-This may be my last update for about 6 months. I am going to be going away to Basic Training and AIT in about 2 weeks, and will be back in August. I want to be able to finish it when I come back. Thanks to all for reading this-
Meeting Part 2
At first everything was calm between everyone in Anderson's office. Miranda was standing behind Commander Shepard, occasionally rubbing his shoulders. Her touch was nice, but Shepard was too focused on the task at hand. The biggest distraction was Ashley sitting not 5 feet from him. Her hair was not in a bun, something that he had not seen her do in a long time, and she was in her formal Alliance uniform. She was very forceful in the way she told Anderson that she did not want to rejoin the Normandy. She did act a little surprised when he told her that it was Shepard who wanted her rejoin his crew, and not someone higher up in the Alliance. But that may have made it a little harder on her to take in.
Shepard wished he could roll the back the clock and handle their encounter on Horizon better but despite how far humans had made it in terms of technology, rolling back the clock was not an option. Had it not been for their meeting on Horizon, he never would have taken notice of Miranda, so in a weird way he thanked Ashley.
"I understand why the Commander would want me back on his ship, but I am telling you that I do not want to go," Ashley said. "It has nothing to do with personal feelings past or present. I feel that it would be best for the both of us if we were not on the same ship together." Christian hated how she talked about him like he was not even there. It was a respect thing to him. Regardless of how he felt about her now, he still respected her abilities and thought that maybe she would be able to do the same.
"Chief," Shepard said. "We respect your feelings but all personal feelings aside, we could use someone with your talent and knowledge on our ship. Surely this could transcend anything that may have happened between you and I."
"I don't give a damn about who are involved with Shepard," she said, trying not to look up at Miranda. "You worked with Cerberus, the enemy. Two years ago we mocked them as we went about the galaxy killing many of their operatives. Don't you remember that? I was there with you when we found Toombs. Cerberus had turned him in a neurotic mess, all in the name of humanity."
"Cerberus brought me back to life and gave me a second chance to save everyone in this galaxy from the Reapers," Shepard retorted. "Regardless of how I feel about their organization or The Illusive Man, I owed it to them for giving me my life back."
Williams shook her head and looked at him. "They used you to fight the Collectors and as a tool for whatever games they wanted to get done. They never cared for you at all Shepard. You were a pawn."
"The Commander was never a pawn to Cerberus," Miranda said, no longer able to hold her tounge. "In order to pursue those who were abducting human colonies we needed the best, and that was Commander Shepard. It took two years of very rigorous days of work to finally bring him back from the dead but we did it. And it was a worthy investment."
"My point," Williams said. "Cerberus needed you Shepard. They used their resources to bring you back so you could do their work for them. And you did it! Despite knowing exactly what it is they are striving for…"
"You do not know Cerberus," Miranda said angrily. "Do not act like you understand what went on at Cerberus. We worked wonders with children and adults in order to preserve humanities place in this galaxy. I am not saying that everything I did while working for Cerberus was morally justified but we always had humanities progression in our sights. You of all people should understand why we did such things Chief Williams."
"I don't follow," Ashley said.
"We know how you feel about aliens Williams," Miranda said. "Your prejudice towards them would have made you into a fine operative."
"I am nothing like you," Ashley said standing to her feet. Shepard knew that look on her face; she was pissed. "Despite how I feel about aliens and other species, I would never have been able to aligned myself with an organization like Cerberus."
"Cerberus believed that humanity deserves a great role in the galaxy," Miranda said as she folded her arms across her chest. "We did what was needed to give humanity that extra push."
"Look at what we did two years ago," Ashley said. "We defeated Saren and thousands of humans risked their lives to try and defeat him. Now we have a position of power on the Council, and finally have a say in galactic politics."
"I am not trying to question Christian's motives or actions, but those thousands of lives were sacrificed to save a trio of superficial, power hungry councilors who looked down upon humanity until Shepard gave them a reason to think otherwise," said Miranda. "They only agreed to put a human on the Council, because of the Commander's heroism."
"I disagree with you," Ashley said.
"Of course you would," Miranda shot back with. "The Alliance is to concerned with playing political grab ass that it tends to overlook the bigger picture. Humanity the Council's new favorite pet and we will do anything just have our bellies rubbed." She turned her attention to Anderson. "Whose to say that the Council has not even been completely upfront with you Councilor. I would almost be willing to say that had it not been for Shepard and…" She acted like she did not want to finish the statement. "Miss Williams here, then you would not have your position of power.
"At Cerberus we saw the bigger picture," she continued. "We strived to push humanity forward but knew that the political bull shit needed to be left at the front door. We did things that the Alliance could have only dreamed of, and they labeled us a terrorist group."
"Because of the murders and inhumane ways you went about your definition of 'progress'," Ashley said. There was a harshness in her voice. "The Alliance has made great strides in the last two years and I would like to thin that it was because of what the crew of the original Normandy did against Sovereign."
"And the Council quickly turned and said that Saren was working alone and that the Reapers are not the real threat," Miranda said matter-of-factly. "The 'official' report blamed the war on Saren and the Geth, not the Reapers like it should have been. And because they blamed it solely on Saren, they sent out you and your crew to destroy small pockets of Geth resistance. Had they not ordered the Normandy to do so then, well I think you know when I am going with this."
Anderson shook his head. "You cannot blame Shepard's death on the Alliance or the Council. No one could have known that he was going to be attack by the Collectors. To pit that on us is something that you cannot do."
"If anything Cerberus owes you for it," Miranda said. "We were able to bring Shepard back from the dead and he helped us stop the Collectors. And if it wasn't for him, I never would have had my eyes open to how evil Cerberus is." Ashley gave her a confused look. "The Illusive Man wanted Shepard to keep the Collector base to research and run tests, and use to fight the Reapers. Christian knew that the galaxy would have been better off without the base, so we blew it straight to hell. When The Illusive Man wanted to keep that monstrosity, I knew that Cerberus was no longer where I needed to be. They had given me all that I needed and I realized that my future lied elsewhere." She turned and smiled at Shepard.
"I am having trouble figuring you out," Riley finally said. "From what I know, Cerberus has done some pretty dastardly things, and then when The Illusive Man wants to keep what could be a great source of technology, you up and quit. It seems like you would have quit years ago."
"I owed a lot to them," Miranda said, trying to answer his question without giving out to much information. "I was blind to a lot of their dealings, and I was able to justify it by saying that we were trying to promote humanity. But when I saw what had happened in the Collector base and the lives that were lost, I had a revelation. Not to mention how Shepard was able to gain the loyalty of various species in the universe.
"The Illusive Man had this vision of humanity standing above the rest of the galaxy. But when I saw Shepard gain the loyalty of his team that had a Turian, a Quarian, a Drell, amongst others, and bring them together to fight a common enemy then I knew that Cerberus was wrong. I believe that Cerberus had the best of intentions, but they went about everything the wrong way." Ashley began to speak but Miranda quickly cut her off. "But, the Alliance is going about the wrong way as well. Politics and kissing the ass of those above you will not get you what you want. It will make you the lapdog that the Council views us as."
"That is where you are wrong," Anderson said. "I may not know much about the political arena, but I have done my best to bring parity between humanity and the rest of the Council races. Despite the best efforts of myself and Shepard, they are still a little skeptical of us." The room went quiet for a second as Ashley sat back down in her chair. "But this was not why we are all here. The Anahaus. We need to discuss this situation, before it turns into something much bigger."
"I am not sorry that my crew members killed the Anahaus I was fighting," Shepard finally said after a long period of silence. "Ken made a mistake by not listening to Joker when he told him to go away but he tried to save a member of the crew and died in doing so."
"You killed a top General in their ranks Shepard," Anderson said. "The fallout from this could potentially be catastrophic. I hope you are prepared for what could come out of this."
"I have faced many things in the last few years Anderson," Shepard said. "I even died once remember. There is not anything that I cannot handle." Lying was not one of his strong suits, but he had a great poker face. There was something that he could not handle. The fear of failure. Losing Ken meant that their mission to rescue Dr. Corson was both a failure and a success. Just like the mission on Virmire when Kaiden died. And just like when his entire unit was wiped out on Akuze.
"This is bigger than you Shepard," Anderson stated. "I got a message this morning from the Council. They want to meet with us Commander and discuss this pressing issue. And as much as I hate to do this, I will go ahead and bring everyone here with me to see them. I want them to see former Cerberus operatives united with those in the Alliance. Humanity is strong and we will show them that."
"When are meeting with them?" Shepard asked.
Anderson stood up from his seat and clasped his hands behind his back. "Now."
Kept In The Dark
No matter how many times Christian Shepard stood in front of the Council, it always seemed like a daunting task. They were made to come across as larger than life demigods who ruled over all of those in Council space. That brought in a damn good intimidation factor that they used quite frequently. But Shepard had proved that he was not to be intimidated. Whenever they pushed him, he pushed back just as hard. Anderson was beginning to act the same way, but he could only push so hard and so often due to his position.
"Commander Shepard," the Asari said. She was the one that Shepard liked the most out of the three. She came across as the one who was the more receptive to humanity. "We asked you to be here today because we have learned about you recent encounter with the race known as the Anahaus."
"We have read your recent mission report to the planet known as Calypso," the Turian said. "We are sorry for the loss of your crew member, but we regret to inform you that while a human was killed in the encounter so was a very important member of their military."
"It sounds to me like you are trying to make Ken's death seem less insignificant because he was just someone who was an engineer on a frigate and not an important figure in society," Shepard shot back with.
"That is not the case at all Commander," the Salarian said, coming to the aid of his fellow councilor. "And we are not saying it was not important because he was a human. We are saying that the political ramifications will be greater because of who he was." The Salarian paused and changed subjects. "However, on behalf of the entire Salarian community, we thank you for rescuing Dr. Corson."
"I am glad to have helped," Shepard said. "But I am curious as to why the STG never got involved in this. Or possibly a Salarian SPECTRE. They seem to me like the best candidates to have resolved this situation before now."
"At first the disappearances of Salarians were very sporadic," he replied. "Much like any other person going missing, it was looked into but of course not much came of it. Then a couple of doctors and scientists disappeared as well and of course our interest was certainly piqued. We were making a lot of headway in trying to find out who was behind the abductions and then the Eden Prime War broke out two years ago and it became the focal point of most in the galaxy.
"We were able to benefit, if I may, from the way and push harder to try and find our missing doctors. Captain Kirrahe led a vast amount of our forces along side of you Commander on Virmire when you were investigating the plant that Saren had built." Memories popped into his head, and the pain of having to leave Kaiden behind began to come back to him. "Eventually, the majority of those who were on the project forgot about it after the Citadel was attacked. But when we found out that you had received a distress call from one of the Salarians who was captured, we knew that we had to delve deeper into this situation. And we were shocked when heard who was behind all of this."
"The Anahaus are a race that we do not take lightly," the Asari said.
Anderson stepped forward. "How is it that you know about them? They seem like the type of race that wants to remain secluded from the rest of the galaxy." All three of the Councilors looked at each other for a moment and then back down at the humans.
"Many years ago," the Asari said. It was such a clichéd beginning to a story but yet it came across in a very powerful way to Shepard. "The Anahaus were considered for an embassy here on the Citadel. We saw them as a very fragile race that was quickly dying off. So we extended out our hand of compassion towards them and tried our best to give them resources and the means in which to try and prosper once more.
"Just like you humans, they had come in contact with a Prothean ruin and were able to study their technology. But as you may have noticed, they are not as brilliant as many of the species out there." Shepard scoffed at her in his head. They had to be smart to be able to do some of the things that he had seen them do.
"We sent representatives to them and helped them develop their technologies into what they have now. At first they were very receptive and gracious of our help," the Turian said. "They welcomed us with open arms and learned very quickly from us. It was almost like trying to teach a child to walk. But at the first chance they got, they took off running."
"They wanted to do more than what we would allow them to do," the Asari said, taking control of the conversation once more. "They became obsessed with trying to build up their population and would not listen when we told them that it would take time before they could be close to regaining what they had."
"That explains the cloning facilities we found on Calypso," Shepard said. "I am willing to bet that there are more facilities, and possibly more planets out there just like it."
"We have sanctions put on such things like cloning," the Salarian said. "When we tried to warn them about how we would react if they were going to begin such illegal experiments, they turned on us and almost broke out in a rebellion. Peaceful terms, if that is what you would like to call it, were agreed on and they lost their bid for an embassy here on the Citadel."
"Once we lost contact with them, they were wiped from many of our history texts and spoken of only in the darkest corridors of the Citadel," the Asari said once more. "That is why you have probably never heard of them Commander."
"There is a former STG operative on my crew named Mordin Solus," Shepard commented. "He seemed to know a great deal about them."
"Being a former STG operative then it makes sense," the Salarian said. "He would have access to records and files that normally others would not have access to." Shepard nodded in agreement. As a SPECTRE he could do things that no ordinary human or other member of any army in Council space could do. He could make the decision to kill someone during a mission or let them live. Such a power tended to be overwhelming, but he always felt that he did the SPECTREs justice with out he conducted his missions.
"What else is there that I do not know about?" Anderson asked. He felt like the Councilors had been hiding this from him. Until this point that had no reason to tell him about it, but that made him wonder if there were any other secrets that he had yet to uncover about the galaxy.
"If there was anything Councilor," the Turian said. "We would not be able to tell you in an open forum such as this. However, you have the ability to access the same archives and documents that we do. If you feel you need to research things, you are more then welcome to do so."
"If you knew that they were going to be attempting to clone in order to spark life back into their species, why did you not swoop in and try to stop them?" Shepard asked.
"As we told you," the Asari said. "When they were banished from the Citadel, they were still years away from having the required technology."
"Like I said earlier," the Turian butted in. "They tried to learn things quicker than we believed they had the mental capacity to take in. We had to treat them childlike at times when they were feeling slighted."
"And now it looks like they are getting smarter due to the help from the Salarians they had kidnapped," Miranda threw in.
"They won't admit it but they made a mistake," Shepard thought to himself. They did not keep a close enough eye on the Anahaus and tried to play them off as a nu sense and not a threat. Now there was a race of beings that was thought to have been kept under wraps, cloning and creating an army.
"We understand the concern you all share," said the Asari. "There will be steps taken to deal with this problem. We will try to find a diplomatic solution to this problem. It will be hard though, considering the death of their general." Again they touched on it. Every time someone mentioned the death of that big furry bastard, it made Ken's death seem insignificant. "For now Commander Shepard, we request that you and your crew remain on stand by until further notice. We will be contacting you in the future when we need you once more."
When we need you. They might as well have kicked him in the groin. He and his crew were too valuable to the Alliance and Council to just be sitting around and twiddling their thumbs. But he remembered Ken. Rushing into something without a lot of knowledge had already cost one of his crew member's their life, and he was not going to let it happen again.
"Now if there is nothing else that needs to be addressed then we will adjourn this meeting and be in contact with you," the Asari said. No one spoke. All three of the Councilors touched the pads in front of them and the lights around their meeting area dimmed. The group of humans turned and walked down the set of stairs behind them. No one spoke still until they had reached the bottom of the stairs.
"So what do we do?" Riley asked, finally breaking the silence. There was another long pause as everyone seemed to be sorting out what to do in their heads.
"As mush as I hate to say it, we made need to heed what the Council has said," Anderson said. "Right now we know nothing about the Anahaus. It may be in our best interest to learn more about them before we decide to go in and shoot up the place."
"COUNCILOR!" cried out a young man. The group turned and saw the young man running towards them. He almost tripped over himself, trying to get to the Councilor. "Councilor we have a problem!" He finally made it up to Anderson and bent over slightly, trying to catch his breath.
"What the hell is it?" Anderson asked.
The boy looked up at Anderson. "Egeos….under…attack!"
Egeos
An hour before
Egeos was still in the earliest stages of development. Only one town had been created so far, while the other pioneers were spread out in an equal distance around the center part of the colony, building refineries and slowly exploring the rest of the planet. It had only been a little over a year since the colonization had been approved by the Alliance and ships were sent out. The Alliance had high hopes for the colony.
It had been a quite year for all of the soldiers who were sent to protect Egeos while they were trying to get defense turrets built and operational, especially Lieutenant Gavin Brooks. He was one of the higher ranking officials on the planet, beneath his commanding officer Captain Antonio Martinez.
When Captain Martinez was out at one of the refineries, Gavin was in charge of the happenings around the town. He was not high on the idea of the military running the government, but with this being such a small colony, it would have to do for now. Brooks stared out of the one window in his office and watched as the colonists went about their daily lives. Many of them were probably returning or going to lunch, or heading home for the day.
Even though we he loved his military life, there was still part of Brooks that wished was still one of the civvies. All they had to worry about was work and what was going to be on the table for dinner. The marines stationed here had to ensure the safety of every man, woman, and small child on the colony. It was a daunting task but Gavin did everything that was assigned to him and gave over 100%.
He walked over to an ensign who was sitting behind a monitor and fallen asleep. Gavin shook his head and grabbed the magazine that he man had next to him. He rolled it up and tapped the ensign on the back of the head. The man woke up violently and stood up from his chair when he realized that the LT was standing behind him. Gavin looked right through him, piercing him with his gaze.
"You have one job around here Kennedy," Brooks said. "One damn job. I needed you to sit and watch this monitor like it was a some damn porno. All you needed to do was to keep your eyes fixed right here!" Gavin pointed to the screen. It was a long range scanner that was used to detect if any ships that were not friendly, were coming into the planet's atmosphere. "And you fell asleep. You have let down the people of this colony because you were probably up late last night playing grab ass with some bimbo, and you forgot that you already had a commitment to the Alliance. Do you have anything to say Kennedy?"
"No sir," Kennedy said with his voice cracking. Gavin knew he had scared him.
"Fall asleep again and I swear to you, the repercussions of it will be great," Gavin said. "Do you understand me?" Kennedy nodded and sat back down at the console. Gavin walked away and smiled to himself. That halfwit was never going to fall asleep again when he was in charge. No one else may fall asleep either after that display. Brooks like to make sure that his always made his points very clear and concise, so that no one would ever find a way to misinterpret what he said.
Gavin looked back every few seconds at the young man just to make sure that his scare tactic worked, and indeed it had. Kennedy had his eyes locked on the screen.
Everything was very quiet on Egeos today, like every other day. There was nothing out of the ordinary and nothing that seemed to be different. Everything was fine. There was no one on the outside causing trouble or trying to be mischievous. The marines that had been sent to help the colonization were teaching some of the civilians to work as if they were the local authority. Once they got a good amount of people trained, they would set up a law enforcement regime and begin working towards setting up a government for the planet. Of course there were already rules set in place from the Alliance, but every colony was different and had its own set up rules.
But for now, Captain Martinez had delegated the 'punishment' of what few trivial crimes that took place to some of his subordinates. Even Gavin had to play cop at one point when they a group of older teens trying to smuggle in some Red Sand.
"Uh LT," Kennedy said from the back of the room. Gavin turned away from the window and looked back to the young man.
"What is it son?" he asked walking slowly back to him. Kennedy did not respond. He kept looking at the scanners and radars in front of him, not knowing what to make of what he saw. "Fucking answer me Kennedy! What do you see?"
"Sir I am not sure," he said. "Something is making its way towards the planet and it is moving pretty damn fast. It will be in the planet's atmosphere in less than 5 minutes." His voice began to crack a little bit. Gavin forced him out of the chair, sat down, and looked at the screen. He viewed the screen for a moment, trying to get a grip on what it was he was looking at. It was a ship of some kind, he was sure of it. But to the best of his recollection, there were no ships that were due to the planet for nearly a week maybe longer. Something was not right about this. It was coming in fast and not slowing down at all.
"Sir we tried making contact with the ship but we are getting no reply," one of the other marines said. "They are making no attempt to contact us back."
"Try again damn it!" he hollered. "I want to know what it is, who it is, and why the hell they are here!" He looked back at the radar and saw that the anomaly was getting closer and closer to the colony. "Get Captain Martinez on a line and inform him of what is going on." Brooks stood up from the station and walked outside of the compound. He looked around and the few civilians that were outside with him were looking up in the sky.
He turned his attention upwards and then he saw it. The ship was a sight to behold, bigger than anything he had seen in awhile. It was a dark grey color, at least on the underside. It swooped in low and sent a rush of air that knocked a few people on the ground from the force of it. The alarms around the colony began to go off, causing the civilians in the street to panic and run amok. Gavin ran back into the compound. The marines stood and looked over at him, as if to ask why they were to do next.
Scenarios ran through the head of Brooks as he decided what to do. Martinez was out at the refineries and that put him in charge for the time being. Someone, or something rather, had come to the planet and he was going to make sure that if it was hostile, none of the civilians would get hurt.
"Head down to the armory and grab your gear," he said to them. "We are gonna find out who is here and what they want."
Five minutes passed by and of course Brooks was the first man back up from the armory. He had on his Alliance armor that came with kinetic shields, and the capacity to carry a pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, and sniper rifle that were all collapsed on his hips and back. He paced back and forth outside of the compound, awaiting the return of the small band of marines that were going to be going with him. They all finally began to congregate around him, all prepared to head out to face what could potentially be an unknown enemy.
Brooks and his squad left the inner parts of the city and walked in the direction their scanners were telling them to go. Surrounding the central part of the colony was a wooded area that had the occasional meadow popping up around and providing no cover for the marines.
After a few moments of searching and making their way through the wooded areas of Egeos, the marines came to a clearing. Gavin was at point and put his fist in the air, letting the team know to stop moving. He took another step forward and peered out in front of him. The unknown ship was hovering ominously in the sky. Gavin wasn't quite sure what was going on, but he did not have a good feeling about it. The ship was easily a klik or more away from them and it still seemed so large.
"Lieutenant Brooks this is Captain Martinez," said the husky man's voice over the radios. "Where the hell are you?"
"Sir we are about 2 kliks away from the city," he replied. "I have some men with me and we have a visual on the ship."
"What is it doing?" Martinez asked.
"Right now nothing," he replied. "It is just hanging in the air right now. I can't tell if they have dropped anyone or anything down on the ground yet."
"Keep me post Brooks. I am on my way back into the…." the transmission cut off and all Brooks could hear was static coming into his ear.
"Captain. Captain!" Brooks said. "Captain come in." One of the marines crept up behind him and put his hand on his shoulder.
"Sir? What's going on?" the marine asked. Brooks couldn't believe what he thought to be going on. He did not want to jump to conclusions, but the only thing that he could think of was they were being attacked. But by who? They were still in Council space, albeit barely. So who could it have been? What could it have been?
"Sir?" the marine said once again.
"Damn it leave me alone and let me think," Brooks snapped. He looked back out at the ship. He saw a hatch underneath the ship slowly open up and out from it he could see black shapes jumping out from it. He wasn't quite sure what they were but deep down he knew that he and his marines could be the last defense before they made it to the city.
A million thoughts ran through his head. The young blonde back on the Citadel he never asked out, his sister and her husband, his dad who had Alzheimer's and his mom who took great care of him. He thought about all of the things they had yet to do with the colony, one of them being the defense turrets. Those should have been constructed first, but the thought of someone coming and attacking the colony was far from their minds at the time. He wondered what his men were thinking too. Were they as prepared as he had been when he went through his military training or did they half-ass everything they did. None of it mattered at this point; it was put up or shut up now.
"Get ready boys," Gavin said. He knew these would be the last orders he would ever give this group of marines.