The Machinist
After all the accolades and ranks the Alliance awarded her, Shepard never forgot the skill that drew her mentor to an orphaned teenager with gang affiliations. Firing a gun with deadly accuracy.
She brought the scope up to her eye when she reached the entrance of Chora's Den, only aware of her other squadmates in the vaguest sense. They weren't in her way, and that's all she needed to check for. She reflexively pulled the trigger as something crossed the long sightline, bringing one of Saren's mercenaries to his knees in an instant. A few pistol shots from her right side finished him. She found someone's head in her target reticle as she swept the walkways, peeking over a railing. Shepard sniped him as well, and then adjusted her aim to catch a third charging down the center. Her rifle beeped. A reminder of its cooldown time.
"Let's move," she ordered. Her fingers left her gun to motion forward, then Shepard returned to silence. Ashley advanced down the corridor, trailed by Wrex. Garrus stuck closer to her side. Kaidan ensured they weren't pinned down from behind, falling into the back of their loose formation.
"I think I know roughly where Fist sent her," Garrus said. "There's a secluded maintenance area behind the Lower Markets." He paused to fire on another mercenary. Shepard followed up with her own shot and reloaded. They passed the dead man seconds after. "The gangs use that spot as a neutral ground for deals. It's not too far away."
She grunted in response, then let him direct her there. The events between leaving Chora's Den and finding the right corridor were hazy in her mind. She engaged the enemy with an opening shot, her team backed her up, and the rest became inconsequential in the face of their dwindling time limit. She lowered her sniper rifle just enough to read the posted Citadel signs before they entered a red tinted side hall.
"Stop." She raised a hand in warning, her voice low. Faint sounds carried over to the doorway where the team waited, hidden by the curvature of the walls and stacked shipping containers. About four people were gathered in the center of the room. The first 3 stood closer to each other. A white-marked Turian male in dark clothes, flanked by what looked like two Salarians in full protective gear. The Turian faced a slightly smaller figure in dark violet and black armor. An attached hood or cowl covered their head from this angle.
"That should be the Quarian," Kaidan said from somewhere behind her. Shepard's grip on her weapon slacked to a degree. They hadn't taken her yet. She wasn't too late. It might be best to wait and see if they revealed any more information. Maybe even follow them back to their base or the ship they arrived on.
The Turian went back and forth with the Quarian, though she couldn't hear their conversation from this distance. He reached out to trail a hand down her side, only for her to shove his arm away. His partners whipped out their pistols. Looked like this meeting was over.
Shepard placed her sights on one of their heads while the Quarian backed away and threw a small object onto the ground.
"Grenade!" One of the men yelled. The sudden blast knocked him aside. Shepard shot him through the helmet for good measure.
"Don't let them get away with her," she commanded. As the Quarian retreated from Saren's men, Ashley laid down suppressive fire. The girl at least had a weapon, even if her chosen handgun looked light. The Quarian fired at the Turian assassin's chest, who took it and leveled his shotgun in retaliation. Shepard kept an eye on the exit at the other end of the room in case more hired guns joined in, but this seemed to be the last of them. Garrus overwhelmed the other Salarian by disabling his weaponry, which let Ashley clean him up. Kaidan's biotics wrapped around the last man and tossed him sideways with a Throw maneuver, sending him right into Wrex's range for the finisher. Two loud blasts broke through his worn shielding, and the third one killed him.
"Securing the area." Kaidan motioned for Ashley to sweep the room with him. Shepard powered down her weapon and let them work, attaching it to her back. Garrus regrouped with her while Wrex dragged off the three new corpses. Probably looking for any useful equipment.
The Quarian girl tucked her own weapon away and seemed to be checking over the tubing and valves on her suit, including a more recent-looking patch on her leg. Only the faint shape of her eyes could be seen from behind the tinted mask built into her cowl, the reinforced glass connecting to a breathing device that rested over her mouth. The outfit, which appeared to be a collection of silver plating, connective metal joints, and decorative fabric, created a sealed and filtered environment for her body. Quarians needed these complex suits for medical purposes, though not for the same reason as the Volus. They wouldn't instantly die from the atmospheric pressure if pierced, at least. As soon as she appeared satisfied with her condition, she turned to face Shepard.
"I knew I couldn't trust Fist!" she complained, the light on her mask flickering in sync with her words. Her voice had a slight electronic echo to it, and her accent was completely unfamiliar. Shepard stopped herself from smiling too much at her tone. If she was well enough to be pissed off, then she'd probably be fine. "I appreciate the help, but… who are you?"
"I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance. I'm searching for evidence on a Spectre's treasonous actions. I heard that you knew something about Saren?"
"This is an Alliance operation?" The Quarian's head tilted to the side. A group of armed aliens that weren't a merc group or C-Sec would look odd to most people. "Ah, nevermind that. If you need information, then I think I have a way to repay you. Just not here." Right, this wasn't a secure location.
"All clear, Ma'am," Ashley called. Time to move before they were further delayed.
"We'll take this to the Human Embassy, then. I'm sure the Ambassador wants to hear what you have to share," Shepard told her.
"Shepard, you're testing my patience," Ambassador Udina said from behind a desk. Shepard hadn't been in his private office for 3 seconds before he started his rant. The rest of her makeshift team filed in behind her, along with their informant. Captain Anderson looked up from his data pad with interest. "Do you know how many complaints about firefights in the Wards that I've received in the last hour? And attacking a club"- He turned around and paused, his mouth forming a thin line. "...You left with two soldiers and returned with a party. Explain yourself." Shepard wanted to roll her eyes, but she couldn't exactly talk back to her own Ambassador.
"Just doing what was asked of me. We now have tangible evidence that Saren's working with the Geth." Shepard nudged the Quarian girl to take the lead. Udina's brows raised, and Anderson stood up from his chair.
"Let's hear it, then. And you are…?" he asked.
"...Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." She bowed her head a few inches in a sign of respect. "Saren wanted something in my possession, so I attempted to bring it to the Council instead, but I can't ask for an audience without any political backing." And there were no Quarian Ambassadors.
"She agreed to let us present her findings," Shepard explained.
"I see. Quarians are not a common sight beyond their Floatilla," Udina said. "What exactly brought you into contact with Saren?" Tali looked back at Shepard, who gave her a nod. Best to have everything out in the open now so their story was straight later on.
"I was on the Pilgrimage," Tali continued. "My people leave our home ships when we come of age, only to return once we've found something of great value to present to one of our Captains." An interesting custom, but how did this connect to their investigation? "While traveling, I came across reports of Geth activity. After driving my people away, they haven't left the Perseus Veil in centuries, so I looked into it." She brought up her Omni-tool and searched for a file. "I ended up tracking a small group of them to an unoccupied planet. One of the Geth separated from the rest, and I disabled it to study while I had the chance." She projected a spherical object in front of her. "Luckily, I salvaged an intact memory core and was quick enough to preserve part of the data."
"It hadn't been wiped when the Geth was destroyed?" Anderson asked.
"The Quarians created the Geth." Her confidence wavered, but she pushed on. "We still study their systems to this day, and if you know how they function, it's very possible to extract information before it's deleted. Like this snippet I found in the Geth's audio banks." Tali opened a smaller file, which played a short clip. Everyone listened as a slightly distorted version of Saren's voice filled the office. He mentioned Eden Prime, the now defunct Prothean beacon, and something called a "conduit." The exact specifics of what this conduit was didn't matter, potential weapon or not. His confession had to be more than enough to prove his guilt.
"Wait, there's more! It wasn't just him." Tali unpaused the audio, and a second, unidentifiable feminine voice answered Saren.
"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." That term… Shepard had never heard of it before now, yet it stuck in her head.
"I checked the Geth's memory banks as well, and they seem to believe that Reapers are an advanced machine race from 50,000 years in the past," Tali said. She shut the audio file down once it looped to the beginning. "The pinnacle of synthetic life. These collective records claimed that the Reapers drove the Protheans to extinction, and then vanished. The Geth see them as gods."
"That's…can't be real," Udina said. "Surely someone would have found evidence of such a species by now."
"The vision. That's what it showed me." Shepard didn't realize she'd spoken aloud until everyone turned to look at her. Maybe she sounded nuts, but everything fit into place for her. "Anderson, the Beacon's a warning from the Protheans about the Reaper threat," she explained. "That's the war I saw! They were being hunted down, and Saren wants the same kind of power. The Council needs to know about the Reapers, they could be a threat to the entire galaxy!" Anderson rested a hand on his chin.
"It's a dangerous theory. Saren could believe in these Reapers, and that would neatly explain his actions. And he still committed treason by assaulting Eden Prime in the process." Tali's fingers touched together as she looked between Shepard and Anderson.
"If the Geth think that Saren can bring these machine gods back, they'd do anything for him. Isn't having an army of them on his side dangerous enough?" she asked.
"What matters is that we now have proof of his alliance with the Geth and his involvement with the attack on our colony," Udina said. At this point, Shepard didn't care what he believed as long as he was on their side. He headed back to his desk and activated the holographic interface. "I'll book another appointment with the Council, they'll have to reconsider their ruling after hearing this audio file. Compose yourself and meet us at the Tower, Commander."
Saren was fresh out of time and alibis, and now he'd finally face the consequences of his actions. Garrus promised to attend in case the Council requested information on Saren's attempts to kill them on the Citadel, and Wrex wandered out to the Presidium area to wait until they finished.
"So…" Kaidan started once the office doors shut behind them. "You think the Reapers are real? Because of what the beacon showed you." Shepard leaned against a wall and let out a slow breath.
"I do, Lieutenant." After that audio clip and learning what the Geth believed, it all made too much sense. "Call it a gut feeling, but I can't write off what I saw as a simple dream. The Geth's description of the Reapers matched what the beacon showed. A war that destroyed every living thing that resisted, led by machines." Kaidan looked thoughtful. Ashley, as skeptical as she'd been about Shepard's earlier decisions, didn't push back now.
"Look, I won't pretend to know anything about Prothean technology or ancient alien history, but…Saren did want to get rid of all the evidence. Why would he try to blow up the artifact if it meant nothing?" she asked. "What are the odds of you and him having the same space delusion after touching it? Uh, no offense, Ma'am." Shepard shook her head.
"None taken."
"You have a good point, Ash," Kaidan said. "Either Saren's trying way too hard to trick the Geth into being his new henchmen, or he has a larger plan worth losing his Spectre status over. If it involves anything even remotely like the Reapers, then we're in trouble." The door slid open, letting Tali out into the hallway. She must've finished copying the audio file.
"Commander, before you go…" she began. They'd agreed that she would be allowed to stay here for the time being to keep her safe from potential retaliation, so what else did she need? "I wanted to ask you to take me along," Oh. "I can handle myself in a fight, and I know more about the Geth than anyone else here." Shepard couldn't refute that. No one in the Alliance called themselves a Geth specialist. She also had a feeling that once the Council stripped Saren of his political protection, the Alliance upper brass would task someone with avenging Eden Prime. The Hierarchy wouldn't lift a finger to stop them from bringing in a proven traitor. But did she want to be responsible for dragging Tali into something that dangerous? The girl had been the target of kidnappers and hitmen an hour ago.
"Don't you still have to finish your Pilgrimage?" Shepard asked.
"This is exactly what the Pilgrimage is about." Her three fingers clenched into fists. "Doing what you can for the benefit of the community. And Saren is a threat to everyone, so I want to help. I'll find something to bring back home later." If Shepard refused her, she'd most likely try to help with Saren in some other way, which had a much higher chance of ending badly. Might as well just let her join and figure the details out from there.
"Alright, welcome to the team. Provisionally." Tali's mask light flickered when it caught her sharp breath in.
"Thank you! I'll wait here until the Council meeting is over."
"Commander Shepard, step forward."
Councilor Tevos locked eyes with her from the high platform. She didn't come off as forceful or impatient, but she gave off a sense of expecting something, which made Shepard tense. She knew that she couldn't turn the Asari down. She'd just argued for the Council to make this decision in an attempt to get the Reapers taken seriously.
Saren was branded a fugitive of Citadel Space, and someone had to find him in the Attican Traverse. But if the Council couldn't risk sending fleets so close to the Terminus Systems, then the crew on this mission needed to be far smaller. Promoting a new agent to hunt down the rogue one was apparently the fairest deal that the Councilors and Udina could agree upon. But why did they have to pick her a handful of days after Nihlus died?
Shepard approached the edge of the lower platform.
"You will be granted all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel Fleet."
On the upper balconies, a collection of politicians, embassy workers, and other high ranking citizens gathered to watch the ceremony. Floating camera drones positioned themselves at various angles around the chambers. Something like this would of course need to be streamed on the extranet. She took up a familiar position, hands folded behind her back. At attention, but not too stiff either. Someone would chew her out via email and video call if she made the Systems Alliance look undisciplined during this moment. The Council pushed onward.
"Spectres are not trained, but chosen," the Salarian Councilor Valern said. "Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle, whose actions elevate them above the rank and file."
"Spectres are an ideal. A symbol. The embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will." Tevos glanced at her Turian colleague. Sparatus squared his chin and stood taller. Despite not wanting this at first, he too played his part.
"Spectres bear a great burden as protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last line of defense. Our safety is theirs to uphold."
"You are the first Human Spectre, Commander. This is a great accomplishment for your entire species." Shepard knew that this brought Humanity one step closer to obtaining a council seat, something that many Citadel aligned governments spent centuries trying to earn, but something felt wrong. Why did this feel like a trap instead of an honor? She packed that emotion away and tried her best to appear stoic for the cameras.
"Thank you for giving us this opportunity." Shepard saluted the Council like a good military officer, if she even counted as one anymore.
AN: It always felt to me like Shepard didn't actually have an interest in being a Spectre, but accepted the job for the sake of doing what they believed was right. And maybe as a way to "redeem" Captain Anderson's failure to become one years ago.