02/01/2020

Another possible outcome if the Andromeda mission succeeded in the Catalyst universe. The conversation that Harper has with them has so many possibilities, and so many outcomes.

The Catalyst For Revenge: Andromeda
Familiar Faces, Possibility 2

-cfr:a-

Harper smiled pleasantly at the women sitting across from him. He used the word advisedly. They were blue and had firm tendrils on their head. Asari.

Not what he had been expecting to find in Andromeda. But it was not just Asari. There was a Krogan also represented and a Human. They were staring fixedly at him and his party.

"I must say, it is a surprise to find," he paused, "well, you, here," he said with good humour.

They'd detected the comm signals when they'd stopped in the void to scan Andromeda. That had allowed them to put forward a more 'human' face over Ascended. It gave them time to think and they would not discover the truth.

Shepard was listening to the conversation. Harper could feel him via his implants. There were many Human Ascended watching and he wouldn't be surprised if some of the audience he could feel comprised of Harbinger and the other elder Ascended such as Arshan and Fruben.

Still, the commentary was not distracting. After five or so years in his Ascended form, on the journey over, he was used to it again.

"It was a surprise for us as well," the leading Asari matriarch replied.

"I take it we have both learned to record history well," Harper said, fishing for their real answer.

"Indeed," the woman replied. She seemed to understand his unspoken question. "I'll be blunt, our records unfortunately didn't hold much hope for Humanity," she said.

"She really was blunt," Shepard muttered, voicing the surprise most felt. The Asari were usually prepared to dance around a subject for hours, or days even. Ascension hadn't changed that.

"She still didn't say why," Harper countered. He gave the Matriarch a lopsided smile. It let her know he was still waiting.

"We thought you'd be dead," it was the Krogan that spoke. "The idiot Council…"

The Krogan didn't have to say anything else.

"They tried," Harper replied. He nodded at the Krogan but his focus was on the Asari. They didn't seem offended. That was a surprise. The Asari were generally protective of their Council.

"Indeed, the records we have indicate that while the Council might not have pursued a specific war of extinction, they were going to subjugate your species." The Matriarch was scrolling through some information on a datapad.

"They tried," Harper repeated. He wanted to hack the datapad, but that wouldn't be polite and at the moment they were being polite.

"We'll get it later," Shepard assured him.

"There was a war," Harper told them what their records had probably told them already. "It ended when an outside force attacked." That was sort of the truth. Almost.

"The Reapers," the Human spoke. They held up a hologram. It was blurry but it was definitely a Reaper form.

Harper nodded. He tapped at his datapad, allowing it to project a similar hologram. It would have projected if he just thought at it. The tapping was to add filters to the image so that it appeared aged, as if the record had been preserved all that time, much like theirs. It was a contemporary image of Shepard. He laughed in his mind.

"The Reapers," he repeated the term. "When they appeared, the Council knew we had been telling the truth. The Traverse knew as did the Terminus systems."

"They should never have doubted," the Asari matriarch sighed. The other Asari with her nodded. "They knew," she said. "Our records are clear! That's why we're here! We knew what was coming! The Asari were the keepers of a Prothean beacon. It told us what was coming.

"That's why we are here. We knew Shepard wasn't lying. We knew we shouldn't be fighting the Humans, or the Krogan or anyone else. We should have been preparing yet they were too concerned with peace.

"When it became obvious to us that the Council would not fight, a group of Matriarchs sponsored what we know as the Andromeda mission. It's unclear but we think parts of the Systems Alliance sponsored it as well. We took everyone we could. But we couldn't take many."

"Did we sponsor this?" Shepard asked, directing the question towards Hackett and Anderson. Udina was included but only peripherally.

"If we did, it was completely off the books." Anderson replied without even pausing. He'd probably already checked.

"It could have been someone's pet project," Udina offered the alternative. His subchannels provided reasoning. In the early days of the war, if you could have been known as the one who managed to secure peace, that would have been automatic power for any politician. In a weird way, the project would have been one way of suing for peace. Except it never became public.

Harper dismissed it. It didn't matter.

The Asari sighed heavily again. "For what it's worth, six hundred thousand years after the fact, I am sorry." The Asari bowed her head.

Harper stared. Through his implants he wasn't the only one.

"Darn," Shepard murmured. It was heartfelt. Harper understood the reasoning. They'd been prepared to fight for Andromeda. Discovering Milky Way species here hadn't changed that. But discovering Asari that were showing contrition for the past, even if it was the distant past, that was a surprise. If they were truly this sensible…

"We can ascend them," Harper gave the possibility.

"I've tried how many experiments with Asari to see if they can be sensible… All it takes is isolation?"

"Six hundred thousand years after the fact, I thank you," Harper replied using the same terminology.

"I take it, it ended well, at least?" the human asked.

Harper lowered his eyes, looking to the side. "It was a bloodbath," he replied. The Asari might be saying sensible things but he was not prepared to be merciful. "The galaxy was not prepared. Hundreds of millions died that didn't need to."

The Asari lowered their heads. Cultural guilt.

"Or good acting," Shepard gave the pessimistic alternative.

"Idiots," the Krogan muttered. "But you survived." There was a note of pride colouring the Krogan's tone.

"We did what we had to," Harper admitted. He leaned back, crossing his legs as he looked over at the delegation. His eyes assessed them. The Asari looked the same. Despite their words, they still exuded confidence. The Krogan was different. They didn't seem aggressive, but were also confident. The Human almost seemed diminished in their presence.

"They're hiding something," he announced.

"Then perhaps it's time to end the charade," Shepard told him, not disagreeing with his assessment.

"Let me probe," Harper countered. "Are you sure you recorded your history as well as you could have?" He asked. His posture made his question all the more sharp.

"There are some errors but the mission details have been preserved," the Asari said pointedly. Harper recognised the tone. All the Humans listening recognised the tone. He felt Shepard's suspicion forming. The man had come a long way.

"That doesn't explain why Zoe seems so pale," he pointed out. He had learned the Human's names. He just saw no reason to use them.

"It's just…" She tried to explain. "It's just such a surprise to see Humans!"

"Bingo!" Harper cried triumphantly.

"We're hacking now," Ashley told him. She had remained in Cerberus. With the full force of the Ascended fleet behind them, whatever secret the Asari was hiding wouldn't be hidden for long.

Physically, Harper raised one eyebrow. The Asari tensed. Harper leaned forward, resting his head on one hand. "It shouldn't have been," he replied. "Imagine my surprise at seeing Asari here?" he asked. "I know Cerberus' orders were very clear."

He smiled at the response. Both the one from the organics in front of him and the Ascended.

"Harper!" That was Shepard. The man's suspicions were confirmed.

"What?" That was the Asari.

"The Andromeda mission was backed by Cerberus," Harper said aloud. "I gave the Humans orders to ensure accidents happened. Apparently those agents weren't as good as they needed to be."

The Asari just stared at him. It was a sore spot. "Good hologram," Harper complemented Zoe.

"These Asari didn't trust the Council, but they still didn't like Humans," Ashley told him, summarising the information they were hacking. "Cerberus' agents never had a chance. Neither did the rest of the Humans." Their hibernation pods had been sabotaged before they even went to sleep.

That made him feel slightly better. They had been good men and women. He didn't think they could have been that sloppy.

Alarms began blaring. Harper knew what it meant. The Ascended just appeared. They were firing on the Andromedan ships already.

"You didn't win?" The Krogan demanded. There was a light in one of its eyes. Apparently, a visual had already been forwarded to the Krogan. If this Andromeda mission had preserved their records well, they would know what Ascended looked like.

Harper turned to them. "We did what we had to," he repeated. He waved his hand at the hologram. The blurring of age disappeared, leaving the hologram showing the sharp lines of Shepard's form. Then Shepard altered it, making it appear as he had during that first cycle. The words N7 Shepard appeared on his left side, and the Systems Alliance Earth on his middle stanchion.

The Krogan roared as Asari biotics sparked. The human holograms faded away.

Harper didn't move. Those around him did. They looked Human. They were Human. But 600,000 years of enhancement meant they were not the Humans the Asari had known.

"You will know the glory of Ascension," Harper said before the battle joined.

-cfr:a-

This is my favourite version of Familiar Faces, because Harper is a bastard who still managed to keep secrets for 600,000 years and that's like him.

Review please. :D