Shepard came to slowly, Ashley's strident shout driving daggers of pain into his head. He blinked, and fell back into the thin pillow of the Medical bed. Why were the pillows always so thin in medical beds? Opening his eyes once more, he stared up into the kindly face of Captain Anderson. He blinked slowly again, and the Captain's face was replaced by Doctor Chakwas' who's face bore a caregiver's confident concern.
"How are you feeling Commander? You had us worried there for a while."
Shepard decided he should sit up and face whatever music was coming. He hoped it was a waltz. He could dance to that. "Ah. Minor throbbing." He turned his head both ways, letting his eyes focus on his surroundings. It took a little longer than it should have. "Nothing serious. How long was I out?"
"About fifteen hours. You interacted with the beacon somehow."
"That's my fault Commander. I must have triggered some sort of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out of the way." Ashley jumped in to say. Guilt colored her voice, as did an odd sort of relief.
"You had no way of knowing that would happen." Shepard said.
"Actually, we don't even know if that's what set it off." Chakwas interjected.
"-And we won't. The beacon exploded." Anderson said as the med-bay doors closed behind him.
"We're not sure if that's what knocked you out, or whatever happened when you got too close." The good doctor said, begging scans on Shepard.
"Alenko and I had to carry you onto the shuttle they sent." Chief Williams said.
"And I'm sure the Commander will get a full debriefing. After I release him." Doctor Chakwas gave everybody a look. Everybody stepped back, avoiding eye contact.
"What's the damage, Doctor?" Shepard said, intervening before Chakwas tried to give herself some job security.
"Physically? You're fine." The doctor pulled up his chart on her omni-tool, and began inputting notes into it while she talked. "We did find some abnormal brain activity however. There were odd beta waves, and a spike in REM. Usually that's indicative of intense dreaming. Do you remember any of it?"
"There was…. Death, destruction. A choir of agonized screams. Despair." Shepard laughed hollowly. "Then came the vision" He tried to remember, and his eyes suddenly lost their ability to focus again. He shook his head. "It's… wrapped around my memories. Synthetics slaughtering people. Worlds burning."
Doctor Chakwas frowned at him, and took another scan, seeming unhappy with the results. "Tell me if you have these dreams again Commander. Given what happened down there, we'll need you in the coming days."
Shepard smiled. "Yes ma'am."
Anderson took that as his cue to step forward. "I need to debrief you, Commander." He stared pointedly and Chief Williams, who saluted.
"Aye aye Captain. I'll be in the mess if you need me." She turned and made her way out of the medbay. Shepard noticed that she moved stiffly, and her eyes seemed lost, like they didn't know where to look. He made a note to check on her when – his vision stopped cooperating for a second, and his head throbbed - When moving wasn't as much of an issue, he decided. Doctor Chakwas gave him one last appraising look before moving into her office behind them. Captain Anderson waited for a second, then
"I'm not going to lie to you Shepard, It looks bad."
Loose thoughts that had been drifting freely around finally connected in his head. "Where's Nihlus?" He snapped his head up. And regretted it immediately. "Were you able to get a team to-"
"He's dead." The Captain said heavily. "We were able to rescue some of his hardsuit data, though it's nothing that will hold up in a tribunal." Anderson pulled Dr. Chakwas' rolling chair over to the bed Shepard was sitting on and sta down. "Which is what you'll be facing once we arrive at the Citadel. There's a SpecTRe dead and the named suspect is Saren Arterius, one of, if not the most famous of the SpecTRes and Nihlus' mentor." Anderson took a deep breath. "It doesn't help that, under council law, I am required to represent you as your CO. And since I have a past with Saren, I'm suspect too."
Shepard sighed and rubbed his eyes. Time to put that training in Galactic law that Nihlus drilled into his head. "Alright sir. Here's everything as I remember it…"
When Shepard had finished, Anderson traded a few words of comfort for Jenkins, for whom he'd put in an application for the Legion of Honor, the second most prestigious award the Alliance had. Then Anderson put all the facts on the table, so that Shepard could assemble a coherent case with what he knew from his SpecTRe training. They then consulted at JAG who specialized in galactic law via comm buoy, before they went through the relay into the Serpent Nebula. The JAG made a few alterations to their case, telling them not to rely too much on the fact that Shepard was a serious candidate for SpecTRe training – He didn't actually have all the requisite powers that came with the office.
By the time they'd sorted their defense, Shepard was much better, and he went up to the bow, where he found Alenko, Williams, and Joker all bantering and watching the relay approach. Their jokes had a curious dampened quality to them – grief making itself known.
Their trajectory put them on a course parallel with the Relay. It shone stark difference to the vacuum around it, a brilliant blue reflected down the curiously matte metal of the relay, adjusting trajectory as the Normandy entered the mass corridor that it reactively projected as the Normandy came close. The conversation instinctively died as they went through the relay. Kaidan and Shepard's nerves tingled, the feel of so much eezo activating making their nerves sing in time. The vortex of whirling blue spun and danced, and all too soon, they rocketed back into real space, the glistening cloud of the Serpent Nebula throwing eerie shadows on the massive white space station that hung in the midst of it, its four arms – wards, opened like some alien flower, glinting with tiny sparkling lights as its denizens lived their lives.
"It's beautiful." Williams said, voicing what all of them were thinking.
They passed the Destiny Ascension, the massive ship unique among the Asari dreadnoughts for its sheer size and power. Moving underneath its enormous shadow, they requested a berth, and made their way through the protocol of acquiring a docking bay at the heart of Galactic commerce and military might.
The group was laughing at Jokers back and forth with the call towers when the Captain paged them over the intercom, telling them to wear their dress blues and pack their hardsuits and requisite data. Kaidan and Ashley gave Shepard a look, who nodded, steeling himself internally, remembering his lessons. Live. The. Lie. Command wasn't so different.
There was an unexpectedly large group of people waiting to meet them as they stepped off the ship. Camera drones began filming, light shining directly into the eyes of Shepard and his squad. Shepard groaned. It was almost as bad as after Elysium. Thinking quickly, he drew up into a full salute, and was slightly surprised when Kaidan and Ashley, and then Anderson did as well. Uncertain applause broke out at first, then solidified, gaining traction as they stood rigid. It crescendoed into a full roar, all the journalists and gawkers putting down their cameras to clap for the Alliance Marines. Anderson dropped the salute first, automatically moving into parade positions. He swung out and around, in the stiff jointed formal manner, and dismissed them from the ship with full military procession. As he was doing so, a slick black aircar with Atmo privileges pulled into the bay, landing in front of the crowd and the cordon that separated the marines from the journalists. Cries of disappointment went up as a turian in C-Sec armor stepped out and escorted them into the air-car.
"Good thinking, Shepard." Anderson said, as soon as the car's gull-wing doors shut out the noise of the bay.
"You have experience in that sort of thing, Commander?" Ashley asked.
He nodded. "Elysium." Was all he said.
Kaidan gave him a searching look, then nodded. "Besides chief, all that pageantry is for the civilians anyway."
Anderson gave the Lieutenant and the Gunnery Chief shrewd looks before looking out of the aircar window wistfully. "This is going to be bad. The Ambassador never sent a car for me, even when it was me on the chopping block."
Shepard gave the captain a humorless smile. "That was only needless civilian deaths. This was a Geth invasion."
Anderson gave an equally humorless laugh. "You always did have a penchant for nose-diving into trouble."
There was a tense silence in the car as the humans contemplated the coming tribunal.
"Arriving: Presidium Embassies." The VI in the car said smoothly as it touched down outside the entrance to the Embassy offices for all the galactic races, a huge complex of offices and gardens that shone in the Station's mid-afternoon light. The station curved up and around, massive lakes and plants dominating the center of the ring – a gross display of wealth and luxury on a space station. An asari in a formal and austere dress ushered them out of the air-car and up the hall, practically pushing them into the Ambassador's chambers, where they found the balding and apoplectic human engaged in a holo-call with the Council itself.
"This is an outrage! The council would act if the geth had attacked a turian colony!"
"The turians do not establish colonies at the edge of the Terminus systems, Ambassador." The salarian somehow sounded eminently polite while still making the title sound like a curse.
"Humanity was well aware of the risks when you went into the Traverse." The asari councilor, Tevos, Shepard thought her name was, was doing her best to sound conciliatory while cutting off discussion.
"Councilors, the people of Eden Prime were slaughtered. Not by pirates. Not by batarians. Not even by the filth that seeps in from the Terminus. They were slaughtered by Geth. A race of sentient AIs that this council promised the Galaxy was contained! Then, when we are victimized by your failure, you refuse to offer so much as a convoy in aid. I demand action! And not for my sake. But so that humanity does not view their relationship with the Citadel as a parasitic one."
"You don't get to make demands of the Council." The turian councilor said, an unyielding edge to his voice.
"And what of Saren?" Udina asked, his face now well and thoroughly flushed. "Are you going to ignore a rogue SpecTRe too?"
"Enough. C-Sec is investigating your charges against Saren. We will discuss their findings at the hearing. Not before." Tevos gave a reproving look at the human ambassador, who gazed defiantly back up at her. The call finished on that sour note, and the human Ambassador took a long breath before turning to face the Alliance soldiers now behind him.
"Captain Anderson. I see you've brought half your crew with you." He said, walking to his desk.
"Just the ground team from Eden Prime. In case you had questions." Anderson said, keeping his tone level.
"I have the mission reports. I assume they're accurate?"
Shepard eyed up the disdainful Ambassador, trying to get a read on the man. His training gave him only glimpses – an ardent, career politician, one who found leverage by being intractable, and most probably of the type by which the chief metric was how useful others were to the cause.
"They are. Sounds like you convinced the Council to investigate Saren." Anderson said.
"It lost me their goodwill, which lead to that charming conversation you just heard. But yes. They're having C-Sec investigate a SpecTRe." Bitter sarcasm laced his tone as he finished the sentence.
"They seem adept at burying their heads in sand." Shepard offered, still staring at the presidium from the balcony.
"Quite." Udina said tersely. He opened his mouth to say something, when Shepard continued, still in that quiet, distant voice.
"If they don't do something, I will."
There was a half-second's shocked silence before the Ambassador stepped forward, flush beginning to creep into his face again. "Settle down, Commander. You've done more than enough to jeopardize you SpecTRe candidacy already. Your mission to Eden Prime was supposed to show you could get the job done. Instead, Nihlus is dead and the beacon destroyed!"
"That's Saren and the Geth's fault, not his!" Anderson stepped forward, anger beginning to carve sharp ridges in his voice.
"Then you'd better hope that this C-Sec investigation turns up evidence to support our case. Otherwise the council will use this to discredit humanity, and my own efforts, further." With a sigh of disgust, Udina dropped into his chair behind his desk, his eyes now focused on his terminal.
"Stay here Captain. I want to go over a few things before the hearing."
Anderson turned to his Marines. "Dismissed. Report back for the hearing."
"I'll make sure you have clearance to get in." Udina added, not looking up from his terminal.
Ashley, Kaidan and Shepard all turned, saluted, and then filed out of the spacious office. As the door slid to a close behind them, Ashley muttered,
"and that's why I hate politicians."
"Hey, look at it this way chief: Now we've only got to wait around for 6 hours. Anderson has to deal with the Ambassador up until the trial." Kaidan said.
Ashley did not find his amusing.
"I'm not planning on waiting for justice. Not here." Shepard said, striding off across the Embassy lobbies, carrying the suitcase his hardsuit was in. Finding a private place, he set about changing into his hardsuit. Bewildered, Ashley and Kaidan followed suit.
"Hey Commander. Why is your sabre not up to regs?" Williams asked, as Shepard smoothly placed his folded dress blues and gear into the case that had held his hardsuit.
Shepard snorted. "Because I was foolish enough to go into battle still in my dress blues. The civvies thought it was heroic and the brass are punishing me for that special sort of stupidity by making me an exemption to the standard uniform." He unbuckled the scabbard from the baldric, and threw the whole thing to Ashley, who looked surprised, but caught it. It was a standard dress sabre, leather wrapped hilt and gold colored cross and handguard. But this one looked like it had been through hell and back. Parts of the knuckle guard had been torn off by some unknown force, and all the gold sheen of the guard was completely pitted and stained, bits of the dull grey metal beneath showing through. The leather wrap was worn and sweat-stained, the fabric cushion underneath poking through in places. Curious, she drew the blade. It came out smoothly. Quickly too, as the blade was broken off about halfway up. She shook the scabbard. It rattled.
"You used that on Elysium?" Kaidan asked too casually.
"Yes." Shepard said. "I had that and an old sidearm the Embassy happened to have."
"So you made the best of a bad situation." Ashley said.
"Yes. Come on." Seeing his squad had suited and geared up, he took the sabre back from Chief Williams, closed his case, dropped it off at the Embassy lockers, and took off across the lake.
"Where are we headed?" Ashley asked.
"To someone who will know something about Saren."
The humans crossed the elegant bridge, dodging the upper-class foot traffic that wandered by, all of whom looked askance at the fully armored marines toting weapons. Shepard strode on, undeterred. He made his way across the lakes, and headed toward the financial districts. He moved past the sprawling open-air market, where only the most expensive merchants hawked their goods, and into the banking district. Tall, willowy buildings competed for elegance and luxury, each with advertising that claimed to be the most secure in the most locations. Shepard did not heed them, moving through the concentrated grandiosity with unconscious ease. Ashely and Kaidan, having never been on the Citadel before, were still drinking in the sights more than they would have admitted.
They rounded the final corner, making their way to a small building that was richly appointed but dwarfed by the fantastic architecture around. There was a small placard on the door that read
"Barla Von, Financial Advisor"
Shepard knocked three times on the door. The placard slid to one side and a biometric scanner which noted and observed Shepard briefly, then closed. A VI's voice said,
"Do you vouch for your guests?"
"Yes." Shepard said simply.
And the door slid open.
Shepard strode confidently in, taking his helmet off as he did so. The interior, like the exterior, was richly appointed, with dark marble flooring and large, comfortable armchairs designed for all races lining the antechamber.
"I might have business with you, (shrk) Shepard." A volus said over the intercom. Curiously the sound of his respirator was muted, less harsh than other volus'. "But I do not know (shrk) these others."
"They were on Eden Prime. They have my full trust, and I vouch for them."
Behind her helmet, Ashley glanced at the Commander, pleasant surprise on her face.
"Plus you might get to interview them before the Council."
There was a pause. "Might?"
"You have some information I need. Thought that might be a good trade." Shepard said nonchalantly.
Instead of responding, the hard-light panel on the door flicked green, and opened.
The office was spacious, and had a large window on one side, and a impressionistic painting showing the subtle greens and browns of Irune on the other. Shepard strode ahead confidently, and casually threw himself into the chair opposite the diminutive volus.
"As it so happens, I have some information for free. (shrk) My employer has a loose end he wants dealt with."
"And he suggested me for the job?" Shepard asked. He feigned humility.
"He suggested (shrk) you might have a mutual interest in seeing it tied up. There are already assets in place."
"And what would I get for premium service?" Shepard said, gesturing towards himself and Ashley and Kaidan.
"That (shrk) depends on what you're trading."
"An interview with me, any questions about Eden Prime. And my squad, if they're willing." It was a calculated gamble on Shepard's part. Given that they were going to publicly testify before the highest body in Council space, it wouldn't be breaking classified information to non-alliance sources.
Well, it might be bending classification protocols.
"(shrk) and in return?" Barla Von asked.
"I want everything you have on Saren."
The volus let out a little chuckle. "I don't think (Shrk) that will be quite enough for everything, but I will pass the communication on, (shrk) and see what my employer is willing to trade."
"I'm willing." Kaidan said. Everyone looked at him. Shepard noted with approval that he must have followed the same logic. The LT took his helmet off. "I'm willing to be interviewed, if it means some more information on Saren and that ship of his."
Ashley nodded, cottoning on to the idea. "Count me in, Commander."
"Very well. (shrk) I will contact my employer and approve the trade." Barla Von didn't move. "Please wait in the antechamber."
Shepard nodded, and stood up, leading the humans out of the inner office.
"Commander. Is his employer who I think he is?" Kaidan asked as they exited.
"Barla Von is independent." Shepard said, straight faced, and nodding.
"What am I missing here?" Ashely asked. "Why does he deal in information if he's a financial broker?"
"Brokers live and die off of information, Williams." Shepard said. "Barla Von is just better than most."
"His employer is the Shadow Broker." Kaidan whispered to her.
Her eyes went wide. "I thought he was just a myth!"
"Who says he isn't?" Shepard said quietly.
"And you're buying information –"
"The Council isn't doing anything. So I am." Shepard said, in that same calm and dangerous voice from Udina's office.
"But-"
Shepard held up a hand. "I'll explain everything later."
The door chimed, signaling they were allowed to go in. Barla Von hadn't moved, though now he had his fingers steepled contemplatively.
"My employer, (shrk) approved your trade. Apparently Saren has made an enemy of himself."
"That is the act of a foolish or desperate man." Shepard said, plopping his helmet down on the desk.
"Yes." Was all Barla Von said. He activated his omni-tool, sending Shepard the relevant files.
"As for our mutual arrangement, (shrk) there are two people you need to get in contact with." Barla Von pulled up a screen on his terminal, and projected the image in front of him. "This is Urdnot Wrex. (shrk) He has been sent to eliminate another loose end: Halward Fist." Another image popped up, this one of a brutish looking human.
"Why do we need to help him? "
"Fist acted as a go between for a quarian and my employer. (Shrk) This quarian had some compromising data on Saren she offered to my employer. (Shrk) It seems Saren was more compelling to him."
"He doesn't seem that bright." Shepard agreed.
"Wrex is currently being interrogated by C-Sec." the volus breathed, then minimized the images, pulling up a file on a turian with blue colony markings.
"This is Officer Garrus Vakarian. (Shrk) I'll forward you his career notes." Shepard nodded. As a C-Sec officer, those would be matters of public record anyway.
"He (Shrk) has been put in charge of the investigation (Shrk) of Saren."
"So we need to have him as witness to whatever information we dig up, while handling Fist."
"Yes. (shrk) The quarian has the information you seek. She has not released it. (Shrk)"
Shepard tilted his head. It seemed the quarian had wisdom beyond her years.
They completed their interviews quickly, separately, and without formalities. Barla Von recorded their responses with some hardware he had in his office. The questions were direct, and they answered frankly. Barla Von thanked them, and told Shepard that his employer would remember this. The commander almost believed that the volus was giving him a significant look, and wondered what the broker knew of his now jeopardized promotion. The pressure suit masked any of the more revealing details, however. Shepard gave him a nod, and they exited the building quickly.
"That was shady, Commander." The Gunnery Chief said, confronting him as they lost eyesight of the volus' office.
Shepard nodded. "I know. I wouldn't have done it if I had thought there was another way. But, the information we gave him we've already passed to the Alliance and the Council. The thing we were really selling was time for his network to react before the public at large became fully aware." Shepard grimaced. "In return, we get time to get a head-start on Saren.
"Time for time." Alenko murmured, nodding. He looked to the Commander. "So who to first? The Turian or the Krogan?"
Shepard thought for moment, and decided they should go see what C-Sec had unearthed on Saren.
They dropped by C-Sec HQ, and asked around about the investigation into Saren. The Executor gave them cold looks, and referred them to one Garrus Vakarian, who apparently had a reputation for being more stubborn than most Turians. Ashley decided she would like this new officer, as the Executor made several not-quite-hostile comments about humans.
Shepard somehow managed to maintain an unfailingly polite façade throughout the conversation. When asked about it later, all he grunted was "Practice."
As they were leaving C-Sec to find a certain clinic on the lower wards, the humans dodge around a knot of C-Sec officers confronting an old, battle-scarred krogan. Shepard stopped as the krogan glanced up at him – undoubtedly marking them as hardened targets. The turian C-Sec officers wore their own armor-plated and lightly-shielded BDUs, but only the Alliance marines and the krogan had combat-grade hardsuits on. Shepard knew instinctively that this was the Shadow Broker's man, but Kaidan pulled up Barla Von's files to make sure. He nodded to Shepard, and they stopped, and waited at the edge of the knot.
"I want you to try." The krogan growled to the human C-Sec officer that was staring him down. There was a brief battle of wills, and the tired officer decided that he wasn't paid near enough to go mano-a-mano with the scarred and dangerous looking krogan in front of him.
"We'll be watching, Wrex." He said impotently.
"You do that." The battlemaster said, an amused gleam in his eye.
The C-Sec officers muttered and wisely wandered off to attend to their less-dangerous duties.
"Urdnot Wrex?" Shepard asked, striding up to the krogan as the officers left. The krogan grunted his affirmation.
"I hear you have some questions for the proprietor of Chora's Den."
Wrex stared at him balefully.
"Your employer gave us your name. We have some questions of our own. We're going to find the C-Sec officer who might also have some questions of his own." Shepard motioned. "Come with us, and we'll watch your back."
"Why should I wait?" the krogan asked mulishly.
"Because if things get ugly, I want a C-Sec officer on our side of the firefight. That way we don't have to fight them, too."
"Not interested in a little challenge?" Wrex asked, prodding.
Shepard grunted, and smiled wryly. "Nah, I just don't have the option to outlive my arrest warrant."
The krogan chuckled, and assented to join their hunt.
The clinic was a mess. 4 dead men lay in the house of healing. They were thugs, really, sent to keep the good doctor quiet. Which meant they were getting close. They got a better descriptor of the quarian as well – she had geth data that could incriminate Saren, wore a purple veil, and was on her pilgrimage. She'd been hunted for days, and had taken a sniper shot to the arm on the presidium.
Shepard grimly thought that alone should've revealed Saren's hand – very few criminal organizations had the outright power to shoot someone on the Citadel's presidium.
But they left the detective work for later, and sprinted towards Chora's Den. The quarian, (who hadn't given her name to Dr. Michel) had already been shot once. If her intel was as hot as it seemed, Shepard didn't like her odds of making it through the day, alone, with no backup, stuck in a crossfire between the shadow broker and a rogue Council SpecTRe.
They slowed as they approached the seedy back-alley that Chora's den was situated in. There was a krogan bouncer, and Shepard didn't want to start a firefight with unarmed civvies in the middle. Garrus laughed at that, and said bitterly that the bigger danger was involving representatives from other organized crime into the fight.
While they were arguing, Ashley sized up the krogan and bare-faced turian guarding the entrance to the club, rolled her shoulders, took off her helmet, and walked up to the bouncers.
"Uh, Commander?" Kaidan said,
Wrex gave a bark of laughter, and strode after the impetuous human. Garrus looked at Shepard reprovingly, and Shepard scowled and motioned for them to approach the entrance. He'd just have to improvise. Like he'd been doing since Elysium. He sighed.
"She can go in." The turian said motioning Ashley on, but held out his hand (his other on his side-arm) "but you look like a battle squad.
Wrex found that funny for some reason.
Shepard stepped forward, and stared the turian down. "I have a meeting with my counterparts in 5 minutes." He said testily, letting a lethal edge undercut his words. "I'm not stupid enough to stroll in here without back-up."
"Fist is neutral." The turian said, his eyes giving the impression he was wary, but only wary as one confronted with a stray dog.
"Listen, bare-face." Garrus said, leaning in close to the turian. "You see this uniform? I can't afford to be seen arguing with some bouncer to let a known gang member in. You want the cash to keep flowing nice and quiet, don't you?"
The bouncer looked uncertain, and glanced at his krogan buddy. The krogan was busy staring down Wrex, who had not moved, but appeared to be winning.
"There's a lot more where I come from. Not all of them are so congenial." Garrus said.
The bouncer came to a decision, and let them in.
"No trouble now, you hear?" He said lamely. They didn't bother replying.
The interior of Chora's Den was dim, with flashing, colored LEDs whose cheer never seemed to reach the floor. The place reeked of desperation, and Shepard glanced with dismay at the asari dancers. They were young, and the tired and worn-ragged look about them was only mostly hidden by the poor lighting. Shepard's education on Thessia had impressed upon him the dangers, loneliness and emptiness of the path that drew far too many Asari youth, but they had remained only dire warnings from the matriarchs.
"A million light years from where humanity began and we walk into a bar filled with men drooling over half-naked women shaking their asses on a stage. I can't decide if that's funny or sad." Ashley said as the rest of their eyes adjusted to the flashing lights.
"It's sad." Shepard said quietly, and made his way to the back rooms, where Fist was said to be. He was about to stop and attempt to talk his way into the back as he'd done before, but Wrex kept going, blowing past the two human guards who nervously pointed their weapons at him. Shepard followed, and as they turned to confront this new, more manageable sized threat, he waved his arm, sending out a weak biotic pulse that knocked them face first into the ground.
"Stay down." Ashley growled at the guards as they marched by, unshipping their weapons for further confrontations. Fist didn't command much loyalty it seemed. They stayed down.
The battle with Fist was over almost before it began. He yelped, put up turrets that were promptly blown through by the hightly armed and trained alliance marines, a crack turian police officer, and a krogan battlemaster. The spacious office was hardly great for providing cover, either.
"Wait! Wait! Don't kill me I surrender!"
The 'crime lord' tried to lie to them once, afterward. Only once though. He told them where he'd sent thequarrian, and then Wrex shot him, right in front of them. All of them suppressed a cry, and Shepard and Garrus stepped up to give a lecture on war crimes and not shooting unarmed prisoners. Wrex simply stared at them, and said two sentences that indicated his stance and his unwillingness to hear more of the matter.
"No one betrays the Broker twice. And I gave my word I would kill him."
Frustrated, but unable to do anything and out of time, Shepard copied the hard drive on the laughably insecure computer, and their rag-tag squad raced of the club, through confused drunks and low-lives, headed towards a naïve quarian who thought she was going to meet the Shadow Broker himself. Or herself.
They arrive just as three sniper-dots paint the quarian's chest.
Time seemed to slow for Shepard in that alleyway, and he recalled with an odd quiet that Nihlus had trained him on just such a situation, protecting a vital witness or source from imminent attack. Shepard didn't thing, but thrust himself forward, biotically, enveloping himself in a blue shield and bubble, arriving in front of purple-veiled quarian. He stopped, his hands out, and there came three quick shots, the first two shattered his instinctive barrier, the third hitting his shields and sending him back a step.
But as he took the bullets, the quarian was already moving, diving and throwing three tech mines at the hard-suited salarians and turians approaching with assault rifles. Overkill for a young quarian, Shepard thought. The mines sparked and shattered, taking down the shields and HUD of the assassins. Shepard moved, and felt the quarian barrel into him as the turian raised his rifle his way. They went down, and Shepard's team opened fire. The wetworks team on the ground went down in the withering hail of bullets. Shepard peeked upward, looking for the sniper, but his mutant nerves tingled, and he saw from the corner of his eye Wrex's blue-limned glow. There were three hard crunches, and the snipers were no more.
Shepard looked at the quarian lying on his chest.
"Thanks" they both say simultaneously. Shepard laughs, then holds out his hand. Not a straightforward process when they were both laying down, but they made it work. The quarian took his hand, and shifted, helping him up.
"I'm Commander Shepard, Alliance Marines. I hear you have some data that might help us in our investigation?"
the quarian finishes the handshake, after prompting from what seemed to be a program in her suit. Her grip was surprisingly firm.
"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." She gives him a tired look and sits on one of the half-rotted crates, ignoring the blue blood pooling around the dead turian 10 feet away. Now that he was closer, Shepard could see the spot on her shoulder that had been patched recently. A bullet hole.
Tali sighed. "If it would help repay you for saving my life, of course." She shook her head. "I can't share it with you here, though." She looked around, as if seeing the heavily armed multi-species firing team behind Shepard, and the bodies of the dead beside her. Shepard saw here eyes widen beneath the suit, and knew she had to be feeling the shock of her first kill.
"You should come with us. I know somewhere safe."
"I can handle myself." She said, but looked uncertain, and spoke through the hollow resonance of that post battle-fatigue.
"Hey, Tali, is it?" Ashley said, stepping forward, and pulling off her helmet.
Tali nodded.
"We're going to take you to the embassy, where you can share the data. If you want to part ways with us, or go to the Quarian Observer's office, you can." Ashley said gently.
Tali nodded again, took a deep, shuddering breath, and put her head in her hands. "Do you always get punished this much for trying to do the right thing?" She asked.
Shepard laughed, a bitter edge to it. "Just about. Come on, lets get out of this alleyway." He extended a hand, and helped Tali up from the crate.
As they were leaving the dank alleyway (Garrus assured them that C-Sec would be by to ID the bodies and then dispose of them) Shepard turned to Wrex.
"Thanks for helping us out. You didn't need to come with us after Chora's Den."
Shepard thought he saw a dim, peculiar flicker of emotion as Wrex looked briefly from him to Tali.
"Someone had to take care of the wetwork team while you were rolling about like hatchlings." He said dryly.
Shepard pasted a look of innocent surprise on his face.
"You mean they didn't all commit suicide from having to look at your face?"
There was a split second's tense silence, as Tali, Ashley, and Garrus looked between the human and the krogan, horrified. Then Wrex's craggy face split into a razor-toothed grin, and he laughed his long, low laugh.
"Heh heh heh. You got a quad, human."
Ambassador Udina wasn't thrilled at their return. The vein on his temple visibly throbbed, as he began a laundry list of how Shepard's actions disturbed peace and order, and left a diplomatic mess for him to clean up besides. Shepard snapped to attention, and waited the words out. He knew better than to reply, and he'd long ago, in part thanks to his asari upbringing, honed the subtle games of diplomacy and social back-and-forth. Asari teenagers could be particularly nasty, and he'd had to learn quickly. Shepard suppressed a shudder from the memory of those years.
When the ambassador had finished his lecture, Shepard presented Tali'Zorah, and she laid out their evidence. The quarian had managed to save an impressive amount of information from the geth whose memory core she had stolen. Shepard considered her. It had been brave to head straight to the rumors of geth when they would have been the boogeymen of their people for a generation. She was extremely resourceful, had managed to evade geth patrols, surveillance, and the hit squad of a well-connected and vengeful council SpecTRe, and now she calmly explained the information she'd captured to a hasty, irate, and powerful human. Shepard admitted he was impressed.
Two mysteries remained though – one was the powerful asari matriarch that also showed up in the databanks, and the second was the incessant mention of 'reapers', and the search for this 'conduit' The idea of a synthetic race having developed a religious worship of older and greater synthetics was curious, and Shepard believed was one that anthropologists and philosophers probably couldn't wait to get their hands on.
At the moment, the more pertinent question was one of whether or not this constituted evidence that could get the council to see that their top agent had turned rogue.
Which meant it was time for the lawyers to take over. Only Garrus and Shepard stayed to listen – they would be most concerned with the outcome. Wrex wandered off first, when it seemed there wasn't to be anymore firefights. Ashely, Kaidan, and Anderson went next, deciding to report to the Alliance all that had transpired. Tali left then, after she had nearly nodded off in the middle of all of the legal babble. Soon it was just Udina, the lawyers, and Shepard. By the end of the discussions, Udina had moved into a sort of respect for Shepard. Shepard guessed it had showed that he knew something beyond being a mere grunt, and could play in Udina's realm as well. He smiled slightly at the thought. Alliance Intelligence had more than prepared him for complicated diplomatic and legal cases. That such had comprised far less of his career than he'd expected was the surprise.
Their case wasn't airtight, but would be more than sufficient to start a council probe into the conduct of Saren. After they went over the details, Udina nodded to Garrus and Shepard, and told them to await a summons from the council to discuss the matter in some hours. Shepard nodded, thinking it would be good to get some R&R before being presented to the Council. Giving his testimony about the massacre on Eden Prime and accusing the most powerful SpecTRe in the galaxy in one go was something he needed to be sharp for.
Or at least, that was what Shepard thought he would be doing. Instead he had found himself drawn into all sorts of requests for help. Something about his alliance uniform made people think he was there to help. It was an assumption he had used to his benefit before, but after scanning keepers, helping a journalist break a story using Fist's files, diplomatically urging an exuberant hanar from preaching by the embassies, and destroyed an accidentally created AI. By the time he'd received the call, he had to rush to change into his dress blues – chipped and broken saber and all.
When he arrived (on time, which, in the military, was late) they were ushered into the huge council audience chamber. The three representatives of Galactic law stood on the high dais of the opulent and verdant chamber, while a large hologram of Saren was painted in uniform blue on a stand between the Council and the audience platform. Councilor Udina already stood atop the stand, with one of the lawyers. Captain Anderson, Chief Williams, and Lieutenant Alenko, represented the Alliance contingent, while Tali'Zorah stood by to give her evidence. Garrus Vakarian stood by to represent the official C-sec investigation.
Yet, despite the grandeur of the surroundings, the sheer power that was vested in the three beings on the highest dais, and the anxiety of the case the humans would need to lay out, Saren drew the eyes in the room. The large turian had an undeniable charisma, it was true, a certain purity of purpose and strength of resolve that was reflected in the way he stood. But he had wires running from his shoulder into a biomechanical arm, servomotors flexing and pushing as the SpecTRe fidgeted with the new appendage. His eyes, small and hard like all turian eyes, had hourglass pupils, and they seemed to be focusing through a fog.
"Saren. You look terrible." Sparatus said, surprised.
Saren grimaced. "I was forced to use some experimental technology rather sooner than I had hoped. I am fit to perform my duties to the galaxy, and the Council." The hologram turned to the dais.
"Now, is this the human who accuses me?"
Shepard stared up into the strange eyes of the Council SpecTRe. "The citizens of Eden Prime, torn apart by geth soldiers, accuse you. The council SpecTRe Nihlus Kryik's dead body accuses you. Since they cannot, yes, I accuse you." He stared defiantly at the figure of the turian SpecTRe, who did not react, but Shepard surmised that he did not expect such an impassioned defense.
"Nihlus was a friend, and I was in the Traverse tracking terminus slavers at the time of this invasion." Saren said coldly.
"We have read the reports, and the testimony of one traumatized dock-worker is hardly air-tight." The salarian councilor, Valern said.
"I object!" Udina said, his face flushing with anger again. "You should not pass judgement on until all evidence is heard!"
"You have more evidence to present than those found in the report?" Tevos said, offering a conciliatory arm, while simultaneously conveying her doubt at the trustworthiness of such evidence.
That was when the lawyers stepped in. At which point Saren made a disgusted sound, and protested his innocence once more before coldly closing off the broadcast. Apparently he didn't share Nihlus' insistence that those with permission to act above the law had the imperative to know it well.
The entirety of the case took the better part of an hour to present, the Alliance lawyers periodically calling up their witnesses to present their findings, explaining the important elements of the invasion of Eden Prime with graphs, charts, and access to alliance-classified material. The data on Nihlus' hardsuit was presented, including the audio of that haunting poem about specters.
The counselors all seemed skeptical of the entire thing. They had a difficult enough time believing that the geth incursion was a dangerous enough threat to send citadel fleets to protect the Traverse. Their questions clearly showed their skepticism. Shepard felt the frustration of the humans beginning to build as the Council refused to see.
But there came a curious tension in the room as Tali was called to the stand. As she sent the councilors all the data, and went through the important bits – the focus on the Reapers, the calling of Saren a prophet, the conversation with Benezia, and the hunt for this 'conduit'.
There was a long silence after their lawyers added what was left of their case. Then Sparatus pushed a button, and barrier raised up in front of the councilors while they debated among themselves. Things got heated, as Sparatus shook his head and motioned aggressively at Tevos and Valern. Valern crossed his arms, and shook his head. Tevos said something, and the tension seemed to drop. There was a couple minutes more of quiet discussion, and then the barrier dropped, and the Councilors returned to their podiums. They entered something into the consoles stationed there, and Tevos said, with an edge of sadness,
"In light of the evidence and reasonable doubts presented to the council, we hereby strip Saren Arterius of his rank as Chief SpecTRe and declare him a wanted man in all Council systems. A bounty will be placed upon his head, and an investigation will be launched by a Special Prosecutor to determine to what extent Saren's actions have destabilized Council space, and to find and eliminate all of his allies within the Galactic government.
"That's not good enough!" Udina nearly shouted. "What of our colonies? Send out your fleets!"
"We cannot risk war with the terminus systems, Ambassador." Valern said coldly to the irate human. "Nor is a fleet any more effective at flushing out one man."
Shepard flinched, as he felt a surging flash of pain in his head. Images of the slaughter – both from his own memories and the incredible devastation of the beacon-dreams – flashed behind his eyes, ending with Saren's hourglass eyes glaring at him mercilessly. This was important.
He stepped forward, lowering his hand, clutched instinctively at his face. "Councilors. We have yet to discuss the matter of my SpecTRe candidacy."
"Yes." Sparatus said bluntly.
"Nihlus seemed impressed with your progress and dedication to the task." Valern added.
"But we need to know we can trust you with the powers that the office brings." Tevos said kindly.
"And removing your boss as your first act does not inspire confidence in your loyalty to the institution." Sparatus said bitterly. Saren's treachery had hit him hardest, it seemed.
"Send me after him." Shepard said simply.
Shepard watched as the Councilor's considered this. His chase would remove Shepard from the public eye, taking him to far-flung planets. The need to chase down a turian with half a century of combat and espionage experience meant it would remove him from the public eye, where he was popular – both from his defense of Elysium, and from his role in this newest catastrophe. And after the 'trial period', they could install him to more publicly perform his role. He saw Tevos give the subtlest of indications that she liked the idea, then saw her look to Sparatus and Valern, who nodded in turn.
"That would allow some closure on this case while giving time to sort out the geth incursions. Very well. If we are all decided?" She said, looking again to her fellow councilors. They nodded in return, then entered something onto their consoles. When they were done, Shepard felt a vibration as his omni-tool received something, and then the Councilors began the SpecTRe ceremony.
"This is a great honor, you are the first of your kind to be granted the rights and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance group…"
It was several days later, while the Alliance was still punting about the question of how to equip their new human SpecTRe, what role he would play with the Alliance, and what role with the Council, where he would get a ship, etc etc, that Shepard received a summons to an office on Kithoi Ward. A mentor, it had said. His training, it seemed, would continue. The Council assigned him to a SpecTRe who had just returned to the citadel, one, Jondam Bau.
Presenting himself at the nondescript office, he found the door open, and a salarian in yellow and black armor there waiting behind a desk. The chair had been pushed to one side, while the salarian made his motions with the interface.
Shepard saluted and introduced himself. The salarian just stared at him, his big black eyes giving away nothing. His yellow and black armor gleamed in the artificial lighting.
"Commander Shepard. You made N7 designation, successfully completed numerous Alliance special operation missions. But before that you were Alliance Intelligence?"
Shepard stood silent for a second, deciding whether he had an obligation to deny it.
"No need to deny it, Commander. I never spent any time in the Special Tasks Group, either." Bau tilted his head upward, a salarian sign of respect, and a wry look in his eyes. Shepard mirrored the motion, relieved. Bau motioned to Shepard, and started off down the hallway.
"You'll be receiving truncated training. The Council will rely on your former intelligence training to ah, fill in the gaps." the human idiom only slowed the salarian down a fraction. Shepard abruptly realized the salarian wasn't using a translator, but speaking entirely in English.
"What will we be covering?" he asked.
"Forensics, basics of most sciences and engineering, weapons manufacture. et cetera." Bau paused. "The majority will be done in reading, while hunting for Saren." Bau nodded and began his swift march again. "I will teach you the practical aspects here." Shepard swore he saw the ghost of a smile on the salarian's face. "Keep up."
Jondam Bau was true to his word, the curriculum was both exhaustive and exhausting. On top of the replays of his life playing as he slept, there was a truly tremendous amount of reading to keep up with. Due to both his biotic metabolism and the beacon's disruptive effect, Chakwas was practically shoving food into his mouth during his nights on the Normandy. The rest of the crew took the time as an unexpected shore leave, while their captain was in talks with Udina and their XO was off studying to become a council Spectre.
Surprisingly, Garrus, Tali and Wrex all kept up with Shepard. Garrus via passing information that his own investigation had uncovered on Saren, Wrex by dropping by Udina's office and looking menacing, then leaving. Truthfully, he kept this up even after he learned better ways to contact Shepard. The councilor was just too easy to bait. Tali was working with the Council team on unlocking the key to the geth data encryption protocols, drawn from her experience with the data core she had captured. Shepard made time for each of them, keeping with his training - they might be useful contacts later on. He didn't know where he would end up, nor how much time he would have to maintain these relationships in the coming days, but they had all helped him in their own ways, so he would make sure he could be in a position to do the same.
Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams kept up with him as well. They kept inviting him out drinking with the crew, or would stop by while he was studying to say hi. Shepard was touched by the actions. He had had few enough friends growing up. The bond between them had started military, but had grown to an easy comradeship that stabilized Shepard amidst all the upheaval. He resolved to put in a transfer request for the both of them on whatever ship that the Alliance saw fit to put him on, once they sorted out how they were planning to equip him.
A week sped by, and one evening, Shepard received orders from Ambassador Udina to meet him at the berth where the Normandy was docked the next morning.
Anticipation gripped Shepard's insides. At last, it was beginning.