Chapter One: First Contact

"Did you hear?"

It had been strangely quiet today, which was saying something due to the upheaval and ruckus that had become daily life on the Presidium the past few weeks in the wake of the battle. While those of every race continued to work hard in attempting to restore structure and life of the station to the way it was before, a grave solemnness had seemed to overtaken everyone, more so then the one of horror and desperation encompassed by all those who had lost loved ones and homes in the aftermath.

"Horrible isn't it?"

The destruction of not only property but the streets he had walked countless times over the years had been nothing compared to the loss of life. There had been wailing of all tongues, as people searched futilely through wreckage and ash for remains. Despite all that had occurred, there was a renewed vigor amongst those left behind, stemming from the combined efforts of all who had helped to fight, ignoring stereotypes and racial fears. He couldn't help but wonder how long it would be before that would go away, and everyone would return to their former, hostile-selves.

"It's all over the vids."

That didn't explain what was happening today though. There seemed to be one specific topic shared across the vast station. For once people were not discussing what had occurred, how things could ever possibly be the same again, or what the council was going to do about it, but rather a collective interest in one thing; something he had yet to hear about. Perhaps some Batarians had attacked a human colony, it had been some time since something of the sort. Maybe a natural disaster on some remote planet? Or a hostage situation gone terribly wrong? Whatever it was, it was grave enough to have gathered everyone's attention.

"And to think it happened out there rather than here on the Citadel."

The snippets he was hearing as he strode towards what was left of the Embassies left his mind riddled with unease at the various prospects of what these conversations entailed. He would have to check the extranet to put himself at rest, but later after work. He too was filled with a renewed vigor, only towards justice and its pursuit. Specifically doing things the right way, the way she would. The thought of her suddenly stirred a flurry of emotion within him which he quickly stomped on and attributed to a lack of food. Flurry? Really Garrus? You've been spending too much time among humans. His mandibles clicked in irritation towards himself and he quickened his pace to the Executor's office.

It had caught him by surprise when Pallin had requested that he come to see him at once, the turian hadn't said much to him since his return to C-Sec. In his brief interactions with him, he suspected there was much Pallin did wish to say, but do to his part in recent galactic events, the turian had kept his mouth shut. Up the left stairs and through the door (which became stuck as it opened causing Garrus to manually force it farther open) he moved briskly down the hall until he arrived at his destination. Inside he was shocked to find not only the Executor but his father waiting for him.

He'd only been back nearly a month, he couldn't possibly have done something wrong in that time, besides he was more dedicated to following rules and regulations than he had ever before been.

"Vakarian, good of you to come so quickly," Pallin casually remarked without rising from his desk.

"Is there something I can do for you?" Garrus replied as respectfully as he could muster, his eyes flickering between the executor and his father. Why is he here? Castis' gaze did not meet his, as if his father still could not look him in the eye despite all that had happened. They too had yet to speak much since their words that had been shared last.

"Have you seen the news?" His father asked slowly, collectively his attention towards Garrus and yet he could tell his sight was fixated on anything behind him. He shook his head. So, it's about what everyone's discussing. Has there been some sort of security breach? He was now inwardly cursing himself for not having taken the time to become up to date.

"To get straight to the point," Pallin started, "The SSV Normandy was in the Amada System of the Omega Nebula when it was attacked, most likely by Geth still loyal to Saren, and it was unfortunately destroyed." At first, Garrus didn't think he had heard the turian right. The words he said repeated over and over in his head. Normandy…destroyed? It didn't seem possible, not that ship with that crew. The crew.

"Any survivors?" The words felt hollow when he spoke them, swallowing hard around a lump that was forming in his throat. No, not a lump more like a rock attempting to choke him as he waited for the answer.

"Most made it to the escape pods in time," his father was the one to reply. Garrus forced his arms behind his back to hide the recurring clenching and unclenching of his talons. Most.

"Initial reports are that the Normandy was destroyed but that the crew had survived. More details are beginning to come in, and Alliance Command informed the council who have asked me to inform you that Commander Shepard is not thought to have survived," Pallin plainly explained.

Garrus tried his best to grasp what was being said. Somehow, even though they were speaking his own language, it felt as if his translator was only catching every other word.

"Not though to, so there is a chance—?"

"She didn't make it to an escape pod, Garrus. They have yet to locate her body and it is unlikely they will," his father said. Everything around him seemed to slow down then. He was vaguely aware of thanking the Executor and asking to be informed should any new details come to light, he felt his body move towards the door but couldn't recall telling it to do so. He also thought he could distantly hear his father call his name only it was like they were on two opposite sides of a valley. A valley made up entirely of three words; Shepard is dead. He didn't feel very steady on his feet as he stumbled towards a railing that looked out over the Presidium's lake. He gripped it in the hope it would stabilize him and keep him from tumbling over completely. Instead he was tumbling over a precipice in his mind and through a crevice that led to a place of memories and phrases like, 'it was only yesterday', along with the feelings he'd buried and refused to think of, towards a woman he would now never see again.

"Saren's hiding something. Give me more time, stall them!" He frustratedly pleaded to Pallin, who he knew by the shake of the man's head, his request was falling on deaf ears.

"Stall the council? Don't be ridiculous! Your investigation is over Garrus," The turian grumbled in a displeased manner at having been demanded such a thing before stalking away. He knew he would pay for his insubordination later and the thought stirred anger in him. At the corner of his eye he noticed movement and turned to see three human Alliance soldiers standing. Two women and a man all decked in armor with various guns at their backs and hips. The man had a short dark-colored fringe—hair, he reminded himself, tanned skin and brown eyes. The woman to his left had rather similar features in coloring (then again, he'd once heard that humans have "receive physical traits" in their genetics which had become rarer in the twentieth centuries leading certain attributes to become more common.) No wonder they often all look alike to him.

"Commander Shepard? Garrus Vakarian. I was the officer in charge of the C-Sec investigation into Saren," he introduced upon recognizing the human at the center. Contrary to her comrades, she had slightly different coloring. Her skin was much paler than the others, but not to the 'pink-ish' degree he had seen in some, her hair was a deep black and tied up atop of her head. She stared at him with sharp, grey eyes.

"Sounds like you really want to bring him down," she spoke. He noted the lower portion of her left cheek, there was a streak of skin that was jagged and rough appearing, stark compared to the rest of the smooth surface. It was probably the width of at least one of his talons if not larger, and it travelled down the side of her neck disappearing under the collar of her armor.

"I don't trust him. Something about him rubs me the wrong way. But, he's a Spectre, everything he touches is classified. I can't find any hard evidence." He couldn't help but fold his arms tightly across himself in disgust towards not only the person he spoke of, but his disappointment and discouragement towards his failure of an investigation (if you could even call it that) and in part himself.

"I think the Council's ready for us, Commander," the man at her flank spoke up, his voice sounding rough to Garrus.

"Good luck, Shepard. Maybe they'll listen to you." She gave him a nod of acknowledgement as they walked past, heading towards the Council's dais while he made his way to the elevator and back down to the Presidium. Saren. A turian like him, but also the longest serving turian in the Council's Special Tactics and Reconnaissance group, a group given extraordinary authority over all those in the galaxy, given nearly absolute free-reign in the name of the Citadel Council. Not to mention Saren was also the youngest turian ever to be accepted into the Spectres and yet here he was, Garrus Vakarian, merely a member of Citadel Security's investigation division, a far less thrilling, let alone prestigious career. Well, not everyone has that opinion, he thought of his father only to quickly push the thought away. This had all started just a few days ago, the center of it; Eden Prime. It was a human colony, one of the first and most successful in the past thirty-five years in which humanity had first activated a mass relay. It was a point of pride to the humans, proof to the galaxy that they could colonize a planet in another system and thrive just as every other species did. That's all changed now.

The Geth, a synthetic race created nearly three hundred years ago, who upon becoming sentient, revolted against their creators claiming the systems beyond the Perseus Veil nebula as their own. Normally, they hadn't been much of a problem to the races as they remained in their system and as long as no one dared venture in, skirmishes were minimal, yet for some strange, unknown reason the Geth had attacked the human colony of Eden Prime, some hundreds of lightyears away from the Veil. To make matters worse another turian Spectre, Nihlus, ended up dead while the Alliance, the representative body of all humans, had claimed that it was none other than Saren Arterius who was behind the attack, led the Geth, and in turn murdered fellow Spectre.

For some reason, out of everyone in C-Sec's investigation division, it had been Garrus who had been given the task of searching for evidence to support the Alliance's claims.

Infuriating. All of it was infuriating because it was impossible to find any real evidence against the turian when all Spectre records and information are kept sealed and classified. How could anyone have expected him to find anything when that was the case? So many rules, so many regulations, he could never get anything done. It was the only constant in his life. No matter what case he was up against, there were always codes and restrictions to follow, protocols that hindered never helped anyone but those who were committing the very crimes. Pallin had told him his investigation was over, that it was too late because the Council was meeting with Commander Shepard and her first hand account of what had transpired.

But without any real proof he knew all too well what the Council's ruling would be. Saren will get away with it. No. There had to be something, somewhere he hadn't looked where there was someone who knew something, anything regarding it. The only issue was getting there. The elevator door opened and he stepped out, scratching at the plating above his right eye in frustration.

"Well if it isn't Officer Vakarian," a grating voice spoke at his left. He knew who it was without even having to look.

"Harkin," he hissed upon taking in the sight of the human male. He was bald-headed, with wisps of hair on the sides. There was a sly smile on his face, and in his eyes, as always, was the look of greed and arrogance. Garrus had once heard a human use the term 'pig-head' in a rather unflattering manner, he didn't know what it meant but he was sure Harkin exhibited the very essence of it. "What do you want?"

"I hear you've hit a dead end with your investigation of a well-known Spectre," he snidely remarked.

"How do you know anything about that?" Garrus demanded. The man had been fired from C-Sec a month ago for drinking on the job, he'd always been a lousy excuse of an officer.

"I still have my sources," he smugly put. Ignoring him, he started in the direction of the Academy but Harkin pursued him. "Sources you'd be lucky to have if you'd ever climbed off your high-horse and did things my way." What even was a high-horse?

"I know all about your way, Harkin," Garrus grumbled. The man had been widely known for illicit methods; bribes, drug use, and the roughing up of suspects in custody. Someone like Harkin should never have lasted the twenty years he did in C-Sec, but it was only because he had been one of the first humans to be accepted, resulting in the human embassy continually bailing him out. That had been the case till recently, there were now enough humans in C-Sec that filth like him were finally dismissed.

"My way was the only way to get anything done around here, and you know it. I heard something that you might just be interested in though."

"Is this information going to cost me?" His gaze narrowed at Harkin who had a slick expression.

"Who knows?" He smirked. Garrus took hold of the man's collar, pulling him close.

"Then why don't I just bring you in for extorting a C-Sec agent?"

"I've done no such thing!" He pushed the turian away. "All I know is I heard Fist's sent some of his men to that med clinic down in the wards, was pretty fired up about it."

"Does this even have anything to do with Saren?" Garrus sighed, realizing it was his own fault for believing that Harkin may have had any prudent information.

"How should I know? You're the agent," he sneered. Shaking his head, Garrus turned away back towards the Academy. He heard Harkin holler, that he owed him. Yeah, I owe you a head-butt to the face. Inside the C-Sec Academy was busy, as it usually was, amidst the agents and officers busy at work were citizens hanging about, waiting to either complain or speak to someone regarding a problem. He headed into his office, checking his terminal to see if there were any updates regarding open cases. In the back of his mind, what Harkin told him was festering. What would some of Fist's men want with a medical clinic? What were they on a medi-gel run? Unlikely.

"Hey Garrus," a fellow turian officer stuck his head in, "some agents were just sent down to Chora's Den for a disturbance."

"what is it this time? Another drunken brawl or inappropriate touching of the 'entertainment'?" he scoffed without raising his eyes from his screen.

"Something interesting for once, a krogan was making threats."

"Krogan?" This captured his attention, causing him to look up, "what kind of threats?" The officer shrugged.

"I don't know all the details, just that he was calling for blood. Fist's blood." Fist again? This couldn't be a coincidence. Garrus got up and followed the officer out where he saw three C-Sec agents leading the immensely large Krogan up the back stairs into the Academy. He knew all too well of the Krogans, every Turian did. It was because of them that the Turians were first welcomed into Citadel Space, and ultimately became one of the three races on the Council. On his omni-tool, Garrus quickly searched for the admittance record of the krogan. It wasn't too hard to find, there were only a handful of krogan on the Citadel. His name was Wrex.

"I have a contract to fulfill," the krogan lowly rumbled. It wasn't surprising, most krogan had turned to mercenary work, but who would put a contract out on Fist? It was a well-known fact that Fist was an agent for the Shadow Broker, the unknown individual (or individuals as the case may be) that traded extensive information, it was the only reason C-Sec generally turned a blind-eye to Fist's "hobbies".

"Who would cross the Shadow Broker by putting a contract on Fist?" Garrus wondered aloud, causing the massive reptilian to fix his red-eyed gaze on him.

"The Shadow Broker himself; Fist now works for the turian scum." The turian scum? Saren. There was no one else, it had to be him. This was it, which meant that whatever Fist sent his men after at the med clinic, was related to Saren. Without a word, or second thought, Garrus raced past the officers and to the Wards.