Chapter 22 – Some Lengthy World-Building

March 8th, 2211. The Citadel, Presidium, The Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance— Training Facility 2

Six weeks after the events aboard the SSV Hippocrates

I grunted as I brought my chin above the bar for the eighth and final time, eighty-five pounds clipped on to my weighted vest to simulate not only a full load of my armor, weapons and gear, but an additional sixty pounds of equipment that I might find myself carrying from time to time.

Letting go, I dropped off of the bar, careful to absorb the force behind my landing with bent knees to protect my joints, then hastily undid the clasp on my weighted vest and let it fall heavily onto the floor. Thirty second rest.

Next was the automatic treadmill some distance away, I hopped on and immediately began sprinting as fast as I could, doing my best to maintain a speed in excess of fifteen-point-five miles per hour for thirty seconds, down from the sixteen that I had been doing earlier. This was my sixth set.

I hopped off the treadmill, panting hard, sweat glistening on my brow and my upper arms. Thirty second rest.

My eyes stung from some sweat that had gotten in them but it didn't deter me from moving to the heavy bag and sliding on the pair of gloves I'd left beside it. I set a three minute timer and went to work. Jab, jab, cross. Jab, cross, hook, knee. Jab, jab, cross, elbow, again and again and again for three minutes. Some combinations I hit as hard as I could, other times I focused on speed and precision.

I was the only Spectre in this particular training facility right now. Cade was doing currently doing some hologram fighting alongside Percival in a nearby simulation room. I had opted for raw physical work. I hadn't had the chance to do much of it while on board the SSV Excalibur over the last few months and I had had enough of fighting while onboard the SSV Hippocrates.

This time I took a minute-long rest, then went back to my weight vest and struggled into it, restarting the cycle.

Unlike many alliance marines, I didn't have the same gene mods that the Systems Alliance gave every recruit upon enlisting. They weren't magic, the same marine with the gene mods might be maybe ten, fifteen percent stronger or faster than the same one who didn't have them but they did make it easier to retain strength and muscle mass, especially during long deployments where a marine might not have access to the best facilities.

It also allowed them to focus more on combat drills and shooting. It also made them a bit bigger, bulkier. Percival was a prime example, the man was damn near built like a bodybuilder, two-hundred and twenty pounds of muscle at a height of 6'5.

I had declined the gene mods back when I first joined the Spectres. I had been afraid of how they'd interact with my biotic capabilities and thus had instead opted to just attain and maintain my physique and my fitness naturally. I was about one hundred and ninety pounds and 6'2, nowhere near as large as my fellow Spectre and a little bit closer to normal proportions.

Three more rounds went by. I added tire flips to them as well after the bag work to put a little bit more time between my pull-ups and my sprints. Like any good Spectre, I preferred to focus on increasing my high-intensity, long-duration work capacity rather than size.

I'd probably move on to some shooting practice immediately after, it was always nice to practice being accurate when you were at your most tired. After strenuous training for the last fifty minutes or so I was fast approaching my limit. Weighted pull-ups, thirty second rest, thirty second sprint, thirty second rest, three minute bag, thirty second rest, tire flips, thirty second rest, repeat.

I made a point to cap it out at twelve total sets so that I wasn't completely floored. It had been a while since I had access to all these amenities and therefore had practiced this level of training intensity, so I wanted to ease into it. The SSV Excalibur had a decent set-up, but it didn't have nearly as much room and equipment as the facilities at the Spectre offices.

My arms burned and my legs felt as if they'd been savaged by a pack of wild varren but I sighed in disappointment rather than relief after the conclusion of my twelfth and final set. On that last one I had barely maintained a sprint speed of fifteen miles an hour. A part of me wished that I had included some weighted sled pulls, just in case I had to drag Cade's fat ass out of the line of fire on our next mission.

The doors to the room slid open behind me and I turned to regard the newcomers.

"Spirits, can you put on a shirt?" Cade sighed. He covered his eyes dramatically and looked away. Unlike me, he was dressed in a turian training uniform. There wasn't an ounce of sweat visible on his uniform, as turians tended to vent heat through their mouths instead of sweating like many mammals did.

Percival on the other hand was drenched. The big marine was fit – fitter than many of the marines we worked with – but all that muscle size came with a price. He'd still crush eighty, eight-five percent of all enlisted marines in a ten-kilometer run, but he'd never beat Cade and I. What he lacked ever so slightly in cardiovascular fitness compared to us he made up for it in strength.

We had all arrived at the offices at the same time and they had spent the last hour or so working with the combat holograms.

"You boys ready to shoot?" I asked, sipping lightly on my water bottle. I quickly toweled off and slid a plain, dark-blue shirt with the Spectre coat of arms over my torso. Cade and I were both equally tied when it came to shooting, although he excelled a bit more at long distances and I excelled at shorter ones. Percival was just plain N7 material, coming just slightly beneath us in terms of both long and short distances.

I took one more sip from my bottle and tossed it at Percival. He caught it with one hand and took a grateful sip.

"Shooting will have to wait," he said. "The Council just pinged us, they want to meet."

My eyebrow shot up. "Now? All three of us?"

"Yeah," nodded the big marine. "No time to change, we go as is. I think we all know what this is going to be about."

March 8th, 2211. The Citadel, Citadel Tower – Main Elevator

Six weeks after the events aboard the SSV Hippocrates

"You two smell like shit, especially Percival," Cade groaned.

Percival elbowed Cade hard, knocking the smaller Spectre into the side of the elevator. Cade splayed his mandibles and kicked Percival in the back of the knee, eliciting a grunt of pain but otherwise only merely serving to piss off the big man.

I pressed my back against one side of the elevator and did my best not to get pulled in to their little friendly tussle.

The elevator ride up the Citadel Tower took exactly three minutes and forty-three seconds. It had been the butt of many jokes over the years and the catalyst for the some of the most surreal conversations that the three of us had ever engaged in. Stuff like whether or not a dog from Terra Nova would understand the barking of a dog that had been raised on Thessia.

I suspected that the lengthiness of the elevator ride was a design of deliberate intent, serving as some sort of psychological mind game on anyone who wanted to meet with the Council. The long elevator ride served to cultivate and amplify any anxiety, nervousness, or trepidation that may be present in an audience-seeker, putting the individual in a vulnerable state and giving the Council the advantage in their negotiations and in their deliberations.

Percival had a beefy arm wrapped around Cade's neck while the turian was currently trying his best to pry himself from the powerful headlock. The turian Spectre was careful to keep his claws from breaking skin, even though it would have been all too easy for Cade to tear open Percival's guts from his position. On the flip side, Percival was careful not to apply too much pressure, lest he risk accidentally breaking Cade's neck.

It had happened before. Not to Cade I mean. Percival had broken the necks of almost every intelligent alien species with his headlocks before. Nine out of eleven I believe, only missing out on Elcor and Hanar because the latter had no necks and because the former were very, very, very rarely the bad guys in our missions.

I gave a sigh of relief as three minutes and forty three seconds finally rolled around and the doors slid open.

Cade and Percival disentangled themselves promptly and dusted each other off. Together they marched out shoulder-to-shoulder, much to the confusion of several Council chamber workers and dignitaries who were lounging around the atrium.

I followed a few steps behind. Off to the side I could see the quarian ambassador alongside the geth ambassador speaking with a delegation from the Asari Republics. She noticed me stepping out of the elevator and gave me a quick nod, her glowing silver eyes narrowing in a smile beneath her mask. I'd personally saved Ambassador Tali'zorah vas Rannoch's life three years ago during a hostage crisis. I'd gotten a Christmas card every year from her ever since.

I didn't stop to say hi, merely nodding in a wordless acknowledgement and continuing on my way. Although we were all dressed in exercise attire, all three of us had the Spectre Emblem emblazoned somewhere on our clothing. The sight of it parted the crowd of dignitaries, officials, and workers like a hot knife through butter, allowing us to quick and unfettered access to the Council's private meeting room.

We moved past a checkpoint manned by a full platoon of heavily-armed C-sec guards. One by one we stepped past a scanner that triple-checked our identities, verifying our ID implants that we each had embedded beneath the skin of our arms against the Spectre database as well as undergoing a retina scan, voice scan, and a fingerprint scan.

Finally, we cleared security and approached the doors to the private meeting room. Flanking the doors were two of our fellow Spectres acting as the final layer of security. We were a tight-knit group, so even if you were to somehow fool the ID implants and all the scans, unless you skinned our faces, wore 'em, and knew our mannerisms and patterns of speech, you probably wouldn't get past the Spectres.

"Operative Kitiarian, Percival, Cloud, been a while, good to see you!" greeted Spectre Operative Lanto. The green-skinned salarian smiled and moved up to exchange handshakes with us while his colleague, Spectre Operative Corribus, scanned us one more time and relayed our arrival to Spectre HQ

"Lan, how long have you been stuck on door-duty?" Cade grinned. My friend pulled the smaller salarian into a hug that completely engulfed his fellow Spectre.

"Almost three weeks now! Unprecedented, meeting traffic spiking, currently drawing some unsettling inferences," sniffed Lanto.

"Heard you boys got into a bit of trouble a few weeks back. Wouldn't have anything to do with a certain Alliance ship, would it?" asked Corribus. Satisfied that we were indeed who we were, Corribus stowed his omni-tool and moved up to greet us as well. The dark-plated turian grabbed our wrists briefly and nodded to each of us in turn.

"How much have you heard?" asked Percival.

Corribus' mandibles twitched and he turned to the former Spectre. "Not much, overheard Leliana complaining that a few of her informants haven't checked in in a while, and Lanto here says comm. traffic regarding the Hippocrates just suddenly winked out."

Percival and I exchanged dark looks while Cade's smile melted from his face. Our fellow Spectres were no slouches in the detective department, they caught on and moved closer.

"What can you tell us?" asked Lanto. The salarian had been a Spectre for well over fifteen years. He was one of the Council's best and most trusted, cutting his teeth mostly doing espionage work in the Terminus Systems on the Council's behalf.

For Lanto to be posted to door duty meant that the Council was nervous. The fact that Lanto was not privy to what happened aboard the ship meant that the Council wasn't just nervous, but downright terrified. The more terrified they were, the more tight-lipped they tended to become regarding distribution information – even among their most elite operatives. It was all sorts of frustrating to those who they had entrusted the safety of the galaxy to.

"Omega-level threat," whispered Percival.

Lanto's beady black eyes went wide and Corribus' mandibles splayed out in alarm. Omega-level threats were threats towards the entire known galaxy. And I mean the entire galaxy. Even an all-out invasion of Council Space by a combined Terminus Systems wouldn't even rate an Omega-level threat.

The only time an omega-level threat had ever been called was during the Reaper Invasion.

Lanto swallowed and rubbed his hands together nervously. "Has that been confirmed yet, Percival?"

Percival shook his head. "Not yet, Lan, at least not by the Council, but the things we saw aboard the Hippocrates... it's an Omega-level threat, and we need to be ready for it."

"So what did happen to the ship?" asked Corribus.

"Destroyed," Cade replied. "We haven't been green-lit by the Council to disclose any facts yet, even to you guys. Spirits, we haven't even filed an official report back at HQ, but we're telling you, it's bad. The fact that they haven't told you guys anything about what happened on the ship proves that they're scared."

Lanto and Corribus both looked at each other. "The loss of the Hippocrates would explain the comm. silence," Lanto mused.

Corribus turned to me and crossed his arms. "Cloud, is there anything you can tell us, Spectre-to-Spectre?"

I looked at the dark-plated turians' brown eyes and pursed my lip. On one hand I understood the Council's need for secrecy. Every survivor knew roughly the events aboard the ship, but few knew of the hidden threat posed by the Reaper Cores. If that information were to get out then we could have mass riots erupting on dozens of different worlds. Galactic stability would utterly cease to exist as people began to point fingers and panic.

On the other hand, these were my fellow Spectres. The well-publicized actions of a select few legendary Spectres such as Saren Arterius, Tela Vasir, and even Commander Shepard had somehow painted all of us as these lone-wolf, independent pariahs who willingly walked our own paths when the reality was we depended on our tight-knit network of fellow Spectre Operatives to feed each other intelligence, help each other out during missions, and to lend us resources.

I calmly linked my omni-tool with Corribus' and Lanto's omni-tools through a highly-encrypted audio-link. Once I was inside that room, they'd hear everything that would be said. From that point on I'd have to trust my fellow Spectres. Percival and Cade pretended to look away, but I knew that my two friends agreed with my arguably treasonous decision. They knew that the Council was wrong on this one, it was just that neither of them wanted to be the one to go against them. Luckily for them, I had no such issues.

I made my choice, the Council could stand on their fancy pedestals and look down their long noses at me and swear me to secrecy on pain of death and I'd just keep doing exactly what they picked me to do, and that is to operate outside known military and legal jurisdictions to halt galactic threats. And hell, sometimes it included theirs, but that's why they picked me, right?

Both Lanto and Cor looked at me and nodded. "Thank you, Cloud. I know you boys wouldn't call an Omega-level threat unless you were absolutely sure, and if it's an Omega-level threat then we need to be ready, all of us, now," said Lanto.

Cor dipped his head in agreement. "I'm not going to sit here and wait for the Council to throw me crumbs. We owe you one. Anything you need, you just say the word," the turian Spectre promised.

I nodded back and our two fellow Spectres moved aside to make way. With a few final farewells we stepped inside to meet with arguably the four most politically influential and powerful individuals in all of Council space.

The room was medium-sized and comprised of two tiers, on the upper tier were four pedestals in front of a large holo-screen hanging from the ceiling where the four councilors stood. On the lower tier was a holo-table designed to display projections. Percival, Cade and I were currently standing on the lower tier.

At the forefront stood the infamous councilor Quinaya Tevos. Tevos had been the asari councilor for nearly one hundred and fifteen years now, having sat in office during not only the Reaper War but also the tumultuous decades that followed. Renowned for her diplomacy and mediation skills, Tevos had thankfully tempered her pro-asari leanings in the years after the war, even if she was still a bit of a prude.

Despite her refusal to believe Shepard and her withholding of vital information regarding the Crucible during the War, Tevos' reputation and her public acknowledgement that she had been wrong in not playing ball with Commander Shepard during the Reaper War had earned her a tenuous second chance, especially given the tumultuous state of the galaxy following the War. The Council had needed some semblance of stability and familiarity to brace ourselves against.

Besides, she had apparently single-handedly held off a whole platoon of Reaper troops who had invaded the Council Tower with her impressive matriarch-level biotics. Then again, although they said that it was heroism, it could have easily been self-preservation. Always hard to tell with things like that, and it was testimony to her skill as a diplomat that she could frame her actions in so many different ways.

And I'd like to reiterate again, still a bit of a prude. When terrorists had captured the quarian ambassador and had intended to send her back one piece at a time she'd pushed hard to meet their demands rather than authorizing a rescue operation. Easily my least favourite councilor.

To the right of Tevos stood Radal Jath, the councilor for the Salarian Union. Voted in less than three years ago, Jath had a reputation for being ruthlessly intelligent, pragmatic, and yet unflinchingly fair. Hailing from a prominent clan on Sur'kesh, Radal Jath was one of the few female salarians to ever choose to serve in the STG in a species which was nearly ninety-percent male.

After the Dalatrasses all voted to abstain from involving the union in the Slaver Fringe Wars, Commander Jath personally led five different STG cells down to nearly a dozen slaver-held planets to free salarian slaves while the slavers were busy fighting the Systems Alliance. With the support of the STG, rumor has it she then blackmailed, out-leveraged, and out-maneuvered all of her political rivals to become salarian councilor.

She's ordered me to wipe out particularly heinous slaver groups and mercenary bands at least nine times over the years. She was alright.

And to the left of Tevos stood none other than Councilor Adrien Victus, famed war hero of the Reaper War and the former Primarch of Palaven. Losing his son during the war, spearheading the Krogan-Turian Alliance alongside Shepard, then personally leading the bulk of turian forces on the Battle for Earth, Adrien Victus has had at least four full-length films written about him in the last two and a half decades.

He was the cornerstone of the new Council, moreso than even Tevos was despite her one hundred and fifteen year reign. He alone kept the group together in my opinion, tempering Jaths more bloodthirsty tendencies and pushing Tevos into action when she'd rather sit and wait. Him and Jath frequently worked together to ensure that the Council wasn't the cadre of thumb-twiddling, self-absorbed sycophants that they had been during Shepard's time.

And Victus was crafty, craftier than anyone could give a turian credit for. He could play diplomat almost as well as Tevos could, and yet he wasn't bull-headed like Jath was when it came to using us Spectres to apply lethal force to safeguard the galaxy, instead preferring to send us out on espionage, counter-intelligence, and even assassinations instead of the regular torch and burn. He always gave us the fun missions. Easily my favourite.

And last but not least, the Human Councillor.

Councillor Amanda Lanllavan had been a lawyer back on Terra Nova and had actually been the Colonial Prime Minister for nearly half a decade before being elected to the Citadel Council in 2309, replacing Councillor Bagan. At only forty-seven years old, she was relatively young and unapologetically pro-human.

She was in the game for one reason and one reason only – to secure and protect human interests. But when it came to major decisions, whereas Tevos represented one side of the scale, Jath the other, and Victus was the middle ground, Lanllavan often played both sides much to the frustration of her fellow Councilors.

Now that there were four Councilors, all major decisions required at least a three-to-one vote to pass. Lanllavan often put herself in the position of the deciding vote, seeing as no-nonsense, former soldier Adrien Victus routinely sided quickly with the decision he believed to be the right one. She often stalled votes and leveraged her position to secure trade benefits and expansion rights for the Systems Alliance.

It was one of the reasons why Victus had been pushing for the inclusion of either Krogan or the Volus to the Council for some time now. The Krogan Federation under the leadership of ambassador Urdnot Bakara and Warmaster Urdnot Wrex had blossomed ever since the curing of the genophage during the Reaper War, and even the asari were starting to think that the Volus Protectorate has contributed too much to the galactic economy for too little for long enough.

The inclusion of a fifth seat would rob Lanllavan of much of her power. The fact that the Turian Hierarchy shared close relations with both the Volus and the Krogan didn't bother me. Lanllavan often stalled on decisions I considered important in an attempt to squeeze as much as she could for the Systems Alliance before casting her vote.

I wasn't particularly pro-human. I'd happily see a slight increase in trade tariffs or a reduction in human colonial expansion rights if it meant that major decisions were decided upon more decisively and that other species received proper representation and preservation of interests in galactic politics.

The Citadel Council ladies and gentlemen, the four most powerful individuals in Council Space.

March 8th, 2211. The Citadel, Citadel Tower – Council's Private Meeting Chambers

Six weeks after the events aboard the SSV Hippocrates

By merit of seniority and longest tenure, Tevos naturally got to speak first.

"Spectres Percival, Kitiarian, and Cloud. It is good to see you three alive and well," Councilor Tevos smiled. She held her arms out in the traditional asari welcome gesture.

"You are a welcome sight indeed, Spectres," added Councilor Victus. Councilors Jath and Lanllavan both nodded in agreement.

As was our customary protocol by virtue of rank, age, and above all, maturity, Percival bowed on our behalf and addressed the Council. "Thank you, esteemed Councillors. It is good to be back."

Let's move forward with the assumption that we've all read their reports and we all know what's at stake, so let's dispense with the pleasantries, my fellow councilors," Jath asserted.

"Councilor Jath, you are indeed correct," Councilor Tevos agreed. "Let's move on to the matter in question, Spectres—your mission aboard the SSV Hippocrates and the appearance of these terrible creatures," she shuddered.

Councilor Tevos stepped forward and tapped on her omni-tool. Immediately a number of video files popped up on the holo-screen behind the councilors.

"We have a number of questions we'd like for you to answer before we share with you what we've learned," Tevos began.

She clicked the first video file and immediately footage of my fight with the saboteurs in the hangar bay came up.

The footage was recorded from Cade's helmet and I watched on the screen as my ambush was halted by the turian saboteur. My lips curled in a half-smile as I watched myself melt half of the salarian's skin off with my Warps, which then disappeared as I watched myself get my ass kicked by Locke, the rogue N7.

Tevos froze the video. She then looked at Cade and I.

"Operatives Cloud and Kitiarian, I understand that you two, along with Private Galen Verus and Doctor Jaelen Veers were present when the saboteurs made their escape," Tevos began.

"Yeah, we were, councilor," Cade said. I nodded to support my friend's statement.

Tevos clasped her hands behind her back. "Your mission reports regarding conversation among the saboteurs indicated that they all seemed to be working under the direction of an entity known as Mordred. Is that correct?"

We both nodded in the affirmative. Tevos nodded and addressed us again.

"We want to clarify that you believe that the lead saboteurs in question were not, in fact, responsible for planning the events aboard the Hippocrates, that they were working under the direction of someone else, and that these events were deliberately orchestrated as part of a larger plan – not a random, freak accident as we so dearly wish to believe?"

Cade and I both nodded. "Yes councilor," I replied. "Conversation between the lead turian and human saboteur indicates that they purposefully instigated the outbreak aboard the Hippocrates to gather information, possibly regarding these creatures, and that all of this was under the direction of the entity known as Mordred."

"Okay, thank you Spectres," finished Councilor Tevos.

"Spectres," Lanllavan began next. "You included in your report the DNA analysis obtained by one Doctor Jaelen Veers and a video recording given to you by one of the saboteurs. All three of you have speculated that the phenomenon currently plaguing Earth and only now manifesting itself in certain planets within the Asari Republic and the events aboard the Hippocrates are perhaps one and the same."

Percival stepped forward and nodded emphatically. "Yes ma'am. We have reasons to believe that aggressor DNA from the Reaper Cores are responsible for both events, you'll find the full explanation within our report. I wish to go on record to state that unless we act now we could be seeing these outbreaks on core planets all over Council Space."

All four of the Councilors set their mouths in a grim, straight line. That was good, if all of them were simultaneously silent. Or maybe it was bad. Either way, it meant that they were taking us seriously. Hopefully they'd spent every hour the last two days reviewing our camera footage, viewing the events aboard the ship as we saw them. They knew the stakes.

Lanllavan swallowed nervously at the thought of these outbreaks appearing all over the galaxy and nervously rubbed her hands. "We don't doubt that, Spectre Percival. Our question is whether or not you might know where we could get the full recording. The recording you sent us was partially corrupted and we believe that the information within could be vital to our efforts to stop any more of these tragedies from occurring."

Both Cade and Percival looked at me expectantly. I had been the one to receive the recording from Olivia. It had been surreal, watching the video in the labs and listening to the woman with the accent talk about how the DNA of a harvested species might still be alive, even after the Reapers were all deactivated two and a half decades ago.

I cleared my throat and addressed the human councilor. "No, not to our knowledge. When we pursue the saboteurs I will make it a point to inquire after it, however. Any idea who was the woman on the video?"

Both Tevos and Victus both shared an almost imperceptible look between the two of them before they too shook their heads alongside their fellow councilors.

"We've got STG's finest trying to find this human, Spectre," assured Jath. "But for some reason, there's nothing in our databases. It's like someone wiped this person's entire digital footprint. Short of going around and showing people the woman's picture, there is not much else we can do. Rest assured, I will have my teams continue their search."

All three of us nodded. Damn, this woman was our only lead on finding out more about these Reaper Cores.

"As per your recommendation, we are currently forming special task forces to investigate the locations of Reaper Cores, headed by some of your very own fellow Spectres," Jath continued, "but finding and identifying these cores that contain the aggressor DNA will take time we might not have. Worse, word might get out and we might have galaxy-wide riots."

I cleared my throat. "Do we have a potential lead on how to do that, Councillors?"

The turian councilor and former Primarch shook his head. "No, Operative Cloud. The loss of the Prometheus research data has set us back, but thankfully we have the samples you've returned with, plus the Reaper CPU. Observation posts over Earth are still providing us with a stream of data regarding the spread of the phenomenon on the planet, and hopefully from that we will gleam some sort of method to identify the Cores with the DNA."

The salarian councilor nodded towards me and typed something into her omni-tool. "The Reaper CPU you recovered has been invaluable. It contains a larger amount of the aggressor DNA than any of the other samples you brought back. Through it we hope to decipher the more evolved and developed stages of the aggressor DNA and hopefully construct a means of defense."

I smiled wryly at Percival and Cade, who both promptly rolled their eyes and shook their heads.

All four councilors exchanged glances one more time. That wasn't a good sign. I stood with some trepidation as Victus cleared his throat and began to type something into his omni-tool.

"There is one last thing I wanted to clarify with you, Spectres," said councilor Victus.

And finally one last video came up on the screen. It was actually two videos technically, the first was a video of the final moments of one of the saboteurs we had fought in the machine room aboard the Hippocrates, the one who had surrendered and then tragically took her life not moments after.

I recognized it from my own camera footage. I watched once more as she fell to her knees and began to talk about transcendence. Mercifully, Victus ended the video before I was forced to witness her take her own life again.

He then swapped to another video, one that I also recognized from my own camera footage. It was a recording taken outside one of the containment airlocks, from my first encounter with the creatures.

I watched again as the Corpser shoved its metal talons into the marines arm, climb on top of him, and begin to infect him with his Crawler parasites. I watched as the marine screamed and fought and eventually died, rising moments later to become one of them.

Tevos swallowed nervously and Lanllavan looked to be on the verge of throwing up. Victus had a noticeable frown on his typically stoic face while Jath merely stared impassively at the video.

Beside me Cade's plates clinked together as he shifted from leg to leg and Percival's jaw subtly clenched. I crossed my arms over my chest and forced myself to watch the whole thing from beginning to end.

"Spectres…" Victus swallowed, "is this transcendence?"

March 8th, 2211. The Citadel, Citadel Tower – Council's Private Meeting Chambers

Six weeks after the events aboard the SSV Hippocrates.

After answering dozens of questions about the creatures and their capabilities, the councilors finally moved on to the subject of the saboteurs, particularly their identities. The human councilor cleared her throat and opened up for her fellow politicians.

"Spectres, as you know the SSV Hippocrates might have been a Systems Alliance ship, but contained within its various divisions and its command structure members of the Turian Hierarchy, the Salarian Union, the Asari Republics, and even the Krogan Federation," Lanllavan began.

"We've looked over the ship's crew logs and your video recordings and STG has managed to identify all of the lead saboteurs," Jath explained. "Surprisingly, it wasn't hard, nor did they make any attempt to mask their true identities. This is unsettling, Spectres."

The salarian councilor pulled up an image of a gray, wrinkled salarian with a myriad of scars on his body—the salarian saboteur.

"This is Morder Zakiah, STG, one of my very own," Jath began. "He was assigned alongside an STG security force aboard the Hippocrates to watch over key salarian assets such as Doctor Veers, among many others."

His bio listed him as forty years old, old for a salarian. He had been in active service for nearly two decades and had participated in dozens of classified operations.

"In your footage of him aboard the Hippocrates, he exhibited mild-to-severe psychopathic behavior and possible bipolar disorder, something that the STG regular psych evals began to pick up four years ago, after a failed mission to raid the base of a Terminus Systems krogan warlord that resulted in Captain Zakiah sustaining several permanently-disfiguring wounds," the salarian councilor explained.

Jath sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. "There was nothing in his communications and in his behavior that indicated that Captain Zakiah had intended on defecting, but being a skilled and long-serving member of the salarian Special Tasks Group it is not impossible that he managed to successfully hide the fact. The psych evals did show the beginnings of these disorders, but after a lengthy investigation they decided that they were not yet debilitating to the point where his ability to perform his duty would be compromised, and was thus cleared for continued service."

"Nonetheless, your mission report states that he might very well now be KIA, courtesy of Operative Cloud," Radal Jath acknowledged.

Cade gave me a brief glance. I had jeopardized my health and my mind to kill the insane salarian by taking a drug that had enhanced my biotic powers, and he clearly hadn't forgotten that.

Councilor Victus picked up where Jath left off and switched to an image of a pale, white-scaled turian with light blue clan markings and red eyes.

"Your combat footage has also allowed us to successfully identify one Severus Tyrannus," Victus began. Compared to Zakiah, his service record was almost non-existent, comprised of nothing more than a few commendations and a handful of missions. The young turian was only twenty-three years old.

"The fifth and final son of General Lucius Tyrannus, Severus Tyrannus earned nearly every commendation there was to offer during his time in basic training. Heavily praised by his training officers and earmarked for early entrance to the Blackwatch, Severus broke every marksmanship, combat, hand-to-hand score record in the Turian Hierarchy dating back nearly four hundred years."

"He was accepted into the Turian Ghost Infiltrators and served two tours before going AWOL during a mission on Korlus," Victus explained. "His father had him removed from the clan and declared dead for his dereliction of duty. Since then he has been sighted in various mercenary outfits."

"He was part of a private military group stationed aboard the Hippocrates that the Systems Alliance had contracted to train their security personnel. There are few clues as to what his motives are for joining the saboteurs," the turian councilor finished.

Severus Tyrannus was an enigma. He had beaten Cade, easily beaten the marines, and had quite nearly bested I aboard the Hippocrates. He had had the opportunity to let Zakiah kill the marines and yet had not allowed him to do so. He was a hard read.

Councilor Lanllavan took over for Councilor Victus next and a picture of an attractive red-headed female came up on the screen. My fingers curled into fists at the sight of her and the scar she had left on my face began to burn. In my mind I was once again pulled back aboard the ship, listening to her whisper maddening thoughts in my ears.

"Doctor Olivia Flanagan," began councilor Lanllavan. "Ph.D in xenoscience engineering and assigned to Project Prometheus as one of the lead engineers on the mini-crucibles."

I starred dully at her picture, momentarily lost in my own memories. I could feel my heart rate spike and a bead of sweat begin to break out on my forehead as I involuntarily replayed those moments aboard the Hippocrates in my mind once more.

I want to take everything you care for and leave it in ruins.

"We've agreed with Spectre Cloud's analysis that her giving you the recording of the reaper researcher should not be construed as an attempt to betray her fellow saboteurs," Lanllavan continued. "Unlike Captain Zakiah, there was absolutely no indication that Doctor Flanagan possessed any sort of mental disorder, and yet your reports and your recordings of her behaviors seem to heavily indicate otherwise."

"Nonetheless, she has been confirmed KIA by all three of you, courtesy once more of Spectre Cloud. We will be sending teams to question her known associates," finished Lanllavan.

But I barely heard the councilors report. The picture of Olivia had seemingly summoned her ghost to the room, or at least that's what it felt like. It was almost like she was alive again, in my head, whispering and whispering and whispering. It took all of my self-control not to grab at my head like an absolute madman in front of the councilors.

I will haunt you for the rest of your days. Every time you close your eyes, I'll be there.

Blue sparks danced ever so briefly between my fingers, drawing the notice of Cade. He looked at me momentarily in concern. I clenched my fists and screwed my eyes shut.

I opened them again just as Councilor Tevos began to brief us on the fourth and final saboteur.

An image of a late middle-aged man with icy-blue eyes, gray hair and a salt-and-pepper beard popped up on the large screen. Locke. His gaze locked onto mine and pulled me back to the present, pushing Olivia back where she belonged – in my memories.

"And finally, Commander Thomas Locke, N7 designation," Tevos gestured at the picture. "Locke enlisted at the age of 18 with the Systems Alliance marines. He was invited to Interplanatary Combatives Training at the age of 25 where he graduated with the rank of N7."

The asari Councilor flipped to his service record. It was long, longer than any of the other previous saboteurs. The man had been in service for thirty-five years, longer than I'd even been alive. If the service record was accurate, the man had served in almost two-hundred and eighty-seven missions across more than thirty tours. A military lifer.

A series of holo-images lit up on the screen, portraying Locke fighting hordes upon hordes of Reaper troops beside a squad of soldiers, all of them bearing a bright red stripe running down their right arms.

"Thomas served with distinction during the Reaper War, in which he lost his only son and wife during the initial invasion of Earth. Him and his force of N7's were instrumental in buying Shepard the time she needed to complete the plans for the Crucible, participating in dozens of decapitation strikes, raids, and sabotage against Reaper-held targets," Tevos told us.

"He was stationed aboard the Hippocrates as the commanding officer of the security personnel on board. Like the other saboteurs, none of his past communications and actions have hinted at any desire to defect or to engage in such terrible actions. His motives too remain a mystery," the asari councilor finished.

And with that the presentation was finished. Victus shut off the holo-screen and the images all disappeared.

Percival, Cade and I had all stood silently as we absorbed what the councilors told us. Jath was right, the fact that none of this information was in any way difficult to retrieve was unsettling. The only reason a supposed group of saboteurs might eschew secrecy was if they didn't intend to be a secret for long.

Victus clasped his hands behind his back and straightened up. "Spectres, your mission will be to hunt down these individuals, to hunt down Mordred, and to stop whatever they have planned with the Reaper Cores and the aggressor DNA. You three have invaluable firsthand knowledge regarding these creatures and your personal interactions with the saboteurs can give you insight into their motives and their actions that none of our other operatives would possess—"

All three of us involuntarily tensed up at Victus' tone. We sensed a "but" there.

"—But you three will not be operating alone, one of your fellow operatives has specifically requested to join you in your operation and in light of her exemplary talents and her service record we have granted her request," Tevos added.

What?

Cade looked at both Percival and I, seeking some sort of clue as to what the councilors were talking about. Percival shot him a look of utter confusion while I merely shrugged. This was a bit unusual. Sometimes circumstances forced us to work with our fellow Spectres, but very rarely did a Spectre request to join our little squad.

The three of us were a bit of a running joke within the Spectre community, something involving an unhealthy amount of emotional attachment and dependence on one another and some deep-seated, tightly-masked, lightly-implied homosexual undertones, but the three of us had always laughed it off.

We were arguably the Councils most successful operatives specifically because of how well we synergized with each other. Our fellow Spectres recognized that and in turn understood not to disrupt that inexplicable serendipity by butting in as a fourth wheel.

As if on cue, the doors behind us slid open and the councilors all looked expectantly behind us.

The three of us turned around to discover the identity of our new, fourth member. I saw her saunter in and immediately uncrossed my arms and looked to my two friends, unable to mask the alarm on my usually stoic face.

A while back I mentioned that Percival was the sixth human ever to be inducted into the Spectre Corps. I was the seventh, beating out the eighth human Spectre only by virtue of my name being alphabetically ahead of hers.

Elektra walked in as if she was on a catwalk, each leg falling confidently in front of the other like she was walking a tight, thin line. She was clad in Ariake Technologies armor nearly identical to mine, except whereas mine was black with dark-blue trim, hers was black with dark-purple trim and a couple of hearts carved into her chestplate. Her Predator pistol was holstered on her left hip and her M-27 Scimitar was slung over her upper back. An N7 Hurricane was clipped horizontally beneath it.

Percival nodded professionally to her while Cade groaned as dramatically as he could, uncaring of how it would affect his image in the eyes of the four most powerful political figures in the known galaxy.

Councilor Victus put on his most authoritative general's voice, the kind that brooked no disagreement. "Spectre Elektra will be joining you on your mission. I understand that you three might feel that you do not need her assistance, but this mission is too important for pride to overcome prudence and caution. These saboteurs are dangerous and you would do well to have another teammate watching your back. Some of you at least."

As Victus gave his orders all four of the councilors looked pointedly at where I'd been standing innocently the entire time. I'd lie if my cheeks didn't turn a bit red.

Cade growled and turned to me, shooting daggers out of his eyes. "This is somehow your fault! Spirits I'm sure of it!"

Elektra crossed her arms and smiled at us. "You didn't even say goodbye the next morning, Cloud. Cade, Percival, good to see you again."

"Good to have you with us, Elektra, we could always use the extra gun," Percival replied to the female Spectre. His feelings towards Elektra weren't nearly as strong as those of a certain turian who shall remain nameless.

"Shut it, harpy!" Cade spat at her before rounding back on me with a vengeance. "And you! What did she mean you when she said you didn't even say goodbye the next morning?!"

The councilors had begun to bristle at my friends little temper tantrum. It was a good thing Cade was so damn good at his job or else he would have probably had his status stripped for insubordination years ago.

"Cade, maybe you should calm down, the councilors are watching," I said.

"Besides, it's not what you're thinking, Cade," Elektra assured the irate turian. "Can we please return to the matter at hand?"

"No! I can't! This is your fault and I know it, Cloud! We had a good thing going and I know you somehow ruined—"

"Spectre Kitiarian!" bellowed councilor Victus. "That's quite enough!"

Cade jumped up and immediately snapped to attention. As much as he might clash with Elektra, he was still a turian at heart, and that meant obeying your superiors.

Councilor Tevos raised her hands in a calm-down gesture. "As you are well aware, these saboteurs are dangerous. We've reviewed your camera footage and your past mission records and we've noticed a certain… pattern of behavior regarding how each of you individually operates."

Once again, all four councilors looked at me. Scolded like an errant schoolboy who'd been caught sneaking into class, this couldn't be happening right now.

"I knew this was somehow your fault!" Cade hissed.

"The way the three of you protect each other is admirable, but there are some situations where that protection is not possible due to extenuating circumstances," Tevos continued. "Spectre Elektra has specifically requested to join your mission and we believe that her presence will help alleviate some of the difficulties you might encounter in those situations."

Just call it babysitting, mixed with a dash of spying and reporting to the Council.

"Besides, her combat skills are excellent," Jath added. "One of our very best."

That fact wasn't to be disputed. Elektra was as lethal as she was beautiful. And annoying. And bratty. And manipulative. You get the picture.

Elektra moved to take her place between Cade and I. Her charming smile was gone, replaced by a mask of respectfulness and deference that no doubt was in place for the benefit of the councilors.

"Thank you for your trust, esteemed councilors. I will assist my fellow operatives to the very best of my abilities in completing this mission," she promised.

Lanllavan, Jath and Tevos nodded like a trio of hens while Victus crossed his arms. Elektra unclasped her hands from behind her back and placed them on the holo-table beside me. I flinched as one of her fingers lightly brushed against mine.

"We have the utmost faith in you, Spectre Elektra," Victus replied. "As for your official orders, this is an omega-level threat, you four will be our lead investigators in finding out how to stop it. For now, however, standby while we receive confirmation regarding a report from one of our recon teams. The minute we have something concrete, we will send for you. Dismissed."

With that, the four of us nodded and turned around to leave, Percival leading the way followed by a ruffled and obviously flustered Cade. Elektra followed behind him, shooting a glance over her shoulder towards me. I met her twinkling gaze and ruefully shook my head. To say that Cade and her didn't get along very well was like calling the Reaper War a friendly paintball match.