling the topside and relaxed for a second.
However, Zaeed then noticed that all the silhouettes up there were those of women, and he remembered that one of the aliens they were dealing with was scarily similar to Humans in shape. The gears in his head started to turn as he slowly realized the potential threat the people on the top of that wall could be.
One of the silhouettes on the wall knelt down, shouldered a large rifle Zaeed did not recognize, and pointed it at his general direction. Zaeed grabbed his rifle and picked it up, but he was too late. The weapon's scope gave off a glint in the sunlight right before a flash burst out of its barrel.
"Sniper!" The paratrooper yelled out.
Before he even finished his warning, the crack of the shot had already reached everyone's ears. A lead projectile the size of a gravel bit tore through the air and punched through the Salarian defector in their midst. Green blood spurted out of the Security Chief's gut, cause by the bullet's messy exit. The alien was too much in shock to scream out in pain as he fell to the ground like a wet sack and clutched the exit wound.
"Neutralize that sniper now!" Anderson ordered to his squad as he ran over to the Salarian.
The rest of Strider team ran off to intercept the sniper, who Anderson saw from the corner of his eye and began her escape.
"Medic!" Zaeed called out.
Even though his guts were spilling out, Kangl grabbed Anderson by the hand.
"Saleon..." The dying Salarian barely rasped out.
"What?" Anderson asked. He didn't hear what the Salarian said.
Kangl was slipping. The bullet had caused a fatal wound.
"Hey, stay with me buddy!" Anderson knelt down, trying to keep the Salarian alive.
Had it been a human, Anderson's crash course on wound treatment might have helped. Kangl was an alien... Anderson had no chance whatsoever in helping him.
"The Gene Plague..." Kangl cut himself off as he coughed out blood. Lots of blood.
"Hold on there buddy... Where's that damned medic!" Anderson called out, turning his head away from the Salarian.
Kangl used the blood stained hand of his and turned Anderson's head back.
"Omega..." Kangl coughed out. "Get to Omega..."
The Salarian security chief coughed out one last time, then went limp. His hand fell to his sides, dead.
Anderson was still. Hundreds of thoughts wizzing past in his mind, processing all the information he just got.
Kangl was going to tell them everything about this whole mess. The abduction of Humans, the war with the Batarians, everything. Kangl was just assassinated for it.
Someone didn't want him to talk.
Whatever Kangl was going to tell them was important enough that the had to be silenced for it. Someone didn't want the Alliance to know.
But that's too bad, because now this whole mess is going to be scrutinized even further.
Anderson activated his radio and spoke.
"Did you get the sniper?"
"No, whoever it was got away." One of the Strider operators answered.
"How the Hell did they get there anyways?" Anderson asked again.
"It seems like they scaled the walls." The operator answered again. "1st MarDiv are sending guys to hunt them down, but it's a pretty big forest down there... we might have already lost them."
"Damn it." The N7 leader cursed. "Get your asses over back here. I'm taking this back to the Admiral."
"Aye sir." The operator confirmed.
Anderson sighed. He looked back at the dead Salarian in front of him and shook his head.
Just what exactly was he going to tell them?
There's only one way to find out. Figure out what the hell this Omega was, and start from there.
-000-
A/N:Sorry for the short and late update, but the damned Bat Plague threw a wrench to any semblance of normalcy I had in this past month. My teachers are actually giving me more assignments via online classes than irl, so that's eating up more of my time.
Anyways, from the looks of it I won't be back in campus until August and my summer classes are going to be wholly online, so that'll be a weird change of pace. I have my exams at the end of the month, so for the next few weeks after that I should be a bit more free. Updates moving forward might slow down or get shorter... or God forbid both. The situation is out of my hands and hopefully it doesn't get any further out of hand
Thanks for taking your time to read this chapter. Write down your thoughts or PM them to me. All feedback is appreciated. Take care of yourselves and don't take any unnecessary risks. Good luck to y'all and Godspeed.