Chapter 59. With Allies Like These


16. January 2415 AD, Noveria, Port Hanshan

"The Normandy?" he repeated while stepping through the blown-out doorframe and following his partner after retrieving the set of HUD glasses the now dead turian security captain had knocked off his face a few seconds ago and the omni-tool she had kept on her. "What the hell are they doing here?"

"No idea. I'm just glad they were this close," Yo-yo shrugged before looking at him, the reflective visor of her helmet hiding her expression. "This isn't going to end like it did back on the Citadel, is it?"

"Meaning?" the specialist replied over the noise of the building's fire alarms going off. Not that he really needed to hear the answer anyway. He already had a good idea what she was talking about.

"You losing your cool all of the sudden because Alec's daughter shows up?"

"Ah. That," Morneau said dryly. Remembering the talk he had had with Director Rei about repaying a dead man and how that could easily get you killed, he gave the reply both Yo-yo and he were hoping would be true. "Yeah. That won't be a problem again."

"You sure?" she inquired.

"Positive," he assured her.

"Good," Yo-yo nodded as a map appeared in his field of vision, displaying the blue prints of this level of the port. "With the evacuation going on, I think we've got a good shot at taking the long way to the northern dock without getting into another fight."

"So there was a point to the rash entrance after all," the specialist teased with a smirk.

"Come on, Magic," Yo-yo replied as she suddenly pulled him into a room on the side of the corridor and tossed her backpack on the ground before placing her weapon next to it. "Have you ever known me to do anything rash without there being a point?" she asked as she pulled the helmet off her head and looked at him.

"Yeah. I distinctively remember the time you-"

"Not the answer I was going for," she cut him before strangely enough hitting the emergency release on her armor's left arm, causing the modular plating to fall off and revealing the black undersuit hidden beneath it. "Moving on with my rescue of your butt," as he looked at the blueprint and watched a path being drawn to one of the major rally points used in case of an emergency evacuation like this one, Morneau also listened to the plan Yo-yo had likely come up with while he had been 'held captive' and hoped that it was going to explain whatever was going on right now. "The best way for us to get to our rendezvous with the Normandy without making this messier than it has to be is to stick to where people would go in case the port is attacked. Get invisible in the crowd until we can slip out."

"You do know that they have my face, right?"

"No they don't," she replied while repeating the process on her right arm, adding its armor plating to the other grey hardsuit pieces already lying on the floor. "I took care of that on my way in. Wiped your data clean off their camera network. As far as NDC Security is concerned, you're just another stranger."

"That's good and all but they definitely have a description of me, Yo-yo," Morneau pointed out while looking at her shed more of the hardsuit and counting on the Normandy to be able to armor her up again now that she was dumping her portion of the small armory the specialists had smuggled on the planet. "One observant grunt and we're made."

"I know that it's not an optimal solution," she said while tossing the last piece of her armor, her helmet, onto the pile as well and undoing the ponytail of her hair, sliding the hairtie that had kept it together over her wrist." But if we're quick about it, it's our best chance of getting out of here without creating a political incident or shooting more people who're just trying to do their job," as she opened the backpack and revealed the civilian clothing stored inside it, Yo-yo placed a hand of the undersuit's zipper and continued as if he wasn't there, causing Morneau to turn around and idly inspect the details, or rather the lack of details, of the door in front to keep himself occupied as she finished changing. Through silent agreements such as this one they had managed to keep things uncomplicated between them, which considering how intimate some of their cover stories had gotten with each other as part of some of their missions was a miracle in itself. If you went from being colleagues to faking being in love and then back to colleagues again, staying professional was equal parts important and hard. And since there was hardly anything he hated as much as the alternative, having it become complicated, he was glad to pull his weight in keeping things from going there, even if they were just as small as looking at a boring door for a minute or two.

"Done?" he asked after a few more moments of staring at the flawless, grey metal in front of him.

"Yeah," Yo-yo replied, giving him the all-clear to turn back around right in time to watch her stuff her own folded assault rifle into the backpack before closing its scanner-shielded compartment and slinging the pack over one of her shoulders. "All set?" she asked.

"What about the hardsuit?" he pointed out while looking at the expensive pieces of armor lying on the ground and stuffing his SIS-8 pistol into the empty holster concealed by his waistband.

"Incendiary mod," Yo-yo offered while bringing up her omni-tool and gesturing for him to leave the room. When she had followed and urged him to take just more step for good measure, a ball of orange plasma shot from her wrist. The plasma quickly burned through the armor and reduced it to an unrecognizable molten mess just as it was intended to do and also had the beneficial side effect of producing smoke that was sure to keep the alarms going should someone try and switch them off manually. Judging by the satisfied smile on her face that he noticed as she turned around to lead the way, the other specialist had also planned this.

"Is there something about this get-away that you didn't think through?" Morneau wondered as he followed her down the corridor and to one of the designated evacuation routes, throwing a cautious look behind them to make sure that they weren't being followed, which considering that everyone in that direction was dead had probably been a rather pointless act.

Still, better safe than dead.

"Nope. Just like you always improvise, I plan everything," the brunette replied as she took a turn around the corner, keeping her pace exactly as one would expect it of a worried Noveria port authority bureaucrat right until she was sure that everything was still in the clear and slowing down a bit. "It's why we work," she added casually a moment later.

"I don't always improvise," Morneau countered as he mirrored her behaviour after catching up to her side.

"Nine out of ten times you do."

"Which isn't always," the biotic Section 13 agent pointed out before sliding back into the persona of an evacuee who was doing his best not to panic as he spotted a NDC security guard waving for some other civilians and by extension also them to keep going the way they were going to go either way.

"Don't fall asleep back there. It's not safe yet!" the turian guard called, his voice flanging over the sound of the alarm, amplified by the speakers of the helmet of his light set of armor. "Keep going to the checkpoint and ready your credentials!" he added.

Credentials.

Now that was something he didn't own anymore. The forged credentials he had used to get to Noveria had been lost during his 'capture', probably still being stored somewhere in the security bureau they had left earlier. Yesterday that had been a price he had been ready to pay to figure out what was happening at Peak 15 and what Arterius had to do with it. Now that it might get them captured again, this time for real, he wasn't so sure of the pay-off of that gamble anymore. Throwing a look at the other specialist who was already holding a new, transparent card with his picture his way, Morneau subtly grabbed the ID in silent appreciation and decided that between the two of them, Yo-yo had used the last twenty four hours far more productively than him. Sure, he had gotten them the information but without her, Morneau figured he wouldn't get to use it. At least not without completely failing their usual directive of keeping things as under-the-radar as possible and sparking accusations that the HSA would start messing with any independent world in the Attican Traverse that decided not to take up their offer of protection.

When they had reached the checkpoint, Morneau slid the card through the machine and moved through the scanner without incident, the fact that it was checking for the signals and Eezo signature of a mass accelerator gun and not a 'primitive' human firearm, allowing him to pass with the mere notice that he might be a biotic or have an otherwise unhealthy amount of Element Zero in his body. Considering that half the people that were walking in front of or behind him were asari, it wasn't even worth noting for the rare human guard that was trying to keep an eye on all of all the evacuees at once and doing as good of a job at it as could be expected from a corporate security guard.

"When we're past the evacuation zone, we just have to find a way back to the northern docks. That's where I told the Normandy to meet us," Yo-yo whispered to him as they moved through the mass of uneasy and impatient workers waiting to get an explanation as to what was going on and why they were being kept from going about with their business.

"Easier said than done," he replied while inspecting the guards posted at the main exit of the corporate lobby they had gathered in, their heavier armor leading him to assume that they were some kind of emergency response unit that was trained to handle these kinds of situations.

"Can I have your attention, please!" a voice suddenly shouted just as the alarm was shut off, making his use of an omni-tool to amplify his message seem a bit overblown.

"Yes!" an anonymous member of the crowd shouted back, the tone of her voice leading Morneau to believe that it was an asari. "And while you have it, do go ahead and tell us why you're turning this drill into such a colossal waste of our time! I could be making money right now, you know?"

"A drill? Whatever gave you the impression that-" the source of the voice, yet another turian, asked in return before shaking his head right as Morneau spotted him standing on a balcony overlooking the lobby. "This isn't a drill!" he clarified right as more armed guards began pouring into the room, closing off the exit leading to the docks behind them before starting their inspections of people's credentials. "This part of the port and other company assets are under attack as we're speaking," the security officer explained as the other specialist threw him a look that told him that this was something she hadn't exactly planned for. "For the time being, we're under orders to not leave this level and wait for reinforcements to deal with this invasion."

Hmm.

Interesting.

That almost certainly sounded like the NDC believed that their little get-away was orchestrated by the same force that was responsible for whatever was going on at Peak 15 and that it was a coordinated effort aimed at all of Noveria. They might just be able to use that to their advantage if they played their cards right. That was the thing about the unknown. It could easily be turned into an advantage.

"Invasion?" a third voice cried, the panic it carried giving the specialist a rather unconventional idea and setting him into motion, vanishing from Yo-yo's side with nothing but a quick look to confirm that she knew he was on the move. "By whom?" it demanded to know as he maneuvered towards a large batarian, figuring that he would stand out well enough to make a decent pawn for what he had in mind.

While it probably would've been described as somewhat cliche idea by most of his colleagues, Morneau just figured that he never had been one to pass up on a good opportunity if it presented itself like this. Sure it wasn't the most creative or subtle plan but nothing would get them out of here as quickly as the small crowd panicking and thus forcing the guards to open up the entrances again or be slowly crushed against them.

Was it dangerous?

Probably.

Crowds of panicked, angry people wanting to go into one direction and one direction alone were scary for a reason. But danger was part of the job. Hence the only question that mattered to him right now was this. Would it get them out of here quickly and with a degree of anonymity? Finding the answer to that one was only really going to happen one way.

"We don't know ye-"

"It's the geth isn't it?" he called through the room in as guttural and deep of a voice as his omni-tool voice modulator could produce before quickly ducking behind the batarian and sliding back into the invisibility of the crowd of business people and out of the view of the people who might've noticed him standing behind the alien.

Although it wasn't the truth in their case, it wasn't a lie either that the geth were on Noviera. At this point he was sure that the synthetic and krogan troops Arterius had smuggled onto the planet were the reason why Peak 15 had gone dark. He just hadn't gotten the chance to prove it.

Yet.

"The geth?" the turian repeated, sounding just unsure and confused enough to produce the desired effect. "It's not the ge-"

"Goddess! The geth? Here on Noveria?" an asari cried in sudden distress.

"We're all gonna to die!" a familiar voice called after recognizing his intention.

"Not if we get out of here!" a salarian figured. "The ships are right this way! Come on, what are you waiting for?" he asked as he shoved his way through the crowd, passing Morneau in the process, and got in the face of one of the guards. "What are you doing? Let us through!" he shouted as more people joined him, making it hard for the armored NDC grunts to keep their distance without use of force, something they were understandably reluctant of doing considering the people opposite of them were the same ones paying them.

"Please, stay Calm!" the turian ordered to no effect. "Spirits, it's not the damn geth. Calm down already!" he called desperately and again, to no effect. As Morneau pinpointed the moment the security officer realised that no one was going to listen to him anymore, a stroke of luck he couldn't possibly have accounted for turned his idea from a decent albeit risky solution to a nearly perfect way out.

"What's your pay grade right now, Sergeant?" a man with greying hair asked as he shoved the salarian to the side and lifted an important looking ID card to the face of an asari guard. "Because I'm way above it and if you open that door," he said while pointing at door behind them, "you'll get his job tomorrow," he added while pointing at the baffled looking turian above him.

"Don't you dare, Sergeant," he called back down, drawing the attention of the asari. "We have our orders. It's our job to keep these people in here, where they'll be safe!"

"If you don't do it, Sergeant, maybe the next guy will?" the man in the suit asked while addressing the next guard, a confused looking salarian.

"That's not how a chain of command works-"

"Open it," the asari suddenly instructed the guard to her right, inadvertently raising the anticipation of the crowd and making the situation even harder to control. "What are you waiting for? Open the stupid door! "

"No! Stand down, Corporal!" the turian roared from above, waving at his subordinates to stop what they were doing and at least making the guard at the door freeze for now. "You are not opening this door."

"Don't listen to him, he's already fired," the man in the suit threw in while looking at the stunned corporal."Do as your new captain says. Let us through."

"Yes, let us through! The geth will be here any minute!" the other salarian from earlier pressured before more people joined in on his chanting.

"Dammit, Corporal, open the door! Right now!" the asari urged again, finally causing the guard to do as he was told and clearing their way to the northern dock.

As Yo-yo and him went with the flow of the increasingly more panicked crowd, moving out of the room and towards the docks, Morneau was well aware that he had gotten incredibly lucky. Additionally he came to the morbid conclusion that something would go terribly wrong later down the line. Because in his experience, the universe wasn't just going to give him a win like that without having something a lot worse to throw at him waiting down the line.

That just wasn't how the world worked for him.


Forty Minutes Earlier, HSASV Normandy

"As your leading medical officer, I still have to insist that you don't go, Commander," Chakwas called from behind her as Emily, fueled by a mixture of emergency rations and medigel-induced high, marched through the door of the armory. With her helmet in one hand and the Valykrie assault rifle in the other, her eyes were set on the Kodiak where Alenko and Williams were already making final preparations on and her mind barely paid attention to what Chakwas had been saying all the way down here.

"I told you, Doctor. I'm not letting my team do this on my own," she repeated herself for waht felt like the twentieth time.

"Unless I gravely misunderstood him when he said that he'd come along, General Arterius will be there as well. Surely he can fill in for you while you recover from your encounter with Doctor T'Soni and the Thorian. It's only been two hours since you woke up from a two-day coma. The last thing you should be doing right now is go and answer yet another distress signal! It's just too dangerous."

That made her stop dead in her tracks.

"Are you talking about the same general who nearly fell to his death while trying to save the Thorian only to blow him up half an hour later? The same general who hijacked command of my marines and destroyed the an invaluable IFS corvette before we could complete our salvage operation?" the N7 argued back, venting the frustration she had kept in her ever since Alenko had told her how their operation on Feros had been concluded. "Because if you are, I'm not so sure he can fill in for me without dropping another orbital strike along the way."

She didn't know much about why they were going to Noveria but there was one thing she was certain about. If a turian orbital attack were to become part of this mission as well, her superiors, HSA and Council alike, would start asking even more questions. If her XO Pressly was to be believed, the latter had already been furious when word of the destruction of the prothean tower had spread, calling it 'a painfully high prize in her mission to save Councilor T'Soni from the rogue Spectre Arterius' and likely only decided to accept it because this entire thing was about one of their own or because they still lacked some of the details. Or maybe because Pressly had done a very good job at selling this massive screw up as something necessary.

Since she wasn't so sure if the HSA would be as forgiving of the deaths of two high ranking HSAIS operatives, who were definitely involved in all kinds of illegal activities and shouldn't even be on Noveria in the first place, and the political fallout that would bring with it, the N7 wasn't going to let General Arterius stand in for her. Despite all the respect she had held for the turian and his rank, one thing had become very clear in the brief period she hadn't been around. If the right buttons were pushed, buttons she could not claim to not find on Noveria, he'd make extreme choices with no regard for their wider consequences just because he was convinced that it needed to be done. Since that was the polar opposite of what was being asked of them in this instance, she just couldn't give in to the reasonable request Doctor Chakwas had for her.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. But letting Blackwatch run this op alone is the thing that's far too dangerous right now," she said before realising that the turian member of her crew had overheard most of what she had just said, his surprised expression leaving her to wonder about the damage she might've just created in a single moment of losing control.

"Detective-" she began, looking at the turian standing at one of the tables near the armory's entrance.

"Don't bother. I'm the last person you need to explain distrusting Blackwatch to, Commander," the turian shrugged while looking up from what appeared to be a half-way disassembled, Phaeston, likely retrieved from the arsenal of the Normandy's turian sister ship. As he began putting the weapon back together, he also began to explain, his icy blue eyes growing more narrow in the process."I get why you'd be careful around them. I really do," he assured her as he inspected the barrel in the light of the ceiling lamps and clenched his mandibles at something inside it.

"Why's that?"

"Where to start?" the turian said as he put the weapon back together. "First they made my uncle tackle a suicide bomber and thanked us for his honorable service. Then they took my old man's good arm and retired him to a soulless desk job on the Citadel, called it a privilege to have served with him and didn't waste a second thinking about how that would break his spirit in the long run," wiping his omni-tool over the assembled gun and looking at the turian numerals and letters it showed with a disappointed look, Vakarian began to disassemble the weapon again. "And that was just the lastest generation of Vakarians," he added with a mutter.

"So that's what you meant when you said family relations," she remembered before quickly recalling what the decent reaction would've been. "I'm sorry about your uncle." Even though she didn't think condolences did any good, it was still common etiquette.

"Don't be. He did what we're all raised to idolize. Dying a hero without a second of regret," the turian chuckled. "And yes. That's exactly what I meant by family relations. The Blackwatch and the Vakarian bloodline are hard to separate. That's the good thing about keeping meticulous track of history and legacy the way we do. You always know when and where and why your ancestors died," he explained before again looked at the barrel of the Phaeston, leading Shepard to believe that something about its state had been the reason for the repeated disassembly. "What I'm trying to say is this," he said as he grabbed one of the tools lying on the table in front of him and got back to work. "They might be the best at what they do but just like the cabals, there's a reason most sane turians don't fancy being around the Blackwatch," Vakarian said with a sigh that could either be aimed at the state of the weapon in front of him or the story he was telling, both being equally likely.

"And what's that reason?" the N7 asked, folding her arms. He had gotten her curiosity now. It wasn't exactly something she had expected to hear from the detective.

"They take the whole 'victory at any cost' mindset way too far," coming from a turian, hearing that kind of accusation meant a lot. "I mean I'm turian. So I get self sacrifice. Like everyone else I went through the whole 'greater good and civic service' lecture a thousand times over. They drill that into us all our lives. Same thing, day in, day out," he went on. "But with Blackwatch every op they run can turn into a suicide mission just because that's the thing they train for, the thing they all expect to have to do one day. Fighting the impossible fight and dying a hero of the Hierarchy. Spirits, the whole part about knowing when your time's up and accepting it is even part of their damned creed," for some reason that last part seemed to carry a lot of resentment. "And unless you're one of them or really, really desperate, you're bound to see how that mindset destroys them and the people around them eventually," there it was again. The underlying resentment.

"I see," Emily said before throwing a look towards Doctor Chakwas, not feeling like she had to further elaborate why she had to tag along after this particular story. "Thanks for sharing something so personal with me. I appreciate, really."

"Don't mention it. Considering what we're doing here, those stories hardly deserve the label classified," Vakarian offered with a shrug before waving the omni-tool over the weapon again, finally appearing satisfied, packing it and the tools on the table up and heading for the shuttle himself after throwing a final look at the two human women. Emily honestly hadn't expected him to be anywhere near this open about his life. Then again, besides a few brief conversations, she hadn't really spoken to him ever since their run-in in the clinic on the Citadel shortly before they had set out on this mission.

"All things considered I still have to insist that you don't go," Chakwas repeated once the turian was out of imminent earshot. "We can't be sure you won't relapse into a catatonic state while deployed. I'm worried about the effect it might have on you now that the beacon's message has been fully decrypted."

"And I get why you would," the N7 sighed herself. "What if I were to bring Liara with me?" she suddenly injected, finding the suggestion a reasonable compromize.

"Liara?" the human doctor asked in return, looking at her with a raised eyebrow and likely wondering when the asari and her had entered first name basis.

"Doctor T'Soni," Emily corrected herself quickly. "The way I understood it, she fixed me the first time, right? If I bring her along and something goes wrong again, she can just bring me back again. Can you live with that?"

"You're making this a bit too easy for yourself, Commander. Just because it worked once, doesn't mean it'll work again. Besides, the last time she brought you back both of you were out cold for nearly two days," Chakwas pointed out what Emily already knew. It wasn't going to change her mind now that it was made up. "I don't think I have to explain to you why that's a horribly irresponsible decision."

It was. Still, the reasons why she needed to go far outweighed that. While she'd hate to pull rank on the Doctor, something only made possible by her new status as a Spectre, she'd do it if Chakwas forced her hand.

"If that happens I'm sure Wrex can carry the two of us by himself," Shepard finally replied as she sent the message informing Liara to come and join them before continuing to walk to the Kodiak, planting a foot in its crew compartment as she reached it. Looking at the Doctor that had followed her, Emily put up a serious expression. "If you have any further objections, this is the time, Doc."

"Just a remark, Commander."

"All ears."

"There are a lot of places in life where being stubborn like this can bring you very far," she frowned, visibly displeased with the realisation that Emily wouldn't listen to her. "But doctors aren't one of them. Please. Be extremely careful."

"I will," the commander nodded before offering a smile. "And I promise you, when I'm back, you can run all the tests you want."


Ten Minutes Later, En Route to Noveria

"Once we hit the port, you'll have to use your Spectre status to get local authorities off our back," General Arterius told her over the radio while sitting in the turian shuttle following the human Kodiak through the upper layer of Noveria's atmosphere. "The NDC doesn't like the Council stepping on their soil but as long as you're the one leading us, we can get in without causing a major incident. They don't respect our laws but they do respect the Spectres." Was it really respect though? Or was it fear? Considering some of the things a number of her new colleagues. dead and alive alike, had done in the past, it could easily be the latter.

"Hold up. My induction with the Spectres is supposed to stay a secret. Council's orders," she reminded the general.

"I am aware of that. But the reason behind keeping your status as a Spectre classified for the time being was aimed at my brother, not the public. Since he's well aware of your existence by now, I'm sure the Council no longer cares if people know. What matters to them is the success of your mission, not the way you achieve it." From what she knew about the Spectres, that sounded about right. "And if they do care, you have my word that I'll take full responsibility for the consequences."

Alright. She could live with that.

"Understood," Emily said before asking the question lingering in the back of her head. "Out of curiosity, how would this have gone down if I had listened to our medical officer and hadn't come along?"

"I still would've gotten us on the ground," the general replied. "It just would've been more likely to create a major incident."

"Alright," Shepard said. "Can I ask something else, General?"

"It's your mission, Commander."

"How come you're so invested in saving a couple of HSAIS operatives? Allies or not, this is hardly our mission."

For a moment, the general didn't reply.

"They didn't tell you yet?"

Great.

If the time since Eden Prime had been any indication, sentences starting with a combination of those words were bound to upset her.

"They did not."

"The operatives we'll recover are Section 13," as she had suspected, her mood was going down the drain right now. Her last run-in with that branch of HSAIS' Bureau of Field Work hadn't exactly left a good impression and last she had heard the quarian that had suffered the most from it was still recovering under the watchful eye of the HSA's embassy staff and Captain Anderson. "They were sent to Noveria for the same reason we went to Therum and Feros. Their mission was to interfere with my brother's operation on this planet."

"That sounds like something you should've told me when I woke up earlier." The respect he had earned up to now quickly seemed to evaporate in the last few hours.

"I only found out myself when I returned to the Parnack," Arterius countered calmly. "If you're looking for someone to blame in this regard, I suggest you blame your own intelligence service. It's their fondness of secrecy that kept me from finding out earlier."

In hindsight that was probably true.

No. Scratch that probably.

It was true. HSAIS loved its secrets.

"You're right," she sighed, realising that it would seriously harm their efficiency as a unit if she'd let one decision, even if it had been a very extreme one in her mind, rule her opinion of the general from here on out. Out of the people involved with the entire 'Reaper' mess, he had been the one who had been most honest with her. That had to count for something, right? "Anything else I should've been told earlier?"

In an unspoken reply, the request to change to a closed-off channel appeared on her HUD. After a moment of consideration, Emily accepted, the feeling that she wasn't going to like this either surfacing in the process.

"I'm listening," she said, confirming that the channel was now open.

"In addition to the intel sent by your operatives, I requested a reconnaissance report of a TNI operative stationed on Noveria. According to his statement, at least three asari that belonged to Councilor T'Soni's staff and went missing right around the same time as her have arrived in the port over the span of the last week."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that in addition to extracting your operatives, we might be able to find a solid lead on where the Councilor was taken."

"Why tell me this over a private channel?" Shepard asked.

"Discretion. I didn't expect you to bring along Doctor T'Soni and wanted to warn you of what might happen. For all her usefulness, I don't know how she will react to fighting people that had a hand in raising her."

In addition to the prospect of that happening stinging a bit more than Emily had expected it would considering she had never met those people, it was also a very good point. Fighting geth and alien plant monsters was one thing, being squared against people you knew personally was something else entirely. Even she couldn't picture how hard that would be.

"Understood," Emily replied inaudible to the rest of her team who were calmly sitting in the descending Kodiak, occupied with themselves. "What's our plan for that?"

"While my team knows, I suggest that you keep it to yourself and deal with the situation as it unfolds. But it's still your mission and your call. If you want to tell her, I won't stand in your way."

Maybe that had been the reason why he had hijacked her command on Feros? Had he considered everything up to now 'his mission'?

She'd probably never know unless she asked.

There was a time and a place for everything.

"I appreciate the heads-up," the human Spectre finally said before switching back to the open squad channel.

Right now wasn't the time to ask something that would risk interference with her current operation.

"Everything alright, Commander?" Alenko asked not a moment later from his seat across from her. "You looked out of it for a couple of moments back there."

How closely had he been watching her to notice that?

"No I'm fine. I was just going over our objective again, Alenko," she quickly lied while glancing at the calm asari sitting to her left who seemed to be captivated by the Kodiak that was carrying the specifically requested Mako and flying parallel to their own shuttle for one reason or another. Although not the usual means of transportation, the fact that they might have to make a fast get away had lowered the possibility of the Normandy and Parnack docking in the port themselves to zero.

"Okay," the lieutenant nodded before briefly glancing to his left himself and looking at the turian detective next to him who in turn was focused on something on his omni-tool, the way it was mirrored and the strange lack of a translation, which usually should've been provided by her helmet for most of the mainstream turian languages, making it impossible for Shepard to read what it was. As she continued to observe the squad, taking note of Williams going over the third check of her equipment ever since they had boarded the Kodiak and Wrex idly inspecting the large krogan shotgun he seemed to carry no matter where they went, another request for a private channel popped up in her field of view. This time originating from Alenko's omni-tool.

There sure were a lot of people who wanted to talk to her privately all of the sudden.

Accepting the request the same way she had accepted the one sent by General Arterius just minutes earlier, Emily suspected that the biotic had probably picked up on her private chat and wanted to know what was going. If that was the case, she'd oblige. As her second-in-command on the ground, he should know.

"What is it, Alenko?" she asked after the channel had been opened.

"There's something you should know about Vakarian, something that happened while you were out," the lieutenant began quickly, knocking her expectations out of the park in his first sentence.

"Is this about you not trusting him?" she recalled, which wasn't that much of a feat because in addition to only having had that talk one week ago, it wasn't every day one member of her team suspected another of spying on them for their enemy.

"Yes," the lieutenant visibly nodded in a lack of subtlety and in turn causing the turian to look at him for a few moments, clueing him off on the fact that this wasn't how one had a covert chat. Turning his head to the screen the asari was looking at to avoid making another mistake like that, Alenko went on. "You know how he kept an eye on you from the moment you hit the medbay after Feros? If Chakwas hadn't kicked him out to get some sleep, I don't think he would've left at all."

"No, I didn't know that," Shepard said as she looked at the turian. Was it just her or did the detective seem to make a habit of sitting next to hospital beds? First the quarian, now her. She was starting to see a pattern here. "What's bothering you about it?"

"Just like before I think that he was doing it because he's reporting these things back to someone. Telling them that you're out for the time being."

"How come?" the N7 asked. Sure, it was kind of weird. But maybe it was just concern for his allies?

"He asked Chakwas over and over again if you and T'Soni would wake up anytime soon and kept checking your vitals with his own omni while she was out."

"Maybe he was just worried?" Emily pointed out her previous thought while silently wondering how Alenko had observed all of this without hanging around the medbay the entire time himself.

"Worried enough to type this up?" Alenko asked before sending her a data package. "Make sure your omni is on private before you open it."

After doing as she was told, Emily opened the file and began reading through a chopped-up text describing how '-llowing the operation on Feros and the discovery of a derelict separatist vessel, Agent Shepard has been rendered unconscious and unresponsive while possibly being compromised following an encounter with a hostile alien life fo-'. "How'd you get this, Alenko?" she asked after making it through the paragraph.

"You could say I'm something of a tech-guy," the lieutenant replied. "I made a translator VI try and find a backdoor into his omni-tool. I didn't expect it to work but when it did, I made it keep track of what he was writing and had it made copies of it. This is what I got before his omni-tool closed the back-door and blamed an extranet spam-bot for the extra data usage."

"It's definitely a report, alright," Shepard observed quietly before closing the text again, feeling slightly uneasy knowing that her heart had missed several beats at one point, making her clinically dead for a few seconds. If she had to take a guess, that had been the moment she had been burned to death during the mindmeld.

"Which raises the question who he's talking to."

"Maybe it's just his superiors, Alenko. He's still working for C-SEC. They probably will want to hear what he's doing."

"C-SEC would just get an edited version of the reports you sent to the Council," the biotic was quick to point out. "So either he's under orders to make sure they get an unfiltered version of what we're doing."

"Or there's a third party that put him up to it," Shepard finished the lieutenant's suspicion the same moment the white surface of Noveria became visible through the clouds, appearing as an infinite land of snowy mountain tops and deep, icey ravines.

As she looked at the surface to avoid making eye-contact with the biotic, the commander got the feeling that what had started out as a speculation on Lieutenant Alenko's part was quickly turning into a logical assumption. While she wasn't ready to cry mole just yet, the first possibility that C-SEC wanted an unfiltered version of what was going on was something she couldn't dismiss completely.

It was a well known secret that C-SEC and Spectres didn't get along.

At all.

One though the others were above-the-law risk factors who were just as likely to kill innocent people as they were to get the job done and the other looked down on the Citadel's police force as a bunch of overpaid security guards who barely managed to do their jobs despite the help of what was without doubt the elite of the Council. To think that a superior of Vakarian or the turian himself didn't trust her, a newly declared Spectre of a species that hadn't even been a part of the galactic community for as long as either of them had been alive, to do their job of finding Councilor T'Soni? That wasn't that much of a stretch. In fact, it sounded all to realistic.

"You were right to keep an eye on him, Alenko," Shepard finally admitted after thinking back to her earlier conversation with Vakarian and trying to decide if it had been some kind of test or if he wasn't working for C-SEC at all but rather for the Blackwatch and only antagonized them to put her off from the very suspicious fact that the first mission he had joined them on had incidentally also been the one where they had run into General Arterius and his team. "But don't let it show yet. You and I will handle this once we're off Noveria, okay?"

They just had to.

"Yes, Ma'am," Alenko replied before shutting down the private channel and sending both her and himself back to the squad-internal network in time for the pilot to announce that they were closing in on Port Hanshan and that colonial authorities would already waiting for them, their turian allies and the Mako they were bringing with them.

"Alright everyone, listen up," Shepard spoke over the channel shared between her own team and the turian one as the Kodiak slowly flew into the sheltered interior of the docking bay, their designated rally point. "Once we're out of the shuttles, I want you to stick with me. Whatever provocations local forces throw at us, just let it go. Our aim here is to have as low of a profile as possible. That won't work if we get into a fight," she instructed while looking at what she considered to be the biggest liability in that case, Wrex. While she didn't see how anyone could be stupid enough to pick a fight with him, she worried that he might've gotten into trouble on Noveria before and that the trouble would find their way back to them now. "If this goes as planned, we just pick up our people and figure out why they wanted us to bring the Mako before being out of here," as the words left her mouth, she realised that by phrasing it that way she had basically invited the universe to mess up things up.

Rookie mistake.

She of all people really should've known better.

If one thing had become increasingly clear during the last two weeks it was that she had turned into a magnet for disaster. She had gone to Eden Prime for a simple pick-up and had not only ended up in a geth invasion but also on the bad end of a prothean beacon. On Therum a simple pick-up had turned into a shoot-out with krogan mercenaries and geth which had then been followed by the revelation that their galaxy was basically at the bring of all-out war with genocidal monsters. And finally on Feros a quick trip to investigate a distress signal had led to her encountering a new, invasive plant species and finding out the hard way that translating a prothean message may end you up in a two day coma. Come to think of it, Noveria would've probably had something nasty in store one way or another. It just would've been typical for the way this year had been going. Either way, it was late to think about that now that the shuttle doors were opening to reveal the displeased face of an older asian woman clad in a set of armor that clearly showcased her allegiance to one of Noveria's private security forces.

"Well I'll be damned. Commander Shepard, the hero of Elysium, stepping onto my dock?" she asked as Emily left the shuttle. "Bringing turian company nonetheless?" she whistled as more of her guards, the markings on their armor identifying them as ERCS contractors, one of the few mercenary groups that was allowed to operate out of Council Space alongside the likes of the Final Wave. "Now that's just a political disaster waiting to happen. The way I see it, you've got about twenty seconds to explain to me why the HSA is bringing tanks to a planet they aren't even supposed to be on before I have you all disarmed and detained." Throwing a look back to where her team and Blackwatch were standing and probably doing their best not to reach for their own weapons, Shepard counted on what General Arterius had told her.

"I'm not here on HSA business," the N7 explained while pulling up the newest addition to her omni-tool, the stylized symbol of the Spectres and her unique personal identification it carried with it appearing from it as a result. "I'm here on Council business."

"Verify it, Relan. Make sure this isn't Arcturus trying to pull a fast one," the mercenary captain instructed after a couple of seconds of stunned silence, her phrasing making Shepard wonder what exactly the HSA had done to alienate her like this. Following her order, a salarian stepped forward and ran his own omni-tool over the symbol, thin orange scanner threads touching the projection in a visualisation of the scanning process.

"Real, Ma'am," he muttered, looking at his own readings and then back to Shepard. "Looks like humanity secretly inducted a second Spectre."

After she had mustered Emily from head to toe, looked to her salarian subordiante, the Spectre insignia and the subordinate again, and then finally inspected the company the N7 had with her, the ERCS captain let out a long drawn sigh before waving to the rest of her mercenaries. "Weapons down, people. The Spectre and her friends are can stay," she ordered before meeting Shepard's eye. "For now."

"Thanks," she replied cautiously.

"Don't thank me yet, Agent Shepard," the captain offered with disdain as she walked away and signaled for her fellow contractors to fall in line. "Stick around long enough and you'll find that people on Noveria don't like the Council or its blood hounds and aren't scared to show it either."

Swallowing down the reply that she wasn't planning to stay long because it would've just further tempted the universe to prove her wrong, Emily watched the ERCS team stroll back to the guard post they had come from, aware that just because she had walked away for now didn't mean that the captain wouldn't be keeping an eye on them or that her appearance here wouldn't sent ripples across Noveria, the Attican Traverse and soon enough human space.

"That went better than expected, right?" Wrex offered, breaking the silence of the group.

"We were meant to keep a low profile," Vakarian pointed out in return. "Running into a bunch of mercs who will sent word up to their bosses is the polar opposite of a low profile."

"Well. At least there wasn't a gunfight."

"Yet," Shepard figured with a frown as the sound of heavy tires hitting the vehicle entrance below the dock itself marked the Mako being dropped from the Kodiak behind them exactly where it had been requested. "They wouldn't have asked for an IFV if they didn't expect a fight."

"Speaking of them," the turian detective injected. "When exactly do your agents plan on showing up?"

"I take it you haven't worked with intelligence operatives yet, Palavani?" the Blackwatch lieutenant said in return as she separated herself from the rest of her team.

"No. C-SEC usually tries to catch them, not help them. What's your point, Lieutenant?"

"Spies usually don't set rendezvous into the future. If they wanted us to be here," the other turian began as Shepard spotted a regrettably familiar man approaching them from an unassuming weapon store built into the super structure of the port, following the steps of an unfamiliar woman. "It's because they've been waiting for us," the Blackwatch operative finished, right as Shepard sighed.

Out of all the HSAIS operatives, from all the divisions of the agency, he had to be one of them?

Why was she even surprised anymore? This was just typical of what her life had turned into these past few weeks.

As he approached them, it became clear that he remembered her just as much as she remembered him.

How couldn't he?

Ignoring that their last meeting hadn't occurred that long ago, it had been very, very telling. Between threatening a captive with death at the hands of a krogan, telling her to ignore an attack on a clinic and getting a quarian girl shot for the sake of his 'mission', the impression the specialist had left had been a pretty bad one.

Shaking his head as if to tell her 'not here, not now', Emily wasn't sure if he had managed to tell what she had been thinking based only on her body language or simply had had similar thoughts himself from the moment he had seen her.

"Normandy and company?" the brunette woman greeted as she threw a look at the ERCS guard post, making the N7 think that they would probably be on the safe side of things if they got out quickly.

"Yes."

"Yo-yo and Magic," she intrudced herself and presumably her partner, by their code names of course, and finally gave Shepard a name to put to the specialist's face. "The Mako's ready?" she asked while the turian detective behind her shifted in silence, likely for the same reasons Emily wasn't entirely at ease right now herself.

"It is," she replied as she mustered 'Magic' and wondered where the subtle but fresh impression of turian talon marks on the right side of his chin had come from.

"Good, we'll need it," she nodded before turning to the Blackwatch team. "General Arterius?" she asked more quietly.

"Yes?"

"I was told you had something for us."

"The TNI intelligence?" the turian asked, bringing up the subject that as of now Shepard hadn't told her team about.

"Exactly," Yo-yo nodded. "It's true then? They're here?"

"As far as we can tell, they are," Arterius nodded.

"Who are they?" Alenko injected.

"Not here," the other Section 13 agent threw in before pointing at the Mako. "Three in the front, rest in the back?" this time he was talking to her.

"Not if Wrex is coming along," Emily replied quickly, suppressing the angry feeling that had recently made itself known every time she wasn't being told something in the knowledge that the 'not here' was directed at everyone but them this time. As the specialist quickly glanced at Liara and then back to her, he raised an eyebrow, likely because of the same reasons the general had been cautious about telling her about the TNI information. "Unless he got soft since last time, we'll need Wrex," he replied dryly before rushing down the flight of stairs and heading to were the Mako had been dropped. "Is there another way to do this? One where we can bring everyone?"

"My team can follow in our shuttle. That should free up the Mako," the turian officer replied.

"If we're right, the air might not be clear where we're going, General," Magic offered.

"Then you'll just have make it clear, Specialist."

After looking at her team and then his own partner, the man gave his reply and rating of her team at the same time. "That won't be an issue, Sir. We'll clear the air for you."

"We?" Emily threw in as she watched him undo the backdoor of the Mako.

"Yes. We. We're coming along, obviously," Magic said with a shrug.

"You're not even wearing armor," she pointed out as she watched the specialist walk to the rental snow truck parked next to their Mako and retrieve a large case out of its trunk.

"Yet," he offered as he opened the box to reveal his gear.

So that had been the deal with the reserved parking spot for the Mako.

" about you?" Emily continued on the same track while looking at Yo-yo. "Where's your gear?"

"Long story short, it kind of burned to ash," she shrugged. "But I don't think the general will mind swinging back to the Normandy for me while you clear the air for us. Right?"

"I fought alongside one of your agents once. If all it takes to have two of you with us is a quick detour, I'll make it happen." Well, he certainly seemed to have a lot of faith in the specialist. She wasn't so sure it was justified thou-

'Stop making it personal, Emily', she suddenly told herself with a head shake.

Just like she shouldn't let his actions against the thorian define General Arterius' worth as a valuable ally, she shouldn't dismiss the two specialists because Magic happened to be unconcerned about the rights of captives, the staff of clinics and the lives of quarian girls. Cold bastard or not, if they were heading for a fight, which seemed very likely judging by the way he was attaching a Valkyrie of his own to the chest piece of his stonegrey hardsuit, he'd come in useful. He could fight. He had proven that much during the shootout at Chora's Den.

"General, I think we should head out now," Yo-yo said, shaking Emily from her thoughts. "We can go over the details once we're back in the shuttle."

"I expected nothing less, Specialist," the tall Blackwatch operative nodded.

"Magic?" she said next, sounding somewhat worried.

"Let me guess. Don't die out there?" the specialist replied as he finished the process of putting on his hardsuit at what might've been a record speed, only the fact that he was holding his helmet in his hand keeping him from being fully clad in the armor.

"Exactly."

"Don't worry. If this thing is anywhere near as tough as a Tiger Shark, I'll be just fine," the specalist replied while knocking against the armor of the IFV. "Go. I'll see you for the debriefing," he reassured her.

At this point Emily was certain that there was a story here. Something made the one specialist very reluctant to leave the other by himself. She had seen it before in some N7s. The product of an op gone to hell. It made her wonder if that op was the same reason why Magic seemed to be so much different from the two Section 13 agents she had known prior, her late father and her uncle. Not that she'd ever find out. Even now Section 13 files were sealed far beyond her own security clearance. She knew because she had tried her father's.

So much for letting go, hm?

"Can you get your team in the Mako?" Magic finally requested once the turian team and his partner had departed.

"I can do that," Emily nodded."But not before you tell us where we're actually going."

"Didn't I just say 'not here'?" he said as he leaned out of the crew compartment again.

"I'm not leading my team into the unknown."

"Alright," the specialist replied as he pulled the helmet over his head. "I get that," he went before tuning into the same channel the Normandy's ground team was located on. "We're going to an off-site research base called Peak 15. It's located north of Port Hanshan and owned by a bioengineering company called Binary Helix."

"And?" Shepard inquired.

"And that's where we're going?" the man said, already halfway back into the troop compartment of the IFV.

"To do what?" the N7 pressed on, causing the specialist to lean out again to look at her and then at Liara, making it clear that he knew what she knew and that it was somehow connected to their real mission at Peak 15.

"To find out why Saren had his geth attack the base," he lied. "Can we please get in the Mako now?"

"Yes," she nodded, recognizing the metaphorical hand he was holding out to her right now but also dreading what could happen if they ran into the friends of Liara's moth-. Into the allies of Councilor T'Soni. "Strap in everyone," Emily ordered as she climbed into the back after specialist and took a seat opposite to him. "The ride might get bumpy."


Twenty Five Minutes Later, Early 2156 CE, Sentry Omega

"What about your progress with the Rachni? Have you achieved your task yet?" the turian snarled, lowering the hand that had been covering his face and shielding his eyes from the dark purple metal walls surrounding him to look at the hologram being projected from the flashlight-like head of a geth drone. Hoping that at least this part would be filled with good news and calm the anger that had been growing in both Sovereign and him now that they had learned of the fate of the Thorian on Feros and the sudden attack on Saren's financial network, which was causing increasing problems with paying the staff responsible for the creation of his new krogan army, he felt his anticipation rise.

"Entering the research station has proven troublesome," the asari councilor who he had sent to take care of the situation on Noveria spoke. "We had to cause a blackout to move in our forces. The consequences of our actions were," she pause for a moment, "problematic."

"Problematic?" the former Spectre muttered as his mandibles twitched in anger. Noveria was crucial to his purpose of continuing the cycle. The location of the Mu-Relay, the mass relay he needed to find to gain access to Ilos and the Conduit and to fix the prothean manipulation of the Citadel Relay, was hidden in the mind of the rachni queen growing in the laboratry. It was why he had sent his most valuable asset, Counilor T'Soni, who had now too fully embraced the truth of their existence and recognized their shared purpose, to secure it. If something had gone wrong-

Feeling the whispers grow into furious roars at that thought, Saren rubbed his head to ease the by now familiar pain and focused on his anger instead, paying no mind to the way his talons were drawing his own blood at the side of his face.

"Although the queen is still secure," a relieving quiet settled in place of the roaring crescendo of Sovereign's will, "it seems that Binary Helix did more than merely observe it in its natural state."

"What do you mean?" he asked quickly, subconsciously retracting his talons.

"The geth I sent to infiltrate the deeper levels of research post encountered rachni warriors prior to their destruction. It seems that Binary Helix made the queen hatch a new generation of her species. The blackout regrettably set them free to kill the staff and roam the layers between us and their queen."

"They're just mindless drones of a dead species, echoes from the past," he muttered dismissive of both the rachni and the dead Binary Helix employees. Neither had been of any worth to him anyway. "Surely they won't be problem for the geth and the commandos you brought with you."

"Surely not," the asari nodded. "However they're not the only problem."

"What else is there?" Saren snarled through his teeth as the whispers grew more intense again.

"Our scouts have reported a new group of intruders closing in on the facility."

"Have they destroyed them?"

"No."

"No?"

"It appears as if our scouts were the ones destroyed."

"These intruders," he growled. "Who are they?"

"That is the problem," the asari spoke calmly. "They are the same group we encountered on Eden Prime and Therum."

As soon as the words had left her mouth, Saren shot from his chair and rushed to the hologram. "Is the human among them?" he asked. Although she had started out as a nuisance at best, she had very quickly grown into a very real danger to his purpse and as such had to die.

"Yes," the asari nodded as his anger flared into an inferno for as long as it took her to finish her sentance. "And so is my daughter," at that an almost impossible joy rose through his entire body. With an eager but meaningless nod, he showed his agreement to what the whispers at the back of his mind were telling him. This was a fantastic opportunity. The human who had touched the beacon and the asari who could still help with his task. Both in the same place. Both ripe for taking.

"Then you will kill the human for me and bring your daughter to see the truth as you have seen it," Saren instructed as his hands formed fists. For a moment too long, the asari didn't react. "Is that clear?" he demanded to know right when her face showed the hint of discomfort, probably produced by Sovereign reinforcing his orders.

"Yes. It will be done."


Codex: Noveria

Settled in 2136 CE by the then newly founded Noveria Develoment Corporation, a collection of high technology and private security companies, Noveria is an icy planet located deep inside the Attican Traverse that is rumored to serve as a hub for research that would lead to certain prosecution inside Council Space. Home to a series of isolated laboratory complexes and a large superstructure serving as the planet's capital, Port Hanshan, companies like Binary Helix, known for questionable genetic research, Synthetic Insight, one of the only four corporations allowed to research artifical intelligence and Elanos Risk Control Services, a private security company, use Noveria to advance research projects that would 'endanger civilian life' when conducted on more populous planets.

Although the exact details of what these companies do on Noveria is kept a close secret by the NDC and its security service, the involvement of the ERCS conglomerate and a leaked statement to their investor that some of their lethal and non-lethal weapons were developed in one of Noveria's rental laboratories, has led to speculation that a lot of Noveria's hidden research outposts are used to develop weapons used in Terminus wars that would violate Council law if they ever saw the light of day.

While unwelcoming of regular authorities, the only agency of the Citadel Council that the NDC allows to walk on its planet are the Spectres and even they are obstructed by bureaucracy wherever they go. This local isolationism from a government regularly dealing with some of the corporations that formed the NDC is often times seen as further prove that the Noveria Development Corporation regularly breaks Council law.

It should be noted that Noveria stands as one of the few independent worlds in immediate proximity to HSA territories that refused protection of the human government.


A/N:

Happy second anniversary! Almost. I'm two days early for this being a "true" anniversary chapter but honestly? I feel like the best gift I could give the lot of you is a shorter wait.

Now. I'm far earlier with this than I expected to be and I don't know why. But that doesn't matter now, does it?

Two years.

Damn.

Time flies, really.

First off, before we talk about the chapter, I'd like to thank all of you. Two years ago, when I was nervous about releasing the first chapter of Semper Vigilo (which back then was a mess, really) I never thought we'd be where we are right now. So, from the bottom of my heart, thanks for sticking around and giving me the drive to turn a messy wordpad story with a lot of mistakes into... a slightly less messy wordpad story with a more tolerable number of mistakes and an awesome following :)

Here's to another two years, eh?

Now, secondly, the next big thing that'll happen is the release of Semper Vigilo: Anthology's first chapter, which I hope will be sometime in mid-december. So keep an eye out for that! (The earlierst I'll mention it in SV is during the chapter released after its release, so don't expect there to be some kind of A/N only chapter for self-promotion or something like that. This is just meant to be a story)

Okay.

Now chapter.

Noveria's starting and just like before, I plan to make it differently. The first obvious difference is of course the people taking part in it, but that won't be all. I don't want to promise too much but... it might get a bit sad for some of you.

The second difference will of course be the one of there "technically" being two kinds of Shepards, or rather backgrounds and moralities of Shepard, being part of the mission. How that affects some of the choices that we all faced during Noveria? Wait and see.

And... that's all I have for today.

For the record we're at 520 reviews, 801 favorites and 896 follows .

I can't begin to image that.

Nearly 900 people wanting to read what I write in my freetime.

It's mindblowing. Not much else to say to that excecept well, thank you guys. Really.

See you around next time.