MASS EFFECT: WINTER EYES
CHAPTER 9: QUERY
The surveillance area of her operation was bustling with transmission chatter. Each desk was manned by a human and each one had tapped into a transmission. The entire area blossomed after the attack on Korlus. Erinyes was ready and made sure that every station had a body filling its chair throughout the daily cycle. The one that Erinyes was homed in on was Palaven. Three of her employees sat around the station, one tapped into the government, one into the military and one picking up any other of the planet's communications. With her arms crossed, she stood silently and listened, watching her operatives' reactions as they typed away at their terminals to transcribe the conversations. Their identification tool could pick up on key individuals, so they exactly knew who was talking. She was watching the war coming to a head from the sidelines. The young red head woman sitting at the government listening seat, flagged Erinyes with a few quiet snaps of her fingers. Moving over, Erinyes picked up the headset and listened in as the operative replayed the communication over after its capture. Her eyes narrowed. "Garrus Vakarian…" The name dripped off her lips like acid; acidic to the touch. With all the information she dug up on Macha Shepard, that name stuck out like a painful memory. Ex C-Sec officer that joined up with Shepard on the Citadel during her investigation into Saren. He remained on her team since then and even helped in her fight against the Illusive Man. Hatred consumed her against all that were part of Shepard's allies, but Vakarian earned a special place. He developed a relationship with Macha and this went against everything that Erinyes stood for. The idea of being physical and even loving an alien was poisonous like cobra venom. It was destroying humanity and continuing alien dominance. If it continued to plague their kind, then eventually mankind would be erased from its very existence. A notion that Erinyes vowed not to allow to become a reality.
From the recording, Garrus was planning on meeting up with a Palaven transport at the New Citadel to head back to his homeworld to discuss options against the krogan. She was hoping that the attack on Korlus would divide Shepard's team and pit themselves against one another and look away from Charon. They were becoming too close to her operations and she enjoyed destroying them one by one when they least expected it. When news broke that Urdnot Wrex was heading back to Tuchanka and that there was now an open war, she seemed to think that everything was going according to plan. However, by his words, Garrus didn't resent the krogan's action and in fact, was trying to find a way to extinguish the flame that was burning. Peace was not an option to her. With him being an old friend of Wrex, she feared that the outspoken leader would eventually listen and back down. She wasn't about to stand back and let that happen. She needed to remove the cancer before it spread and then work on more outlining fires to keep the rage going. After all, Garrus was on her list and was next. Poetically, she wanted Raven to be the one to end him. Sending her to New Citadel was risky with the security in place, but the turian's action forced her hand. Moving to the console, she summoned her operative. "Raven?"
Seconds later, an answer came back. "Yes?" Raven's breath was up. Erinyes figured that she was down in their gym. The woman had a strict routine of working out daily. A trait that she admired. Discipline was essential to Charon's survival.
"I wanted to go over your assignment. Meet me in the Operations Center."
"On it."
Ten minutes later, Erinyes reached the center and surprisingly, Raven was already there waiting for her. She managed to grab a hot shower and change into her normal attire. Erinyes smiled at her appearance; the former commander was punctual too. "I know you are itching to stretch your legs, Raven." Erinyes greeted her as she moved towards the console to bring up the schematics on the New Citadel. She also brought up another holo projector in the center to display a front image of Garrus Vakarian.
"That's him." Raven gasped as she recognized the turian being displayed in front of her.
"His name is Garrus Vakarian. We were able to find feeds of him on Elysium during the mission. I didn't want to say anything until I was sure." Erinyes explained as she held her arms behind her back in a military posture.
"You knew who he was?" Raven looked her way. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Like I said," Erinyes started slowly. "I wanted to be sure. He's an ex C-Sec officer and was planted on the Citadel to spy on Anderson whenever he visited the station."
"Spy? For who?"
"The Turian Hierarchy. He served in their military and still had connections to them. They knew you were Anderson's protégé. Captain Anderson wanted to enlist you as a possible candidate to become a Spectre."
"A Spectre?" The news shocked Raven as she listened intently. She thought back to her days being on the Normandy with her former superior officer. He was tough on her, but fair. Just like she expected him to be. She led many test missions, but never grasped at the concept that he was grooming her to becoming something better. The memories of him pained her. "Anderson…" She hung her head in silent memorial.
"The Turian military dominate the list of candidates for the program. In fact, they have pushed back against humanity on the Citadel even when we had our human ambassador in place. They don't like us growing and our influence. The sheer idea of a human selection is an insult to them. With Anderson now out of the picture, the Turians continue their hold on Council security. Eight-Five percent of the C-Sec force are turian compared to the prior force of being sixty. "
"I thought we have a human Councilor." Raven brought up.
"We do. He's a placeholder only. No real power." Erinyes paused to reel herself in. She couldn't let her own emotions drive the conversation. She had to return to the task at hand: The elimination of Garrus Vakarian. After all, if he blew the whistle on Raven's identity, it could jeopardize Charon's hold on her. "We captured a transmission from Palaven. They are requesting Garrus' presence immediately and meeting up with him on the New Citadel."
"For what purpose?"
Erinyes fought back the urge to smile. "The krogan and turians are fighting amongst one another again. Reports came in that a turian dreadnought attacked the krogan colony on Korlus, leveling it and claiming the lives of all the colonists."
"Why?"
"They fear the krogan expansion. They always have. Before your murder attempt, the krogan rapidly bred and expanded to various colonies. They fought all who opposed and used other's resources. The other races banded together and created a genophage. This reduced the krogan's numbers drastically by making them all sterile. Eventually, the krogan moved back to Tuchanka and were kept in control. I fear that the krogan have found a way..." Another pause. "They found a way to beat the genophage' s sterility and are rapidly breeding. Urdnot Wrex's encouragement has caused their expansion once again. They have not attacked any human colonies, but if we are not careful, it will be as bloody as our entanglement with the batarians.
Raven narrowed her eyes as she picked up on the four-eyed species' name. "I remember them. Dealt with them a lot as an Alliance officer. Many of the colonists fell prey to their slavery."
"The krogan don't have a slave trade, Shepard. With their lust for war, they will bleed anyone who comes in their way."
"What does Garrus have to do with this?"
Erinyes switched the holo image of Garrus off and moved around the center table, allowing her left-hand fingertips to glide softy over the smooth surface of the edge. The bait was working, and it was time to hook. "The turians have despised the humans for years. I fear they will drag us into this mess, their mess. Garrus has a lot of information of key figures that held great interest. He has a keen mind and with his knowledge of your failed attempt…" She allowed a breath to let Raven chew on the reminder of her failure once again. "There is no other reason why they have called him back to Palaven."
"Okay, I get it. Where is he?"
"On the way to the New Citadel," Erinyes touched the interactive holo image of the ship's hangar bay and zoomed in. "He will be meeting with his transport there. If he makes it back to Palaven- "
"Then we are in this shit." Raven sighed as she finished the sentence.
"Exactly." Erinyes turned off the holo. "He is already on his way. His previous location was unknown, so I need you to leave within the hour to make the intercept." She thought back to the transmission. The origin of the call to Palaven was not traceable. Not even her best hackers could track him down. Impressive to her. How much help did the turian have? Who else was in on this with him?
"I should go." Raven moved to the door.
"You will be in close quarters on this one. How is your hand to hand combat skills?"
"I took out two fighters during the last sparring round." Raven noted.
"There will be no room for error, Raven." Erinyes reminded firmly. "Not this time. If Charon is exposed…"
"It won't."
"Meet up at Amaranthine once the mission is complete. A shuttle will be waiting for you."
With purposeful steps, Raven Shepard entered her quarters and grabbed the duffle bag off her bed, throwing in a few extra pieces of clothing should her mission keep her away longer than intended. Satisfied, she zipped up the bag and moved to grab her weapons, eying her display of weapons carefully. Turians were tough to go up against one on one. Most carried knives on them and had more flexibility than normal humans. Long range weapons were out of the picture. She picked up her M-5 Phalanx, inspecting it and then grabbing a few cartridges. The blade on her omni would be a great weapon to go up against the turian but walking into any fight without some type of firepower was suicide. Grabbing her gear was second nature to her so her mind idled and Garrus' face come back into full view. How come his memory gnawed at her?
Setting gear back on her bed, she moved over to the terminal and quickly logged in. The internal database came up and she typed in her query's name. Seconds later, the top articles were displayed. Her lavender eyes scanned over the finds to come across nothing different than what was already disclosed to her by Erinyes. "This doesn't make any sense." Raven sighed as she shoved herself back away from the station. She tried to think on any previous encounters she had with him. As far as she could remember, she only visited the Citadel one time with Anderson when he went there for an initial briefing on a mission. A turian by the name of Nihlus Kryik met them and hands shook in greeting and trust. That's as far as she could think of. No encounters with Garrus Vakarian. The more she thought on this, the more her head began to ache. Holding her throbbing head, Raven moved away and grabbed her gear in defeat. It was time to go.
"Erinyes," Jack called out to Erinyes from within her own room.
"Yes, Jack?" Erinyes paused in her article read at her desk to answer her AI.
"You requested that I bring to your attention of any activity logged on Raven's terminal."
The reminder peeked her interest. She tensed up. "Go ahead."
"A query for Garrus Vakarian was established."
"The results?"
"The articles you tagged for this query were displayed to Raven."
Erinyes relaxed in her seat. She anticipated this. Like chess, she had to anticipate her opponent's next move and never assume anything. Any fool would fully trust the chip's design, but not her. Technology always had glitches and glitches were cracks in the foundation. Flaws. Flaws that could level the stronghold. "Thank you, Jack." It still disturbed her that Raven had interest in Garrus. Was she simply gathering more intel about her target? Or was it something else? She silently debated if she should carry out the mission or not. Things were already in motion and any delay could jeopardize the survival of Charon. She would make note to have the techs check Raven's chip upon her return. All the scans would take hours and she didn't have that kind of time now. Visualizing the turian's death made hot tears stream down her face as her eyes gazed upon the layout of her room. Her breath increased as she thought back to all the struggles her father had against Shepard and her team. The ultimate sacrifice he made to make sure that humanity lived; to make sure she lived. "I will avenge you, father. I will continue the war between the krogan and the turians. The other alien races will have no choice but to take sides. Humanity will stay out of it. I will make sure of it. Once they fall, we will be the only ones left in the galaxy. The way it should be."