Missing troops and Diplomacy:
Later after Shepard had finished writing her report on Therum and sent it to Republic Command, she decided that she would check on Spectre Bau and see how the Citadel was reacting to their mission on Therum. She entered Bau's chambers to see Spectre Bau speaking with holograms of the Council members.
"The Geth were crawling all over those ruins" Bau spoke to them "We were lucky to have made it out of there alive."
"I understand Spectre Bau" Councillor Tevos spoke up "We're just not too pleased about having to lose those Prothean ruins."
"Spectre Bau is right though" Valern stated "The mission always comes first. So do you trust Dr T'soni?"
"She claims that she knows nothing about what Saren or her mother are planning and I believe her" Bau stated "She may be considered little more by a child by Asari but she's still old enough to make her own choices. Saren may also have planned to use her to keep Benezia in check."
"Your mission went well but it still brings us no closer to finding Saren or stopping him" Sparatus stated "We hope to hear from your when you send your next report."
Bau nodded "Spectre Bau out" he stated and he turned off the hologram and turned to see Shepard "Commander Shepard" he greeted "I was just sending my report on Therum."
"How are they reacting." she asked
Bau sighed "They insisted that Liara be placed under constant watch but I'm sure she's not involved with Saren. If she was, he Geth wouldn't have attacked those ruins, she would have gone with them." He then noticed Shepard's look "Is there something you need?"
"There is something else actually" Shepard stated and she pulled out a medallion from her pocket. Just after the mission on Therum, a small team led by Verbro had been sent out to check out the anomaly they found on the Asteroid and they found an abandoned Salarian fighter where a small medallion had been found "I was hoping you could tell me what this is?"
Bau took the medallion and checked it out before looking back at Shepard "This is a League of One Medallion" he stated "Before we joined the Citadel, they were a small reconnaissance team that dealt in espionage and assassination and they were never more than a dozen strong. After we joined the Citadel, they League went rogue after we revealed their identities and after the Salarian Tasks group was formed, the League of One was hunted down. Now these medallions are collectibles."
"Well that's some story" Shepard stated "Well I better get back up to the bridge; we're due to reach the Athens system soon."
Shepard then left Bau's room and went back up to the bridge.
...
The Normandy soon arrived at the Athens systems. There wasn't really anything of interest but this was a stop point before heading to the Sparta System to search for Admiral Kohoku's missing Marines. This system also had a small colony on the planet Proteus but just like Therum, this colony was small with a population of 12,000. Most of this colony was also oceanic and the intense heat caused large numbers of typhoons which made settling here unappealing. There was also a small hydrogen helium gas giant called Circe which had been turned yellow due to traces of sulphur and chlorine but this planet was also home to a few Helium-3 refineries for Proteus. The remaining three planets of the Athens system were known as Pharos, Nausicaa and Salamis which were of little interest although a scan on Pharos found an abandoned facility on the planet's moon where the recon team led by Vardos found some sort of Turian Insignias which Shepard decided she would talk to Garrus about. After finishing up in the system, the Normandy jumped to head over to the Sparta System.
...
After leaving the Athens system, Shepard decided she would go and see Garrus and ask him about the insignias they had found on Pharos' moon. She went over to the barracks where Garrus was staying and found Garrus examining his sniper rifle. Garrus turned and saw Shepard walking over to him "Hey Commander" he greeted "Thanks for bringing me on board. I knew working with you and Spectre Bau on a mission like this would be better than a life at C-Sec."
Shepard looked at him "Have you ever worked with a Spectre before?" she asked
"Well no" Garrus admitted "But I've heard all about them. In C-Sec we hear stories of how Spectres make their own rules and are free to handle things their way. At C-Sec you're buried by rules, the dam bureaucrats are always on your back."
"I have heard stories like that from Arcturus Guards." Shepard admitted "Stories about how Senators bribe the guards to ignore certain things."
"That's my point" Garrus argued "I hate it when a criminal gets away and then the rules prevent me from hunting them and then criminals get away with their crimes and sometimes, their punishment isn't harsh enough and as soon as they are released, they go back to their crimes. I've arrested several con people multiply times as they get released quickly and go back to conning people as soon as they're out. People like my father and Detective Chellick are always people who go by the rules and sometimes are unable to handle things, to them protocol and procedure come first so that's why I left."
Shepard caught on to that "I didn't know your father was in C-Sec?" she stated
"My father was one of the best" Garrus claimed "I always saw his face on the net when they arrested a major criminal. My problems weren't bad at first but as I rose through the ranks, I got held up more and more by red tape. But leaving C-Sec has hit my father pretty hard, he thinks I'm acting too rash and fears I may end up just like Saren."
"Sometimes parents are worried that they're children are going to get killed if they're not careful." Shepard claimed "My mother was proud when I got my position but was always worried that I could get myself killed if I acted too rash."
"I guess you're right about my father just being worried about me" Garrus claimed "Anyway, is there something you need? I don't think you came here just to hear about my family situation?"
Shepard brought out the Turian Insignias and showed it to Garrus "Just recently, our recon team found this at an old base, it looks Turian so do you think you can tell me what it is?"
Garrus took the insignias and gasped "I know what this is; this is a lost Insignias from the Magna colony. I'm not sure if you know the story but back when the Asari were founding the Citadel, at least we think it's around that time, the Turians were in a state of civil war. At that time, we had found several Mass Relays and created a number of colonies. Now many of these colonies were led by local chieftains and they distanced themselves from the Hierarchy and became very isolated. The colonists even began wearing facial tattoos which would get them attacked by colonists from a different colony. Eventually the colonies began fighting each other and some were completely destroyed in the fighting. The Hierarchy stayed out until the remaining colonies were too weak and then they quickly forced the remaining colonies back under the leadership of the Hierarchy. It took many years for the animosity between colonists to fade but many still wear their facial markings. These insignias are from Turian colonies and outposts that no longer exists, if they are found, it would help our historians with understanding the war."
"I'll keep an eye out for more but our mission comes first" Shepard stated
"The mission always comes first" Garrus smiled "Although I would like to come down on this next mission since I didn't have the chance on Therum."
Shepard nodded "I'll allow you on this one." She stated and then she left.
...
The Normandy arrived in the Sparta System which was home to five planets but unlike the Athens and Knossos systems, there were no colonies in this system. None of the planets were suitable for habitation. The planet Altaaya had a frozen sandstone surface, the gas giant Ontamalca caused meteor showers on the planet Edolus, Tremanre was covered in molten lava and the planet Alsages was made of ice water and too far for habitation. This system was also home to a battle during the Verge War as during the war, the Batarian pirate Eluam Ran'perah was caught with his ship Turerron and was forced to land on Alsages for drive discharge and was surrounded by a small Republic fleet led by the Star Destroyer Hyderabad and Eluam refused to surrender and as he tried to leave the surface, his ship was destroyed. Eluam had been a pirate that the Republic had been hunting for some time after several attacks on small colonies but after a failed attack on Proteus, he was forced to flee to Alsages.
But there was one thing of interest in the Asteroid belt. Presley's scans picked up something in the Asteroid belt which showed signs of life. Verbro once again led a small recon team and found a bio-dome and while there were no signs of life, they did find a Prothean data disc inside a data console.
Then when the Normandy got closer to the planet Edolus, Doka contacted Shepard "Commander, I'm picking up static from Edolus' surface." She stated "It looks like an automated distress beacon."
"Looks like we've found Admiral Kohoku's missing troops" Shepard responded "I'm taking the Mako down to the surface." She then thought about whom to take with her on this mission "Tell Garrus, Bau, Wrex, Liara along with Verbro to come down to the Hanger to meet up with Pekue."
"Will do Commander" Doka replied.
...
Soon, the Normandy started entering Edolus' atmosphere and then the Mako was dropped from the Hanger and soon landed on Edolus' surface with the crew including two marines that Verbro brought with him who were called Bethany Westmoreland and Sarah Campbell.
They had to land a distance away from where the Distress beacon was but Pekue soon began driving towards the beacon because if Admiral Kohoku's missing troops were anywhere, they would be near that beacon. But along the way, the Mako's scanners began picking something up "Commander" Pekue stated "The scanners are picking something up ahead. Should I stop to see what it is?" she asked
Shepard knew that they had plenty of time "Alright Pekue" she stated "But I'll just take Bau and Wrex out with me to check it out."
They soon arrived at where the anomaly was but when Shepard, Bau and Wrex left the Mako, they found that the anomaly was just a body.
"This is what the scanners were picking up?" Wrex questioned "A mummified Salarian."
The body was that of a Salarian which had clearly been here for many years but the body was near a crashed escape pod. Bau examined to corpse and found an ID tag on him and when he looked at it, he gasped "This body belongs to Captain Milon, the body to too decomposed to identify but this ID tag claims it's him."
"Who's Captain Milon?" Shepard asked
Bau looked at Shepard "You remember when I told you about the League of One and how the new Salarian Tasks group was ordered to hunt them down?" he questioned "Captain Milon was one of these hunters and it seems that he must have crashed here on this planet and died. This ID tag will at least be able to tell his descendents about what happened to him?"
"Well, now that we're finished here, we should head on over to that Distress Beacon." Shepard stated and the three of them got back into the Mako."
...
The Mako soon arrived at the area where the Distress beacon was and the Mako stopped right near the beacon but even before Shepard's team left the Mako, they already had a bad feeling about this. The area around the beacon looked like a battlefield, there were bodies of soldiers as well as destroyed equipment such as HAVw A6 Juggernaut tank which had been flipped over several times and there were fires over the tank. There was also a smashed 2-M hover tank.
As Shepard left the tank with Bau, Garrus, Verbro, his marines and Wrex, Garrus looked at the bodies of the fallen marines "These look like Republic troops" he stated "It looks like we found what happened to Admiral Kohoku's missing men."
Wrex looked at the beacon "It looks like they were lured here by the beacon." He stated "But I still don't see what could have caused this, these troops looked like they were heavily armoured with that tank" he looked at the Juggernaut "What did attack them."
"Whatever it was, it might still be around here" Verbro stated as he looked around with Westmoreland and Campbell with their rifles ready.
Then the ground began shaking beneath them which made everyone reach their weapons and began looking around. The rumbling got louder until it appeared from underground. A large snake like creature that was covered in armoured scales and was nearly 30 meters long burst from the ground and threw the smashed 2-M hover tank aside. Shepard and her team looked at the creature and saw that the head of the creature had blue acid dripping from it.
Wrex knew what it was "Thresher Maw!" he yelled "Take cover!"
The Thresher Maw spat acid which made the whole team run aside as the Thresher Maw burrowed deep underground again.
"Everyone back into the Mako!" Sheppard yelled and the team ran back into the Mako and Shepard looked at Pekue "Drive, Garrus get on the machine gun, I'll take the turret." The Mako began driving away as the Thresher Maw appeared behind the Mako and Pekue was able to get the Mako moving and out of the way of the blast. Shepard looked at Wrex "Okay Wrex, do you have any idea on how to deal with this thing?"
Wrex looked at where Shepard was "Krogan use Thresher Maws to test Krogan but we just have to survive, not kill them. But I was able to kill mine during my trial, the cannon can kill it but it will take several shots, aim for the mouth just before he spits his acid."
"Understood" Shepard noted and looked as the Thresher Maw appeared again. Shepard lined up the cannon and fired but she missed the first shot which hit the armoured scales. Garrus was able to keep the creature above ground using the Mako's machine gun which allowed Shepard to fire a second shot which did hit the mouth and caused the Maw to freeze before burrowing back underground.
Wrex looked at Pekue "Drive in a zigzag" he stated "It will confuse it."
Pekue did as Wrex suggested and then the Maw reappeared and fired a blast which missed thanks to the zigzag driving and Shepard was able to score another hit on the Maw's mouth. The Maw began shaking around and then Shepard fired again which went right through the jaw of the Maw and out of the top and the Maw fell forwards dead.
With the Maw defeated, the Mako drove back to the Distress beacon where Shepard fired the cannon which destroyed the beacon "Now no one will be deceived by that beacon" she stated
Verbro spoke up "This wasn't an accident" he stated "Someone lured these Marines here and then sent the Thresher Maw on them."
"But who would do that?" Garrus asked "This doesn't look like Saren's work, he wouldn't have access to a Republic beacon."
"We need more information on what happened here but Kohoku might know more" Shepard stated and then she went over to the radio "Joker, we've finished the missing and we need picking up. But send the shuttle down here as well; we need to recover these bodies so they can be buried properly."
"Understood Commander" Joker replied over the radio.
...
Later, Shepard and her team were back on the Mako and the dead bodies of the troops had been collected so that they could be returned to Arcturus Station. But just as the Normandy was about to leave, Doka called over the radio "Commander, we've got an incoming transmission from the Citadel, I'm patching it through to you."
Shepard listened as someone called her over the radio "Commander Shepard" the voice replied which belonged to an Asari "My name is Nassana Dantius and I have a job for you if you are willing to take it. My sister Dahlia was captured by mercenaries and they forced me to pay a ransom for it, my family is very wealthy. I transferred the money to the account they requested but they didn't release her and they haven't contacted me since. I've made a terrible mistake, as a diplomat, I am required to report any attempt at extortion to C-Sec immediately. If anyone were to find out about this I could end up in jail. I learnt that you were busy operation around the area where the mercenaries are operation which is in the Macedon system. If you can help take care of these mercenaries, I can pay you good credits and help support the Republic which will be very useful."
The transmission ended and Shepard knew what to do, these mercenaries needed to be taken care of anyway as they could attack the colonies in the cluster so Shepard contacted Joker "Joker, make a jump to the Macedon system, we have a mission to do there."
"Right away Commander." Joker replied.
...
The Macedon system was the final system in the Artemis Tau cluster and was home to four planets but just like Sparta, there were no systems they would be suitable for habitation although there was one system that was a possibility but not for any Republic species. The planet Patavig was covered by a vast sea of liquid ammonia where ammonia life forms have developed. Patavig is inhospitable to most Republic Species but it was suitable for colonization by the Volus and some Volus were in talks about settling on this planet but the problem is that because the Volus are a client species of the Turians, this planet would be under Citadel control which the Senate refused to allow and the Turians were unwilling to allow an independent Volus colony to develop as it may encourage other Volus to break away from the Turians.
The other planets included a large Hydrogen-Helium Gas Giant called Fargeluse, a terrestrial planet called Porolan where the crust was very cold since the star Macedon was very weak but suitable for mining. The scanners picked up a signal and the salvage team led by Verbro found an Ancient Beacon and some sort of Asari writing was found in the storage compartment. Liara had seen these and said that they were the writings from Ancient Asari and were valuable for historical reasons. The final planet was known as Sharjila which was where the Pirate base was. Shepard decided to take a team down and since there would be a fight, she brought Bau, Wrex, Liara and Ashley along with Verbro to clear out this base.
...
The Mako landed on Sharjila and Pekue began the drive towards the Pirate base. The base was located a few clicks north but along the way, they found an abandoned Camp site and Shepard decided to check it out but she would have to do it quick. Even with their pressure suits, the pressure on Sharjila was very strong and they would be unable to remain outside the Mako for long. The camp looked liked it had been abandoned for a long time and it was not clear who lived here. Inside the tent, there was a container held another set of Matriarch Writings, this time written by Matriarch Dilinaga. With the camp cleared, the Mako then carried on towards the base. They soon arrived at the base and it was clear that the slavers were well organised as they had advanced pressure suits which could stand up to the pressure and they had a number of lookouts surrounding the base. But these lookouts were no match for the Mako's cannon and one by one, they took out the Lookouts. With no rocket launchers, the fight was over quickly and then Shepard led the team inside.
The Pirate Base was quite small so the Pirate band was not that big. Most of the base was filled with large crates that may have stolen supplies stored inside as well as some salvaged probes. But even though Shepard's team had taken care of the lookouts, the pirates were ready for them and Shepard realised that one of the lookouts must have radioed to warm to crew inside the base. This pirate crew was made up of humans and Turians and Shepard saw an Asari who looked like she was the leader. They also had several Assault drones which Liara took care of by using her biotics to throw them aside where they smashed against the wall. Up on a balcony above, a few Snipers took position and began firing at Shepard's team so they were unable to move forward and take care of the soldiers on the ground level. Shepard ordered Bau and Verbro's team to take care of them and Bau used his sniper to take out one of the snipers and Liara used her biotics to throw an explosive canister towards the Slavers where Verbro shot it and caused it to explode. With the Snipers taken care of, Ashley and Wrex began firing at the remaining pirates and quickly took care of them. The Pirate leader was still alive and used her own biotics to throw Wrex and Ashley aside before creating a biotic shield which was difficult to take down.
Bau had an idea "Shepard catch!" he shouted and threw Shepard a canister "Use this Wrap ammo, it will wrap those shields" Shepard slotted the wrap ammo into her rifle and began firing it at the Asari. The ammo clearly had an effect as it began causing the biotic barrier to start collapsing until the barrier was broken completely. With the Barrier gone, Verbro and his marines quickly came out of their hiding place and fired at the Asari who was now unable to protect herself and faced a barrage of bullet which soon made her fall backwards dead.
With the fight over, Shepard turned to her team "Now split up and see if we can find our Asari Diplomat's sister and see if there is anything of use." The team began splitting up with Shepard, Wrex and Bau going to the floor above while the others stayed on the ground floor. In a small room on the ground floor, they found several more drones which had been deactivated and Verbro placed explosive charges on them as destroying them would also destroy the base. Verbro also placed charges on the explosive canisters that they found in the main room but there was still no sign of the prisoner.
Up above, Shepard, Wrex and Bau found a small room which looked like it was an office for the leader of the Pirates. In the office, they found a stash of high tech weapons which they decided to bring with them as they included a Krogan Claymore Shotgun which was a very powerful shotgun that Wrex took for himself. There was also an Office safe where they seized the money that the pirates had made which was nearly 10,000 credits which could be useful for them later. But it was on the main computer where Bau made a big discovery "Hey Commander" he called "You might want to check this out, we've been tricked."
"What do you mean?" Shepard asked
"There is no prisoner here" Bau hissed "That Asari we killed here was actually Nassana's sister and Nassana was being blackmailed."
"That lying Bitch!" Wrex yelled "I say that we go have a few words with her when we get back!"
Shepard nodded "Bau, download that evidence and then we've leaving." She then radioed Joker "Joker, this is Shepard, we need a pickup."
"On it Commander, preparing the Normandy for pickup" Joker called back.
Shepard and her crew then left the Pirate base and went back into the Mako where they drove away to the pickup point but not before Verbro pressed the trigger on the detonator which caused the base to explode in a massive fireball. Then after the Mako was picked up, Shepard told Joker to head back to Arcturus Station so they could report their findings. Joker set the coordinates and then the Normandy blasted into hyperspace.
Chapter end:
Notes: Well another chapter finished. I'm trying to bring in some of the side quests into the story but I may not be able to bring them all in and they can be difficult to write about. One reviewer, Blaze1992, asked about why the Batarians tried to enslave the Na'vi when they would be unable to survive on other planets, well I didn't really think about that factor but I will explain it in a future chapter as I have plans for a main mission to take place on Pandora and the reason will be explained but to explain it now, the Batarians were also planning on taking over Pandora, not just enslave the Na'vi. Pandora is rich in minerals but the Republic refuses mining on that planet so I just wanted to clear that up. Also while I did bring Yoda into this, the Jedi order is just a name for Republic biotics, there is no light side or dark side of the force and there will be no Sith in this story.
