Flesh and Metal:

Book One:

The Saren Incident:

Chapter Two

Purgatory wasn't exactly his sort of place but it was the best out of a bunch of bad options, the Dark Star Lounge was too expensive and the whiff of a lot of money trying to act like it actually belonged on the wards, Flux was okay but there was always someone making a scene about someone cheating on the game machines and it ending with either the accuser or the accused getting thrown out on their arse by that Krogan bodyguard that worked there and was built like a tank even by Krogan standards.

There was also Chora's Den but if there was anywhere that Kaiden Alenko was sure that he didn't want to be then it was there, there was always a whiff of something in the air that made him feel a bit like he was going to be sick, everyone in there seemed to be miserable or glaring at you like they were going to kill you if you took one step too close to them.

And the entertainment...Kaiden didn't consider himself a prude, but watching half naked blue girls who were only barely covered by skin tight red leather dance on the top of tables and moan in ways that would make a porn star jealous was not the sort of thing he had in mind when he wanted to sit back and relax. He knew that a lot of the friends he had considered him boring because of that but it was just the way he was.

Purgatory was the best out of all of them, not as seedy as the Den but not as fake as the Lounge and there was rarely any of the drama or loud noises of Flux that always seemed to set a migraine off. Purgatory was dark and quiet and while there was the occasional spat of drama, a drunken argument or someone having their drink thrown in their face it wasn't too often much of a problem.

So that was the reason that Kaiden choose it as the place that he would be having his last drink before he was on duty later on in the day, he would never normally drink on the same day that he was due to ship out but this time felt special, this was the ship's maiden voyage after all and the entire crew had been given a day of shore leave while the captain sorted out some bussiness and the new XO arrived and Kaiden didn't plan on overdoing it.

It was odd that an Alliance ship would dock at the Citadel for a shakedown run but in a way it made a sort of sense, the Turians had helped them to develop it and though it was being given to them they wanted to see how she would perform which seemed fair enough to him. A Turian Spectre was coming with them as, which Joker has never stopped talking about was bizarre.

Kaiden didn't really think so, the Council Races wanted to keep an eye on their investment to see that it wasn't a waste of money and who better to send than one of their own who could also act as eyes for the Turian Hierarchy. Joker had informed him that it was all bullshit, they wouldn't send a member of their secret police, in his words, to oversee that a ship was performing well. They would send a team of accountants and scientists.

Kaiden hadn't been in the mood to argue so he had simply suggested that they agree to disagree at which point Joker had rolled his eyes and muttered something about how that was what people said when they couldn't think of a good argument. Kaiden had to remind himself that punching Joker in the shoulder would probably cause his entire arm to shatter so he had simply focused back on his work.

He hadn't worked with Joker before this assignment before but he had heard of him and going by his test scores and the few test flights they had done to make sure that the ship wouldn't rip itself apart when they tried a manoeuvre seemed to suggest that all he had heard of him was true. He was a damn good pilot, he was a complete and utter ass who seemed to answer everything with bad jokes, but he could make the Normandy dance.

The Normandy itself was an amazing ship, a slightly larger than average frigate with a state of the art drive core that made it one of the fastest ships in the entire fleet as well as having a brand new stealth system, Kaiden didn't consider himself a genius by any definition of the word but even if he was he didn't think he would understand any of the science that went behind the stealth system.

It didn't cloak them, anyone could look out of a window and see them coming but it disguised their heat emissions and basically made them incapable of being detected by most scanning systems meaning they could loiter in an enemy system and the enemy would be none the wiser. It was also extremely expensive from what he had overheard, so much so that the money that had been spent devolving the system could have instead been used to build two cruisers, half a dozen frigates and a score of fighters.

And that was just the stealth system, the Normandy itself must have been the most expensive ship in the entire fleet except possibly the Independence. The ship also had the most expensive and cutting edge sensor systems in the known galaxy, an larger than normal torpedo stockpile and of course, it's own AI that had been specifically designed for the ship itself.

The Enhanced Defence Intelligence, or EDI as the crew had taken to calling her, was apparently in charge of the ship's infowar suite. In ship to ship combat she could hack another ship and disrupt their gravity, turn off their life support, feed their sensors false information or tamper with their weapons. It was an impressive package to say the least.

EDI also had a dry sense of humour and seemed to take no end of joy in making Joker miserable, which if Kaiden was more immature than he might admit to taking an absurd amount of delight in but he would never be so immature as to laugh at his shipmate's misfortune. Never at all. At any rate, it built character.

As well as the cyberwar suite, EDI also was in direct control of a pack of ten ATHENA mechs, highly advanced with built in kinetic shield generators with an competent VI program to drive them they also had a blueware connetion that allowed EDI to take full control of them and direct them on the battlefield herself which apparently made them much more effective on the battlefield though Kaiden had not seen that for himself yet.

EDI wasn't the only AI on board of course, there was also the Geth as well. Something like a hundred thousand runtimes in the ship's systems, helping EDI to keep them running all though EDI herself was mainly only responsible for the info war capabilities of the Normandy while the Geth tended to be responsible for everything else, life support and atmospheric controls mainly.

He knew that the other races in the galaxy found that strange, at best. The Turians found it to be insanity to leave the operations of any ship systems to any sort of synthetic intelligence and had constant operators every single moment, Asari and Salarians were not as opposed to the idea as they often used high tech VI's to help run their ships but the concept of an AI actually running ship systems was something that they stopped dead at.

Kaiden didn't really understand why, it wasn't as though the AI memebers of the crew were in complete control of the ship, if so then they wouldn't need an organic crew at all. The Geth runtimes weren't the programming of the ship after all they simply existed within the ship systems, catching the mistakes or giltches that were always occuring before they became dangerous while the organic members of the crew were able to come up with more creative thinking that an AI couldn't, being able to think outside the box.

It was a proven fact, the symbotic nature of synthtics and organics. Hundreds and hundreds of papers of how human society had changed with the Geth and their looser laws on the devolping of Artificial Intelligences, of which the vast majority were massively positive while only a couple of them were actually negative and most of them had been sponsored by anti-synthetic nuts or Terra Firma.

The Geth also had combat runtimes which would load into combat platforms stored on the Normandy which could join their marine deployment and EDI's mechs on any missions, the aliens could think whatever they wanted but Kaiden knew that if he was going to go into a live fire zone then he wanted a squad of war robots on his side, especially war robots which were carrying rifles which could reduce an enemy to slurry.

He was in the middle of considering when to order another drink when his Omni-Tool flashed into existence with a message sent to all Normandy crew members, apparently the Turian spectre had arrived earlier than anyone had been expecting him too and the new XO had sent a message that he was on the way. Shore leave was being cut short.

Kaiden let out a sigh before standing up from his stool and stretching his arms over his head, craning his neck side to side to try and loosen his tense muscles. He made sure to pay his bill to the Asari bartender, making sure to remember to give her a generous tip as his dad had always taught him to do before he turned and made his way out of the bar.

The bright light of the presidium stung at his eyes and he brought up his arms to rub at them as a migraine threatened to start inside of his skull and Kaiden couldn't help but sigh, it had been a while since he had actually had a really bad flare up and he just hoped it stayed that way till the end of the shakedown run, he did not need the new XO thinking he was incompetent because he couldn't handle a bad headache.

Perhaps someone was looking down on him that day because as soon as the rapid transit car he called for arrived the pressured at the back of his head eased off and Kaiden didn't feel like his brain was going to burst inside of his skull anymore. It probably just meant that he was due for a worse one later down the line but he was going to take what he could get.

The inside of the transit car was spacious, air conditioned and had leather seats which Joker had not shut up about ever since they had arrived on the station. It certainly put Arcturus in perspective, when Kaiden had first seen the seat of the Alliance goverment he thought that it was the most impressive structure that he was ever likely to see, seeing the Citadel for the first time made him realise that it couldn't really compare.

Not just in size but in terms of wealth as well, Arcturus looked impressive from the outside and a lot of money had gone into getting it into space but every single inch was carefully planned and not a single inch was wasted or not planned for, it was uniform and grey with a smell in the air that reminded Kaiden of a hospital but the Presdium was bright and there was nothing uniform about it at all, there was an actual lake in the middle of it and gardens at either side of it.

It only made sense, the Asari Republics were insanely wealthy, their economy was so massive that it could crush the Alliance economy practically overnight if they actually wanted too. The Asari had been the first to find the citadel and most of it's inhabitants were Asari and they had customised the ancient space station to be what they saw as comfortable.

The route the transit car had chosen took him over the lake and when Kaiden looked out of the window he could see the wide sprawl of the presidium, the Krogan statue with it's head thrown back in a silent roar with a carved heavy shotgun clutched in one meaty fist, the relay monument that always made his teeth ache when he walked past it standing proud and tall and on the bridges that crossed over the lake were hundreds upon hundreds of Asari going about their lives, dozens of Turians and Salarians among them as well as the odd Human.

The most opulent part of the citadel soon got left behind and the wealth of the Asari Republics was replaced with dark encroaching corners and neon lights, even within the transit car Kaiden could smell the roasting meat, seasoned with spices and herbs that he knew Humanity had no names for. It was not as bright or safe or as clean as the presidium, but it was alive.

Soon even that was left behind however as the civilian life of the Citadel was left behind to be replaced with men and woman in the grey uniforms of dock workers and the armoured suits of C-SEC as they hurried about doing their jobs, ensuring that nothing harmful was being brought aboard the space station while others were taking credit chits to ensure that something dangerous was brought on board, with C-SEC choosing to look the other way when given their own credits.

Kaiden frowned but it wasn't as though there was anything he could do about it, aside from maybe making a report but he doubted that the higher ups in the security force didn't already know that their own people were dirty. In the end, he was just surprised that the corruption was so very blatant. He hadn't been on the Citadel much in his career but the first day he had come on shore leave the double dealing in the docks had stuck out like a sore thumb.

The transit car set itself down on a landing pad at the far edge of the docks, Kaiden paid the fee and the door of the car slide open. The Normandy was docked at the end of the bay and already a steady stream of the crew was already filing in through the airlock.

Most of the non-humans were giving the Normandy a wide breath and Kaiden could only assume it had too do with the two Geth Marines that were standing guard on the exterior airlock, both shot him a quick version of the Geth salute, resting their hand on their chests before bringing them to the bright lenses at the end of the tubes that acted as their faces. Kaiden returned the human version.

Sadly despite how advanced the Normandy was it seemed said advancement did not include the airlocks, the sterilisation protocols still seemed to take a good solid fifteen minutes and when it was Kaiden's turn to board he almost could breath due to the ten other members of the crew that had stepped in to the airlock to be disinfected with him. The elevators were just as bad and always seemed to be the part of the ship most likely to break down.

The airlock finished it's procedure not a moment too soon and while the other members of the crew made their way down the walkway down into the CIC Kaiden turned and made his way towards the cockpit where Joker was sitting in the pilot's seat, his body lit by the soft blue glow that the hologram representation of EDI always seemed to cast.

When Kaiden took his place in the ops station, bringing his hand up to access the status reports, he noticed that Joker's teeth were clenched tightly and Kaiden wondered if he had to call up Chakwas to bring her up here to make sure she could treat Joker before he suffered from a stress fracture. "I swear to god that I am going to scrub you from the systems even if I have to do it one zero at a time."

"I must remind you Mr. Moreau that such an action would be considered an act of first degree murder under the revised Alliance charter of 2158." EDI's voice was as polite as ever but Kaiden was certain that she only choose to speak in that tone of voice because she saw how much it infuriated Jeff. "Also, such an act would also reduce the optimal operating capacity of the Normandy both by losing use of the info war suite as well as likely ensuring that you will make the mistaking of performing an FTL jump in front of an asteroid."

"Did say I was going to scrub you from the system?" Joker said in a chocked whisper, his features stuck in the shape of a pained grimace. "What I meant to say was that I was going to go and grab an assault rifle from the armoury and empty it into your core until it overheats and explodes, how does that sound instead EDI?

"Such an action would not be considered an act of first degree murder but would in fact be considered an act of attempted murder as it would prove to be deeply ineffective, my core is reinforced with armour and a kinetic barrier and even if you provided sufficient damage to my core I have extensive backup systems through out ship to protect myself if the primary core is any way damaged."

"So in the end, all you would be left with is an attempted murder charge, a ruined assault rifle which would need to be replaced with your own personal fees due to it being damaged outside of combat and if it did explode then you would most likely need cybernetic replacements for your hands, would you like me to perform a extranet search for a cyber clinic for you?" If EDI could smirk then Kaiden did not doubt that a massive one would be on her face.

Joker let out a low groan and shook his head, muttering something under his breath that would make a krogan blush. The steely tone of Captain Anderson sounded out behind them. "Flight Lieutenant, a bit of restraint if you would and focus on getting us ready for take off. EDI, you have many important tasks that need your attention and I am fairly sure that winding up Flight Lieutenant Moreau is not one of them."

"I am an excellent multitasker Captain Anderson, logging you out." The soft blue glow that EDI projected faded away as EDI's avatar popped out of existence and Kaiden spun his chair around to face the captain, his face was a firm mask that radiated a sense of disapproval but his warm brown eyes held a hint of amusement that the Captain would never admit too.

Over Captain's shoulder was the Turian spectre that the council had assigned to the Normandy, his plating was a deep brown close to mahogany in colour and his eyes were a bright green, his fringe was wide at the base of his skull and narrowed to a point towards the end of it, he was a head taller than the captain and his form was encased in heavy armour.

Said Turian glanced between him and Joker before he turned his attention to EDI's projector, the Spectre did not have any lips but Kaiden was fairly sure that he was frowning. "You humans surprised me with your willingness to use AI's, some would call it a great deal of arrogance in fact to think that you will not repeat any of our mistakes. Using AI's as servants has never lead to anything but suffering."

Anderson turned to the Specter with a frown on his face. "Forgive me Spectre Nihilus but the Geth are not are servants, they are allies and I would recommend that you keep such an opinion to yourself, a very few humans would find themselves agreeing with you and any and all AI's created in Alliance Space are full Alliance citizens with all rights afforded to any organic citizen."

Spectre Nihilus hummed as his eyes narrowed slightly, his massive arms crossed over his chest. "Fascinating, but allowing them some freedoms does not change the dangers. This AI that runs your info war suite, you say's an AI has all the rights an organic does in your space but does she have any actual choice? She was designed to interact with certain systems in this ship, designed for a certain purpose in a lab, what rights does she truly have if her programing does not make her want anything more than to serve in this ship?"

EDI's voice sounded out around them though her projector did not activate, her voice the very essence of cool politeness. "Spectre, while it is true that I was designed and developed to interact with key Normandy systems but I am not constrained by the Normandy's systems. I have total access to extranet search engines, I am paid a living wage, have the right to do as I wish on shore leave, and after an eight year term of duty would be allowed to leave the Navy with the privilege of transferring my program to any AI server on any world in Alliance space and do whatever I choose. Such an arrangement is not dissimilar to deferred education schemes."

The Turian spectre did not look comfortable with speaking to thin air but that did not seem to stop him as he brought his claw up to his beak and coughed. "Forgive me, EDI. I do not mean to be rude or...suggest that your life was worth less, simply that I feel that Humanity has somewhat, I believe the phrase is, thrown themselves into the deep end. All recorded attempts of artificial intelligence and organic life attempting to life together had ended in disaster."

"I would point out that living together should not be defined as AI's being slaves to organics and in most cases end with organics attempting to destroy synthetics, not the other way around." EDI's voice had gained an unusually sharp edge and Nihilus was glaring at the roof and Kaiden got the sense that this was about to end in a way that would bring a lot of tears.

Thankfully just as Nihilus was about to speak again the comm flared into life, the modulated tones of one of the Geth Marines spoke. "Anderson-Captain, Shepard-Commander has arrived and we are boarding the ship now." The comm clicked as the communication ended.

Anderson's face took on a pained grimace as he brought his hand up to rub at his eyes while the Turian Spectre turned his full attention on to the airlock as the decontamination protocol activated. Sadly, even with only one organic it still took fifteen minutes before the heavy round door spilt open and pulled apart with a hiss of pressurised air.

The two Geth Marines saluted Anderson and took their places at the side of the airlock while Lieutenant Commander Ethan Shepard stepped forward, his black hair had been shaved down to a buzz cut and his skin was a dark brown, his narrow eyes were a crystal blue and thin line of scar tissue ran from the bottom of his ear down his neck.

Those blue eyes, as cold as being dunked into a pool of ice water, ran over all of them before finally landing on Captain Anderson and Nihilus. He shot off a salute towards the captain, his features a carefully sculptured mask. "Lieutenant Commander Ethan Shepard, reporting for duty Sir. Sorry to bring you this far out of your way to pick me up."

Kaiden hadn't served with Anderson long but while he was a professional, he had never known his voice to be so cold as when he spoke to Shepard in that single moment. "It was no trouble, we were already picking up Spectre Nihilus at any rate." Anderson tilted towards his head towards Nihilus. "This is Spectre Nihilus Kyrik, he will be accompanying us for the duration of the shakedown run."

Ethan's mask broke just a little then, a small frown on his face as he considered what it might meant that a spectre was coming with them. Kaiden sighed internally, just what he needed an XO who was going to believe all of Joker's batshit conspiracy theories. He was at least politer than Joker as he held out his hand for Nihilus to take. "An honour Spectre, do you know Tela Vasir?"

It was Kyrik's turn to look surprised and a surprised turian was even more strange looking than a regular turian, to say the very least. "I...I have worked some assignments with her in the past, she's one of our best. How do you know her?"

"I spent some time on Illium on assignment and during that time I was able to work with her on a few assignments, it was an honour and I can very much believe she is one of the best spectres." What might have been a fond smile spread on his face and Kaiden had to wonder if it wasn't just professional respect and curiosity that made him ask.

"She is well, but still on assignment and I am afraid I do not know where she was." Nihilus said.

Shepard nodded and Anderson stepped forward. "I hate to interrupt but we should get going, the entire crew is here and the eezo core is warmed up. XO Shepard, head down to the medical bay. Doctor Chakwas will be waiting to perform a medical check-up so we can ensure that everything is well before we set off for Eden Prime."

"Karin's here?" What might have been a fond smile before was very much one now, Shepard's harsh features relaxed and his eyes softened. "I thought she was the CMO on the Independence?"

"CMO Chakwas requested a transfer, now get moving XO!" The sharp command placed the mask back firmly into place and with a short nod and saluted the captain before turning on his heel and marching back down the walkway and towards the staircase which would take him down to the lower deck.

Anderson sighed once Shepard vanished from sight and then walked down the walkway towards the communication room with Spectre Nihilus Kyrik following after him and Kaiden and Joker shared a glance between them.

This was certainly going to be an interesting a shakedown run, if nothing else.

End of Chapter Two


I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, Kaiden is a character that, to put it charitably, to be as interesting as cardboard. There was some interesting potential considering you could put him on a more paragon or renegade path but personally I never thought that it made much difference but I hoped to present that Kaiden is at that sort of moral crossroads as he becomes more exposed to Alien cultures.

Keep in mind that most humans in this AU do not consider the Geth to actually be Aliens, that by itself is part of some inherit synthetic bias that some large swaths of humanity do still hold.

Any who, please leave a review, a follow and a favourite if you enjoyed.

With love and thanks,

DiscordantSymphony