Vanguard of Vengeance: Chapter 7
The warehouse was non-descript, a plain and ugly building among other, even more non-descript, plain, and ugly buildings. This far out on the wards, even the keepers rarely ventured out from their labyrinthine tunnels, which left the entire area in ill repair and dirty. It looked almost too perfect as the base of a band of petty thugs.
"Eyes on the target," Garrus reported from a position high in the industrial complex across the avenue that ran from ring to tip along the ward. The Turian had slipped easily into the role of sniper once the mission had started rolling. Now he stood perched with a high powered rifle, eye scanning the broken down warehouse for threats. "Outside's clear. I can't see anything through those windows up top, but it looks like the standard open space and mezzanine setups, so watch your heads."
"Thank you Garrus," Commander Shepard said over the radio. "You tell us if you see anyone." She snuck forward, crouched low over her pistol. Although given the chance to rearm as Nihlus and Garrus had, Evangeline had foregone the luxury. All she needed was her biotics to see her through.
"I'll let my rifle do the telling if you don't mind, Commander," he said with a chuckle. Even through the link the team could hear the whirr-click of the rifle's cocking mechanism. Behind her helmet, Shepard set her face in a grim mask. Now was the time for the butcher's work.
She went on, approaching the street side doors in a low stance. Nihlus followed close after with a readied shotgun. The SPECTRE reached the door first, having put on an extra burst of speed. Falling in behind him, Shepard signaled ready with a slap on the shoulder. Nihlus affixed a code-breaker on the door and flicked it on. The device whirred softly as it ran until it beeped to signal ready.
"We go in?" Shepard asked.
"We go in, nice and quiet. I'll scout ahead; you follow after and be ready to back me up." He opened the door slowly and entered the warehouse. The space within opened up all the way to the high roof, the only light in the room cast by the large outer windows. The light fell on stacks of cargo containers built up into high walls. Nihlus slipped between short stacks of barrels into the darkness. Shepard followed him into the warehouse at a distance, her eyes peeled for movement. She saw nothing but dusty boxes and unwashed crates.
"Commander." She stopped and dropped, pistol extended.
"Go," she said.
Nihlus spoke quietly. "I've got footprints in the dust, looks fresh. As in within the hour. Whoever took the doctor is most likely still in the building. Move up to my position, I think I've found a way into this little box fort of theirs."
Shepard clicked her headset in acknowledgement. She rose again and moved more quickly through the open floor. Nihlus' red and black armour loomed out of the gloom, followed shortly by his small black eyes that glittered in the low light. He motioned for her to stop before pointing out a small gap in the storage container barrier. Shepard nodded and moved towards it. As they approached, they could here low voices.
"…don't think she's gonna tell us," a voice came from the gap.
"Oh, she'll tell us," A female voice replied, "she'll tell us, or she'll find herself short a few toes. Dose her again, Hagan." There was a hissing sound of a hypodermic plunger and a muffled cry. "Now, Shelly, why don't you tell us where that Quarian's got to?"
"Please, I don't know. I don't know anything, she just came to my clinic!" That voice was higher, tinged with a soft accent and the slur of whatever drugs had just been pumped into her.
"Do we move?" Shepard asked. She hated sitting here while the other woman was tortured within earshot. But she wasn't calling the shots on this mission. She hated that too, but she couldn't quite bring herself to hate the dark scaled Turian beside her.
"I think that would…" he was cut off by a blood curdling scream. "Move!" They burst through the gap to find themselves out in the open staring down five thugs.
"What the…" the man holding a large knife spluttered. Shepard didn't let him finish. Three rounds went through his chest before he could activate his barriers. They split the ceramic armour above his heart and left it a ruin. He fell before finishing his sentence. The rest of the thugs recovered quickly. The female interrogator brought up a biotic barrier just in time to deflect Nihlus' spread of shotgun pellets.
"Take em' down, and mind the prisoner, she'll be broken yet." The interrogator yelled. She pulled a shotgun of her own from her back and opened fire. She drove Shepard and Nihlus apart, each rolling to avoid her fire. The other thugs were recovering now. They drew an assortment of pistols, rifles, and even the odd knife.
Shepard finished her roll and locked onto the closest enemy. Her biotics flared and the man found himself tugged into the air by an aura of negative gravity. He struggled against the pull, but he could not stop himself being pulled above the lip of the container walls. There was a sound of broken glass and the man's head burst.
"Got 'em," Garrus reported coolly. Shepard didn't let herself get distracted and drove back into the fight. Now almost even in numbers, the three remaining thugs began backing off.
"Take out that Turian," the female yelled. Immediately her two allies switched targets. The sudden shift beat at Nihlus' shields, one round even punching through to graze his leg. He fell to a knee with a bark of pain, but he did not relent. He reached behind his back and spiked something into the ground just ahead of him. He was obscured in a sudden cloud of smoke and a bust of static. Shots stabbed out from the cloud and speared another thug. He went down in a crumpled heap.
"Damn it, you deal with the doctor, I'll fish out the Turian." The biotic lunged into the cloud after Nihlus which left Shepard facing her friend. The man ignored her and made a move toward Michel. Shepard grunted and pushed herself forward toward them. She wasn't about to let their only lead get carted off when they were so close to victory.
She crashed into the man from behind four feet short of the gurney that they had the doctor tied down to. They both clattered to the floor as Shepard slipped an arm around the man's neck from behind. The man struggled against her choke hold and reached for his dropped pistol. Shepard kicked it away and tried to drag him into a kneeling position. The man struck again, this time with a knife. The wicked blade struck just below her half-visor and scratched a bloody line across her cheek. More from shock than from hurt, Shepard's hold broke and the man got free.
They both rose into a fighting stance. The man smiled cruelly while Shepard bit back the pain of the shallow cut. The man came on with another thrust, followed quickly by a wild slash. Shepard deflected both with the plates on her forearms and delivered an upward punch to the man's stomach. Her gauntlets crunched against his gut plate. Shepard threw another punch, this one biotically augmented. It hit him hard across the face and knocked him backwards. He tried to strike back, but the punch had made him slow. Shepard caught the downwards stabbing knife in an upwards crossed-arms block and redirected it. It found a gap between plates and struck its owner low in the stomach. Shepard continued her motion, moving behind the man and kicking him over. He fell on his blade, driving it deeper. He gasped weakly and then lay still.
"Hagan, forget the girl and come and back me up!" the interrogator's voice drifted from the smoke. "Hagan!" she moved out of cover and her eyes fell on her fallen partner. Her eyes narrowed and she leveled her shotgun on Shepard. "You!" Shepard tried to move, but the strain of the day suddenly caught up on her. She could only watch as the barrel was pointed at her face. Somewhere, a shot rang out. It lanced through the thug's barriers and caught her in the shoulder. She grunted and dropped her shotgun.
"I'll kill you she screamed, but another shot flew at her. She was able to dodge, though only by inches. "Fine, take her! But you'll have to fetch a bucket before she'll be of any use to you!" The interrogator tugged a belt of grenades from about her waist and flung it in the direction of the prone doctor. Shepard's eyes followed it helplessly as the thug made good her escape. Nihlus fired off a round after her, but it went wide, spraying the containers to her right. Shepard turned her eyes to the grenades. They flashed off the seconds until detonation as if in slow motion. Shepard could only watch, paralyzed. For a flash, she could see the ghostly flicker of Kaidan hunched over them. The ghost disappeared, replaced by a rapidly descending Turian in blue plate. Garrus landed into a roll beside the grenade belt and heaved it aside with all his might. It landed heavily not more than thirteen feet away. Seeing that, Garrus threw himself atop the gurney to shelter the body of the young doctor. The grenades exploded with a crack and pelted the room with shrapnel. It bounced off of shield, barrier, and armour and scraped at the scales on Garrus' neck.
Freed from her locking paralysis, Shepard rushed forward, arriving at the same time as Nihlus. Garrus rolled from the table and slapped at the grazes in his skin.
"You saved my life," Dr. Michel said breathily before passing out.
The clinic was darkened when the team arrived, and mercifully empty. Nihlus led the party, ready for another ambush. The room still lay in disarray from the earlier firefight, though it looked as if a keeper had been at the room. The damage to the walls had been smoothed over, leaving only the guttering and broken tables and chairs in testament to the fight that had occurred there.
"Get her on the table," Shepard called as she helped Garrus carry the wounded doctor into her own clinic. They laid her carefully onto the sole fit table.
"Commander; you prepare a field dressing. Garrus; watch the door." Nihlus gave orders before posting himself at the half–shuttered windows. Shepard set about checking the doctor's many wounds, careful to mind her damaged toe. Shepard spread a thin layer of medigel on the small cuts and placed a small clamp on the stump of her big toe.
"They're not doctor's work, but they'll hold," Shepard said, wiping stray blood from her fingers. She prepared a syringe of adrenaline before looking to Nihlus. The Turian nodded and Shepard plunged the needle home. Michel awoke with a sharp gasp and a whimper. She looked around wide eyed, only relaxing once her eyes fell on Garrus.
"Garrus, I remember you, you saved me."
"Yes, that was me," Garrus said. "Now I know you've been through a lot, but my friends here have a few questions for you."
Doctor Michel nodded weakly.
"Alright, last time I was here, you treated a Quarian. Do you know where she went?" Garrus spoke slowly and warmly, in stark contrast to his usual clipped glibness. "She has some information that could prove vital."
"I, yes, I remember. Tali'Zorah, that was what she called herself. She was hurt very badly, I had to send her to a friend of mine on the Presidium. I thought, I thought she would be safe there, I send all my Quarians there."
"Where is this place?" Shepard asked.
"I will show you," Michel said softly, straining to raise herself from the table. Garrus gently laid a claw on her shoulder and guided her back down.
"Here, show us on this map of the Citadel," he said. He lowered the projected map to her face. Michel reached up with her unwrapped hand and tapped one of the storefronts.
"Tell him, tell him I sent you," She said before drifting off to sleep. Garrus let her rest and brought the map back up for the rest of the group to see. He cocked his head and squinted.
"The Emporium? Sounds pretty upscale for a place to send Quarians. They're not even welcome on the Presidium Ring."
"Perhaps that is the point," Nihlus noted. "The Presidium is not as heavily populated as the wards, and who would expect to find a Quarian there?" he flickered the shutters. "The outside of the clinic looks clear, we weren't followed. If we head out now, we may catch this Tali'Zorah before she either succumbs or flees."
"I'll call in the med-techs, get her out of here," Garrus said.
"Good call," said Shepard. She moved towards the door and stepped out. "No time like the present boys, let's go find us a Quarian."
The team moved out in a loose formation. They stowed and secured their guns, though with both Shepard and Garrus in C-Sec blues they were mostly ignored. They made for the nearest elevator and soon found themselves packed in behind a wall of low ranking politicians and diplomats of six species. Shepard felt out of place and a little ill at ease rubbing elbows with the bureaucrats.
Thankfully, the ride came to an end after a five minute descent. Stepping out, Shepard felt she better understood why diplomats seemed perpetually dour. Garrus nodded in direction of the Emporium storefront and the group set off again. Shepard once again found herself captivated with the engineered beauty around her. In her youth she had only dreamed of ever seeing something so glamorous, though the soldier in her saw the whole arrangement as overly gaudy. Still, somewhere the little street girl stirred in her.
"Commander?" Nihlus' voice shook her from her reverie.
"Huh?"
"The Emporium, Commander." Shepard followed his gaze. Her eyes fell on a wide open store painted in a pure white. Small tables lay dotted around laden with display items. The store appeared to deal in almost everything. Shepard spotted a stall selling Earth luxuries right next to a Volus run vendor of deep space exploration gear. Most interesting to her though was also the nearest. Floating gently near a scrolling screen like a Portuguese Man o' War was a Hanar shopkeeper. The Hanar, luminescing and pink, looked her way. Or she assumed it looked, the floating jellyfish had no eyes to speak of. It wriggled and lights played over its gel-like skin.
"This one is pleased to see customers. Will the customers allow this one to show them it's wares?" the voice of the Hanar seemed ghostly, coming not quite from its direction. Instead it seemed to echo from somewhere just behind Shepard.
"The customers would be delighted," Nihlus said, trying to match the Hanar's odd speech pattern. "Would the shopkeeper be so kind as to tell us its name?"
The Hanar shivered again. "This one is known as Delan. Would the customers be interested in purchasing one of its fine weapon modifications?"
"We have some other business, we've been sent here by Doctor Michel," Shepard stepped up and spoke. The Hanar turned to face her. It rippled again, this time faster and more erratically.
"Yes? This one is curious. It has not heard from the one called Michel for some time. Will you tell this one what has happened to the doctor?" The ghostly voice conveyed very little emotion, but Shepard felt the almost worried tone.
"The Doctor's fine, she was attacked earlier, but me and these two went and rescued her. She sent us here on a very important mission, now let us see the wounded Quarian." Her tone was undiplomatic but honest. The Hanar seemed to sense it, because it didn't raise any resistance.
"Follow this one; it has many fine products to show you." The Hanar floated lazily towards the rear of the store. The members of the party exchanged looks and followed. The Hanar led them down a twisting back passage until it reached a heavy metal door obviously installed relatively recently. The Hanar bobbed in deference and floated out of the way.
Nihlus pulled open the door and stepped into the room beyond. Shepard moved in after him and found herself in a low-ceilinged room. Around the edge of the room sat or lay a half dozen Quarians in their hooded masks.
"Tali'Zorah?" Shepard asked, looking from face to hidden face. "We're looking for Tal'Zorah…" she stopped to look at the medical file she'd been given, "… nar Rayya."
"That's me," said a voice. "I am Tali'Zorah." A Quarian hobbled forward from the back of the room. She was clad in a purple veiled environment suit. Shepard looked the suit over; it looked a wreck. Though probably quite fine when it was new, the rubbery undersuit looked worn and scratched and it had been patched in at least ten places. Some of the patches looked fresh enough to have been applied the day before. The undersuit was covered in gracefully curved plating, similar to Shepard's own. The whole assembly looked about half-way between a spacesuit and a suit of armour. "What do you want?"
It was an odd company that assembled itself around the desk of the Systems Alliance Ambassador's desk the next day. The Ambassador himself sat next to a severe Navy captain on his right, and a tired looking commander on his left. Across from them, two Turians, a SPECTRE agent and an operative of Citadel Security. Beside them, a Quarian of the Migrant Fleet and the last Pradhan of the extinct Prothean Empire. All sat silently as a battered recording device sputtered out its final broadcast.
…and one step closer to the return of the Reapers.
"Well, I suppose that's it then," Anderson said wearily. "Proof that Saren was involved in Eden Prime." Nihlus' fist hit the desk with some force. No one else spoke for some time.
"Then it is the Reapers, and this Saren is their puppet," Javik said. "Even your Council must admit that this is the case. Can we expect that the traitor will be summarily executed before he does further damage?"
"Damn it, Saren may not be a willing partner in this. If he can still be reached…" Nihlus interjected.
"He cannot," Javik said.
"Be that as it may, the Council wouldn't admit to their own names without a year of deliberation, and even then they're liable to rule it as 'inconclusive.'" Udina said bitterly. "Woe be to the sod who has to present that to the Council." Everyone at the table looked at everyone else.
"I suppose I could present it to the Council," Tali said cautiously. Garrus made a sound close to a snort.
"I think perhaps the burden should fall for me, Tali'Zorah. No need for a girl as young as you to risk angering the Council. Besides, they may not so quick to trust this information coming from a Quarian."
"From a Quarian? Are you seriously going to play that card? And anyway, I was on my Pilgrimage, I'm essentially an adult."
"I'm not sure we should take this to the Council," Nihlus said. Udina and Anderson looked up distressed, but the Turian continued. "We have to make sure it's genuine. Saren has long been my friend, if there's any chance he's innocent of this charge, I refuse to level the accusation. It would ruin him."
"Are you serious?" stuttered Garrus. "I've been watching Saren for weeks, he's gone crooked. We have to show the Council, and I should be the one to take it." The table fell to arguing, Nihlus against Garrus, with Tali taking shots at both sides. Udina shook his head in disbelief.
"I will take it," Shepard said quietly. "I will take this evidence before the Council!" She stood up and snatched the circular OSD up from the circle.
"But…"
"No buts. If this was a Turian colony, you two would be stumbling over each other to throw this to the politicians. Now, I will take this to the Council, and I will expose Saren. Whether you want me to or not, the threat of the Reapers is too much to leave to petty disagreements. So are you with me, or are you going to let me walk to the firing squad alone?"
"You are well spoken, for a soldier," Nihlus said. He sighed. "I suppose I must go with you, the authority of a SPECTRE will be needed to bend the ears of Council."
"As long as I get to strike back at the people who put me in Doctor Michel's clinic," Tali murmured. "I will confirm the validity of the Geth print."
"I'll follow you," said Garrus. "If the Quarian is brave enough to march into the guns, I will not be left behind." The table shifted to look at Javik. The Prothean had been nigh silent, now he lifted his eyes to look back into the gathered party's faces.
"I will address this Council of yours. Should they not recognize the true threat, I will go ranging out into the galaxy to put a stop to Saren myself." He stood and made to leave, but Udina made a sound in his throat.
"Your pledges are admirable, but it will take some time to get a meeting with the Council so soon after the debacle that was Shepard's hearing. You will have to wait here until I can make the arrangements. As you know, one does not simply walk into the Presidium Tower."
The seven from the Ambassador's table stood before the three Councilors. Fewer spectators had come to watch this round, the novelty of Shepard's claims apparently worn off. Even the Council seemed to have little interest in the proceedings. Shepard cleared her throat.
"Honoured Councilors," the words Udina had made her practice almost choked her. "We have further evidence to present. Evidence that will shed light on the attack on Eden Prime." The proclamation sent ripples through the sparsely populated galleries.
"Commander Shepard, I thought that this council had made it clear that this was a Council matter. Evidence regarding Eden Prime will only be heard from a Council sanctioned agent."
"Then hear it from me," Nihlus stepped forward, a striking figure in a black and silver trimmed uniform, Turian military, Shepard assumed. "We… recovered a recording taken from a Geth platform. It reveals the masterminds behind the attack on Eden Prime." He motioned to Shepard. The Commander stepped forward and drew the OSD from a front pocket of her tunic. She loaded into the testimony stand and hit play. Sound echoed in the chamber, the voice of Saren.
Eden Prime was a major victory; the beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit.
And one step closer to the return of the Reapers.
Silence reigned and the Council was taken aback. The Salarian Councilor was the first to respond. "This cannot be real, Geth units self-destruct when captured, they always have."
"Not this one," Tali stepped forward. "It was taken unprepared and disabled before it could wipe its audio banks. I preformed the hack myself." Her voice held the hint of pride.
"You vouch for the veracity of this… evidence?" The Asari Councilor asked.
"I do."
"Very well, we are forced to accept it as evidence. The Council will deliberate on this." The Councilor bowed her head. Before she could leave, Shepard spoke up.
"There is no time for deliberation. You have just been given proof of one of your agent's involvement in an attack on sovereign Earth soil. There's no way you can simply ignore this new evidence."
"Ignore, no, but we must take time to talk this over. This is serious accusation…"
"Enough of this!" Javik's voice rolled across the open space. "Now is not the time for games of smoke and whispers! You do not understand the threat that now hangs above your head like a wrathful god. The Reapers, who ground my people into the dust over a sum of centuries is now ready to return to harvest you, and from what I have seen of you, you are even less prepared than we were. The Prothean Empire stood tall over near two thirds of this galaxy and still they were crushed in the field and hunted among the stars. The Reapers unleashed horrors that would drive you from your beds for the rest of your short lives.
Now this woman brings evidence of a villain that even now works against you, and you do what? You dither, and you bicker. By all at I have lost, by my men and my ships, I demand that you make your decision now. Do you stand against your own destruction, or do you submit to it!" his last sentence was bellowed in white hot anger. The Councilors stood slack-jawed, never before so defied. But they stood to their podiums and cast their votes. After a terse silence, the result was displayed. Unanimously, the Council voted to revoke Saren's authority as SPECTRE and to brand him a traitor. To Nihlus fell the duty of bringing him in. Of Javik, not one of them raised the point of Javik's status, allowing him to sweep from the chamber unchallenged. Shepard could only breathe out in relief. At last something would be done.
Author's Note:
And so the true adventure begins. Forgive the absence of Wrex, he'll show up before the story ends, you can be sure of that. Next chapter will cover the first steps on the road to defeating Sovereign, so stay tuned for dealings with pirates, mercenaries, and perhaps even everyone's favourite Asari archaeologist.
NonSolus: You are not mistaken, Udina might show his value in the future. I've always seen him as more of an opportunist than actively malevolent (ME3 excluded), and Shepard makes for very few usable opportunities. We'll have to see about Conrad, I don't have any plans for him now, but he may play a part in the future.
-Liddle Out
