AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry, I know I said Wednesday, but I've still been sick. With whatever the hell this is. Hope you enjoy, however.
Commander John Shepard
I had been approached a few times after sending the dossiers around. While some of the other crew didn't really seem to care. Granted that's probably mostly because they didn't really have anything that significant. Mordin, Samara, Thane, Grunt, Jacob, Kasumi, and Zaeed are among the latter. Jack was a mixed bag. Eager for the new information on her past, but clearly embarrassed, and obviously masking it as anger, to make me promise to forget about her poem. I did, but not without a small encouragement not to give that up. She stormed off without a reply. For Miranda, I already said in my message that I didn't read any of her dating profiles, but she did still ask that I keep things quiet. I have no issue obliging. I have seen Tali since I sent the dossiers, wringing her hands and avoiding my eyes. She was embarrassed about something. She wasn't truly avoiding me, however. With some stuttering, asked if we could talk about 'things' after she was done in engineering for the day.
And as for Garrus? Well, he was acting entirely normal. No avoidance, but no acknowledgement of the dossiers. I had tried to initiate something to help him open up but he was spending all day elbow deep in the Normandy's weapon systems, shooing me off by saying he was busy calibrating. I want to give him a chance to approach me himself before I really push it.
Besides, I need to douse the fire being lit under my ass. So I made my way to the Comm room. This wasn't going to be a call with the QEC, but I figure the Council's going to be waiting for this call. And since it was going through the highest profile, the comm buoys would be giving me top priority. Minimum light lag until the call connected, and then it would basically be instant back and forth. It only took three minutes before the comm room displayed holograms of the four councilors in front of me and displayed myself to them. Sparatus didn't look happy, but he never did anyways. Tevos and Valern can actually accomplish the task of hiding their emotions, which thinking about it is rather funny, considering that an Asari, with a face like a human, is so much harder for me to read than the bone faced Turian who has a completely different set of facial expressions. Sure, the Asari have their own as well but plenty others just line up. And of course, Anderson is always happy to see me, and I him. Sparatus took the lead.
"I assume you're calling us to discuss the third dead Spectre surrounding you, Commander? You certainly should be. Should be here in person."
"I'm willing to let you count Nihlus if you drop Saren. He wasn't a Spectre anymore. And yes, I am calling to divulge all relevant information regarding the demise of Tela Vasir. I'm not there in person because I'm rather close to being on the opposite end of the Galaxy. Tucked away in Terminus like you wanted me to be." Sparatus bristled at that, but Tevos cut him off from responding.
"The Council remembers," she glanced in Sparatus' direction with a slight glare, signaling for him to cool it. "That we allowed Saren to defend himself against your claims regarding Nihlus without being present. This is a luxury we allow all our Spectres considering the nature of their work. Especially one who sacrificed so many of his own people for our lives."
"Respectfully, Councilor, that sacrifice belongs to the men and women who died. Not me," I interrupted emotionless. Anderson and Tevos gave a nod.
"In any event, if you would please provide us with a report."
"Of course. And as we speak my ship's VI will be transmitting video files from the armor cams of those present on Illium during the engagements, with noted timestamps for all events I describe. As well as names and contact information for officials on Illium to contact for their own compiled testimonies and reports as well."
"I will take the list of contacts to be sent to my office for my aides to collect reports for me to go over and compare after you give your own. Valern, would you send the recordings to your office to be scrubbed and validated?" Tevos asked. Valern simply nodded. The two of them quickly keying at their Omni-tools, no doubt forwarding the relevant files to their aides and telling them what they want done. "You may begin, Commander."
"Of course. Four days before the crisis on Illium, I had received and delivered information to Liara T'Soni regarding an investigation she's been undertaking for some time. An investigation regarding the Shadow Broker. Liara asked if we could remain on Illium for a few days while she had the information decrypted as she would need our help acting on this information."
"And this information was?" Valern questioned.
"The location of the Shadow Broker." The councilors all shared glances amongst themselves. "On the day of the crisis, Liara had messaged us, telling us to make our way to her apartment immediately, armed, armored, and trusting no one. We did so to find a crime scene. That was also where we met Vasir who at the time was aiding the police investigation. An Assassin took a shot at Liara but failed to breach her personal barriers. Vasir shooed the officers away, but before they left, I asked for the detective present and gave her a few orders. To prepare crisis response, order her men to stop searching for Liara, but to protect rather than stop her if stumbled upon while also contacting my ship. The reason being for all of this that I knew that the Shadow Broker more than likely had agents in Illium Law enforcement. As for crisis response, when two Spectres and the Shadow Broker are involved? Explosions seem likely."
"After a short period of time we found a lead on where Liara had gone and made our way with Vasir to the Dracon Trade Center. Essentially right at arrival was when the explosions went off. Vasir offered to work her way down from the roof while Garrus, Tali, and myself began from the bottom leaving canisters of medi-gel for civilians to treat the most grievously wounded until Emergency services arrived. We heard gunfire rather quickly, passed along that warning and were making our way to Baria Frontiers. Upon our arrival to Frontiers we were engaged by mercenaries working for the Broker. Clearly highly trained, likely Ex-Military, some of them likely even Ex-Special forces. Still, we were able to make progress as crisis response arrived on scene and provided assistance by using a shuttle to allow Justicar Samara entrance."
"If she can provide testimony then according to Asari law and culture that alone will be proof of innocence to me," Vasir spoke up. "If you are requesting it, I'll ask for her to provide once I finish my report."
"Please do so." I simply nodded and continued my report.
"A short time after, once the mercs attacking us were dealt with, we finally arrived at the office of a Salarian named Sekat, Liara's contact. Sekat was dead against a wall, his head blown open from the front by a high caliber round, while a lone Mercenary with his rifle down by his hip had the back of his head blown open also by a high caliber round. A lone mercenary to take out one of the main targets if not both, one of which a known combat tested biotic. I also noticed Vasir was holding a Carnifex as she hardly sounded frustrated at not 'getting here sooner.' We traded a few questions while I warned my team on our private channel to be cautious before Liara revealed herself with her gun trained on Vasir. My team and I trained our weapons on Vasir as she put her hands up, Liara stating that it was Vasir who took the shot at her, having doubled back and seeing her rifling around before the officers arrived, got to Sekat first. Vasir confirmed Liara's claims while also showing a data disk of the information Sekat had decrypted before using a window behind her to launch shards of glass at us to attempt to escape. I jumped and caught her before she began to use biotics to float down. She knocked me to the ground while Liara followed, Samara quickly lifting the rest of the squad down while I also gave pursuit and ordered law enforcement to prevent Vasir's escape with only non-lethal methods, that she was working with the mercs. They did fail to stop her escape but provided a squad car for us to chase her. That chase coming to an end when she crashed and was forced to make a crash landing at Hotel Azure."
"Local law enforcement was vital in cutting off potential reinforcements and means of escape as we also made our landing at the Hotel and gave chase, following a trail of blood from the crash. We caught up with her dragging a hostage, though the blood was clearly Vasir's. The hostage being a Human woman. Vasir realized she couldn't run anymore and so faced us with her gun pressed against the head of the Human woman. Local Law enforcement rappelling down from shuttles, setting up sniper teams, overwatch, blocking any vehicles from coming in, surrounding her entirely. I managed to give her enough of a scare to point the gun at me instead while Liara took the opportunity to use her biotics to hit her from a table behind. The force of which sent her into a nearby fountain. My squad loaded concussion rounds, my team and Law enforcement surrounding her much more closely. But she now had her own gun barrel pointed right up into her chin. We had one more discussion, and I gave her an ultimatum. Come in alive and likely be able to continue her work as a Spectre or end her own life now and be the villain of the story. She chose the latter, believing the Broker would do worse."
"Did you recover the information?" Anderson asked.
"We did. Using it, we made our way to the Shadow Broker's base of operations. Respectfully, from here on I'd like to make use of the secrecy you allow Spectres to keep from this point forward. Suffice it to say, the Shadow Broker and the Broker's network is going to be behaving differently from now on. I have an agreeable arrangement with them, and part of that arrangement requires me to be tight lipped. In return, the Galaxy gets a better-behaved broker and I have more information on the Collectors and a few other nice and juicy bits of information that they should be leaking regarding a certain terrorist organization. I believe if you attempt to make contact with the Broker for information regarding this arrangement, they should verify it free of charge. As well as the other events. And, finally," I looked at Sparatus. "I recommend you ask the Broker about the Reapers as well." The Councilors all shared a glance, Sparatus huffing under his breath.
"Very well, Commander. If you call for Justicar Samara to deliver her own testimony, and if the testimonies, reports, and other sources support your story, we will respect your silence regarding this 'Better Behaved' Shadow Broker. If they do not, we will be demanding that you report physically to the Citadel for further interrogation," Tevos decreed.
"Of course, Councilor." I called for Samara immediately while Valern took the time to verify some of the more important and relevant parts of armor cam footage, particularly Vasir's own confession, the hostage, and her final moments in the fountain while Tevos seemed to have a summary of the reports her office had been receiving from Illium. Her aides and VIs work quickly. Samara arrived and gave her own account of events as she was there for them. Ending by both stating how she'd have killed Vasir herself for her actions and praising me for closely working with Illium Law Enforcement and how it minimized civilian casualties. After that came to an end, the Councilors took a moment to finish looking over recordings and the summary report that had been passed up to Tevos while also sharing it to Sparatus and Anderson. Taking a moment to kill the feed while maintaining connection to speak amongst themselves. It was a short discussion, and Tevos again took lead, as she so often does.
"Commander Shepard, it is the Council's unanimous decision that no charges be levied against you, and our majority decision that no punishments or probations be enacted." That's obviously Sparatus there. "However, it is also our majority decision that we investigate the reports and Spectre Tela Vasir further before deciding to Posthumously remove her Spectre Status." And that's likely Anderson who was the minority there. "Understand that you are not the only Spectre that the Council owes its lives to, or the only one who Citadel Space owes its security to. Vasir has served for many centuries under the Council."
"Fair enough. As I said to Vasir before she died, I suspected the most punishment she'd get would be a slap on the wrist," I shrugged. Tevos did not acknowledge that statement.
"If there is nothing else, then this meeting is adjourned."
"I would like a moment to speak with Councilor Anderson. It's business."
"I can spare a moment for business, and so can the buoys," David answered.
"Gentlemen," Tevos nodded, taking her leave. Followed by Valern and Sparatus all disconnecting, their holograms vanishing.
"Before you begin, John. You're going to tell me that story sometime, right? I have got to hear it. The Lair of the Shadow Broker? Jesus, I need to know how that all played out," he chuckled.
"You'll hear it in person. Anyways, I just want to know about the progress regarding docking for the ship's upgrades."
"Right. The Council still doesn't believe the Reapers making any of it necessary, though they are accepting the Collectors as a threat, though unfortunately, still only to Humanity. It does at least mean they can see how you'd need upgrades to combat them and are still the only Human Spectre. And between the Cyclonic Barriers being a Quarian invention and that despite the Quarians having a history of cooperation despite not technically being a council race, Tevos and Valern don't mind them having the credit to or access to the technology, outvoting Sparatus there. As for the Thanix, be glad they accept the Collectors as being a threat and the… other part of that arrangement regarding payment and security. Tevos and Valern were easy to sway with that and Sparatus was left without much to cling to deny, considering the Thanix is already a joint operation with the Alliance and Hierarchy."
"On the military side of things, we had a Rear Admiral demanding it happen in an Alliance Shipyard so they could get schematics for the ship to replicate it, but thanks to Stanford already having a copy that was shut down rather quickly. And some digging from Hackett and I found some Cerberus connections, he's awaiting trial now. The Hierarchy? They were a bit perplexed by the unusual request. That it would be a Spectre's ship getting the Cannon, and the promise of the new barrier tech turned a few heads in our favor though. We may be more friends than enemies now, but we're still rivals. And they sure as shit don't want to be left behind on new shield tech by the Alliance. Throw in how it's all being paid for by assholes who won't even be getting to see the technology? That sold the Primarch, and even with Council approval he was being stubborn about it. Contact us at least a week before you're ready to put her into dock and the Turians will put aside a dry dock for you."
"Any particular reason he was stubborn?"
"Because it means that the Normandy will probably be docking at one of the shipyards either orbiting Palaven or on Menae. And the Turians have always been secret about their moons."
"Fair enough. Does give me a few things to think about before heading in," I rubbed my chin. EDI. She's certainly surprised me, but keeping her secret and not having her leak information on either the installations or the Shipyards/potential military base? For the latter, there's really only one solution to that is there? Gonna need to give her some more time. "I appreciate all the help. Thanks, David."
"Anytime, John." Before I even began to end the call, EDI chimed.
"Commander, the Illusive Man is making contact." I sighed, rolling my eyes.
"Talk to you later, David." Anderson nodded in reply and disconnected, letting the comm room go dark and transition to TIM's office.
"While not the outcome I would have preferred, Commander," he took a drag of his cigarette. "It is still worthy of congratulations. However, I have something else for you. One of our facilities just went dark. Our last reports indicate a crisis that I know only you and your team capable of handling."
"And I assume you have a convincing reason for me to care about a Cerberus facility in danger?"
"Indeed I do. In the Typhon System of the Phoenix Massing Cluster, there is a planet known as Aite. The facility on that world was researching Geth from a crashed ship."
"So the Geth trash a Cerberus facility and kill some terrorists. Want me to thank them for doing what I can't at the moment?" This time, the Illusive Man drank from his glass of whiskey. Just staring at me for a moment.
"Why don't we just agree to not have a debate when I say what I'm about to tell you. The facility was experimenting on hybridizing a VI with the mind of a volunteer in order to communicate with and even control the Geth. That VI has clearly gone rogue."
"I'm going to save myself the headache by not thinking about the stupidity of what you just told me. Fine. Fucking fine, we'll be on our way."