Chapter 95. Shadows Of The Past
One Minute Later, 11. April 2417 AD, Illium, Nos Astra, Dracon Arcology
As soon as Garrus had climbed out of the garbage container, which had mercifully been exactly where his buddy had said it would be and filled with enough trash to cushion their fall, he and Shepard spent a minute waiting for someone to follow them down the chute. When that didn't happen, they jumped the wall that separated the service section of the trade center from the pedestrian zone it connected to and started to make a run for the closest NAPD station her omni had been able to locate. Luckily for them, they were in the richest part of Nos Astra where the density of police stations was the highest. Therefor they were only about five minutes away from temporary safety, at least if the hit squad wasn't NAPD.
Even if they were once more among people, Shepard still wasn't confident that they wouldn't be shot at. In addition to the fact that their pursuers had shot up a trade center, most of the pedestrians were taking a wide step around the two armored, partially in garbage-stains covered figures. That made them easy targets. She glanced at her HUD, realized that the police station was only a few more hundred meters out and gestured for Garrus to pick up his pace and only told him to slow down again when a pair of patrol officers in front of the station noticed them approach.
From their perspective, the sight of two armored, armed, garbage-covered figures approaching their station was more than enough of a reason to pull their guns, so Shepard wouldn't take it personally that she was now staring down a pair of asari who were training their pistols at them and calling for back-up, which was rapidly rushing out of the station, which was situated at the base of another skyrise sitting atop the Dracon arcology. It faced another docking and shopping area that civilians were rapidly clearing out from now that they were noticing the situation developing in front of the station and a skycar traffic lane that was unbothered by what was happening.
"Damn. These guys are even jumpier than C-SEC Customs. It's like they never had an armed felon in front of them," her turian companion muttered. "You want to bet they shoot us by accident?"
"Not if we stay calm," Shepard responded. While she could see the anxiety on the faces of some of the officers that were lining up in front of them, she had faith that a bunch of asari cops weren't just going to gun them down unless they gave them a reason to.
Granted, if the hit squad was NAPD, they would probably fabricate that reason, but still.
After letting the exclusively asari squad of NAPD officers go through their procedure of shouting at them to drop their weapons, Shepard raised her arms defensively and decided to exploit the status the Council had given her two years ago.
"My name's Commander Shepard. I'm a Council Spectre. Who's in charge here?" she asked before scanning the crowd of asari and pretending that she wasn't seeing them handing out bigger guns to each other in anticipation for the shoot-out. Right now there were about ten of them, but if they were to call for back-up, that number was sure to swell in the next five minutes.
"My name is Detective Anaya. I am the station supervisor," an asari from their right shouted. Shepard turned to look at her and was now faced with the sight of a purple asari who pointed an assault rifle at her chest. "You look like a Spectre, but how do I know you really are who you say you are?" it was a legitimate question. If their roles were switched, she'd ask her the same think.
"I called in with your chief of police earlier. We landed with an HSA vessel. Our clearance code is Blue-Five," she responded. Due to how large of a city Nos Astra was and due to their presence being need-to-know only because of safety concerns on the part of NAPD, the chief of police obviously hadn't informed ever single officer of the fact that a Spectre was arriving. Instead, she'd told Shepard to keep a low profile, which she'd failed spectacularly, and given her a clearance code for when she ran into police that didn't know she was running around the place.
Without removing the rifle from Shepard's chest, the asari opened her omni-tool and whispered something. The N7 couldn't hear her, obviously, but the fact that her lips were moving was telling. After a few more seconds of exchanging words, likely with her own supervisor or the supervisor of that supervisor, she waved for the officers to stand down and lowered her own rifle as well.
"What do you want here, Spectre?"
Shepard glanced behind her to the empty dock and eerily silent surroundings.
"I think we should move that conversation inside."
The supervisor nodded and nudged her head to the station. They followed her through the entrance, bypassed a security scanner that flashed red when it recognized their weapons and the older, confused-looking and sleepy salarian who had been left to man the watch desk and then stepped inside the station next to which the supervisor was waiting. When they had passed, he went back to being unobservant, kicked his legs up on the desk and seemed to doze off again.
As it was the case with most buildings on Illium, no expanses had been spared and the asari influence on the design was immediately obvious. The walls were made of the same smooth white metal as the exterior of the structure and despite being metallic in nature, they had a stone-like texture to them. Several workplaces made up of silver furniture desks and sleek work terminals with blue holographic screens were set up in neat rows divided by portable walls of milk-glass. Those were likely there to create the illusion of privacy. The work stations rested on a dark-blue floor, which perfectly polished thanks to the effort of one of the small cleaning bots that was driving towards Shepard with a vengeance as if it could sense the garbage smell her armor was sure to be radiating at this point. The small, circle-shape cleaning droid bumped against her armored boot and, after presumably realizing it couldn't clean her, attempted to move on to Garrus, where it was only met with a nudge of the turian's foot. The asari detective looked at the effort of the droid for another second and then turned to the salarian.
"Sergeant, turn of the bots, please. They're not supposed to be out while we work to begin with," she called before waving her hand towards the far-left corner of the station and muttering something about not remembering their station having any robots that were black instead of NAPD blue. "My office is this way. Don't mind the droids, they're just some management's misguided attempts at keeping up the appearance that everything about Nos Astra is as squeaky clean as the travel guides tell you. As you just saw, we are still figuring them out ourselves."
Shepard threw a glance at the black robot that was tracking her footsteps and then dismissed it before following Detective Anaya to her office. Unlike the other workstation, her office was actually located inside a separate room. That seemed to be a rarity on this floor of the station. She watched as the asari wiped her hand over the door's lock, which strangely enough answered the asari's gesture in clear, untranslated English instead of an asari language, and then stepped into the room. Once inside, they sat down opposite to the asari detective. But before Shepard could think about explaining what had happened or even make up her mind on whether she could be one hundred percent honest with this detective, the asari let out a long-drawn sight.
"First the damned justiciar and now you," she muttered. The N7 didn't know what to reply to that statement since she had no idea what a 'justicar' was supposed to be. "Alright. Before you tell me what's going on, just answer me this," the asari went on before closing her eyes and pinching her nose. "You showing up at my station and spooking my patrol officers not two minutes after I get a report of a gas explosion having happened at Dracon TC isn't a coincidence, is it?"
"I'm afraid it isn't," Shepard replied. As soon as the reply had left her mouth, she got the chance to observe an asari unravel right in front of her. First the detective let out a small, off-sounding laugh, then she shook her head in disbelief and finally, she laid her forearms on her desk and smacked her head against them several times over.
"Goddess, when I took this job, I did it to get away from all the bullshit of the lower floors, not to exchange it for even worse crap," she mumbled while pressing her forehead against her hands and looking at the floor of her office. "I should've just called in sick today. Or better yet, retired altogether yesterday."
"Are you- " Shepard began, only for the asari to raise her hand.
"Just give me a moment please," she muttered. Then she inhaled an audible breath. "Okay. I'm done melting down at the prospect of both a Spectre and a Justicar running around my precinct now. Back to your problem," she sat up straight in her chair and looked at them. "Since you are here looking and smelling the way you do, I assume that gas explosion wasn't actually a gas explosion and guess that you are running from someone?" the asari detective figured, to which Shepard could only nod. That was about as good of a summary as she could've asked for without mentioning the fact that they'd joined forced with a domestic terrorist for all of five minutes. "Okay. Given that you're a Spectre, I assume you know your way around scumbags. So please tell me which particular brand of assholes are shooting up my district and what you did to make them go after you."
"I wish I could tell you that," Shepard replied. "But I've got no idea who they were or what they wanted. I just saw a bunch of guys in black armor and then the bullets started flying. My best guess is mercenaries or some other kind of contractors," even if those two things were one and the same, both the Terminus mercs and the Citadel Space contractors insisted on that technical difference between themselves.
"Great. Mercenaries or contractors," the asari frowned. "If we just take a look at the people permanently residing on Illium, that narrows it down to about five percent of the people running around Nos Astra. In case you weren't counting, that's about four million people, give or take a couple hundred thousand," she stated before her omni-tool buzzed. As the detective read over whatever message she'd just received, Garrus turned to face Shepard.
"I might be wrong about this, but I don't think NAPD were the ones who shot up Bero's place," the turian muttered through the communication channel while keeping his armor's speakers muted to the outside.
After making sure her own were muted as well, Shepard replied.
"I don't think so either."
"You know that's bad news, right?"
"Yeah. If they aren't NAPD," Shepard began.
"They might be coming for the station next," Garrus finished with a shrug that drew Anaya's attention. Her face locked into a frown and her tone turned from frustrated to serious.
"Whatever you're discussing, I feel like I've got a right to know about it. Given the explosion that you two were no doubt involved in and the fact that it caused me a desk full of paperwork, the least you can do is have the decency to not whisper behind my back."
Shepard kept her armor muted and looked at the turian.
"Your business, your call, Garrus," she offered.
"Speaking from the perspective of a former C-SEC officer, I have to admit that she's got a point. It's her station and her district, if it's in danger, she deserves to know about it," the turian responded. In turn, Shepard unmuted her speakers. "We were discussing how we think there's a chance that whoever tried to kill us at the trade center might come here to finish the job.
The asari looked at them for a second, then closed her eyes and shook her head.
"Whoever tried to kill you would have to be an idiot to try their luck on an NAPD precinct. There are five stations within ten minutes of this place and all it takes for the Special Response Unit to show up here in three is for me to make one call to Dispatch," the detective replied confidently. "Besides, every officer but the sergeant at the desk is biotic. Anyone with half a brain wouldn't take those odds just to try and kill you," she said before the orange glowing of her terminal and every other light in the station suddenly turned off and the door of the office they were in audibly locked itself. "What the fuck-"
Twenty-Two Minutes Earlier, 2158 CE, Dracon Arcology
In nature most hunts were a matter of minutes or hours. The predator found its prey, chased it to exhaustion and struck the killing blow. It was a race as old as time and at its end, the prey found peace in the embrace of the goddess and the predator peacefully continued on with its life until the next hunt became necessary or it became prey the pray of a stronger huntress.
Such was the life of a predator.
Such was the will of nature and the goddess.
Predators chased prey or became it; but none killed for pleasure.
By a cruel twist of faith, that was not the course her life or her hunt had taken.
The monster that she was hunting killed for the sole reason of enjoying it.
Samara looked at the salarian lying on the floor in front of her. He was clutching his abdomen where a series of wounds were leaking acid-green blood. She planted her boot on the neck of the mercenary and looked at him with cold blue eyes. In life, he had undoubtably preyed on many. Now, in death, he would find himself in the reversed role.
"Where is she?" the justicar demanded with a calm voice, ignoring his tormented screams or the fire sizzling behind her from the fight that had just raged. Truth be told, she had had not intentions of fighting this pathetic Eclipse-copy when she'd first arrived on Illium, but now that it had happened, she was glad for the brief respite it had granted her from her four century-long chase. Every second she did not spent on thinking about the Ardat-Yakshi was a second well lived.
"Where's who?" the salarian responded while trying and failing to lift her boot off his neck as if he had no idea who their smuggling vessel had carried to Illium.
"The Ardat-Yakshi," her daughter.
"The what-" in response to the salarian's ignorance of the predator she herself was hunting, Samara pushed her boot down further.
"The asari who adopted the moniker of Morinth," it was a strange choice for her daughter to use her real name, she had not done so in three centuries. "I know she came here with the help of your outfit, what I don't know is where she went after stepping off your ship," Samara replied calmly, despite being closer to her daughter than ever before.
"Listen, I've got no idea what you're talking about. First I'm just minding my business and loading up some red sand, next thing I know, you shoot up the place and go on about some bitch I never heard about-"
"Then you are of no use to me. May you find peace in the embrace of the goddess," the asari said with a clam expression before twisting her boot and breaking the neck of the mercenary before he could register what was happening. She stepped away from the corpse and walked back to the exit of the storage hall, ignoring the cannisters of burning Red Sand. They were not volatile enough to cause a danger to the innocent inhabitants of the arcology and the fire would destroy their criminal contents, hence she could ignore them without violating the order of the code.
As the rush of the fight wore down, Samara was once more reminded of the fact that her daughter had gone to Illium not under the name of Irna, which she'd used the last several years, but Morinth, the name she had given to her. That had not happened since the first time Samara had tracked her down after she had fled from a live in the monastery to quell her addiction to the melding process and turned the galaxy into her hunting ground.
Why would she have done this?
Was it a form of gloating?
Or maybe a call for help?
Did Morinth want Samara to find her and finally end a life that had consisted of nothing but looking over one's shoulder?
Or did Morinth want Samara to find her because she finally believed herself strong enough to kill her mother and end this pursuit on her terms?
The justicar stepped through the door of the building situated on the northern edge of Dracon's mid-section and glanced at the unlikely allies that had joined her hunt for the time being. They were Confederation troops from the Skyllian Verge, who happened to hunt her daughter because she'd selected a victim with friends in high places and it had been their intel that had led her to this particular squad of mercenaries.
"And?" a turian with green-brown armor asked. While the uniformity of him and his subordinates' hardsuits suggested that they belonged to some kind of organized unit related to the CIP government, Samara still considered him to be just another gun-for-hire and as such hadn't even bothered to note his name when he'd approached her on Kosh with the offer of joining her in her hunt in order to appease some planetary governor who's daughter had fallen victim to Morinth's stay in the Verge.
"The other mercenaries were not able to provide any information regarding the fugitive Ardat-Yakshi," she stated stoically and with as much emotional distance as she could muster. The Confederation didn't know that Morinth was her daughter and she'd prefer to keep it that way.
"So we hit another dead-end. Great," the turian replied before waving his hand towards a human. "Corporal, take a squad inside and secure the survivors. We might not have the asari, but Prowlers are always good for a few bounties."
"Right away, Captain."
Samara held up a hand in response.
"That will not be necessary. There are no survivors left to secure."
"Then who exactly did you interrogate?"
"The one I killed last," she responded calmly, prompting the turian to fold his arms.
"We could've made good use out of scumbags."
"They were drug-runners. The judgement of the code left me with no alternative but to kill them," the asari stated in return before narrowing her eyes ever so slightly. "For your own sake, you should know that the code's punishment for selling sentient beings is also death."
The turian received her threat with surprising indifference. "First off, turning in criminals for bounties isn't the same as selling slaves. Secondly, did you ever stop and think about maybe interpreting that thing a little more loosely? From where I'm standing, your code is becoming a hindrance to our mission."
Samara put up a faint smile, despite the anger bubbling under her skin.
"Do not compare out tasks to one another, Captain. We are merely allied by circumstance. You'd do well to remember that the next time you try to persuade me to violate the Code for your own gain. Otherwise you too shall meet your end."
The turian officer raised his hand as if to say something in return but then seemingly got interrupted by a transmission. He turned away from Samara and opened up the omni-tool off-shot he was carrying, producing a neon-green hologram in the process. While the model wasn't the galactic standard that she carried and was presumably riddled with backdoors that could be exploited by the CIP-based company that made them, the little computer still fulfilled its role faithfully. And that was all that anyone could really ask form anything; to do their purpose.
Samara patiently waited for her unlikely and temporary companion to finish whatever task he was occupied with and idly looked around the plaza they were standing on right now. On the Captain's orders, it had been surrounded and cleared of bystanders prior to her entering, something that she would be ready to consider should she find herself in a situation where the CIP trooper did something that violated the code. Given what little glimpses she'd seen of their overarching government's actions on Kosh, she figured a breach on his part was only a matter of time. Truth be told, she was glad that her hunt for an Ardat-Yakshi had given her the leeway needed to look away from some of the sights she'd witnessed during her stay on the CIP world. If she'd taken action, she would not only have clashed with the local security forces like the Captain's troops, but also their human allies. And although Samara was an incredibly gifted warrior, even by the standards of the Justicar Order, even she couldn't fight an occupation force by her lonesome.
After a few more moments of silence, the turian CIP officer turned back to the justicar. While he was still wearing his helmet, Samara had spent enough time around the denizens of the galaxy to learn what their body languages meant. In his case, she could see the frustration before it articulated itself.
"I just got word from the team that sent us the intel on the Prowlers," he began. "Turns out, there actually was a recent development the information broker who helped our mark escape neglected to mention up to now."
"And what might that be?" Samara responded.
"Our mutual person of interest didn't come to Illium for pleasure," he explained while one of the dark-blue CIP-made corvettes descended from the sky, likely on his own orders. "She came for work."
"What work?" she already had her suspicions.
"The only type she seems to know," he stated before making a rallying gesture with his hand. "A hit."
"On whom?"
"You've been all over the galaxy, Justicar. You tell me how many people you know who've got the guts to go after a Spectre," he replied. For a reason Samara couldn't quite make out, the way the turian pronounced the word 'Spectre' somehow sounded personal, as if he considered it an attack to himself.
"Normally, I'd argue none. But since we are in Nos Astra, I can think of a few," Samara responded before glancing around the plaza and then looking up to the peak of Dracon Arcology. She'd been in a situation like this before two hundred and thirty-six years ago and had sworn it to herself to never repeat the mistakes of her past again. She could not bear to witness yet another mountain of corpses left in the wake of Morinth's carnage. "If you are right, then we need to warn the Nos Astra Police Department immediately. If Morinth plans on killing someone, anyone standing between her and her prey will be annihilated."
"I agree. An arcology is no place for a firefight," the turian muttered before nudging his head to another turian trooper. The CIP mercenary jogged over to them.
"Sir?"
"Lieutenant, I need you to contact the chief of police. Tell her I need to know if there's a Spectre on Illium and where they are right now. Say that it's urgent and advise her to issue a general alert for all of Dracon Arcology."
"Right away, Captain Rix."
Not a second later a muffled explosion erupted above their heads and a column of smoke and debris got ejected from the Dracon Arcology Trade Center tower.
"How big is your Ardat-Yakshi when it comes to explosives?" Rix asked while looking up to where the smoke was coming from.
"She usually prefers a more up-close and personal approach," Samara responded from personal memory before squinting when the sun reflected off the white façade of the tower. "But I still believe that this event warrants our attention."
"Because of the order of the code?" Rix suggested.
"Because I don't believe in coincidence."
Present Time, 11. April 2417 AD, Illium, Nos Astra, Dracon Trade Center Precinct
"Okay, this officially settles it," Garrus muttered while the flashlights on Shepard's helmet illuminated the lock of the door he was working on.
"You can overwrite it?" Anaya figured hopefully. Ever since the power had turned off and her keycodes had stopped working, the detective had been reduced to as much of a bystander as Shepard, who wasn't doing much other than helping Garrus work in the light. With their communication's blocked, the entrance locked and the asari detective insisting on the fact that this was a random and that they wouldn't break down the door just yet, all the two of them could do was to wait for the turian to get lucky with the door or for someone to open it for them. With the explosion in the trade center being a fresh call that occupied the other officers and the salarian sergeant likely still being asleep, it would take some time for them to get liberated by someone else, though.
Additionally, , Shepard refused to even consider that the asari might be right about this incident not being related to why they were in the station in the first place. The timing was just too perfect, no matter how insistent Anaya was on no one being stupid enough to attack an NAPD station.
"No, that's not what I meant. I'm not making any progress with this thing," the turian replied before knocking his fist against the door and shattering their hopes. "Which is why this little experience settles the question of what kind of door I'm buying if I ever go through with getting that place on the Citadel," he mumbled while his eyes darted over the hologram in front of his face and then back to the door. "This thing has got some of the best security I've ever seen in a door. Reinforced hinges, security bolts, bullet resistant glass work, a dozen permanently active security VIs with the sole purpose of preventing overwrites from an external source," he admired.
"I take it that's a lot of VIs for a door?" Shepard figured as she watched the turian swish through various overwrite interfaces. When it came to tech, she wasn't exactly a shooting star. Unlike most humans, she hadn't grown up with them because of her deceased dad's professional paranoia and her mom's humoring of his insistence to keep the house 'VI clean due to his 'security concerns'.
"The average C-SEC server has five and usually, three of them are on stand-by until something happens," he responded before settling for another interface and glancing back at the detective. "NAPD really doesn't buy crap quality, do they?"
"Funnily enough, we usually do," the asari responded before getting up from her chair. Despite being locked in her office and not having heard from her fellow officers on the outside in nearly five minutes, the detective was surprisingly relaxed. Then again, she was chalking this up to the apparently common problem of parts of Dracon Arcology spontaneously losing power in Illium's summer months instead of the hit squad, something that neither Garrus nor Shepard were ready to believe. "Can I see that?" she asked while gesturing for Garrus' omni.
"Why?" the turian responded possessively.
"Because I happened to have locked myself out of this place five times since we got those new doors and I recall exactly zero occasions of there being ten security VIs inside my door lock," the purple asari reasoned. It seemed to convince Garrus since he held out his hand so that Anaya could take a look at what he was working on. "Okay. If it wasn't weird before, now it is," the asari muttered after a few seconds. Shepard turned towards her, putting her squarely into the light of her helmet flashlight. In response the asari shielded her eyes from the bright light. "Could you not-" she began, prompting Shepard to dial the brightness down.
"Sorry about that," she apologized. Despite her aunt being an asari, she tended to forget that the mono-gendered race wasn't exactly a huge fan of what humans considered to be ambient lighting. "Why is it weird?" the N7 went on.
"Because the VIs blocking our exit really weren't there the last time I had to circumvent my own door lock," the detective muttered before typing on the hologram. "Matter of fact, they were only created twelve minutes ago."
"Right around the blackout," Garrus added.
"Exactly."
Shepard looked towards the door and then back to the asari. She could already see the answer to her question on the asari's face, but she still felt the need to ask. "First our comms cut out and now this. Still think this is your average summer blackout?"
"No, I don't," she mumbled. "If you're there, stand back!" the detective shouted through the door before waving for Garrus to lower his omni-tool and step away from the door. He obliged and not a moment later, the asari blazed with purple energy and surged forward, breaking the door from its frame and sending it flying. Fortunately, it only hit the empty wall opposite to the office and not another officer. Not that that latter part would've been possible. By the look and sound of it, there were no officers to be hit around.
"Brute force, I could have done that," the turian observed before cautiously stepping out of the room and into the dark and quiet police station.
"Maybe. But unlike me, you would've had to pay for damaging city property," Anaya pointed out with a shrug before following the turian outside.
"Fair point," Garrus muttered before kneeling down just as Shepard left the office herself. "Hold up. Something's wrong here," he added with a quick whisper. Before she could ask what the turian was doing, he let out a very uncharacteristic growl. "Check on your officers, right now," he instructed before throwing a small device at Shepard.
"What's going on, Garrus?" the N7 asked before catching the device and looking at it. It was a disk, roughly the size of her hand and as soon as she set eyes on it, she understood. "Detective, does your department use sonic isolators?"
"Sonic what now?"
"Sonic isolators. They generate dense mass effect fields that push soundwaves away from themselves. They're perfect for when you want need to keep things quiet on an op but can't afford to not go loud," much like Garrus, Shepard had was now unfolding her assault rifle. He clearly shared her worries.
"I don't understand. NAPD doesn't use those. How did this get into the station?" the asari detective muttered. "You seriously need to tell me what's going on here."
"You really need to check on your officers now," the turian detective repeated while Shepard moved to the corner of one of the portable milk-glass walls. From that positions she hoped to get eyes on the station's entrance. If something bad had happened, there should be clear signs for it there. She took another cautious step forward with her Valkyrie at the ready and then leaned around the corner. The first thing that stood out to here were the four, tightly-packed holes in the glass panel of the watch desk and the acid green blood sprinkles she could see on the wall behind.
Next, just as Garrus called out that he'd found the black robot from earlier and that it was missing 'a disk the size of a sonic isolator', Shepard spotted a pair of barely luminescent, teal lights coming from what appeared to be-
Shit.
- the dead body of an NAPD officer's body armor. The asari wearing it was lying bent over a table and her gun had dropped into a pool of purple blood by her feet that originated from a hole in her throat. Instantly, Shepard flicked off the flashlights and switched to night-vision. Next she tapped her radio and, just as she had worried, found that her comms were still down.
"Forget about checking on the officers. I've got one dead up front and another by the watch desk. Chances are the rest are gone as well," Shepard said before returning back into her cover and looking at the asari. "Call the response team. While we were locked in there, your station got attacked and I think it's save to assume that whoever did this is still in here."
Despite the lack of actual lighting, she could see the color drain from Detective Anaya's purple face and noticed that her hands were starting to tremble. Shepard bit her lip in response to this observation. She hoped the asari held things together. After all, this wasn't exactly a usual situation to be in for the average police officer.
"Whoever did this is gonna wish they're dead when I find them," Anaya muttered before bringing up her omni-tool. "This is Dracon-District calling all available units in the vicinity. Our station has been assaulted. Officers down. We require back-up."
The message hung in the air for a few seconds, then another asari voice replied.
"Acknowledged Dracon-District. Back-up is on the way. SRU have been alerted. Hunker down and tell me what you know," the voice on the other end of the radio responded. Much to Shepard's surprise, the speaker sounded collected and spoke in a quiet, soft voice unlike anything she had expected to hear when someone was confronted with news like that.
It instantly made her suspicious and judging by the way Garrus shot her a stare and slowly shook his head, she wasn't the only one. She threw one glance around her cover again and noticed how the portion of the belt where Anaya was carrying her omni-tool was missing on the body of the dead asari.
That was all she needed to understand what was happening here.
"It all started about seven minutes ago with a blackout and lockdown of the station-" the asari detective began before Shepard grabbed her hand and hushed her.
"Not. Another. Word," she whispered. "Do you recognize who's on the other end?"
"Obviously not. There's a thousand different dispatchers working for NAPD," Anaya replied before it seemed to dawn on her. "You don't think-"
"Stay calm and keep her talking. Don't disclose who you're with or where you're at," the N7 advised before opening up her own omni-tool and trying to figure out if there was a way she could check for other devices currently broadcasting nearby.
While Anaya recollected the events, the N7 managed to get close to what she was achieving.
However unluckily for them, the people she was looking for were faster than her and found them first.
Right as the asari detective told the voice on the other end of the fabricated comm-channel about how they'd opened the door and found the sonic isolator, several sets of quiet footsteps tapped along the polished floor ahead. Shepard risked a peak around her cover and, just as she had worried, spotted five human-looking figures in black, blank armor suits that gave no indication as to who they were working for. By the looks of it, four were men and the one in the center was a woman. Judging by the way she was quietly gesturing for the others to fan out, Shepard assumed that she was the commander of the squad.
Unluckily for her, that made her the N7s first target. Due to not being ready to waste any more time and risking the humans actually spotting her, it was already a small miracle they hadn't done so yet, Shepard flicked the safety of her Valkyrie.
"Contact front," she said, giving Garrus the first and only warning that she would now engage.
Then she pulled her trigger several times over and was immediately joined by Garrus doing the same.
However despite the small hailstorm of mass accelerator rounds that they sent flying the way of the figures, none of them went down.
Instead of being riddled with holes and dropping dead on the spot, the figures peeled off from the woman in the center and vanished out of sight behind the milk-glass walls, which subsequently started to crack as a surge of purple energy flooded through the station and seemed to shake the entire building.
"Found you," the woman in the center voice purred. Her tone was in equal parts filled with sadism and excitement and while Shepard reached for a grenade, she removed her helmet and smirked at her, revealing that the woman wasn't a human woman, but rather an asari.
"Garrus, you take care of the ones trying to flank us on the left. Detective, watch our right. Toss anyone who lifts their heads," the N7 ordered. Then, without wasting another second, she lobbed the grenade the asari's way and thanked her foresight for adding a phasic-ammunition mod to her Valkyrie in anticipation of possibly running into hostile asari on Illium. While a fragmentation grenade was usually more than enough to stop a single foe, the asari made short work of the device by catching it inside a small biotic field and lobbing it far behind her where it exploded harmlessly inside its new biotic prison.
"Lights on. I want to look the Spectre in the eyes when I kill her," the black-armored biotic ordered to someone out of sight before the lights of the station turned back on, showing the full extent of the damage she had caused. The previously ordered workplaces were thrown all over the place, blood of various shades dotted the wall alongside bullet holes and a noticeable scorch mark surrounded a clear hole in the wall of the station. She didn't know who this was or why she wanted to kill her, but she definitely had brought one very powerful sonic isolator if all of that had happened without them hearing it.
After her grenade had failed, Shepard spun around the corner again, intending to rob her assailant of the chance of looking into her eyes by putting several phasic rounds through her skull. She was subsequently interrupted by a shockwave of purple energy travelling through the station. As the N7 and everyone else in the station, friend and foe alike, were thrown away from the asari, time slowed down and painful memories to her fight with Liara's mother came back to the N7. That had been the last time she'd fought an exceptionally powerful biotic and back then, there had been a whole lot more allies on her side who had been far more talented than the lone asari detective currently watching her right flank. And even with all those allies on their side, the only reason they'd won the fight against Councilor Benezia T'Soni had been the near-suicidal actions of a Section 13 operative and flat-out luck that he'd somehow survived a walk through an annihilation field without, well, getting annihilated by it.
Today, the only person present from back then was Garrus, who was watching her left side. There was no Blackwatch, no Alenko or Williams, no Wrex and she also happened to run short of overconfident spies.
Hence, the odds of winning this fight were looking rather bleak.
Shepard pressed her chin against her chest to prevent her head from hitting the wall and exhaled just before she made contact with the hard metal. Then, as soon as the wave dissipated, she rolled to the right and out of sight of the asari. This wasn't a fight they'd win head on and with their comms down, she got the distinct feeling that running might be their only option.
Since she'd always been a big believer in living to fight another day, the N7 had little to no problem with that.
"Garrus, you still alive?" she called over the radio before locating Detective Anaya among some rubble and pulling her to her feet. The cop, who's head was now bleeding, looked at her for a confused second, then shook her head and clearly remembered what was happening all the while the building's fire alarms went off and thick, black smoke started to collect underneath the ceiling.
That shockwave had clearly broken something important.
They needed to get out of here asap.
"Yes. Unfortunately for my back, I am," the turian groaned. He was out of sight, likely having been tossed further to the left side of the station where he had secured their flank. Due to the added carnage and the smoke that was filling up the room, which luckily wasn't a concern for her due to her helmet filters, Shepard couldn't even guess as to where Garrus was right now.
"Good. We need to get out of here. Ideas?" she asked while moving the detective further to the right and hoping not to run into any of the mercs. She had no idea why the asari hadn't dealt the killing blow yet or why it seemed as if she was playing with them, but she wouldn't look a gifted horse in the mouth and simply use the mercenary's absence to make her retreat. "You're welcome to join in too," she added while looking at the detective. The asari seemed to think for a few seconds.
"There's a fire exit that way," she coughed while pointing in the opposite direction. Unlike for Shepard, the smoke was a definite problem for the detective. Immediately, the N7 relayed that information to Garrus. That would at least secure his way out and ensure that he'd be able to call for back up, unless of course their enemy was waiting outside of the station as well.
"I'm not leaving you in here with that maniac, Shepard," the turian protested after being ordered to make a run for it.
"If you don't get out there, we won't have any back-up at all and it'll just be the three of us against that maniac," she responded in turn before spinning a corner and finding one of the mercenaries. His head was bent at an odd angle from and the white reflective visor of his armor had cracked under the force of the impact that had killed him, revealing a bloody human face underneath.
"Is there any place we can hide in here? Or maybe some other fire exit?" Shepard asked before feeling the air surge with biotic energy again.
"You can run, but you can't hide, little Spectre. Why don't you make this easy on both of us and come out? I promise, there are worse ways to die than being fed on," the asari stated in a somewhat seductive tone.
"Fed on? What the hell is she talking about?" Shepard asked her own asari ally before risking a peak around one of the surviving milk-glass walls and spotting the flank of her enemy. Normally this would be a perfect shot, but something told her that if she fired right now, it'd be her last mistake.
Anaya blinked in confusion for a few seconds and let out another cough.
"Goddess. I think she's an Ardat-Yakshi."
The gears in Shepard's head spun and some old knowledge she'd collected after reading up on the melding process of asari in the wake of her experience with Liara surfaced. She didn't remember all of it, which was a rather common occurrence ever since she'd woken up from nearly dying, but one thing had stuck. Ardat-Yakshi were bad news.
"We need a way out of here," she muttered before seeing movement in the corner of her eye and watching a mercenary in black armor stumble to his comrade. He looked to be hurt as well, but that didn't stop him from trying to take a shot at the uninjured N7 when he spotted her and the detective.
Shepard was quicker, though.
Her phasic ammunition went straight through his shields and struck him in the torso thrice. While the first shot only hit the armor and produced a spark, the next two made him go limp. Even though she now wouldn't get shot by the black-armored human, the brief exchange of gunfire exposed their position to the asari. Despite the smoke and the fire alarm, the sound of gunfire was still distinctive and the blue muzzle flashes were easily located. Even as Shepard was turning to address the threat she knew was headed for her, she could see a ball of purple energy surge her way. It ripped through the milk-glass, peeled of the metal floor and came for her with a brightness and force that felt like it could've been a small sun.
She'd been in a lot of tight spots and stared down death on multiple occasions.
Yet it had never felt this inevitable.
A mixture of training and defiance made her pull the trigger of Valkyrie and only the fact that she was feeling recoil instead of being annihilated clued her off that something was wrong.
The biotic attack had hit something.
But it wasn't her.
Instead of crashing into her and ripping her apart on a molecular level, the ball of energy had broken against a shimmering, purple dome that extended around Shepard and Anaya. The whole sight was not unlike a wave breaking against the bow of a ship. It was mesmerizing to look at, but she knew better than to waste this opportunity by looking at the clash of colors in front of her face.
Immediately, the N7 dove for cover. At first she suspected that the asari detective had saved her life, but then she realized that the asari officer was simply hiding from the blast to her left in a similar manner as her. Before she could make any assumptions in regard to her savior, the person who had projected the barrier announced herself.
"It's over, Morinth. You're cornered. Surrender yourself and I promise this will be over swiftly," a calm asari voice announced. Shepard leaned out from her cover and spotted a pale-blue asari in reddish-brown, tightly fitted armor, who looked disturbingly like the mercenary. She was flanked by several figures wearing armor that closely resembled the standard HSA-Army pattern from before the Fringe Wars, who Shepard assumed were part of the CIP forces Callius had run into. The N7 had no idea as to who these new arrivals were or who's side they were on, but she wasn't going to pass up the chance to take her shot at the assailant to find out. She aligned her assault rifle with the center of the black-armored asari's head and was about to pull the trigger. However before she could take her shot, the Valkyrie in her hand got ripped away by the new arrival's biotics. Without looking at her, the less-armored asari made a gesture of her hand and tossed the Valkyrie away with a warning. "Do not interfere, Spectre. This fight is between me and the Ardat-Yakshi."
What the hell was that asari doing?
Despite her curiosity, Shepard wasn't going to stick around to find out.
She pulled out her pistol, lifted Anaya to her feed and started to usher her towards the fire exit.
"Four hundred years on the run from you, yet you're still protective of me," the Ardat-Yakshi taunted towards the other asari and the CIP troopers. "If I didn't hate you so much, I'd almost be touched by your actions," she went on before pure venom filled her tone and she purred out a final word, "mother."
In all honesty, Shepard wasn't sure what exactly had happened next. In the one moment, she was guiding the asari detective towards the door where she could see a glimpse of Garrus, in the next, the Ardat-Yakshi surged through the room and rammed into the other asari with enough biotic force to send everyone inside the building flying away from the collision. After that, everything went fuzzy.
By the time she regained her senses, the N7 had somehow stumbled towards the door alongside Anaya, been dragged out of the station by Garrus and moved behind the cover of a parked patrol car alongside the other asari. As she sat with her back against the car, she tried to shake the dizziness out of her system but had only little success. Her entire body felt like it was vibrating and judging by the grim expression on Garrus' face, whatever had just happened had been bad. Since her HUD wasn't flashing to inform her of a critical injury and no numbing medigel was being dispensed right now, Emily was confident that she hadn't actually gotten hurt. As she'd soon find out, the same couldn't be said about the police station.
"Garrus," she groaned before trying to sit up and peak around the hood of the skycar. "What the hell just happened in there?"
"Exactly what Lieutenant Callius warned me would happen," the turian responded before Shepard managed to get a good look at the now devastated station and the pair of CIP troopers that were stumbling out the fire exit. The parts of their armor that hadn't fallen of were glistening purple and blue, a mixture of biotic burns and Element Zero residue, and the bits and pieces of torn undersuits and skin that were exposed where the armor had failed were either bloodied or burned. "I nearly got you killed because I wanted revenge. I'm sorry," the detective mumbled while Shepard watched a third and fourth CIP trooper leave the station. One was a turian in surprisingly good shape, he had only lost his helmet, the other was a salarian who looked like he was about five minutes away from death. The turian, who had light grey plates bordering on white and brown facial markings, sat the salarian down by the side of the other CIP troopers and then, much to Shepard's surprise, ran back into the building, despite the very clear signs that the two asari clashing inside weren't done yet.
"Garrus, I don't think what just happened had anything to do with why you came to Illium," the human Spectre retorted before realizing that her pistol was missing as well, rendering her effectively powerless against the clash that was going on inside. She wanted to go inside and help, obviously, but without a weapon that would be akin to suicide. "Last time I checked, the Talons or whatever other gang lured you here don't exactly have people like her on the payroll," she figured as the CIP turian returned with yet another casualty from inside and made a move to run back in a second time. When she considered joining him and at least making a difference in that way, the idea was shot down by a clear demonstration of the power of the combatants clashing inside. The CIP turian got about five steps close to the entrance before a ripple wave sent him flying backwards and forced everyone else to take cover from the shrapnel that the biotic clash was throwing around. After he hit the ground and bent his arm around at an impossibly painful angle, he rolled several times over and then dragged himself into cover while exclaiming a row of curses spoken in a turian language too uncommon for her omni-tool to pick up. "This is about something else entirely," she went on right as the first NAPD skycars dropped out of the increasingly panicked skycar lane moving over the police station. Shepard turned towards the asari detective. While they were observing the fight, she had been on the radio. "Do you have any idea why this is happening?"
"Well, the one who saved our butts back there was the justicar I complained about earlier," Anaya explained. "Going from there, it's pretty much a given that the one who attacked us was an Ardat-Yakshi."
"You mentioned that word earlier," Garrus interrupted while keeping his Phaeston trained on the entrance of the station. Out of the three of them, he was the only one who was still armed. "What does it mean?"
"You want the short version or the long one?"
"I want the one appropriate for a firefight."
"She's a powerful biotic who can kill you by melding and she gets a sliver more powerful with every time she does it. Judging by her demonstration just now, I'd wager she's killed hundreds of people," the detective explained before being approached by an asari officer in tactical gear who inquired what had happened. While Anaya recollected the events, Garrus took a glance at Shepard's unarmed state and quickly handed her his Carnifex pistol. When she was armed again, she leaned out of their cover to observe the scene. Much to her surprise, she found the injured turian limping towards the door again. Despite the fact that his arm was positively broken and that she seriously doubted there were any more survivors after the last clash, the CIP trooper didn't seem to be discouraged from getting back in there. "I knew the justicar was hunting her, but I didn't think she'd actually find her, let alone that they would throw down in my precinct."
"Alright. Powerful biotic who gets more powerful every time she murders someone, got it," Garrus muttered before kneeling down and hiding behind the hood of the skycar again. Shepard mirrored him right as the turian vanished inside, likely for the last time. "Next question. How do we stop her? If she goes on like this, she'll bring down the entire building," he added, sounding far more like the turian Shepard remembered from two years ago instead of the one she'd found on Omega.
"Unless you want to die, I suggest you let the justicar handle this," Anaya responded. "Ardat-Yakshi are their specialty and unless you happen to have a matriarch lying around, I don't think we've got someone who can measure up to her," she glanced at Shepard and the N7 patch on her chest armor and then at Garrus. "No offense, but this isn't the place to be if you aren't biotic. If you know what's good for you, you'll clear out now."
Shepard peaked out from her cover just as the turian walked out of the smoke. He was coughing and dragging yet another one of his men to safety. After reaching the safety of the car, he threw a brief look at her and just for a moment, Shepard got the impression that he recognized her from somewhere. Then he returned his attention to his injured comrade and the others he had hauled to safety. She moved her eyes away from the turian and his companions and looked back into the station where she could see a ball of pulsating energy and the outlines of two figures who seemed to be lock in a biotic standoff. They seemed to be caught up in the act of trying to murder each other, so the N7 drew a pragmatic conclusion.
If the new arrival was distracted with fighting the Ardat-Yakshi, she wouldn't stop Shepard from killing the other asari for a second time. Right now she had the opportunity that had been missing previously.
She wasn't sure if it was the specific circumstance she was in right now or if the general pressure of the fact that she'd been dead for the last two years that was finally getting to her, but the N7 was suddenly overcome by a burst of raw anger that overwrote her otherwise cautious nature and set her into motion on a very dangerous path. Gone were any notions of living to fight another day or picking your battles carefully, right now she only sought to do one thing: finish this fight.
"That bitch is doing all of this to kill me, I'l lbe damned if I sit back and do nothing," she muttered before jumping over the hood of the car, her pistol leveled at the black-armored asari.
"Shepard, wait-" her turian team member called from behind. She ignored him. Her mind was set: She'd put an end to the asari, before his prediction about the Ardat-Yakshi bringing down the building came true.
Meanwhile, 2158 CE, Illium, Nos Astra, Dracon Trade Center Precinct
As their biotics continued to clash in between Samara and her daughter, the justicar narrowed her eyes and came to a realization.
They were evenly matched.
Ever since their last encounter, which had ended with her daughter running away at the brink of death, Morinth, a matron, had become exactly as strong as her, a matriarch. While a normal mother would've been filled with pride at their child displaying this kind of strength, Samara was only filled with a sense of dread and disgust and the realization of her own failure. If Morinth had fed enough to make up for a nearly four century age gap, she hadn't just fed on hundreds as Samara had initially worried. She had fed on thousands.
The justicar increased the force of her push again and stared at the hate-filled expression on Morinth's face. Her beautifully blue eyes had turned pitch black; her skin was growing closer to white and light-purple dots were popping out around her mouth. She was straining herself, even more so than Samara and she'd collapse soon. Maybe they were not as evenly matched as Samara had feared after all.
"Morinth, if you surrender now-" she tried to reason before her daughter let out an unearthly shout that bordered more on a shriek than an actual sentence.
"Quiet! You die today!" she yelled and with it, increased her power even more. Samara could feel herself sliding across the metal floor, but she still managed to contain Morinth's wrath. For now at least. "Today is the day I rid this world of you!" the Ardat-Yakshi went on before ripping her arms to the side and dissolving the ball of energy that had gathered between the two of them. "And once I kill you, there will be no one left to stop me!" with another snarl and a blink of unfiltered biotic energy, Morinth launched herself at the justicar with a purple sphere in each hand. Her intention was clear, this was to be her killing blow.
Samara's eyes widened at the sight of what was headed her way. She'd made a mistake. They were not evenly matched. But it wasn't Morinth who was at a disadvantage. If not for the timely intervention of an unexpected figure, the justicar was sure that she would've been killed. But by a stroke of luck, or maybe an intervention of the goddess, a stranger took action.
Right as Samara caught Morinth's charge and readied herself to try and deflect the two warping spheres despite feeling how strong they were, a rapid succession of gunshots hit the Ardat-Yakshi from her left side. While they weren't strong enough to kill her or break through the impenetrable biotic wall that Morinth had summoned around her and Samara, they did distract her long enough for Samara to grab a hold of Morinth's wrists and fling her into the wall hard enough to dent it. In a split second during the move, the justicar spotted her unlikely savior; it was the human from earlier, the Spectre that Morinth had come here to kill. Despite the fact that her lack of biotic powers meant that she might as well have been a mere mortal injecting herself into a fight between two deities, she had entered the fray and tipped the balance just far enough. Before Morinth could recover from the blow, Samara was on her. She raised her fist, summoned a ball of biotic energy and readied herself to finish his chase, once and for all; just as she had hoped for four centuries.
But then, just as she was about to bring down her fist and crush Morinth's skull, Samara made the worst mistake she could've possibly made in that very moment: She remembered that Morinth was her daughter and hesitated in the most crucial moment.
Her opponent had no such problems.
In the second that Samara paused, the Ardat-Yakshi smirked and then exploded her barrier, throwing Samara off her and herself through the wall of the station.
While she didn't need to recover for more than a second, the blow had in fact been so weak that she even managed to register that the human Spectre had passed her and was still shooting at Morinth, that second of Samara not being on top of her was all that Morinth needed.
The last the justicar saw of her daughter on that day was the sight of her catapulting herself into the traffic lane below just as a shot clipped her side and tore a piece of black armor off. And although no normal person could've possibly survived that kind of fall, the justicar simply knew that Morinth had done just that.
Their fight was far from over.
She watched as the onyx-armored Spectre rushed out of the hole in the wall and then trailed her while she dashed to the ledge Morinth had jumped from with her gun at the ready.
If this was the person her daughter was hunting, the two of them had to talk. After all, if Morinth had inherited one thing from Samara, it was her perseverance.
The Ardat-Yakshi would be back and when that happened, Samara needed to be there. She had unleashed the monster her daughter had become on this galaxy, so it was also her responsibility to finally stop her. To that end, she would have to stay by the human's side. And if she wanted to do that without having to kill the human herself when she inevitably violated the code as part of her work as a Spectre, there was only one thing left for her to do; to swear an oath.
One Minute Earlier, 11. April 2417 AD, Illium, Nos Astra Dracon Trade Center Precinct
As soon as she saw the Ardat-Yakshi leap at the justicar, Shepard fired Garrus' carnifex until it was just one shot shy of overheating the handgun. Despite Garrus also having equipped the gun with phasic ammunition, her rounds still bounced off the thick purple wall that surrounded the black-armored mercenary who was trying to kill her, clarifying that whatever was surrounding her wasn't a normal barrier. Although her attack didn't have the desired effect of killing her would-be assassin, it did give the justicar a much needed breather. The asari in the red-brown armor quickly turned the tide of battle and threw the Ardat-Yakshi into a wall. Next, far quicker than Shepard could've acted, she leapt after the other asari and went in for the killing blow. She brought up her fist and made a move to crush the Ardat-Yakshi's skull. The attack would've been sure to finish the fight for good, Shepard could feel its energy despite being well over ten meters away from the two of them, but for a reason the N7 couldn't fathom, the justicar paused for just a second.
That moment was all it took for the battle to go south again.
A bright purple explosion erupted from the Ardat-Yakshi's barriers. On instinct, Shepard flinched, but her training still allowed her to keep the asari in her sights and fire off a shot at the figure leaping out of the new hole in the station's wall. Her shot connected with the side of the asari's armor, but it wasn't enough to stop her or even slow her down. Before the N7 could use the detonation of the barriers effectively and end her attacker, she went through the hole, launched herself onto a ledge and, with what appeared to be a final smirk, let herself fall off the side of Dracon Arcology into the traffic below.
By the time Shepard had sprinted up to the ledge and scanned the lane below for her target, her would-be attacker was gone.
"Damn it," she cursed under her breath before hearing a pair of footsteps approach behind her. One was heavy and fast, the other was quiet and slow. She turned around. The first set of fast stepped belonged to Garrus, who seemed to have rushed after her and was looking positively terrified. The second belonged to the justicar she had just saved, who was calmly walking towards her with a neutral expression on her face.
"Spirits, Shepard," the turian, who naturally had reached her first, said before pulling in a breath. "I know I told you I like how you keep things interesting, but that didn't mean that I want you to go charging in between two pissed-off asari matriarchs."
"I nearly got her," was the only reply she gave. In the heat of the moment, she passed over Garrus' warranted concerns and noticeable change of behaviour. Then she turned her head towards the pale-blue asari that was standing at a respectful distance from them.
"No, you did not," the asari justicar injected before glancing to the ledge. "Had Morinth wanted, she could've killed you in the blink of an eye. If today has proven anything, it is that she is clearly the most dangerous Ardat-Yakshi in recent history."
Shepard handed Garrus his gun and folded her arms in front of her.
If she wanted answers, now was presumably her chance to get them.
"You know who this was?" Shepard asked. While she had obviously heard the Ardat-Yakshi refer to the asari as 'mother', her brain was too high on adrenaline right now to make the connection.
"Yes. I do," the asari replied gracefully.
"And you also know why she was trying to kill me?"
"Yes," she said again. "What is your name, Spectre?"
"Commander Shepard."
"Very well. From here on out, you may refer to me as Samara," the justicar said before taking a knee instead of giving her the answers she wanted. "I do not know what your pursuit is or who you serve, but I understand that I will only be able to stop Morinth once and for all if I remain at your side until she makes her next attempt. To that end, I am left with no choice but to offer you my oath of allegiance and join you, if you will accept me," the asari surrounded herself with a small coat of biotic energy. Then she looked up to Shepard in expectation.
"Uhm, oath of what?" Shepard began before turning towards Garrus.
The turian raised his arms defensively. "Don't look at me. Out of the two of us, I'm not the makeshift asari expert here."
"It means that she's swearing to fight by your side and for your goals until she gets a chance to kill the Ardat-Yakshi," Detective Anaya stated while walking up to them. "It's a rare thing for a justicar to do," then she shot Samara a glance. "If I were you, I'd decline."
Samara remained entirely unmoved by that personal opinion.
"You want to fight for me?" Shepard asked before taking a knee as well and looking the justicar in the eyes.
"If I am to stop Morinth from wreaking havoc on this galaxy, pledging myself to your cause until she returns is my only choice."
"Don't you at least want to know who I am or what I do before you pledge yourself to me? For all you know, I could be up to no good," Shepard replied.
While she was sure that Director Harper would lose his shit when he heard that she had brought an unvetted asari justicar onboard of a Cerberus ship, she couldn't claim that it wasn't a tempting opportunity to recruit someone with as much raw power as Samara. While she was sure that Nader was every bit as impressive as her dossier indicated, two powerful biotics were better than one, right? Especially so if one of them was offering up her services for free and by her own accord without Shepard having to travel across half the galaxy to convince her. Sure, there'd probably still be some strange Cerberus security clearance procedure that the asari would have to go through, but still. It was too good to pass up on.
"The oath of allegiance frees me of any obligations to the code. Your mission or its morality does not concern me while I am under its contract," Samara responded before blinking and making the biotic cloak disappear. "But if you wish to share your goals, I will not stop you."
"Have you ever heard of the Collectors?"
"Only in stories."
Shepard's eyes narrowed behind her visor and she went on to summarize her mission as best as she could.
"Bottomline is, they are real, they are kidnapping humans all over the galaxy, their boss is looking to kill everyone in the galaxy and I'm going to stop them. Preferably without getting murdered by an Ardat-Yakshi," she stated after telling her about the abductions and the larger aim of her mission.
Samara flashed with biotic energy again.
"Then your goals are noble and worthy of my oath," the justicar stated. Honestly, Shepard was surprised at how easy it had been to convince the asari. If she could do that to everyone and make them all listen like Samara had, then the Reapers would be in for the fight of their lives. Sadly, things weren't always that easy. "Please rise," Samara stated.
"Don't you think that's kind of weird-" she really didn't feel like having people kneel to her, now or ever. While she used to know a lot of people who would've rejoiced at the idea of people falling on their knees in front of them on their birthdays back when she'd still been going to school on Benning, that had never been her.
"It is customary for the recipient to stand while the justicar kneels. Please rise," the justicar repeated before bowing her head. Since she did not want to offend whatever tradition Samara was following, Shepard complied. As soon as she did, Samara looked at the floor and recited an ancient line of text. "By the code, I will serve you, Shepard. Your choices are my choices. Your morals are my morals. Your wishes are my code," after finishing the oath, Samara dispersed the biotic energy and rose back to her feet. Now she once more towered over Shepard. "Morinth will not harm you. You have my word."
The N7 nodded once.
"About that. You mentioned that she took a hit on me from someone," now the justicar nodded. "Do you know who put it out?"
Instead of replying instantly, Samara activated her omni-tool. "With the help of my former Confederate allies, I was able to procure the following contract," she said before turning it so that Shepard could read the salarian text, which her HUD translated for her. It just contained some basic information about who she was, where she was and, most importantly, what killing her was worth. In all honesty, she felt a bit offended when it turned out that killing a human Spectre only seemed to be worth a meager five hundred thousand credits. But while all of the information on the contract was interesting, including the pieces that were outright wrong like the claim that she was still travelling alongside a krogan battlemaster, the most crucial part, namely who had put it out, was missing.
"Doesn't say who wants me dead," she noted.
"It would be a poor assassination contract if it did," Garrus shrugged.
"The turian is right," Samara nodded. "Yet his kin serving under the CIP still managed to learn the identity of the contract holder and its distributer," she closed her omni-tool and folded her hands behind her back. "Morinth received the contract from the Shadow Broker, who was acting on the request of someone referring to themselves as Insight. Does that name mean anything to you?"
"No, it does not," Shepard replied earnestly after searching her memory. She'd run into a lot of weird things ever since waking up, but 'Insight' didn't ring a bell. Then she looked at Garrus. Samara did the same. "And whatever it is, it can wait until we finish what we actually came here to do."
Much to her surprise, Garrus, who hadn't slipped into his Archangel persona for a surprising two hours, reluctantly shook his head.
"Shepard, ever since you agreed to help me, we've had mercenaries attack us, got a friend of mine blown up, had a maniacal asari chase after us and destroyed a police station. As far as I'm concerned, this whole operation has been a big enough screw up already and I'm not ready to play with your life any more than I already have."
Shepard wasn't exactly sure what to say to that. Luckily, she didn't have to say a lot.
"I came here to help you. Let me help you."
Again, Garrus shook his head.
"It might have taken Lieutenant Callius telling me to get my act straight and two subsequent back-to-back near-death experiences for me to finally figure it out, but I realise now that avenging Sidonis and the others won't bring them back or absolve me of the role I played in getting them killed. It won't change a thing and it won't magically wipe away everything I've done over the last two years," his shoulder's slumped forward. "Revenge is tempting, but it's not worth it. Especially not if me trying to avenge them today gets you killed again. I won't have your death my conscience. Not a second time," he walked over to the railing, folded up his rifle and leaned against the ledge Morinth had jumped off.
"Garrus, I don't know where you got the idea that you're responsible for what happened back on the Normandy two years ago-" she began, only to be cut off by the turian.
"I left you. You died because I wasn't there to stop it."
"You didn't leave me. I ordered you away."
"Shepard, I am the reason you-"
"No, Garrus. You aren't. And neither is Joker, or Chakwas or anyone else on the Normandy," she said before slashing her hand through the air much like Mordin tended to do. "This is on the Collectors and myself. No one else. Is that clear?"
The turian's mandibles pressed themselves against his jaw and continued to stare at Nos Astra's skyline.
"Clear," he said after exhaling a long breath. "But still, I don't want to do this anymore. This entire vengeance ordeal and the whole Archangel thing, it's changed me for the worse," he muttered. "If I go through with this today and something happens to you, there won't be a way back again. This," he said before gesturing at himself, "will be who I'll turn out to be. And between the two of us, I hate that guy. He's a real prick and I'll be damned if I let him take over."
She was glad to hear that, obviously.
Yet she still had to ask, for Garrus' sake.
"But what about the people you came here?"
"Us turians have long memories, so I'll never forget what brought me here today or what you were ready to do for me. One day when they least expect it, I will come for the people who killed my team and make it up to them, if they're still around then, that is," then he turned back to her and removed the monocle eye-piece. He was now looking at her with his icy-blue eyes and while she was still no expert at reading turians, she got the impression that this was the first time they weren't filled with either sorrow or anger. "But that day isn't today. And it won't be tomorrow either, or the day after," he sat on the ledge and stashed the eyepiece in a compartment of his armor.
Just before it vanished, Shepard noticed that her HUD was projecting small red 'unreadable' bars on something scratched into the piece of gear. She suspected that those unreadable lines were Garrus' own, personal reminder for what he was about to give up on.
"From here on out and for as long as it takes us to stop the Reapers and the literal end of the world they're trying to bring to us, your mission will be my only priority. I'm one hundred percent onboard for the ride, no matter where it takes us or what happens when we get there, I'll be right behind you, all the way to the end of the line. No more distractions or screw ups, no more crusades of revenge, no more weird domestic terrorists and definitely, definitely, no more Ardat-Yakshis bringing down police stations," he got up from the latch, walked up to her and extended his hand towards her. "What do you say, no Shepard without Vakarian? From here until wherever this mess ends?"
He clearly expected her to think.
There was no need for that.
The N7 grabbed the turian's hand instantly.
"No Shepard without Vakarian," she responded with a nod. "Although knowing our track record, you probably shouldn't promise me that there won't be any domestic terrorists or Ardat-Yakshis in our future."
The turian cracked a smile.
"Let's agree to a yearly maximum then. I really can't stress enough how much that firefight wasn't my favorite kind."
Shepard's omni-tool buzzed.
"You have a favorite kind of firefight?" she muttered while bringing up the message. It was from Leng. While she wondered why he'd write her instead of using the comms, she opened it.
"Naturally. I prefer long-range engagements in a nice forest. But not the all-year kind, I prefer it when trees lose their leaves, the colors add style, " the turian joked while Shepard's eyes widened behind her visor. Clearly, Garrus could tell that something was going on even before she opened her mouth.
"How in god's name-" she muttered.
She split up her team once and something like this happens?
Seriously?
"What happened? Did they kill someone? Wait. Don't tell me. Did they kill Krios?" Garrus asked rapidly while Shepard lowered the hologram containing Leng's message, still in disbelieve because of its content. It just didn't compute.
Callius wouldn't do something like that.
Right?
She thought back to the vorcha flame trooper on Omega and suddenly found herself unconvinced of her faith in the turian's actions. She clearly had displayed a cruel streak prior to today.
So had she really - ?
"Come on, if you don't tell me now, I'll actually get worried," Garrus added. "Everyone's alright, right?"
"No one's dead. At least not from our side," she muttered. Then she glanced back to Detective Anaya, who had silently observed the scene. If she wanted to get this out of the world, the asari was her best option. "I need to speak to your boss. Or preferably, their boss right now."
"Why?"
"Because NAPD just arrested my XO as a prime suspect in the murder of someone called Nassana Dantius and I really can't leave Illium without her."
Again, the color drained from Anaya's frowning face and she pinched her face.
"You really are doing your best to make this day absolutely miserable to the point where I resign before the shift's over, aren't you?"
She didn't answer.
Codex: Justicar Order
The Justicar Order is an organization that has existed for most of the recorded history of the asari people and has sworn itself to the defense of common law and the norms of asari society.
In its essence, the Justicar Order is a blend between a religious warrior caste, an apparat of law enforcement and social control, a combination of judge, jury and executioner and, first and foremost, a religious order sworn into the service of the goddess Athame. They live by a strict code that dictates their behavior and center their live around several oaths.
The justicars themselves are drawn from a pool of the most faithful followers of the doctrine of Athame and the most capable biotics of the asari people. Due to this, they have always consisted of the most skilled, most fanatically devoted warriors in all of asari society. Unlike all other asari institutions, the Justicar Order is not obliged to answer to any of the countless republics or city-states that form the asari government and are not bound by any laws or courts. Instead, they share a status not unlike the Council Spectres, serving as extra-judicial agents with complete operational freedom that roam asari space and fight crime, corruption and other unpleasant sides of asari society wherever they go. Due to the wide acceptance of their status within asari society, this practice does not cause tension within asari space.
Despite being viewed as heroes inside asari space, Justicars however famous for causing diplomatic incidents on the rare occasion that they do leave their home territories. While these clashes have been mostly mended by asari diplomats, there have been several recent occasions where the actions of a justicar have led to consequences harsh enough that the Order has once more called on all those that have pledged its oath to remain within asari space unless the matter that they pursue has the capacity to cause the 'gravest kind of harm to life, law or morality'. This occurs about once every two centuries. Chiefly among the most recent clashes were events in salarian space, one incursion on the Citadel and most recently, an event on Illium resulting in severe damage to city property and several fatalities.
While hallowed in asari space, justicars and the status they carried are far from accepted in the rest of Council Space or the larger galaxy due to incidents such as the ones mentioned previously. To lessen the impact of the justicar's actions, the Asari Republics have over time brokered treaties with every existing Citadel Nation and most other galactic governments barring the Human Systems Alliance which are meant to prevent justicars from arriving in their space. These diplomatic accords, which are mostly based on treaties written after the deaths of several subsequent justicars within Conclave Space in 987 CE, state, that in the rare event that a justicar does venture into their territory, the Republics vouch to immediately take action to 'track down and gently remove' them from it. In the case of the Human Systems Alliance these treaties have not yet been brokered due to a mixture of spatial distance from the rest of Council Space, which makes the arrival of a justicar all the more unlikely, and the following statement of the back-then acting Chancellor Francis Noe when approached on the matter.
'If anyone, be it an asari or anybody else, believes that they are allowed to legally execute a person on an HSA world, there will not be a need for them to be tracked down and gently removed by their government. I assure them, that our own security forces, be they law enforcement or military, are perfectly capable of locating and stopping such individuals permanently. Since the return of deceased foreign citizens is already managed by existing Council accords regarding migration between its members states, I see no need to sign any treaties that would deal specifically with justicars.' (- Chancellor Francis Noé , 2395 AD, 1st annual gathering of the Human Systems Alliance Parliament.)
At this point it should be noted that statements such as these are believed to be the reason why Chancellor Noé was deemed 'too undiplomatic' , a 'hardline human-nationalist' and 'a militaristic brute' by a majority of the asari matriarchs. Furthermore, it should be noted that is likely that without his retirement and the subsequent election of Chancellor Anita Goyle, the former HSA ambassador who among other things secured the HSA's unique stance towards the Treaty of Farixen, the Human Systems Alliance would still not be a Citadel Council member.
While the Human Systems Alliance has been approached by the Asari Republics following its change in leadership, the treaty remains unsigned as of 2417 AD due to the majority of the Arcturus Administration and HSA parliament still holding on to the reasons voiced by Goyle's predecessor, a phenomenon that has persisted throughout the Goyle Administration despite Francis Noé's retirement sixteen years ago.
A/N:
EDIT from 05.11.2020: Since the Chapter doesn't seem to show up for me, I have deleted and re-uploaded it today. If any of you got two notifications because of that, then I'm sorry!
Here we are again!
I have to say, I think this is probably the first long action scene ina while... and I hope it turned otu as well as I hoped it would.
I also ahve to say that I know you were probably expecting Garrus' loyalty mission to play out a bit differently (and with an actual body count of the people who killed his team) ... BUT hear me out.
In canon, Garrus' "paragon" outcome is him letting go of his revenge, hence, I decided that it'd also end up this way in SV (although differently, for obvious reasons) Furthermore, Garrus can't actually kill the people who killed Sidonis just yet because... well. You'll have to wait for that but I'll give you the following: Just as Callius is connected to thew ay Garrus' story turned out here, Garrus' story as Archangel is connected to where Callius' loyalty mission will lead (although I will say the followign right now, Callius' mission takes place a lot later than I assume most of you will expect it to. That was already spoilery as fuck so I'll stop now.)
Other than that, I don't have a whole lot to say. I did another role reversal, this time with Samara being the one who decides to join Shepard and not Shepard convincing her to do so. Additionally, you obviously realised that next chapter will be a flashback since the whole Thane/Callius/Leng/Jack plot obviously occured parallel to the events we just witnessed.
Additionaly, I'll give an internet cookie to whoever can guess what the fuck Avitus Rix was doing here and how exactly he'll show up again in the future. For a start, I will say the following: Much like in canon, the guy was a Spectre until Saren died. However since SV didn't induldge in the Andromeda Initiative... he obviously hasn't left the galaxy after Saren bought it. So yeah. Take your guess :p
That's pretty much it.
One more small teaser though, this time for Semper Vigilo: Anthologies. Over the last months, I have cooperated with the amazing AdmiralSakai (who besides his presence on SVs reviews also has a pretty sick Library of the Damned presence and a few stories of his own. Go take a look, I promise you won't regret it ;) ) and he has been writing the first piece of SV content that's actually not touched by me.
While I don't want to get into the details too much just yet, I will leave you with this: It's a much better murder mystery than Redfords Season 3 plot (which I am sure most of you have already forgotten because holy shit has it been a long time since then) and it's also a really nice crime story in general that, if all goes according to the plan, will be released within the next months. The exact date is obviously still TBA, but he has made incredible progress and what I've read up to now is certainly 'worthy' of being part of the SV universe (without saying too much, I'll just say that it manages to perfectly insert itself in the universe I've created, which is something I MYSELF struggle with sometimes. So big probs in that regard)
So you have THAT to look forward to too.
Additionally (and to stretch this A/N out even further) we are also coming up on the 4th anniversary of SV and, after the next chapter finishes Illium, we'll take a deep dive into what's developed into my favorite aspect of Season 4 up to now, the Shadow Broker arc and its conclusion. So yeah. I'd say heat your popcorn, but knowing me, it'll be another two or three weeks until we get there :p
For the record we're at 738 reviews, 1149 favorites and 1243 follows. As of right now, that puts us square in the center of Page 2 of alltime favorites and that geniuenly blows my mind.
Review and let me know what you think.
And pay a visit to the Admiral. Seriously.
See you around next time.
