When the message of Shepard's arrest came to Briar's omni-tool, he was using his biotics to interrogate a young Asari. She hasn't said anything yet, but Briar could see her break on a subconscious level. He leaves the room and walks up and down the corridor, while reading the memo, that another Alliance interrogator sent around. Briar is nervous and continues to pace around the corridor. The Asari in charge runs up to him and demands: "Why did you stop? The training is not over yet. Get back in there, Lt. Commander Mason!" Briar is not having any of it and moves right into her face and grumbles: "She is absolutely useless. She can resist my relatively weak biotics really well, but physical violence is really horrible. I can offer you anything. From idealized interrogations to sadistic torture. I am not yet ready to do that to some little girl. Please stop asking me to do that."
Briar just walks past her and heads towards his little office. It looks more like a janitor's storage room with removed utensils. He sits down and reads his messages. One of them is five minutes old and from his admiral, and of course it is classified.
The information says: "Lt. Commander Mason, effective immediately, you are to report back to Alliance Headquarters. More information will be accessible upon arrival." Briar answers with a message: "This is Lt. Commander Mason. I am currently deployed on Illium in a training center for Asari Commandos. What do I tell them?"
The reply is surprising. Briar's holoprojector starts up and rings loudly. Briar jumps up and grabs his uniform's Briaret and drags it on. Then, while answering the call, he quickly buttons the front. The admiral appears in front of and greets: "Good morning, Lt. Commander Mason. Please take your stuff. We will send a replacement to the Asari, to take care of interrogations over there. We need you for a specific case in the headquarters and you will not remain over there. Are we clear?"
"Clear as day, Admiral Yin-Chu!"
"Good."
"Why was I requested for the mission?"
"I am not allowed to tell you this on this line. Please report to Alliance headquarters as soon as possible."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Good." The ends the call from her side. Briar remains at attention for a few more seconds, puzzled about the order, but starts packing up again and smiles. It is not too hard to take care of the necessities. He only needs to pack two uniforms some underwear and communications equipment. The rest is loaned from a kind woman, who works close to the port. He owes the Asari a favor, for organizing proper human alcohol and books to read. She yet has to cash it in.
Briar picks up his bag and leaves his room, where he almost collides with the Matriarch of the training facility. The Asari's face shines in specific light blue way, that reminds the Lt. Commander of the ocean in the vids of his mother. The Asari before him already reached a ripe age of 800 years. She wears a long light red robe and a necklace from her Krogan father. Briar once in the last 10 months on Illium got her drunk enough to tell him that, but before he could find out more, the other Asari ushered her away and gave Briar angry stares.
Now the Asari is standing in front of Briar's office and asks: "Are you leaving already?" Her posture seems like someone asking, but to Briar the use of a biotic field is noticeable. She is enforcing her position. Briar pulls up the messages on his omni-tool, which details his redeployment. She quickly reads the message, only moving her eyes. She looks back at Briar's eyes and flashes a smile, which looks cute and majestic at the same time. This smile always makes Briar sweat bullets, because he cannot interpret the emotions in this smile at all.
Psychology gives Briar an edge over the questioned, so he instinctively uses it on other People around him, especially his superiors, to understand how they work. This makes him glad about the fraternization laws on the ships and outposts, which the Alliance even enforces on Illium, to Briar's relief, so most of the superiors, Briar interacts with, are not 'engaged in intimate relations with someone of a lower rank within the armed forces'. This Matriarch is beyond reproach. She is very revered by her mates and has over a hundred different children.
The Matriarch then suddenly breaks character and hugs Briar, while whispering: "If you find time, come by. We could get wasted really hard. Like last time." Briar is surprised and takes a step back and looks at her face. She smiles kindly and hugs him again. Then another Asari walks around the corner and the Matriarch steps back again, taking a dignified stance and gives a standard goodbye: "Safe journeys, Lt. Commander Mason."
Briar Mason hints a bow, by slightly tilting his upper body forward and then leaves, straightening his uniform and puts his cap on. Then he walks off towards the exit, brushing past the Asari at the entrance, who looks at him quizzically.
On his way to the port, he receives his order to move towards Earth. They are simple and clearly aimed at getting him to base as quickly as possible. Every day wouldn't be as good as this one for such travels. Today an entire freighter, filled with E-Zero, is destined towards Earth. They are gathering as many Marines as possible to guard the transport. Lt. Commander Mason is supposed to be second in command of the guard detail.
To reach the space port, Briar has to walk quite a distance on foot through the Wards. He quickly learned not to let his guard down, while walking on Ilium. There are beautiful places, where young beautiful men and women mingle and Asari prepare their mating with different species, but many places are outright horrible to enter, with gangs, mercenaries and drug lords. Briar was once abducted by serial killer and dragged into an apartment filled with dead bodies. At some point the Asari got cocky and broke her control of Briar's mind for a second and he, almost in impulse gutted her with his omni-tool. He dragged the bleeding corpse to the Enforcers and left, before the Justicar there could ask him even a single question. Sadly, he didn't get a reward. All he got was a notification and a bill for public littering.
Briar passes the Enforcer's office and arrives at the cab station and pays the cab to take him to the second closest station to the space port and takes a stroll along the market of Ilium. He passes a vendor for the newest sniper rifle, the Black Widow, but he couldn't afford it. It wouldn't even suit his taste of weapons and the ordnance bureau is a bit touchy about that. Another stall sells implants, that amplify biotics and red sand. A single author, an Asari, that lived aboard a human ship for 5 years, is selling her own books about a romance between a Justicar and a human private. She already wrote 3 volumes and refuses to publish them on the holonet. The only way to access them is through a hardcover copy in her store. The fourth volume is already complete and was published today. Briar grabs a copy and pays the 300 credits for the book. Which is dead cheap for 500 pages of awesome and romantic entertainment. He stows the book away in his bag, hiding it in his dress uniform, because he had no wish to explain, why he reads that entire series. Another market sells souvenirs of Ilium. Briar buys a new trigger assembly for his submachine gun, although he has no clue, why that is sold at a souvenir shop. Another store sells a specialized cluster grenade, that launches explosive shrapnel upon detonation. Briar buys three. A stand sells copious amounts of element zero and palladium. Briar walks past. Element Zero is of no use to him and Palladium is radioactive.
Another stall is manned by a Batarian "diplomat", selling slaves to interested customers. The local authorities cannot intervene with this blatant disregard for the rules of diplomacy. The Batarien sees Briar and approaches him. Before Briar can shank the man, he starts sweet-talking Briar, to buy a slave. "Today's special: A Turian female for your special kinks! Have your revenge for the first contact war", he calls in a boisterous voice, grabbing Briar's shoulder firmly. With the next sentence he spins the young officer around: "Buy her and get a Quar…" The Batarian turns pale and stammers: "You? How did you… By the Scrolls of Strength, how?" "Don't touch me", Briar snaps, "or you'll leave without an arm." The Batarian stammers something unintelligible and then turns and runs towards the space port. Briar is left alone with an abandoned stall, with a young Turian woman, several Asari and a Quarian engineer standing around awkwardly.
The Enforcers approach Briar and ask: "What was that?"
"Don't know, don't care", Briar answers.
"Guess he won't be coming back to Ilium. Do I wanna know why?"
"No, you don't."
"Okay, great! Wanna give me your name for the record?"
"Yeah. It's Lt. Commander Briar Mason of the Alliance Fleet."
"Good. Don't kill anyone."
"I won't, I am already leaving the planet. Bye."
The enforcers start freeing the slaves. The Turian woman winks at Briar, while he is walking off. This makes Briar speed away. He isn't a xenophobe, but he isn't interested in a romantic relation at the moment. Especially not with a freed slave, whose broker was terrified of him.
The woman from the space port, that organized human alcohol and acceptable human literature, sends Briar a quick message. It reads: 'Please visit me, before leaving the planet entirely. I want you to take something to Earth with you for me. LT' Briar turns his omni-tool off and shakes his head. He sincerely hopes that it isn't a bomb. When he arrives at the office, the door is locked and only the secretary is still around, smiling kindly. When she sees him, she stands up and says, with a customer service smile: "Hello, Lt. Commander Mason. This is the package that the broker wants you to deliver." With these words, she passes Briar a small package, hat contains a bottle, which has liquid contents. "Does it explode?", Briar asks. The secretary shakes her head and smiles. The smile is still customer service style. Briar puts the bottle in his bag and leaves the office again. Now Briar had enough and walks towards the space port.
At the space port dozens of marines and crew are boarding shuttles towards the freighter. The boarder control of Ilium returns Briar's weapons and armor. He quickly checks, if anything is missing. Everything is still there. He has standard issue Alliance combat gear, with the specializations for a Paladin. His weapons are non-standard alliance equipment. A Tempest submachine gun and a Carnifex hand cannon. The Carnifex was barely accepted by the ordnance office, but there were no problems with the submachine gun.
A Commander in uniform walks up to Briar, while he is checking his belongings. The Commander asks: "Lt. Commander Briar Mason?" "Yes, sir!", Briar answers, assuming position. The Commander gives a tired wave and walks off. Briar follows and the Commander starts his rant about the cargo and the mediocre security detail of "twats and idiots". The Commander extends his hand and says: "Sorry. I didn't give my name yet." "Yes, sir!", Briar responds. The Commander waves with his hand in front of Briar's face and says: "Are you from some colonies, where they don't shake hands?" Briar steps forward and clasps the hand briefly.
The steward stands upright and looks at him with a neutral expression. The Commander and Briar give their identification number and their names. The steward looks at Commander Daar and Lt. Commander Mason for a minute. Then he enters a code on his tool and walks away.
The Commander boards the shuttle and motions Briar over. Briar follows the Commander aboard. The door of the shuttle closes and leaves the spaceport.