Book I - Chapter 6: So It Began
Shepard sat in her office chair, playing with an OSD in her left hand, deep in thought. Within this disc was a copy of the security camera footage inside the main facility of Asteroid X57 during the terrorist attack. She had asked Simon about security cameras as an afterthought, thinking it might be helpful to be used to prevent similar attacks from happening again in the future. She did not expect Simon's eyes to light up in excitement at her question.
As luck would have it, the only security camera on this rock was perfectly situated to capture the entire exchange - the initial attack when the batarians slaughtered every human they could find, Balak ordering his men to put up charges everywhere, Shepard's squad storming in and killing all the terrorists, Shepard facing off the terrorist leader, and of course, the grisly end of an insane fanatic at the hand of the Hero of Elysium. It was all very dramatic. Practically Blasto material.
Barely an hour later after the discovery of this footage, it was already circulating on the extranet. Not the full video, just the most exciting fifteen minutes at the end. Simon was very keen on showing the entire world the truth of what happened on X57, and how close Terra Nova had come to complete annihilation.
Some guy on the extranet name N7CS1FAN had made a five second animated loop of her punching Balak's eyes out in slow mo and tagged it #eyepopping. The clip went viral. It was currently number two on the Alliance News Network trending chart, right after #vaenia, the latest and greatest adult film of the entire galaxy, apparently.
Sex and violence. The two things that never failed to capture humanity's attention.
There were people advocating for awarding Shepard her second Star of Terra, while some skeptics questioning the legitimacy of the video clip. There were also a very small but vocal group of people calling for her removal as a Spectre because she was obviously violent and disturbed and therefore unsuitable to represent humanity. The latter two groups got a lot quieter once the full four hour long unedited footage was uploaded onto the net.
The reactions from the rest of the galaxy was a bit more varied. Turians admired her ruthlessness, salarians commended her efficiency, asaris applauded her excellent feat of biotics. As for batarians, the hegemony was deafeningly quiet on this topic. There was no loud proclamation of outrage, no threat, no protest. Nothing. It was as if they refused to acknowledge the whole incident had ever happened.
Her inbox exploded with emails as soon as the news came out. Widget had been put to work sifting through all the messages and picking out important mail from fan mail, hate mail, junk mail, and requests for interviews. She didn't want to know how those people got a hold of her Alliance email address. It was worse than after Elysium.
Shepard wasn't sure what to feel about any of this. She wasn't involved in this mission last time; it would be impossible for her to accurately predict what kind of far-reaching consequences there might be.
The Alliance wasn't much help either. The only response Admiral Hackett gave upon receiving her official mission report was a one sentence verbal reply. "You've saved a lot of lives, Commander. Good work." And that was that. Shepard had no idea what the higher-ups were actually thinking.
The Council was also suspiciously quiet. Perhaps they thought she was only dealing with internal human affairs and decided to stay out of it. It would be great if that were the case. She had no desire to endure yet another lecture from Valern about getting distracted from her primary mission.
The door to her cabin hissed open. Shepard turned her head and saw Liara standing there.
"Hey." Shepard greeted her with a small smile.
Liara locked the door. "I just want to see how you are doing." She said, walking toward Shepard and sitting on her bed.
"I'm fine."
Liara frowned. "No, you're not."
Shepard sighed. "No, I'm not. But I will be."
Liara scooched back onto the bed and patted the spot next to her. "Come here." She said with her arms outstretched.
Shepard climbed onto the bed and hugged the woman she loved. Liara tucked the Commander's head under her chin and let it rest on her breasts while rubbing soothing circles on her back with a hand. They stayed like this for a long while.
"Joker to Commander Shepard. ETA to Eden Prime in five minutes."
Shepard jerked awake. She was having the most restful sleep in a long while, and she was not pleased to be woken up. "One of these days, I will be able to spend some time with you alone without interruption." Shepard muttered.
"That sounds absolutely lovely." Liara said sleepily. "I maintain my previous assertion that Joker has the worst timing ever."
"I concur." Shepard yawned and stretched. "Thanks. I feel much better now." She said and kissed Liara tenderly before she got up.
"I'm glad." Liara looked very pleased.
x-x-x
Shiala was waiting at the drop point when the Normandy touched down on Eden Prime. The asari commando looked exasperated with the Commander when she greeted her. "You need to be a bit more descriptive next time, Commander. Your guests almost caused a panic. The timing could not have been any worse, considering."
Shepard scratched her head. "I know, I'm sorry. I can't be any clearer even if I wanted to. It was all very last minute. You understand."
"I do. Though it still boggles my mind how you accomplished this impossible feat. Your other guests are here as well. I have arranged a secure location for the meeting." Shiala said, and looked at Shepard's two squadmates. "Would you like these two to accompany you or would you like them to wait outside?"
Shepard gave Liara and Wrex a questioning look.
Wrex shrugged. "I don't care for meetings. I'll wait outside. I'll make sure no one is snooping."
"If you will have me, I would like to join." Liara said.
"Alright, let's go." Shepard said.
Shiala led the two into the labyrinth of the residential complex the colonists from Feros had built. "Would you like to know what the colonists chose as the name of this new colony? On Feros, it was called Zhu's Hope after the original colonist leader Dr. Zhu. Here, they decided to name it after you." She pointed at the large horizontal sign hanging above the double doors to the largest building that also served as the community centre of this colony.
Two armed colonists were guarding the doors outside. They smiled broadly and saluted upon seeing the Commander. It appeared Shiala had done a lot in one month to train up the colonists into fledgling militias.
Shepard saw the sign and did a double take. "Janestown." She breathed.
"Better get used to it. I suspect there will be a lot of babies named Shepard on Terra Nova." Shiala said, before pushing the double doors open to let the party in.
Three people were already waiting for them inside. Shepard was only expecting two. She took a seat at the conference table as she greeted everyone. "Blake, Charn. And you are?" She asked.
The man Shepard did not recognized looked every inch a hardened mercenary. He had a large disfiguring scar on the right side of his face, and he had an dangerous aura about him. Shepard could identify a seasoned warrior when she saw one. "Zaeed Massani. I'm here to repay a favour to Blake."
Seeing the slight frown on Shepard's face, Helena quickly explained, "Zaeed is a trusted friend. He is one of the best in the trade. You will need firepower for the work you want done."
Shepard nodded. "You know what you're in for?" She asked Zaeed.
The mercenary shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm getting paid. I don't very much care. I am the best for a reason. You pay me, you can have my complete loyalty until the job is done. Or until you betray me."
"He gets half of what you promised me. A fair trade for a better chance to keep my men alive." Helena said.
"Sound investment." Shepard approved. Pulling up her Omni-tool, she input a few commands and activated the display function. A small holographic image of Sovereign hovered over her wrist. "This is a Reaper known as Sovereign. The Council will have everyone believe it is a geth dreadnaught, but that is a lie. The Reapers are an ancient sentient race of machines that caused the Prothean extinction fifty thousand years ago. There is a legion of them currently waiting in the dark space, gearing up for a repeat performance. They do this once every fifty thousand years. Dr. T'Soni here, our Prothean expert, called it 'the Cycle of Extinction'."
Helena, Charn, and Zaeed stared at her with their mouths open.
Shepard continued. She pulled up the audio file Tali recovered from a geth hard drive and played the clip before she explained, "Reapers have advanced technologies that allow them to take direct control of synthetics and indoctrinate organics. When exposed to Reaper techs, even someone with a strong will can lose their mind. Matriarch Benezia is one such victim. I suspect Saren is one as well. Shiala is the only person who has ever broken out of Reaper indoctrination, due to extraordinary circumstances that is unlikely to be replicated. She got mind-controlled twice. When I killed her second master, she was inexplicably freed from her first master."
Shiala added, "this is true. The indoctrination process is insidious. The voice whispers constantly in your head, and eventually this voice becomes indistinguishable from your own thoughts."
Next, Shepard pulled up the image of Bahak system. She could tell from the way Charn's eyes widen, the batarian recognized it, too. "This is the Bahak system, a batarian territory at the edge of the galaxy. This system houses the Alpha Relay, the oldest relay in existence. The Reapers, not the Protheans, built the relays. They left a special function for this one relay as their Plan B."
Helena couldn't help herself. "What's Plan A then?"
"Remotely unlock the mass relay hidden inside the Citadel and jump in with their entire fleet to wipe out the centre of our galactic community. Take control of every mass relay through the Citadel, isolate every world, and slaughter every single advanced organic life just as they have done numerous times before."
The look on Helena's face told Shepard she had regretted asking. This time, Zaeed asked the question instead. "What's Plan B?"
"In case something went wrong and the hidden mass relay inside the Citadel fails to be unlocked, the Reaper fleet will resort to FTL travel and head toward Alpha Relay. The special function I mentioned earlier would allow the fleet to jump to any system directly from Alpha Relay. From there, they can invade every single world simultaneously."
"How can you possibly know any of this?" Helena raised her voice in disbelieve.
It was Charn who replied. "The hegemony has long been aware of Alpha Relay's true capability. This is supposed to be a highly guarded secret only the batarians know…"
"Just like the Leviathan of Dis? The hegemony is not very good at keeping secrets. I suppose it is useless to tell you that the dreadnaught is actually a Reaper corpse, that any contact with Reaper tech, even a dead one, will more than likely result in indoctrination. The hegemony will never let this piece of advanced technology go. When the Reapers come in force, expect indoctrinated batarian servants sabotaging every effort to fight back. It's already too late. Their fate was sealed the moment they decided to hoard the advanced tech without taking proper precaution." Shepard said grimly, rubbing her forehead with a hand.
Charn stared at Shepard in stunned silence.
Shepard put a hand on Charn's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "Don't feel bad, Charn. Batarians are not the only ones to tumble into this pitfall. Humans are way worse when it comes to greed. The leader of the pro-human terrorist organization, Cerberus, rose rapidly into power because he had access to Reaper tech as well. The arrogant sod didn't even know he was indoctrinated. He believes he can control the Reapers for his own gain. Can you believe him? A servant of the Reapers having the delusion of taking control of his own master. He is helping the Reapers and he doesn't even know it."
"So what now?" Zaeed asked gruffly.
"Something went wrong with their Plan A; that's why they are using Saren to fix it. I stop Saren, the Reapers will fall back to Plan B. To delay their inevitable arrival at the Alpha Relay, we need to remove the relay itself. The only way to do that is to hurl an object large enough at it to overcome the relay's enormous kinetic barrier. The resulting explosion will most likely cause the entire system to supernova, killing everyone in it. Without the Alpha Relay, the Reapers will have to invade this galaxy the old fashion way - one mass relay at a time. We will have advanced warning to set up strategic defense points, and we won't be cut off from our supply lines. Millions will die so trillions will have a chance to fight back."
"Dear God." Was all Helena could say to that.
"But I don't want to sacrifice millions. Why should I? The Reapers are not here yet." Shepard said with a fierce glint in her smoldering green eyes. "This is a race against time. The Council refused to acknowledge the existence of the Reapers. Believe me, I've tried. They laughed at me when I warned them the sky was falling. The Alliance will rather kiss turian ass than lift a finger to help the batarians. The hegemony is already compromised because of the Reaper corpse in their possession. We are on our own, but I refuse to do nothing."
"Tell me what you need me to do. I will do anything you ask, Master." Charn asked earnestly.
Shepard smiled. "My original plan was to have mercenaries conducting raids to encourage the batarians to leave Bahak on their own. It was a pretty shitty plan. Now that I have you, I can do better. As a batarian, you can declare yourself a warlord and lead the raid to take as much territory as you can in Bahak. You can keep a close watch on the Alphy Relay while starting on the evacuation."
Charn looked a bit hesitant. "Warlord? Me? I'm merely a warrior caste. I do not deserve to be a warlord."
"You will earn the title through deeds. You will bleed for your subjects and lead them away from certain doom. I have confidence you will rule wisely. Train the batarians under you into a force that can repel the Reapers. Shiala and all the colonists here have already begun building underground bunkers and defenses for the coming invasion. She needs manpower. Bring her all the non-batarian slaves from Bahak and sell them to Shiala. I have no issue with indentured servants, and I understand slavery is an integral part of batarian culture and economy, that's why I'm not asking you to break your culture taboo by freeing them. But I do loath to see this practise being forced on other races, so Shiala will be the one to free the slaves. Are we clear?"
Charn bowed his head. "Yes, Master. I will do my best."
"How many men can you muster?" Shepard asked.
"I have eleven with me on the asteroid, and I can bring in another seventy batarians from Omega. I also have access to four fighters, three frigates, and a carrier. After seeing what you did to Balak, they will fall in line. That Eyepopper is forever seared into every batarian's retina. No one will forget it any time soon. You have demonstrated to be a woman of your words, Master. You said you would pull out his eyes as his punishment, and you delivered." Charn said.
"Eyepopper?" Shepard raised an eyebrow.
"That's what people call it now. Some people called it the Shepard Punch, or the Batarian Blinder. I prefer the Eyepopper. Descriptive and to the point." Charn said with some humor in his voice.
"I see." Shepard turned to Helena and asked, "how many of your men agreed to this?"
Helena smiled grimly. "All sixty of them, plus Zaeed. Ship wise, I have two fighters, two frigates, and a freighter."
"And I have eight freighters. So that's one hundred and forty-four men, six fighters, five frigates, one carrier, and nine freighters. It's a start. My crew and the Normandy are the first line of defense. We will stop Saren and ruin their Plan A. You guys are the second line of defense."
Shepard took out two OSDs and handed them to Helena and Charn. "Go through this list and gather resources first. Fly all the ships under the flag of Spartacus Salvage Corp. I already have it registered as a legitimate salvaging company in Illium, so you shouldn't run into too much trouble with the law. Sell everything except eezo, iridium, palladium, and platinum. Bring those back to Eden Prime to warehouse. We need them for the war. Arm and armor your men and then take over Bahak. Remember, secrecy is a must. We don't need Reapers' servants sniffing around and finding out what we are truly after. Make everyone think Charn is the leader in this strictly internal batarian power struggle."
"One more thing," Shepard pointed at Liara. "In the event of my death, Liara will take over."
"What?!" Liara jumped. "Shepard! You cannot mean this!"
"I am completely serious. I am not immortal. There is no guarantee I will survive. If I manage to survive Saren, I will become enemy number one on the Reapers' hit list. It's better to have a succession plan in place than to assume I will live forever. Liara, you've studied the Protheans. You of all people should know how deadly the Reapers are."
Liara wilted, still looking quite upset at the prospect of Shepard being dead.
Shepard continued. "Most of my communication channels are compromised. Both the Shadow Broker and Cerberus are keeping a very close tab on me. Contact Shiala if you need anything. The only secure communication with me is either in person, or through encrypted email sent to you under the pseudonym 'Janiri'. The password for your next message is 'yohoho'."
"And a bottle of rum." Zaeed snorted.
Shepard sniggered. "Yeah."
Helena shook her head wrily. "When you made the analogy of slaying dragons and saving princesses, I didn't imagine you would want us to raise an army to takeover the kingdom instead."
"I didn't, either. Until I had Charn under my command, I thought the best I could do was to save a few thousand people. Now, we can save at least ten times that."
Shiala spoke. "Speaking of saving lives, Shepard, your special delivery came."
Shepard perked up. "Excellent timing. I wasn't sure I could get them in on time. I have something for you, too. I've came across a few sets of Cerberus armor. They might come in handy if those rats ever come here on my turf."
"Consider it done. They will learn how deadly an asari commando can be." Shiala replied.
Shepard looked at the people in this room and said, "you must wonder why I am asking you folks for this important job. The reason is simple. The only chance we have against the Reapers is if all the races in the galaxy unite together. The Council refuses to heed my warnings, and the Alliance is compromised by Cerberus agents. The only resources left for me to tap are the outlaws, the rejects, people of the Terminus system - you guys. If the authority won't help me, I'm going to help myself."
The Commander stood up to deliver her final message. "You all know what you need to do. Remember, we are fighting against our own extinction. We are fighting against an enemy who fancy themselves Gods. They think they get to dictate how we live and how we die. I tell you, they are mistaken! Let's show them how foolish it is to make an enemy of us. We are Godslayers! We are Ragnarok!"
"Ragnarok!" Everyone in the room pumped their fists in the air and shouted in chorus.
x-x-x
While the Normandy was enroute to the mass relay in the Exodus Cluster, Shepard was still debating whether she should head toward Sentry Omega or back to Horsehead Nebula. The Council had not contacted her in a while, which meant that Captain Kirrahe and his 3rd Infiltration Regiment STG had not discovered Saren's base on Virmire yet. On top of that, she had not received any message from Barla Von for over a week since she left the Citadel. The silence was making her anxious.
To take her mind off of things, Shepard holed up in the cargo bay, checking and rechecking everyone's equipment. Ashley noticed how antsy the Commander seemed, and decided to stay out of her way. Shepard was appreciative of Ashley's thoughtful gesture.
"Do you ever wonder if anything you do makes a difference?" The words came out of her mouth before Shepard's brain caught up.
Ashley put the rifle parts she was cleaning down on the workstation. "Sure. All the time." She turned toward Shepard and leaned against the edge of the station.
Shepard turned off her Omni-tool and faced Ashley.
Ashley elaborated. "I'm infantry, skipper, I'm damn good at what I do, but I know my limits. All I can do is pick up a rifle and shoot things. I can lead, but I don't have the brain to strategize. I'm not a biotic, and I can't use tech beyond swapping out mods with an Omni-tool. So yes, I understand that feeling."
Shepard frowned at the Chief. "Williams, I think you've underestimated yourself. So what if you are not a biotic, or an egghead? You're a fine soldier, and the Alliance can use more of you. We didn't even have biotics in our rank until relatively recently. Almost all of the higher-ups in the Alliance started out as regular infantry like you."
"I suppose you're right. It's just, you and LT are biotics, and you both made command. Sometimes it makes a girl feel inadequate without having the magic touch."
"Your view is skewed, Chief. The military is about the only place for human biotics. Civilians look at us very differently. You don't want to know how many fistfights I've gotten myself into because other kids got mouthy." Shepard smiled ruefully at the memories.
Ashley snorted. "Oh, I bet you didn't get into nearly as many fights as I did growing up. The Williams curse followed me like a stink. I've gotten used to name calling a long time ago. It's when they pick on my sisters… Kids can be cruel, but nobody messes with my family."
"Yeah, I totally get it. Half of the fights I got into was because they talked shit about my dad."
Ashley blinked at the Commander.
Shepard's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I thought everyone knew already. My dad, Lieutenant John Shepard. He was serving as the chief engineer of SSV Hyderabad when it suffered a critical drive failure during routine maintenance. The cruiser was docked on Calypso station, a residential station for military families. I was living there with my grandparents at the time. The drive failure caused a large scale eezo exposure. Lots of people died; my grandfather being one of them. People blamed my dad. He was badly injured in the incident and had to retire from service. I was nine when we moved to Mindoir."
"Sorry, Commander, I didn't mean to bring this up."
"No worries. You didn't know." Shepard shook her head. "It's funny. If this had never happened, I would have had a childhood as a regular military rugrat, instead of a colonial rube. My biotic would not be nearly as strong today if I had not had that second eezo exposure on board Calypso station. My whole life would have been different. They say a person is a collection of their past experience. I wonder what kind of person I would have been like if I grew up a spacer without biotics. Would I still be made Spectre and tasked to chase down Saren by the Council?"
Ashley grinned widely at Shepard. "You want my guess? I say yes. With or without biotics, you're still N7, the Hero of Elysium. Instead of popping batarian eyes with your biotics, you would just use a good old-fashioned boomstick to the head."
Shepard smirked at Ashley as a look of comprehension began to dawn on the Gunnery Chief's face. "I think you just answered your own question, Williams. There is no need to feel inadequate. With or without biotics, you're a damn fine soldier. Remember that."
Ashley was quiet for a moment. "After a career of being sidelined by the Alliance, you make me feel good enough." She wrinkled her nose and added, "you know, if I weren't so straight, Liara would have had some serious competition. You're making all the guys look bad. LT might be easy on the eyes, but he is so… blah."
Shepard coughed, trying hard not to laugh. "So I assume there is no fear of you guys breaking the no fraternization rule?"
"He is cute, but not rule-breakingly cute. 'Sides, we have nothing in common. And I hate to bring this up again, but I suspect he is still quite hung up on what's not available, if you get what I'm saying."
"Still? Yikes. I thought he got over that. I've made it perfectly clear I'm with Liara. He knew that." Shepard frowned.
"Nobody can control what the heart wants, no matter what the head tells you. Give him time. He'll get over himself." Ashley said.
"Good advice, Chief. I will do as you suggested." Shepard said before she got back to work. She turned her Omni-tool back on and froze when she saw the red blinking light of Widget's keyword search alert at the corner of the holographic screen. "Fuck."
Ashley was taken aback by the unexpected explesive. "Everything alright, skipper?"
Shepard didn't respond. She frantically typed in a stream of commands into her Omni-tool for a minute before she finally turned it off and looked up at Ashley. "I think I just located Matriarch Benezia."
Ashley's jaw dropped. "Well, fuck."
x-x-x
Liara was very aware of Shepard's eyes on her, even though she couldn't see her from behind. Asaris did not have ears like humans did. Instead, their under-crests were lined with sensory nodes that not only could pick up sounds, but they could also sense vibrations and perceive biotic aura. The Commander must have been unaware just how much she was projecting her thoughts. The intensity of her gaze alone was enough to send fine shudders down Liara's spine.
While out on the field, Shepard's hardsuit acted as a barrier to block off her natural aura so her presence was normally muted. However, when Shepard was in casual clothes, her sheer presence was oftentime overwhelming, especially if she was approaching from behind. And when Shepard projected her intentions… Liara could confirm the rumor that 'no asaris could walk past the Commander without feeling tingles in their crests' was completely true. She dreaded the day Shepard decided to walk around the Citadel without her hardsuit on. It would be like the human story, Pied Piper of Hamelin. Instead of children, there would be a horde of mesmerized asaris trailing after the Commander like drooling idiots.
Liara quickly turned around to face Shepard. The tingling sensation buzzing in her crest faded to a less distracting level when Shepard's biotic aura was not caressing the sensitive skin of her under-crest. "Shepard? I sense you wish to talk to me about something."
Shepard nodded slowly. "We will be in Noveria soon. I have intel that suggests Benezia might be there."
Liara froze at the unexpected information. "You've found her?"
"Yes. This is why I'm here to ask you whether you would like to be part of the mission or not."
A stab of hurt lanced through her heart. Liara grimaced at the insinuation. "I am Benezia's daughter. You can't trust me."
"No! That's not what I meant." Shepard closed in and held her in a loose hug, a hand palming her cheek tenderly. "For all we know, the indoctrination could have completely erased Benezia's identity. I don't know if she would even recognize you. She is your mother, Liara. I don't want to see you suffer. The chance of us talking her down is slim to none. You know what that means. This is why I'm leaving the decision to you."
"I-I understand." Liara put her hand over Shepard's and leaned into her touch. She took a moment to soak up the warmth and comfort offered to her before she made up her mind. "I want to, I need to see her - to see for myself that the Benezia I know is completely gone."
"As you wish." Shepard said, gave her a quick peck on her lips, and left to prepare for the mission.
Liara spent the next little while locked in a daze. When Joker's voice came through the comm and announced ETA to Noveria in five minutes, she suddenly realized she had zoned out for the past few hours. Liara hurried down to the cargo bay to suit up. Wearing her brand new red and black light Colossus armor gave her the illusion of confidence she sorely needed. She gave her weapons a quick check and noticed her pistol had been fitted with sledgehammer rounds.
Standing next to her locker, Garrus was admiring his sniper rifle with tears in his eyes. "Two scram rails with a high explosive round? This baby is a cannon. One shot from this, and BAM!"
Liara flinched.
"... It'll rip right through a geth destroyer's shield like a wet paper bag." Garrus finished.
Liara shook her head to rid herself the mental image of her mother at the receiving end of the shot. With great difficulties, she adopted a neutral expression and headed toward the airlock.
There is no need to be flustered, Liara. You are a T'Soni, so act like it. Her mother's voice whispered in her mind.
Shepard was already waiting for them at the bridge. The Commander offered no more words of comfort - there was no need for such gesture since Liara herself had chosen this.
"Move out." Shepard said, and both Liara and Garrus followed.
Even with the hardsuit, Liara could feel the cold bite of the snowstorm when she stepped out of the Normandy's airlock onto the gangway of Port Hanshan. Noveria was owned and operated by a collection of private corporations, and therefore not under Citadel control. Technically, this meant the locals did not have to cooperate with a Council Spectre. In practise, corporations usually cooperated without too much fuss because they understood getting in the way of a Spectre on a mission was a very bad idea.
Unfortunately, the group of Elanus Risk private security personnel did not understand the peril of pointing a gun at a Spectre while demanding her to part with her weapons.
"Nobody takes my weapons." Shepard's voice was frostier than the snowstorm outside. Liara inwardly winced at the edge of the menacing aura leaking out of Shepard's armor clad body. She had to wonder how dull the two leading human's senses had to be to not take Shepard's threats seriously. Just when Liara thought the group of private security force were about to be kneecapped if they were lucky, an almost hysterical female voice rang through the comm system and ordered the guards to stand down, saving their hides at the last second.
The blonde security guard grudgingly lowered her rifle. "Behave yourself." She added as the squad walked past her.
Both Liara and Garrus lurched in their steps and visibly grimaced at the comment.
Shepard spun around to face the woman who obviously had no sense of self-preservation whatsoever. Without so much as twitching a muscle, the Commander's biotics lashed out angrily and grabbed the security guard by her throat, pinning her against the nearest wall. The woman's feet kicked under her to gain some leverage, but they were at least a foot off the floor.
"If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't need my weapons. If I wanted to misbehave, there wouldn't be much of you left to fit inside a coffee cup when I'm done. I am Commander Shepard, look me up." She said calmly, and released her biotics.
The blonde security guard fell heavily on the floor on all four, gasping for air.
The captain of the guards looked as if she wanted to say something to the Commander, but she wisely chose to keep her mouth shut.
They moved through the port checkpoint, ignored all the detection bots blaring warning at them for breaking the 'no weapons' rule, and stopped by the reception desk to talk to the woman who had ordered the guards to stand down.
"Turn those things off. They are allowed to carry weapons here. Hello, I'm Gianna Parasini, secretary of Administrator Anoleis at Port Hanshan. Thank you for not killing our security guards, Commander Shepard. Captain Matsuo is very serious about her job, and Sergeant Stirling can be a bit overzealous sometimes." Gianna said apologetically to Shepard. "Now, how may I help you?"
"I've received intel that the former Spectre Saren's accomplice, Matriarch Benezia, had recently passed by Port Hanshan. Do you know anything about this?" Shepard asked.
Gianna looked gobsmacked. "What? What do you mean former Spectre?"
Shepard gave the woman a flat stare. "Do you mean to tell me that you are not aware that both Saren and Benezia have been declared traitors by the Council? They were charged with high treason for collaborating with the geth for the Eden Prime attack. Tens of thousands of human colonists were killed in one day and you've heard nothing of it?"
All the colours drained from Gianna's face. "That was them? No one told us anything! Oh God. She was here just two days ago! Benezia was here as Saren's proxy. She brought a team of asari commandos and a whole lot of crates with her and left for Peak 15 right before the snowstorm hit the Port."
"I can guess what's inside those crates. Geth, most likely." Shepard said with disgust clear in her voice. "You have geth running loose out there, Miss Parasini. I would suggest you ask corporate for backup and begin evacuating civilians off this planet immediately. You don't want the geth to overrun this planet and compromise every research facility. And for your sake, please don't try to tell me that there has been no geth out of the Veil for the last three hundred years. My crew and I have been fighting them up and down the Traverse for the past three months."
"Administrator Anoleis must be informed. Please, Commander, come and talk to him in person. I'll arrange a meeting." Gianna said and quickly left.
"Let's hope this Anoleis is smarter than his guards." Shepard muttered to herself.
As it turned out, Anoleis was really not very intelligent at all. This salarian was rude, curt, arrogant, and short-sighted. He insulted Shepard's background as a colonist, disregarded her warning about geth on the loose, and defended Saren simply because the former Spectre was a major shareholder of Binary Helix, one of the corporations that owned Noveria. Most importantly, Anoleis refused to give them a garage pass to get to Peak 15. This was the thing that truly annoyed the Commander.
"I don't care that you're insulting and dismissive towards me. Your biggest mistake is getting between a Spectre and their mission. You only get to make that kind of mistake once in your lifetime, Anoleis. Have a nice day." Shepard said coolly, and left with the squad.
Out in the reception hall, Gianna discreetly called the squad over. "Anoleis is not the only one with a garage pass. Talk to Lorik Qui'in. He is at the hotel lobby."
Following the secretary's advice, they found the turian businessman sitting alone, having a two martini breakfast.
"Lorik Qui'in?" Shepard asked.
The turian looked up from his drink. "Well, well. Look who we have here. Commander Shepard, humanity's first Spectre."
"You seem well informed. Know any other interesting news?"
Lorik Qui'in regarded the Commander with some interest. "Why, yes. An asari matriarch in a pinstripe suit and her entourage of commandos passed through Port Hanshan a couple days ago. Soon after, Peak 15 fell into quarantine. And now a Spectre is here. Isn't that interesting?"
"Quite." Shepard smiled at the turian, apparently amused by his wit. "Then you must know why I'm here. I need to get to Peak 15, and to do that, I need a garage pass."
"How fortuitous. I happen to have one at my disposal. I will be happy to lend it to you if you could do me a favour. I've collected enough information on Anoleis' corruption to put him away for a long time. However, he found out about that and accused me of corruption first. As we speak, his hired goons are busy ransacking my office in Synthetic Insights to find that evidence. I need you to recover the data from my computer before his men does. Violence may be unavoidable. Anoleis is paying those security guards under the table. It will be up to you how you want to deal with them."
"They took bribe money. They are mercenaries. I can kill mercenaries." Shepard said.
Lorik Qui'in sipped his drink. "Try not to leave blood stains on my carpets."
Shepard chuckled. Liara noticed that Shepard always seemed to favour people with sharp wits and sarcastic remarks, even though the Commander herself was quite plain spoken. Liara considered herself to be neither witty, nor blunt. It made her wonder whether Shepard found her boring to talk to.
Synthetic Insights office was located right next to the Port Hanshan hotel. It was probably why Lorik Qui'in had picked the hotel bar as the place to drink away his sorrows. As soon as they entered the office building, they were confronted by a group of guards dressed in ERCS uniform.
"You're not supposed to be here." One of the guard said, pointing her weapon at Shepard.
"You're not supposed to be here, either." Shepard said with a drawl. "Anoleis is paying you bribe money to shake this place down. This makes you a criminal. I'm a Spectre. Do the math."
The guard lowered her rifle. "This job is not worth dying for. How about this? You pretend you didn't see us, we'll pretend we didn't see you." She said cautiously before fleeing the scene with a few of her fellow guards.
"That's one of the smartest moves I've seen all day." Garrus said. Liara agreed.
They proceeded toward Lorik Qui'in's office. Liara got to witness first hand what a sniper rifle fitted with two scram rails and a high explosive round upgrade could do to an organic target. Garrus was right to compare the rifle to a cannon. Instead of worrying about blood stains on the carpets, Lorik Qui'in should have been more concerned with scorch marks on the concrete. With superior firepower, the three of them cut down Anoleis' guards with ease. They found Lorik Qui'in's file in no time.
On their way out, the squad was stopped by Sergeant Stirling and her men at the second floor lobby. The blonde guard was shooting hateful glares at Shepard as she addressed her. "I knew you would be trouble the moment I saw you. Anoleis will throw you off-world for what you've done, but you're not gonna get off that easily. Want to know what we do to cop killers in our world?"
Garrus quipped, "you accepted bribe money from Anoleis. Want to know what we do to dirty cops in our world?"
Shepard snorted at the former C-Sec's comment. "As if. She is at best a mall cop. Right now? She's a dead mercenary."
Stirling's face contorted into a snarl. "You think you are so superior, Shepard. This is the Traverse, not Council space. You're forgetting whose turf you're…" She looked down on her chest and saw a hole the size of her head. Her body hit the ground with a wet thud before it began to shrivel as the edge of the hole caught fire. By Liara's estimate, there would not be much of her left in a minute's time.
Garrus cocked his sniper rifle to reload.
Shepard eyed the rest of the guards and offered a helpful suggestion. "That would be your cue to surrender." She said. The next moment, all the guard were busy tossing their weapons on the ground.
They left the building without further harassment from the guards. However, Gianna Parasini was waiting for them right outside the elevator. "Commander Shepard! There are reports about noise coming from Synthetic Insights office. Do you know anything about this?"
Shepard gave a nod of confirmation. "Oh yes. That would be us gunning down Anoleis' hired thugs to recover incriminating evidence of his corruption. We've left quite a mess in there. Don't charge us with the cleaning bill though. It's not our fault burnt bodies always leave such horrible scorch marks."
Gianna sputtered at Shepard's straightforward answer and blase attitude. When she finally found her voice, she gave the Commander an exasperated sigh and said, "come see me at the hotel lobby for a drink, before you hand the evidence to Lorik Qui'in."
"Sure." Shepard shrugged, and followed the secretary to the hotel.
They settled in a secluded corner in the hotel bar, away from prying eyes. Gianna re-introduced herself to the Commander. "Let me try this again. I'm Gianna Parasini, Internal Affairs. I've been working undercover to investigate Anoleis' corruption for the past six months. The data you've recovered from Lorik Qui'in's office is the breakthrough I need. I just need you to do one more thing - convince Lorik Qui'in to testify against Anoleis in court."
"Get me that garage pass, and I'll make sure Lorik Qui'in cooperates."
"Yes, of course." Gianna agreed readily and left to arrange for the arrest.
Lorik Qui'in, on the other hand, was less than impressed with the new arrangement. "Now that you have my data, you wish to use it to blackmail me?"
"Blackmail is a strong word. I would call this supply and demand, Qui'in. Besides, who else would make a better Administrator if not the person who uncovered the previous one's corruption? I can persuade my contact to put in good words for you to the Board."
"Hum. You do make a fair point. Alright, tell your contact I will testify against Anoleis. Now let me finish my drink in peace." Lorik Qui'in said.
Shepard relayed the good news to Gianna, and the squad was treated with the gratifying sight of Anoleis being handcuffed and dragged out of his office.
"This is an outrage! Stop her, Commander Shepard. My secretary has gone mad! She can't do this to me!" Anoleis struggled and yelled on his way out.
Shepard raised an eyebrow at the disgraced salarian. "You know, none of this would have happened if you just gave me that damn garage pass when I asked nicely. Speaking of which..." She plucked the pass out of Anoleis' breast pocket and grinned. "Have a nice day."
x-x-x
Shepard was right about loose geth. The road between Port Hanshan and Peak 15 was crawling with them. Then again, Shepard was right about a lot of things. Liara had gotten used to taking the Commander's words at their face value not out of blind faith, but rather because the woman had the tendency to be proven right time and again.
And Shepard knew things - secrets no one was supposed to be privy to. Cerberus' infiltration inside the Alliance, batarian state secrets, the Shadow Broker's interest in her - just to name a few. More importantly, Shepard could relate to other races as if she had spend the time and effort to learn what made each of them tick. This was one of the many excellent qualities Shepard possessed that made her so compelling to Liara.
Shepard knew her, too. Impossible as it seemed, this human understood Liara better than she herself did sometimes. Shepard understood her hope, her pride, even her insecurities. It was flattering and more than a little daunting to be in a relationship with such a magnificent and enigmatic figure as Commander Shepard.
But Shepard was not infallible. In fact, the woman was riddled with character flaws just like any random person on the street. The most glaring one was her temperament. Shepard could come off as rash and high-strung, if not a bit of a bully on a bad day. It was a common flaw amongst short lived species.
Liara held her breath and waited for the brief stab of pain in her chest to fade away. Every time she was reminded of Shepard's short life, she had to brace herself for the heartache. Intellectually, Liara understood the philosophical view on an asari's partner's lifespan. Emotionally, ever since Shepard mentioned her succession plan a few days ago, Liara could no longer delude herself into pretending what she had with Shepard right now was enough. Even if it burnt her, Liara longed to hold the tiny, fragile flame that was Jane Shepard into her hands and treasure it before it flickered and faded away. She would live the rest of her long life proudly wearing those scars on her palms, and remember.
She was ready.
"Juggernaut ahead!. More krogans to your left." Shepard shouted from behind a crate. The mountain trail from Port Hanshan garage to Peak 15 was littered with geth, crashed vehicles, and dead bodies. It seemed Benezia was determined to leave no witnesses behind. As soon as they entered Peak 15 garage, they were met with heavy fire. In the background, Peak 15's VI announced repeatedly that the facility had suffered major damage, and there were contaminants on the loose.
"Why are the turrets facing the wrong way?" Liara asked as they passed through the narrow security tunnels.
Garrus answered, "because the facility is in lockdown. They want to keep everything in as much as they want to keep everything else out."
Liara briefly wondered what kind of contaminants would require automatic turrets to contain them.
There was snow inside the facility. Heat was turned off when the core shut down. And of course, there were more geth. Liara almost missed it, but she thought she heard some kind of clicking sound that did not sound like geth at all. It was a very soft buzzing, almost hissing noise…
Something green and fast zoomed towards her. Liara rolled to her left, and heard the wall behind her hissing loudly as it dissolved. A gigantic insectoid with claws-and-pincers-and-teeth-and-tentacles screeched and spit out another jet of acid at her. Liara dodged the projectile and lashed out with her biotics. The thing floated in the air, its two long tentacles whipped around almost lazily. Her heart pounding loudly in her throat, Liara pulled up her pistol in a panic. Before she could pull the trigger, the creature erupted into a screaming ball of fire and smoke when Garrus shot it with his sniper rifle.
Liara could barely catch her breath as several small neon green insect-like creatures scurried towards her. Their progress was permanently halted when Shepard caught them with lightning fast pot shots. They exploded in a shower of corrosive acid green gore that ate into the metal flooring.
"What in the Goddess's name was that?" Liara gasped.
Shepard paused. "Loose contaminants."
x-x-x
A/N: Firefly fans probably lol'd at the name Janestown. Shepard had never met Zaeed before because she didn't buy his character DLC last time. And if anyone's wondering, I'm planning to write the entire Noveria arc from Liara's point of view.