Chapter 82. Ulterior Motives


Meanwhile, 2158 CE, Citadel, Flux

"I said I'm buying first round if I lose. And I lost. So come on," the N7 NCO stated while looking at the part of the Normandy's crew he'd managed to rope into his version of waiting for their commander to return. Besides Callius there were was the biotic Lieutenant Nader, who Shepard had recruited before moving to Freedom's Progress, a couple of marines Leng had befriended during his stay on the ship and her fellow turian, Garrus Vakarian, who had already taken the N7 up on his offer. Unlike her, he evidently didn't share any concerns for drinking on the job. At least not by the way he was emptying the dextro alcohol he'd been handed a minute ago and was now pouring down his throat.

"You do realise we'll leave as soon as Shepard's done with the Council, right?" Callius countered. "This is hardly the time to let loose."

"This is exactly the time to let loose. Em tends to have long and drawn out conversations. So we have more than enough time to get rid of my bet debt. Come on, let me be a graceful loser," Leng replied before nudging his head towards the waiting bartender.

"Are you trying to get me drunk? Because that's definitely not going to work," she stated flatly, even if she figured that this wasn't the human's intention. Despite their alliances, humans and turians weren't exactly as prone to taking that kind of interest in one another as say asari and humans. "Take a look at Vakarian's pace," the red-plated turian added, prompting Leng to turn around and see that he was now at his second drink. "I've been drinking with soldiers like him since I became a cabal. That was over three decades ago. So this strategy isn't going to work for you," she added. Then the N7's face locked into a weird mixture of emotions before breaking out into laughter

"While I recognize your superior military alcoholism," he said, "I think you got my intentions all wrong. I'm just trying to be a man of my word here while bringing our crew together. No ulterior motives."

"If this is your idea of bringing the crew together, you're doing a rather poor job. Most of them aren't even here. Take Solus, for example."

"I know. But not for a lack of trying on my part. Mordin blew me off even worse than you just did. He spent five minutes telling me why excessive alcohol consumption of the likes of which he suspects I am planning would limit my operational abilities and impact his task of studying that weird insect that's got him all fascinated."

"The Seeker," she corrected.

"Yes. The Seeker. Cool name, not so cool creature," Leng nodded before looking at the waiting bartender and pointing his hand at him. "So. Will you let me be a man of my word are you going to embarrass me in front of my new turian buddy here?"

"I don't know you 'buddy'," the bartender stated, "and I think you've already embarrassed yourself plenty on your own. So. You want a drink or do you want me to throw this punk out? Either way, I've got other costumers waiting. An answer would benice," he asked Callius.

She looked at Leng, who in turn was looking at her in expectation. Then she cracked, albeit by using a loophole.

"Fine. Give me a water," she stated.

"A water?" the bartender and Leng repeated in unison.

"Yes. A water," she repeated.

"We don't serve water. In fact, we don't serve anything without alcohol."

"You've got a faucet, don't you?"

He looked at her until he realized that she wasn't kidding and that arguing with her wouldn't get her anyway. "To the faucet it is."

"Thank you," Callius said. When Leng appeared dumbstruck and the bartender walked to the faucet, she cracked a turian smile in amusement. "You didn't specify that it had to be an alcoholic drink."

"I kind of thought that was implied when I dragged all of us into a nightclub that opens during daytime and only serves alcohol," he replied as the other turian sat down the glass in front of her.

"Implications don't count, precise wording does. You're in the military, you should know about that," Callius replied before taking a quick sip from the basically tasteless glass of Citadel faucet water the turian had produced.

"Fair enough. Well played, Lieutenant. Well plaed," Leng replied before taking a sip of the drink that most human soldiers were so very fond of, beer before silently leaning against the counter next to her and looking at the four other people he had brought. Lieutenant Nader and the other four young marines were socializing on their own and the Recon operator turned C-SEC detective turned Omega vigilante was drinking at the edge of the counter at a pace Callius found a-typical, even for a turian infantry veteran. Since she didn't think that C-SEC would've let someone escalate to this point and she also didn't remember Vakarian being nearly as detached as he seemed right now compared to the time when Blackwatch had joined forces to stop the general's brother with the original Normandy, Lieutenant Callius figured that this was the product of his time on Omega. That place tended to change people for the worse and it also explained why she had yet to see him in anything other than the damaged blue set of armor he was wearing even now.

To him, the fight of Archangel had yet to stop. That could become a problem.

She sipped on her water again and looked at the N7 to her left. Unlike Vakarian, he seemed at ease and in balance with himself.

"So how do you know the commander?" she asked off-mindedly. Solus and Nader had been dossiers that Shepard had been asked to recruit and Vakarian was an old friend. How Leng fit into the picture had been a question she'd been meaning to clarify ever since she'd seen him arrive with Shepard on Cyrene. Since he'd been the first one to join her team, she wondered what made him so special.

"Em and I go way back," she had figured that much due to his nicknaming of his commanding officer. "All the way to the Blitz actually."

"So the two of you served together?"

"Not during the Blitz, no. Unlike me, Em wasn't an N7 back then," interesting. She hadn't assumed the younger NCO to have been at it for that long. The Verge War, or Blitz as the humans called it, had happened nine years ago and Leng certainly didn't look like he'd been very old nine years ago. That in turn suggested that he had made it all the way to N7 at a surprisingly young age. Impressive. "But that didn't stop her from saving my ass and my mission after the batarians wasted my fireteam back on Elysium."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't be. We all knew the risk when we signed up to be N7s," he took a longer sip from his beer. "Anyhow. We were supposed to blow a tunnel and block off a batarian armored regiment, but we didn't make it very far into it before running into their spearhead. Two platoons of the External Forces' best mechanized soldiers. When I saw them cut down my squad, I was pretty much set on blowing up the tunnel with them and me inside it but then Em showed up and stopped me from turning the thing into a suicide mission. Even dragged me out of the tunnel after I got hit," he paused. "In retrospective I think that's when everyone realized that she was special. She got her N recommendation pretty much immediately and as soon as she graduated from Rio, I requested a transfer to her platoon. It got cleared and then I served with her right until she got called off to the Eden Prime mission by Anderson. And well. You know what they say. The rest is history. Hell. I don't need to tell you about it, you were there for the aftermath, weren't you?"

"For some of it," she replied. "We missed out on everything that happened after Noveria. Our team took to many injuries from the fight with Benezia."

"Probably for the better," Leng figured.

"What do you mean?"

"Saren was one of you, wasn't he? Blackwatch I mean."

"Yes. For a time before he became a Spectre."

"Then it's for the better that you didn't have to go up against him on the Citadel. Brothers in arms shouldn't be forced to kill each other. Let alone if they are actual brothers as well."

"General Arterius would've done what would've been necessary, even if Saren was his brother," she stated in defense of her commander.

"I don't doubt that. Still, it's for the better that he didn't have to prove it," Leng said, then he emptied his beer. "After Eden Prime I didn't see Emily again until Cerberus told me that she was still alive. You can imagine what a surprise that was. Thinking your friend's been dead for two years and then they suddenly come back to life? That's beyond fucked up," he knocked on the counter. "Can I get another?"

"You must still be grateful, no?"

"Of course I'm fucking grateful that Em's still alive. But that doesn't make it any less fucked up. Especially not for her."

"She seems to be doing fine," Callius shrugged while Leng cracked open his second beer. While she was the liaison officer of the Normandy, she couldn't claim to have thought a long while about the state their commander was in up until the other N7 had stated out loud how weird her situation truly was.

"Because she's really good at seeming like she's doing fine, even when she's falling apart," Leng countered before once more pressing the beer against his lips. Then, after a very long sip, it seemed like he reached the point he'd been trying to make. "Don't tell her I said that, but I'm worried how much longer she'll keep pretending like nothing happened, alright?"

"I won't," Callius said right before her omni buzzed. She recognized the caller and excused herself. "Sorry. I have to take this."

"Knock yourself out."

After stepping out of the club for a minute, she answered the call.

"Hey Nilia," the intelligence officer greeted, his face appearing on the projected screen of the omni-tool. Although it had an orange, holographic taint to it, she still recognized the black-plated and green-marked face of the native taetrian.

"Hello Ractus," she replied.

"I did what you asked me and looked into the convict you found on Omega. You remember? The Talon guy?"

"Yes. I remember."

"So. Turns out my fellow taetrian wasn't just part of Facinus but also a close friend of Kihilix Tanus."

"Wait. Kihilix Tanus as in Judicator Kihilix Tanus?"

"Yes. Kihilix Tanus as in the acting judicator of Eluria," Ractus replied. "Anyways. The name of the guy you found was Ilarian Dex. He did his mandatory as a combat engineer and then became Tanus' chief of security. Did that job for about five years. Then he got linked to an attempted bombing in Deluvia last year. He got convicted for it, but he never made it to prison. He supposedly died during transit when the ship he was on got raided at the Terminus Border. But looking at where you found him, I guess the raid was more of a break-out by the Talons."

"Who may work for Facinus now," she concluded.

"Probably," Ractus replied. "Ignoring their allegiances, needless to say I passed it up the chain already. Judicator Tanus might not do anything illegal himself right now, but if his chief of security plans a bombing, gets broken out by an Omega gang and then passes on our encryption to them after disappearing, I think it's enough to warrant an investigation into what's happening on Taetrus. With everything going on, the last thing we need is another Facinus insurgency rising in our backyard. In the end, it's up to Primarch Valen to do something with this information but I'm feeling confident that you gave us something worthwhile. So thanks for that."

"Just doing my duty. Keep me updated, will you?"

"Of course, Nilia," the TNI officer replied. "Just from the background I can tell you're not on Aephus anymore. Take care, wherever you are."

"You too, Ractus."


Meanwhile, 29. March 2417 AD, Citadel, Kithoi Ward

Emily Wong threw a glance over her shoulder before stepping into the apartment building where she'd meet with her editor Shae. When she saw no one who looked like they were following her, she opened the door and entered the elevator. She hit the button for the thirty-seventh floor and then the cabin started to move up just as it had done for the last five months, ever since she had started to work on her investigative report on one of the Presidium's most famous companies; the one and only Final Wave.

Although initially it had just been about exposing something everyone already suspected, namely that the Final Wave did a lot of dirty work that should get their status as a Council-approved private security firm removed and them kicked off the station, the story had gotten a bit more complicated in the last few weeks. Her own research and a file with bank transfers that had been anonymously dropped at her working place indicated that Hahne-Kedar, one of the biggest suppliers of the HSA's military, was doing something no other human company had dared to do since Blood Pack and Eclipse forces had massacred thousands of human colonists after First Contact; making deals with a full-blown killer-for-hire outfit. Because at the end of the day, that was exactly what the Final Wave was and no fancy PR department, call-back to their beginnings during the Geth War or ethical mission statements about them providing 'independent and disciplined armed protection to everyone, everywhere, always' was ever going to change that.

While she didn't know why HK was doing all of this, something else had happened, causing her to arrange this out-of-schedule meeting with Shae.

The elevator door pulled open and she immediately went to the already opened door of the asari's apartment, where her editor already waited. Shae, who had entered the matron stage of her life in between their last two meetings, was a dark-blue skinned asari, who unlike most of her kind, didn't have any facial tattoos. With the shift in her life stage, her taste in clothes had apparently changed as well. Unlike her usual, far from formal wear, she now wore a dark-red robe that covered most of her skin.

"Hi Emily," she greeted before the reporter marched to the desk in her living room.

"Hi," she replied while sitting down and setting up.

"Not even a hug, huh?" the editor chuckled before joining her. "Someone's in a rush."

"For good reason," Wong stated quickly. "Something's changed," she added while the terminal powered up.

"Yes. You mentioned the HK connection with the Final Wave and I started to look into it," Shae said before looking at her. As it was common with most 'pure-blooded' asari, her eye color matched her skin color nearly perfectly.

"It's not just the HK connection anymore," she replied. "I think I finally got something solid out of Gunn. Some real dirt," her boyfriend, who's initial selection criteria had been 'he works for the Final Wave' had been on a business trip to the CIP about a week ago, Kosh to be precise. He had told her so himself after she had picked him up on the commercial dock. Although he obviously hadn't specified what he was doing, Wong didn't need to be an investigative reporter to know that the man wasn't there to work an office job. No matter how much he insisted on being a 'boring clerk', some of his habits and his excessive exercise routine made it much more likely that he worked as a field operative.

Hence she had gone on to look what he possibly could've done on Kosh.

She had found the answer yesterday.

"What is it?"

She opened the report and spun her terminal around.

"Read it," she stated.

"After six days of the murder of his housekeeper and no life sign from his children, Dindo For, CEO of the Kosh-based For Mineral Transportations has reached out to public and begs for the abductors to finally make demands," Shae read the headline before moving on to the main article of the CIP newspaper site Wong had discovered yesterday and opened up again now. "In what can only be described as the worst fear of a parent, Dindo For's children were abducted from their father's penthouse apartment six days ago by an as of now still unidentified group of criminals that has also been linked to the killing of Darisa Van, For's longtime housekeeper. Despite their best, combined efforts and a daring chase across the night sky of Kosh by HSA forces, local authorities were unable to stop the five suspects from escaping with the children. A planetary manhunt has been in order ever since For-"

Wong turned the terminal around again.

"This can't be a coincidence. The Final Wave makes a business trip to Kosh right around the time five guys pull off something like this? It has to be them. It has to be," she repeated.

"Did he talk about this to you?"

"No. As soon as I found it, I made up the meeting with you and left. Didn't exactly want to stick around a murdering child-abductor."

"But you didn't burn him, right?" Shae asked with a hint of concern. Wong knew that it was less about her and more about their story, but she didn't care.

"Of course not. He's our only inside-source. I'll stick with him for now, even if he's a scumbag merc who kidnaps kids and kills housekeepers for a living," Wong replied. While there had been moments and cracks in his shell that had made her believe that deep down inside Solomon Gunn there was a good person she could actually be with, last night's discovery had made her quickly reconsider the thought of sticking around when this was over. No good person could do something like this and then come home and pretend like nothing had happened.

That required an inner darkness.

"Good, good," the asari nodded. "This isn't close to being enough to go public with. I believe you. But nothing besides the timing is ever going to link this incident to the Final Wave. It won't be nearly enough to bring them down. We need more, especially out of Gunn. You need to keep working him, do you understand, Emily?"

"Yeah, I know. I don't like it, but I know," she nodded before powering down her terminal. "So. What about Hahne-Kedar? You said you looked into it?"

"I said I started," Shae corrected before getting up from the table and walking to her kitchen. "Tea?" she asked

"I'll take one," Wong replied.

"Sugar?"

"No."

"Here you go," Shae said after returning with two cups.

"Thank you."

"Hahne-Kedar," she began. "I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you. I didn't find anything yet. They're really good at covering their tracks, especially for humans."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"That your kind tends to suck at playing the game.

"What game?"

"You know. The game."

"I don't, actually."

"Either way, like I said. I didn't find out what they hired the Wave for. But I think we both agree that it wasn't for facility security against raiders."

"Yes. HK only has facilities on HSA worlds. No need for mercs when there's a huge army garrison on all of them."

"Therefore they probably hired them for something shady," Shae figured and Wong nodded her agreement and drank from her tea.

"Probably."

"But I don't know what."

"Fantastic."

"I tried, alright? Besides. I'm not done yet."

"I didn't mean it like that-"

"I think you did," Shae interrupted Wong. "Here's a suggestion. I'll look into the matter some more while you try to figure out what your boyfriend did on Kosh. I don't care what you have to do but get us some details. Names. Times. The guy who ordered the abduction. Anything that's dirty."

"You make it sound easy."

"Because it is. You've had the guy wrapped around your finger for the last five months. Time to put all that affection he's got for you to use."

"Alright. I'll try my best," Wong nodded.

Then, after saying her good-byes to Shae, she left with the intention of going to Gunn's place again to get it over with. She typed him a heads-up message during the elevator ride and then, with nothing to do, went back to her newest favorite past-time activity. Reading a suggested Codex Entry. This time she somehow landed on one detailing the events of the Krogan Rebellions, the First Battle of the Citadel to be precise. She was about to hit the point where it tied into the attack two years ago, when suddenly her Codex application flashed a warning about an invasive program.

Before she could blink, a message from an unknown user popped up. Out of curiosity, she opened it.

'Hey there. You've been doing a lot of reading lately, haven't you? Find anything interesting? Something you can use in that paper of yours? You don't have to answer that. I know you haven't.'

Emily Wong lifted an eyebrow and looked around, despite sitting in a single occupant Rapid Transit skycar.

What the hell was going on here?


One Day Later, 2158 CE, Menea, Installation 237

This task force had turned out very different from what she had pictured.

She'd been on Menae for five days now and in that time Liara had done surprisingly little work. She had been asked if any of the prothean ruins she'd ever been could have actually served a similar purpose as the spires that were being erected in batarian space, which of course would suggest that the prothean society had also been infiltrated on a great scale by the Reapers prior to their cycle. It had taken her about three days to list of all the possible sites and then explain why she personally believed that this wasn't the case. In addition to the protheans not knowing about the Citadel Relay and only shutting it down after already being defeated, she had also referred to the data gathered from Vigil. Although the scientific outpost on Ilos had gone dark as soon as word of the invasion had reached them, Liara figured that the VI would have known about a prior Reaper infiltration and warned them accordingly. But it had only ever mentioned sleeper agents produced after the invasion, never before it.

After making her case against the thesis of the protheans being manipulated prior to the invasion, she had still been asked to figure out if maybe the beacons found throughout the galaxy could have served a similar purpose as the spires. She realized what was happening, obviously SLD and their Council task force wanted to rule out the possibility of it already being too late to prevent a massive number of indoctrinated agents, but again Liara had denied the idea.

The beacons were unlike any of the Reaper artifacts that had been found prior to the incident with Saren Arterius and the beacons had also been the reason why the Reapers initial plan had failed. Without the one on Eden Prime, Saren would've never been stopped and Sovereign would've opened the relay and ushered in the next harvest.

That had been yesterday and ever since then, she had been without an assignment.

While Janon, the strange salarian signal specialist she had met during the opening briefing, had been kind enough to ask for her help, Liara knew that he was only doing this to keep her busy. She had watched him work and it was evident that he required none of her assistance. Still, she was grateful to have something do something, even if she couldn't claim that extra-galactic signal streams weren't her main interest.

"Alright. I think I got it," she stated while looking at the calibration readings of the long-range portable sensor arrays Janon and her were preparing. These devices were supposed to help the field teams determine whether the spires were receiving signals from beyond the galaxy's borders, from dark space to be precise. To that end, they were pinging QEC devices that the turian had shot outside the galaxy alongside their FTL probes and now, after about an hour of fidgeting around with the device, she had finally managed to get a perfectly clear reading.

The salarian peaked over form where he was doing the same task on multiple arrays at once. He blinked once and then smiled.

"Yes. Excellent work," he stated while off-mindedly and without looking completing the process on the six devices in front of him with a single motion of his hand as if he had stalled to finish with her. "Knew you had it in you. Only took some practice," he said before closing his eyes and cracking a salarian smile.

"You could have finished all of these an hour ago, couldn't you?" Liara pointed out before folding the device back together so that it really became portable.

"Yes," he replied quickly. "Enjoyed the company, though."

"We hardly spoke."

"Conversations are not needed to make one's company enjoyable. In fact sometimes silence only improves it," Janon shrugged. "Besides, if I had done it my way, you wouldn't have learned to do it your way. Adding my unique skill into your repertoire of knowledge is worth an hour of my time if you ask me. Especially if you will do what I think you'll be asked to do."

"What do you mean?" Liara wondered while carrying the device over to Janon and setting it down on the green desk of the hexagonal lab space they were in. Like the rest of the installation, it was located deep underneath Menae's surface.

"You're a biotic multi-disciplinary scientist, you have experience with reaper tech and you went into the field with three Spectres, Arterius, Anderson and Shepard," Janon listed while moving on to the next batch of relays. "They'll sent you with one of the field teams as soon as they found a suitable target. You're the perfect candidate for the job."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes. If this was my operation, you would be among the top picks for field work," the salarian again replied quickly before suddenly tossing her one of the folded-up relays. Despite not even looking into her direction, it came flying fast and accurate. Liara only barely managed to catch it before it would've connected with her center of mass and even the force of the impact surprised her. It wasn't what she had expected from a salarian technician, but she didn't think too much of the unusual demonstration in the moment. Maybe Janon had played a ball sport in his youth where he'd learned to throw like this. What was it that Shepard had said to her once? Never judge a book by its cover?

"Isn't that what they brought the STG mission specialists in for? Scientists rated for combat?"

"STG mission specialists might have some of your abilities. But they lack your experience and your biological advantages," he said. "No salarian is ever going to be able to come close to living long enough to learn half of what you already learned. Only reached a tenth of your life span. Unlimited potential, unlimited versatility, unlimited operational usage," he said, the last parts of his statement falling out of his very unsalarian manner by being shot out at a rapid pace. He glanced around and smiled again. Then there was a knock on the door and in came Miranda Lawson.

"Doctor T'Soni, I've been looking all over for you," she stated without acknowledging the salarian who was sitting with his back turned towards her and doing much of the same. He just carried on with his calibrations, entirely unconcerned with the leader of the human compartment of the task force showing up in his lab. But she stopped her observation of Janon at the promise of work. Or at least at what sounded like the promise of work.

"How can I help you?" Liara asked.

"Your expertise is needed elsewhere. Off Menea."

Janon was presumably cracking a satisfied smirk but Liara never noticed.

She was too distracted at the prospect of finally doing something.

"Where?"

"We'll talk outside."


One Hour Later, 1. April 2417 AD, Menae, Installation 237, Temporary ASOC Barracks

He had done his range time for the day, he had finished his physical exercises and he had completed all the administrative tasks required of him. So Haugen was only really waiting to get the word that they'd be sent on their first mission. While he usually didn't mind spending time with his team, he had to admit that today was slightly different, particularly because the waiting wasn't doing the behavior of one of his squad any favors.

"You know when they said we'd be saving the galaxy, I was expecting a little more action and a lot less sitting around," Miller complained with a sigh before jumping from his bunk bed. "We could be out there popping batarians but here we are. Doing fuck-all."

"You do realise that the batarians aren't actually the bad guys in this one, right, Miller?" Mav replied, his eye still closed in the vain attempt of sleeping. "It's all about those Reaper this time around. So maybe direct your hatred at them for a change, alright?"

"The spires are on batarian worlds. They won't like us being there. So we're gonna smoke the motherfuckers when we get there. Isn't that right Hofmann?" the sergeant stated before slapping against the back of the chair that Haugen's forth squad member was sitting on and watching a movie on his terminal, causing the senior NCO to spill his drink all over his shirt.

"Yo. What the hell, Miller? You didn't take your pills or some shit like that?"

"Ups. Sorry about that, man. My bad," the ASOC operator replied with faked innocence and a shit-eating grin before the now empty plastic bottle came flying his way.

Haugen sighed and looked up from the article he'd been reading on his omni-too regarding the disappearance of Freedom's Progress, a colony in the Attican Traverse. He lowered his hand, causing the holographic display to disappear. "Miller," he called, loud enough to make the soldier stop.

"What's up?"

"Do you think you can you stop being hyperactive and sit your ass down for ten minutes? Or do we have to tie you up with duct tape and throw you in your locker to finally have some peace and quiet?"

"I don't know boss. Sounds a bit kinky for me."

"Fine. Mav. Hold him down. Hofmann, you got any tape-"

"Alright, alright, alright. I'm sitting down already," he then looked at his bed and probably remembered that he was sleeping above Hofmann, who's drink he had just spilled. "Or maybe I'm going for a walk instead. Yeah. A walk sounds good. If I get lost in the maze out there, send out a search party, will you?" the sergeant requested.

"No we won't," Haugen replied while the other soldier headed to the door.

Miller got exactly three steps into the direction before the door opened and the woman who Haugen had clashed with upon their arrival, Miranda Lawson, appeared in the room. If she noticed that the place looked more like a messy dorm room and less like the place for elite ASOC soldiers were staying at, she chose to ignore it for the time being.

"Captain Haugen," she greeted. "A word, please."

"Sure," he said before getting up with a groan. "What it is."

"Outside, please."

He looked at Hofmann and then at Miller. "If he does something stupid, go with the Plan Locker."

"Roger, Sir."

Then he left the room and followed Lawson.

"I have to say, your team is not what I was expecting," those were the first words out of her mouth as soon as the door had closed. "Tell me, do the sergeants have a history of disciplinary issues? Or is it just something that came out when they were transferred to your command"

He looked at her, distinctively unamused and shrugged without giving in to the provocation. "Nothing you wouldn't find on any other airborne grunt. More importantly, they got a record of doing their jobs perfectly. That's why we're here, isn't it? Complete the mission," then he leaned against wall next to their barracks and looked at her. She was still wearing that weird catsuit and at this point he was really starting to wonder who the hell had signed off on that outfit. It certainly went against every military regulation he'd ever read and in nearly twenty years of active service and eight years of military school, he'd read quite a few. "What do you want? Other than belittling my team."

"We have a first target for Phantom Squad," she stated in a chilly tone. "Our operatives in the Terminus found out that the batarians have started construction of a new spire on a fringe colony called Jasintho."

"Isn't that place basically a dump?" he returned after recognizing the name from the monthly Hegemony-threat briefings he'd gotten before the task force.

"It's a small frontier colony, yes. But that's exactly what makes it so attractive. IT's very far away from the Hegemony core, so infiltration should be easy. As far as first targets go, I and SLD agree. This one's a good place to start."

"When do we leave?" At least Miller would shut up now.

"Seven Hours. STG will handle your transportation. The trip should take about three days. You'll be in and out in no time."

"And our objective stays the same? Recon the site and then torch it?"

"Yes. However there will be a slight change in the mission perimeters."

"How so?"

"You'll be accompanied by an asari civilian, a member of the scientific staff."

Haugen folded his arms and stared Lawson down.

"Absolutely not. You can't send someone else with us, especially not an untrained civilian."

"Yet I'm doing just that," the dark-haired woman replied. "Her name is Doctor Liara T'Soni, I believe you are already acquainted."

"Did you just listen to me?"

"I did, Captain Haugen, but the perimeters of your mission and your orders still stand. Despite your concerns you will escort Doctor T'Soni to the site so that she may try and make sense of how the spires work. If you have a problem with that, you are welcome to take it up with General Kryik or Admiral Hackett. But for the sake of our mission and the tight schedule that we are on, I suggest you don't and do what I say," Lawson replied. "Besides, if your team is as good as you claim, I'm sure you can handle a little handicap."

"You are goddamn serious, aren't you?"

He had no problem with the asari. On the contrary, the first impression he'd gotten of her was that people like her were very much needed in this task force.

But not on the battlefield.

"Yes, Captain Haugen. I am serious. Why do you ask?"

"Because if you are half as good of a leader you claim to be, you'd understand that you're making this a lot more dangerous than it has to be. Doctor T'Soni isn't a field operative."

"She might not have formal training, but she's deployed with three Spectres on numerous occassions in the last couple of years."

"Three dead Spectres," he corrected.

Lawson ignored him.

"Doctor T'Soni has combat experience and she's proven herself to be quite adaptable during high-stress scenarios. She'll be fine."

"No experience in the galaxy is going to make her capable of operating alongside a unit as specialized as Phantom. ASOC teams live and die by our ability to infiltrate enemy lines and stay undetected once we're on our own. That's not something you can pick up while running and gunning with a couple of Spectres, no matter who you are. It takes years of specific training. By sending her with us, you are putting not just my team but also her at the risk of being caught and engaged on a batarian colony. And I don't think I need to explain to you what happens when we go up against an entire garrison. Phantom Squad might make it out, somehow. But she definitely won't."

Suddenly Lawson sighed and seemed to change tactics.

"These are trying times, Captain. I wouldn't ask you to take this increased risk if it wasn't absolutely necessary and if I didn't think that the risk to your team is worth the reward to our mission. I know you don't like me. But I also know that you heard the briefing and that you understand what's at stake here. If we don't stop the Reapers-" she began, only to break the sentence off. "Doctor T'Soni has to be part of this mission. She has to get a first-hand look at what we're up against as soon as possible. Setting aside the questionable habits of Phantom Squad, you're one of the few people who I believe are capable of executing a difficult mission like this. So yes. I understand that I'm making this harder than it has to be for your team. But I'm also asking you to understand why. The sooner our scientists get a first-hand impression of what the spires are like, the sooner they can start working on a solution."

He looked at her for a few moments, the shift from authoritarian to appealing to his higher sense of purpose had come quickly. Too quickly.

He knew that she was probably messing with him, or at least trying to.

However his impression of the woman didn't matter, not as long as one fact stood in the room as an absolute certainty.

They had to stop the Reapers.

Haugen had to give her a shot, even if he didn't like it.

"Tell T'Soni to meet me in the hangar and bring all the combat gear she's got. If she even has any that is."

"Thank you for understanding, Captain," Lawson stated.

"Don't get ahead of yourself. You won't be thanking me when I bring her back in a body bag," he replied bluntly before going back into the barracks to pass on the 'good' news.


Fifteen Minutes Later, 2158 CE, Installation 237, Hangar

"Okay. Before we start out, I'd like to make one thing clear. I don't have a personal problem with you," Captain Haugen, who would accompany on the mission to Jasintho, said before sitting down on a bunch of equipment crates marked with the HSA's red and white flag, which as usual depicted a golden eagle resting on top of an empty globe.

"I didn't think you had," Liara replied. When Lawson had told her to go to the Hanga, she had also informed Liara about the captain's concerns. "And I understand that you are not comfortable with me tagging along."

"Not under the circumstances of this particular mission," he corrected. "There are a lot of unknowns. That's hardly the time for experiments."

"I understand."

So much for getting some work don-

"However it's the hand we're dealt, so we'll have to manage," he went on. "If we want to do this without you getting hurt, there are three basic rules you'll have to follow," the human soldier stated while looking at Liara. "Number one. You do exactly what I tell you to do when I tell you to do it. Stick to me like we're glued unless I say otherwise and never get ahead of me. Copy?" She nodded. "Okay. Number two. If my team engages anyone on the way to the objective, you keep your head down, you don't interfere and you wait for us to clear the area. We handle the fighting. You handle the science. Understood?" Again Liara nodded. "Good. And number three. If we get made you run back to the evac and wait for someone to pick you up. You don't wait for us, you don't help us and you sure as hell don't come back for us. Dirt kickers like us aren't critical to this task force. You are. So. If shit hits the fan, you are not going to risk your life for any of us. Is that clear?"

That sounded very drastic.

"Clear," she replied, despite her reservations regarding a scenario where she just abandoned everyone and ran for her own ife.

"Good. Now lets see what you brought in that box," the officer said before nodding to the locker that held the white-and blue set of armor she'd gotten from Saren Arterius three years ago, before Sovereign had turned him against the rest of the galaxy. "May I?" he said before placing his hands on the opening mechanism.

"You may," Liara nodded. With one motion, the blonde soldier flipped the switch on the box and it opened by itself. After a few seconds, the officer let out a low whistle.

"Now where did you get this beauty, Doctor?"

"Saren Arterius gave it to me," she replied before briefly thinking back to the dead turian. In many ways, he'd been one of the first casualties of this cycle's fight against the Reapers.

"This is some expensive gear," he stated while looking at the helmet which Liara hadn't worn ever since Noveria. "That guy must've really fancied you before he went haywire."

"It was a purely professional working relationship," the asari archeologist clarified.

"Must've been one hell of a job you were doing then."

"You have no idea," Liara replied while Haugen spun the helmet around and looked at the polished visor. Even if she hadn't used it in a long time, she had still taken care of it.

"No, I don't," he nodded. "Say. Does any of this come with a cloak?" Haugen asked before setting the helmet back down into the footlocker.

"Not that I know of."

"Alright. Then I guess we'll have to find a work around," he stated before going back to the HSA-marked crates and opening them up. Unlike Liara's asari footlocker, the human-design still required the man to actually open the lid manually. After that was done, he reached inside and pulled out a folded-up, greenish-brown tarp that looked not all that different from an emergency blanket one would wrap around a freezing person. He grabbed it by two handles and then, with one motion, unfolded it, revealing it to be less of a tarp and more of a hooded cloak.

"This right here is a smart-fiber or chameleon cloak. We usually use them while we recharge our armor or fall back on them as emergency back-ups in case we can no longer maintain an effective camouflage with our armor alone, for example due to damage or a lot of dirt," he explained while she wondered what a chameleon was. He turned the coat around to reveal the equally brown and green inside of the cloak and the small, rectangular device sown to its center. "It's not made off the same alloy as ASOC armor and it's definitely not as good at keeping up with a rapidly shifting environment as the real thing. But as long as you move slow and keep your head down, this should keep you hidden just as well as the rest of us," as if to demonstrate, he pressed a button on the rectangular device and swung the cape over his shoulders. A few seconds later, the blanket started to pixel and then, after about ten seconds, he was just a floating head and boots with a somewhat shimmering shape in between. Then he turned his back to her and, after another second of shimmering, disappeared completely. "It's not as good as the cloaks the rest of the galaxy use, but it's a whole lot more enduring. This thing is going to last the better part of a day before it starts to glitch out and needs some recharging."

As usual, her curiosity got the better of her.

"Amazing. How does it work?" she asked before he turned to face her again, making him once more partially visible.

"I'm afraid that's a state secret. Cloaking is one of the few things we aren't about a thousand years behind the rest of your people," Haugen replied before removing the cloak and turning it off, removing the slight shimmer that had made his body invisible. Then he started to neatly fold the cloak together again.

She probably could've guessed that answer. Still, she probably had a hint of a frown on her face. She usually tended to whenever she didn't get a desired answer or when her curiosity was left unsatisfied.

"For a general idea, just go by its name and picture a chameleon," Haugen offered.

"A what?" Liara replied.

"A chameleon-" the officer repeated before realizing that she had no idea what that was. "It's an animal from Earth. A lizard. It does pretty much the same thing as our armors or this cloak. Just without all the tech and a lot less effective. But it's where we got the idea from. So that's how it's usually explained without going into all the classified details. Your tactical camos bend light and make their surroundings irrelevant. Ours cloaking tech adapt to its surroundings," he then handed her the blanket. "Pack this to your gear. We'll go over the basics of infiltration during the flight."

She took it but then got one more glance from the officer.

"And please do us both a favor and don't try to find out how exactly it works while you have it, alright? You're more likely to break it anyways and I really don't want to get into trouble over losing a damn blanket."

Not like she'd have anyone to share her discovery with either. With her mother gone, her connections to the asari government had turned non-existent. If anything, due to working with Cerberus, and therefor the humans, she was closer to the HSA right now than to any of the Council races. But she didn't feel like mentioning that detail would reassure Captain Haugen. If anything, while true, it would probably make him more suspicious.

"Your secrets are safe with me," she promised.

He nodded and then looked at her footlocker again. "You are going to need a gun though. Even if I don't see you firing it as long as you do what I tell you to."

Once more she nodded.


1. April 2417 AD, Citadel, Commercial Docks

"Now boarding, Flight 3930 Citadel to Bekenstein," the VI announcer called, prompting Morneau to lift up his bag and head out. Since he was going back to HSA core space, he had packed lightly. Section 13 would make sure that he'd find what he needed on site. No need to smuggle stuff past customs.

In theory his plan was pretty straightforward,and he had already completed the crucial first step of getting a short-notice vacation due to a 'family emergency on Bekenstein'. Once there, he'd wait for Hock to throw yet another one of his parties, sneak in under the guise of being there to take him up on the offer he'd given him on Kosh and then, through the use of some very convincing arguments, and maybe a few dosages of the truth drugs he'd requisitioned, figure out what exactly he knew about the Shadow Broker.

That sounded like a simple plan exactly because it was just that. As soon as his window in form of a party arrived, he'd be in and out in no time and then, hopefully at least, head out to chase down the Shadow Broker, put him in a small little present package and drag him back to Cronos Station with the bowtie he had promised.

He cleared the security checkpoint in front of the commercial transit ship and searched for his place in the large and comfortable first class he'd bought with the salary the Final Wave was paying Solomon Gunn.

Might as well enjoy the fruits of his labor before HSAIS took the account into their own hands for the next op.

Not that he'd miss any of it.

181 days.

That was how long he'd been at this.

For his taste, the point where it had been enjoyable to be Solomon Gunn had been over about-

Well.

About 181 days ago.

While there were some other benefits of this assignment that he wasn't going to dismiss, the apartment was nice, he could in good consciousness say that he'd burn the place down with a smile on his face if it got him back to his stuffy one-room dorm back on Cronos. Similarly, he'd switch the predictable schedule he'd enjoyed for the last 181 days back to the absolutely unplannable mess that his Section 13 life had been in a heartbeat.

There was only really one thing, or rather one person that he'd kind of miss as soon as this was over.

Wong.

He'd tried. He really had. But somehow he couldn't entirely separate Solomon Gunn's feelings for the reporter from Daniel Morneau's feelings for her. The line had gone from blurry to nonexistent sometime in the last five months. But no matter how much he wanted to, he knew that taking that part with him when he went back to Cronos wasn't an option. Solomon Gunn would vanish and he would never go back to a long-term undercover op on the Citadel ever again.

That would suck but it would also be for the better.

Wong made him vulnerable and that was the last thing someone in hi profession needed.

He stuffed his small bag into the suitcase compartment above his place, sat down and exhaled.

He'd deal with it when he got there. Never cross a bridge before you reach it. That was what Redford used to say whenever he got ahead of himself during training.

Going by that logic, he'd also stop thinking about the mission as if it was already over right now. It was a dangerous mindset to plan his return before he finished it, let alone before he ever got to Bekenstein and worked Hock for some answers.

He sat down in his seat and was prepared to close his eyes for the duration of the trip when he felt someone sit down next to him. Immediately his mind went back to Kosh and he was wide-awake to look at the new arrival.

It wasn't Sixteen, obviously. That guy had fucked off to god knows where by now.

But despite all odds and for seemingly no reason, most likely due to the universe hating him, he did recognize the asian man who'd taken a seat next to him and he in turn recognized him.

"Motherfucker-" it slipped out of Morneau's mouth before the man with greying black hair made a 'hush' gesture.

"Now, now. If I were you, I'd stay very quiet my friend. You wouldn't want people to realise that we know each other, right?" he stated. "Oh and for the record, while I got around quite a bit in my youth, I don't think your mother was among the people who shared my bedside before I met my current love," the man and former operative of HSAIS elite thieving division, Section 4 said with a smirk.

The specialist clenched his jaw, got over the initial surprise and the question of how Okuda had found him and adapted to this new mess.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Okuda? The last time I saw you, you were running from the Final Wave," Morneau replied, thinking back to the op two years ago.

"And the last time I saw you, it seemed like you actually thought about going back for me before you realized I already disappeared on them. I have to say, the way you held that elevator door to check on me was very, very heartwarming. For a second, I thought you actually cared," he cracked a smile. "You really are an outlier as far as specialists go aren't you? First you threaten me, then you make a deal with me that includes lying to your boss and then, after I give you what you needed, you are still ready to jump back out and into harm's way to save me from my peril and then, when it's all over, you even hold up your end of the bargain of stopping the manhunt for me by reporting that the Wave got me. That's the most baffling part of all of this," Okuda chuckled before casually grabbing a glass of wine from a passing servant without her ever noticing the swipe or stopping. "Although I have to say that I can't stop wondering why you did it. Was it a curtesy between former Bureau colleagues? Or maybe a part of the rebellious streak you showed back then?" he scratched his chin. "Or are you just a softie underneath all that wet work, shady shit and crossing the line for the greater good bullshit Section 13 dudes like you are always boasting about?"

Morneau ignored the last part and thought about how Okuda could possibly know all this and then came to a conclusion. It was the only logical explanation.

"You had a partner back then after all, didn't you?"

It was the only way how he could know what Morneau had done after departing the table back then, even if he didn't remember spotting anyone who fit the description of the associate they had believed Okuda to have.

"Of course I had a partner. Isn't that the first thing they teach all of us in the Bureau of Field Work? Never go in alone if you can avoid it. You had one too. The pretty girl I saw you go back to Bekenstein Command with. Brown hair, blue eyes, big sniper rifle, bit of a crooked smile. Now if I weren't a committed and loyal man with a dear love of my own, I have to admit that she'd be right down my alley."

"Your partner tell you all that?" he figured. "Or did you actually have the guts to follow us?"

"Yes, of course, she did," Okuda nodded while Morneau mentally noted down the word 'she'. A woman then. Or maybe a man and the 'she' was just a distraction. Yeah. On second thought, he could scratch that note again. "Obviously I wouldn't be stupid enough to follow a pair of specialists back to an HSA base."

"Is it obvious though? I mean you're clearly stupid enough to sit down next to one right now."

"Ouch," Okuda exclaimed before smacking a hand against his chest. "That one hurt. Did you come up with the sharp remark all by yourself or is it something your partner whispered in your ear? Come to think of it, can she hear me right now?"

"Nope. Flying solo this time around," Morneau replied after trying to decide how Okuda had found him. It certainly hadn't been by going through the data of 'Daniel Morneau'. That information was practically nonexistent, especially right now. Hence, his other persona was the more likely alternative. Solomon Gunn had to exist, otherwise people would ask too many questions. "But something tells me you already knew that. I mean, otherwise you wouldn't have known that you need to look for Solomon Gunn to find me, would you?"

"There it is. That's the kind of thinking I was expecting from a specialist. Finally living up to your elite reputation," Okuda said before pointing his finger at Morneau and then taking a small sip from the wine and immediately spitting it back into the glass. "God damn that's cheap. You can practically taste the bankruptcy they went through after all their ships got lit up by the geth. Still don't have the budget for a decent drink," he added before setting the glass down between his feet and gently pushing it underneath the seat row in front of them to make it someone else's problem with a hint of disgust on his face.

"You realise you just drank dextro wine, right?" Morneau pointed out while Okuda hid his latest theft. Unlike the Section 4 agent, the Section 13 one hadn't been so occupied with their conversation that he had missed the little detail on the bottle.

"Well that explains why it tasted the way it did," Okuda replied before wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his dark-red shirt. "Now. Where was I?" he asked before tapping his finger against his mouth. "Right. Right. Your partner. Like I said. She's one pretty lady. From what I saw. Maybe a bit deadly for my liking. Especially with that sniper rifle which I don't doubt was zeroed in on me the entire time we talked. But a guy like you? You're not intimidated by stuff like that, are you? Come on. Don't tell me you wouldn't like to take her for a spin or two, right? Blow of some steam and what not. I'm sure you thought about it."

"You done?" Morneau returned before feeling a slight eezo surge as the craft take off. That was another one of the side-effects of the even more extensive biotic training he'd been doing ever since Akuze. He had gotten more sensible to even the smallest bursts of eezo.

"Since it doesn't seem like I'll get another rise out of you, yes, I'm done," Okuda smirked. "Now. To come back to your question from earlier. If only I could remember how you put it," he muttered. "It was so literary and well delivered. Truly poetic. In all honesty, I don't think I can manage to repeat it quite like you. So if you'd please. Just one more time."

"You really like playing games, don't you?"

"No. I don't think that was what you asked me."

Again Morneau sighed.

"Why the fuck are you here, Okuda?" he repeated in a more monotone voice.

"No, no, no. That one lacked emotion. Again please? Like earlier."

"If you want emotion, I could always hit. Where I aim it might make your voice a few pitches higher though, so I guess it's your call if you want to go back to the question or if you're going to tell me why you're here."

"On second thought, your delivery worked perfectly," the former government-sponsored thief said with a clap of his hand. Then he rested his chin on his thumbs and interlinked his fingers so that his nose was resting on his knuckles and that his mouth was covered. "We share two interests. Or at least I assume that we do considering what my partner found when she broke into your apartment two nights ago and cracked the terminal you hid while you were sleeping," Okuda clearly saw Morneau's second of shock, which only passed when he realized that Okuda and whoever he was working with were probably the last people who'd be interested in working with the Final Wave or the Shadow Broker. "Before I go on, I'd like to mention that I love the fact that I fell in love with an even better thief than myself. She really is amazingly useful." Again Morneau made mental notes of what he was saying. This time because of how oddly specific it was. "Either way. As I was saying, we share two interest. We both want something from Donovan Hock and we both wouldn't mind if the Shadow Broker's days of information brokering came to an end soon. To that end, I'm proposing an alliance. You help me with Hock and I help you with the Broker. And of course I keep your secret a secret from the Final Wave," Okuda said before offering a hand. "What do you say, specialist?"

"That you're pretty bold to blackmail me. Aren't you scared I'll ice you as soon as we get to HSA space? I mean I would be if I were in your shoes," Morneau lied. He obviously knew that Okuda's partner was the redundancy for that case. If he went out of line, she'd ruin his mission.

"I think we both know that that was a very, very bad lie," Okuda smirked. "So. Do we have a deal or not? Remember what they say. The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"What do you want from Hock?"

"Do you remember what I told you when we met two years ago? About why I left?"

"You mean why you deserted?"

"Potato, potato," Okuda replied with a wave of a hand. "The attack on the Citadel proved that I was right. The galaxy is heading into a shitshow of unprecedented scale and I want to be as far away from it as possible when we get there."

"In that case you're doing a very bad job considering where you're at and where you're going."

"Fair point. But let me elaborate on my return. Before I can finally leave all of this behind me, I need to do two things. First, I need something from Hock's fault. A personal belonging if you will."

"And secondly?"

"Secondly I need the Broker of my back. The HSA might have bought that I'm dead, but as a recent run in involving some mercs, some missile launchers, me and my favorite skycar proved, the Broker sure as hell didn't. The Final Wave never delivered me so he never stopped looking. As long as he's still out looking for my head, I won't be able to have the kind of retirement I want. That's where you come in. Who better to help me bring down an organization like the Broker's than a specialist who's already got the assignment to do just that. So. What do you say?"

Internally Morneau was saying that he'd stop flying commercial liners from here on out. If the last two trips were any indication, people would keep showing up on them and they would complicate his assignment every time.

However externally?

Okuda did make one solid point.

The enemy of your enemy was your friend.

"Double-cross me and you're dead, Okuda."

"The same goes for you, Specialist."

"I doubt it."

"Which is exactly why you'd never see it coming."


Codex: Human Systems Alliance Intelligence Service Bureau For Field Work

The HSAIS Bureau of Field Work, similarly to the HSAIS as a whole, originally started out as an intelligence division of the Human Systems Alliance Navy, made up of the intelligence service of its predecessor, namely the Joint Defense Initiative Covert Activities Bureau, or in short, 'JDI-CAB'. With the restructuring of the division into HSAIS, the pool of field operatives was also divided into thirteen new, highly specialized pieces. Although the exact strength and mission perimeters of these sections remain classified, the BFW, acting under the orders of the Arcturus Government and the pressure of being deemed an 'increasingly uncontrollable, clandestine institution' by the majority of the parliament, declassified the official mission statements and other pieces of information regarding of its thirteen Field Work Sections in 2332 AD. The following information may already be outdated and is thus only to be seen as a general outline:

Section 1: Espionage

Section 2: Counter Espionage

Section 3: Counter Terrorism

Section 4: Asset Acquisition

Section 5: Personal Acquisition

Section 6: Force Multiplication

Section 7: Threat Assessment

Section 8: Cyber Action

Section 9: Direct Action

Section 10: Internal Affairs

Section 11: Special Insertion

Section 12: Special Logistics

Section 13: Special Affairs

Although the details of the training and exact number of missions conducted by the Field Work Sections remain up to speculation, especially regarding the 'double digit four', 10, 11, 12 and 13, it is known that all members of the Bureau of Field Work, prior to Section-specific training, undergo a two and a half year training schedule in a number of HSA military installations. According to the report from 2332 AD, these include but are not limited to:

Basic Field Agent Training (Naval Recruit Depot 1 Vladivostok, Earth)

Advanced Field Agent Training (Marine Corps School of Infantry, Arcadia)

Basic and Advanced Urban Survival Training (Urban Warfare Training Center, Eden Prime)

Basic and Advanced Vehicular Tactics (Army Armored Warfare School, Terra Nova)

Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Training (Army Airborne School, Terra Nova)

Airborne and Spaceborne Insertion (Army Airborne School, Terra Nova)

Basic Hostile Environment Training (Naval Recruit Depot 6 Arctic, Earth)

Advanced Hostile Environment Training (Naval Logistic Point Olympus Mons, Mars)

Basic and Advanced Zero-G Training (Naval Luna Station, Luna)

Expert Marksman and Small Unit Tactics Training (Vila Militar, Earth)

While not as specific or in-depth as the training of units such as ASOC and NSOC, the respective special forces branches of the HSA's military, the report from 2332 AD stated that the aim of the training program consisted of creating operatives with 'broad' fields of operational ability and 'a larger than average pool of experience' to draw from to aid them during their assignments.


A/N:
Fast update!

Since I (once more) got sent into pre-emptive quarantine due to coming into contact with a corona-dude, I had a bit of free time on my hand and thus I cranked out this chapter... which is still set-up for the three big set-pieces that will come up soon, Jasintho, Bekenstein and... well, for Shepard you'll have to stay a little more patient to find out where she's going next :P

I don't have a whole lot to say, really, other than that I tried something a bit different with the codex this time around (It's ususally a flow text and not interrupted like this) and that we've also now solved the mystery of who has been reading the codex entries since chapter 70 and also discovered that they (oh god who knew) weren't set parallel to the story, meaning that the other two codex interruptions you read... were actually set in the futureeeeeeeeee of the storyyyyy (read that with a ghostly echo, please)

I do have one tad-bit non-story thing I want to talk about.

Guest reviews.

Guys.

If you ask me something in a guest review, I'm not going to reply to you individually in an A/N. I feel like that's disproportinate to do when I've got a couple of people reading this and then dedicate a hundred words or so to one person of them. (Don't misunderstand me, I'm glad you're sharing, I just don't have the option to reply to you) So if there's something you really want to know, either write it with an account or (alternatively) I could start editing the reviews with my reply and a time-stamp before I fast-approve them. (If I get to it in time)While I realise this is easy to claim(since you wouldn't have the option to check, I could be deleting negative reviews left and right), I actually pride myself fast-approve everything and never altering or commenting on anything, even if its something completey negative and unproductive like 'Nate's' review on chapter 8. So that would be the less preferable alternative on my part since I'd be breaking my 'tradition' of having SV's reviews be completely unmoderated, unedited and uncencored.

Those few guests reviews that this concern may throw their voice in right now.

Right now we're at 668 reviews, 1052 favorites and 1155 follows.

See you around next time.