Chapter One: Inglorious Heroes

Spectre Garrus Vakarian was taking a break when he saw his friend sit on the bench inside C-Sec. He practically fell into the seat, and the lights made the weary shadows on his face even more pronounced.

"Chellick." Garrus called out and his friend turned his head and faced him. "I heard you killed two protoform out there today," Garrus said as he sat down on the bench, "You should be celebrating."

"My partner was eaten." Chellick said, "I should have checked to make sure the area was secure."

"You avenged him," Garrus rested his hand on his friend's shoulders, "that is more than most can say."

"Yeah…"Chellick trailed off.

Garrus sighed and looked at his hands. "We have lost many officers since these things arrived. Your partner is far from the first. That intel you got was great though."

Chellick looked at him in disbelief. Garrus brightened.

"Really, who knew Overload can penetrate these Genestealers' armor? And it even seemed to stun it!"

"It wasn't that great, I don't see how that hasn't been done before." Chellick grumbled.

"STG hasn't apparently. That vid taken from your visor has them practically drooling."

"All for the cause, I guess."

"Damn right." Garrus clapped Chellicks shoulder, "and with your success with Overload and that new model rocket launcher, we have a chance at destroying these things!"

"Maybe…"

Garrus straightened and stood up. "I have to report to the Executor, but I'll buy us both drinks at Flux later okay?" Chellick hummed in response.

The routes to the various districts in the citadel had become much slower in recent years. The borders between all districts had scanners, scales and armed C-Sec guards. The entrances to any places that can afford it now had similar measures. The Executor's office in the Embassy District was as pristine as ever, with its immaculate white walls and the Captain seated at his desk, overlooking some files on his private terminal. Garrus stood straight before the desk and the Executor looked up at him.

Spectre Vakarian," the Executor Pallin began, "I have an assignment for you." He gathered himself and continued, "I imagine by now you are aware of this recent development? That the new ML-77 rocket launcher has been proven very effective when used in conjunction with Overload, and still effective without?"

"Yes sir?"

Executor Pallin rested his hand wearily on his terminal. "Three batarians arrived the other day. They were called in by the batarian ambassador but they never arrived in the Batarian Embassy. These men had cleared every checkpoint between the docks and Presidium, but shortly after entering the Presidium they completely disappeared. That was over four hours ago. Ambassador Jath'Amon has only alerted us now to their missing status and he has been acting rather oddly since. When Customs searched their ship, it was completely deserted and there is no trace of anyone being on that ship recently."

"You think the missing batarians are protoforms, sir?'

"I pray to the Spirits they are not."

"Sir?"

"As you know, our scanners are the best design STG has created, yet they can only detect the protoform when they begin to shift their form. The most accurate detection devices we have are the scales at every security checkpoint. Because of the protoforms' immense disproportional mass and inability to use biotic powers, they are revealed every time they step on a scale. If, somehow these things can fool a scale, if they have developed biotics, we have lost the most reliable way to detect these things."

Garrus swallowed and stepped back. "Maybe they got eaten after they arrived…"

"Officer Vakarian, how is that any better?" The Executor snapped, "How is it any better that we have protoform here? In the Presidium? Eating people and stealing their identities? Thank the Spirits they cannot impersonate the Keepers without the real ones going berserk…" He muttered under his breath and then straightened. "You are to investigate the disappearance of these batarians. I recommend you start with investigating their ship and where they were last spotted, and questioning the batarian ambassador. Dismissed."

It was a short walk to reach the Batarian Embassy. There were no check points between the Executor's office and the Batarian Embassy as all of the embassies were located within the same building as the Executor's office and the ambassadors hated the checkpoints in the Presidium. Many of the upper classes believed that the security measures were unnecessary in their districts, and had insisted that the Protoform Problem would not be able to escape the districts of the lower classes. Garrus was of the opinion that they would be soon proven wrong.

The Batarian Embassy lobby had stark white walls adorned with expensive batarian tapestries, several members knobby batarian shrub with green spheres for leaves in examples of expensive batarian pottery and a massive window and balcony overlooking the Presidium. The furniture was of Asari design and far above Garrus's pay grade, and a door to the ambassador's office itself sat on the back wall. A fairly young female batarian secretary seated behind the front desk looked up from her terminal as Garrus entered the room.

"Can I help you…?" She asked, startled.

"Yes. I am Spectre Vakarian, here to see Ambassador Jath'Amon."

"Um… the ambassador is not expecting anyone…" She said slowly as she examined her terminal. "What is the nature of your visit?"

"I am looking into the disappearance of those batarians that the ambassador called in."

"Oh, right!" She brightened. "Let me tell the ambassador you have arrived." She made a few taps on her terminal, then "the ambassador is ready to see you." She gestured to the door to the ambassador's office. As Garrus entered the ambassador's office, he decided that he would have to talk to her later.

Ambassador Jath'Amon's office was even more luxurious than the lobby, though in the same style. There was more expensive stuff in the office than in the lobby, and Garrus found the effect somewhat tacky. The ambassador was seated at his own desk, his posture perfect as if he were prepared to deliver a speech to be broadcast for all of Council Space.

"Ah, Spectre Vakarian," ambassador Jath'Amon said in a friendly, welcoming tone, "have you found the captain and his men?"

Garrus stood straight and kept his face free of expression, "I have not."

"Damn." The ambassador's face twisted in frustration, and a flash of fear.

"What can you tell me about the captain?" Garrus asked.

"Captain Ka'hairal Balak is a high ranking member of the Batarian External Forces," the ambassador sighed and continued, "He was coming here to inform me directly about the recent events along the borders of the Hegemony space."

"Something interesting happened I take it?"

The ambassador glared.

"I need to know if anyone wanted the captain killed ambassador," Garrus said, "any possible leads will make my investigation easier."

"You believe he and his men are dead then?"

"It is a possibility. It is possible they are still alive."

"The Hegemony is on the frontier of Council Space and sits close to the edge of the borders of the Terminus Systems. Every year raiding parties from the Terminus attack our colonies but the Council does nothing about it. We have petitioned countless times for the Council to spare some forces to patrol the border and countless times we have been denied!"

The ambassador took a breath to calm himself. "So we have been focusing on patrolling the borders ourselves and the captain was to bring me the latest updates."

Garrus imagined the protoform attacks happening all over Council Space might be the cause of the lack of ships for border patrol but he wisely did not voice this opinion to the ambassador. "Did he send you any messages before he arrived at the Citadel?"

The ambassador continued, "he mentioned that one of the Hegemony's outermost colonies, Lorek, is having some problems, but that is likely just a few more raid attempts from the Terminus than usual."

Garrus frowned, "Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Lorek in the Omega Nebula?"

"It is a point of pride for our people that the Hegemony has been able to keep Lorek despite it being in the middle of Terminus Space. No pirate lord has ever rousted it from our control and never will."

"Anything else?"

Spectre Vakarian, everything else was to be delivered to me in person. Is this all?"

"Just one more thing," said Garrus, "why was the captain to bring you the information personally instead of across a secure channel?"

"There is no such thing as a secure channel. We have important information delivered in person to prevent messages from being intercepted." The ambassador frowned. "It seems however, that since the protoform, even that is not secure either. Do you know what the status of the Protoform Threat is?"

"I am not privy to such information." Garrus gave a slight polite nod, "have a good day ambassador." And then he left.

Garrus decided that his next stop should be the docks. With any luck, the ship would provide some clue as to the batarians' whereabouts, or maybe a reason behind their disappearance.

The docks had the most strict security measures of the entire Citadel. There were multiple scales and scanners at every entryway and at the docking zones for ships. Everyone and everything coming and going was inspected. As far as Garrus knew, there was no such thing as a VIP pass; everyone had to go through the same security inspections as everyone else. Although, that did not stop some from trying.

Executor Pallin had called ahead and notified Customs about the missing batarians, so the officers had already locked down the batarian captain's ship and begun more thorough inspections than usual. A quick discussion with the officers revealed that the batarians went through the security with very little fuss approximately five hours ago. They did not argue against inspection, scanners had picked up no contraband or shapeshifting, and scales picked up appropriate weights. They were among the least stressful inspections that the officers had ever done, especially for batarians who were well known to take insult over anything that could possibly imply disrespect.

But the interior of the ship was another story. Every terminal had been smashed into pieces. All spare omnitools and cameras, things that were usually found in ships were gone. Even the navigation was destroyed; ripped apart by something that left massive claw marks that matched no known species on the walls and floor. The most ominous destruction they found however, was faint foot prints embedded into the metal floor of the ship. The prints were roughly the shape of asari or batarian feet, except there were only four toes instead of five. The claw marks suggested the same number of digits as well.

The officers had recovered all the pieces they could find of the computers on the ship that might tell where they had come from and where they might have gone and sent the parts to the Network Division as the techs there were more likely to be able to reconstruct something. Garrus followed up with a request from the techs working on the reconstruction to message him with whatever they can put together.

Realizing there was nothing more to be gained here, Garrus left the docks to fulfill his promise to Chellick.

Flux was a fairly new nightclub in the Upper Wards of the Citadel and hugely popular. The owner, a volus by the name of Doran, maintained some of the most stringent security measures in the Upper Wards. Not only were there scales and scanners at the entrance, there were scanners within the nightclub itself, and a dedicated force of S-Sec guards constantly watching both the patrons and the scanners for any sign of any protoform. Because of the security, Flux had become one of the favored assignments among the Enforcement Division of C-Sec, particularly for those who had become traumatized from the protoform attacks, but still capable of service.

The excellent security also made the place one of the most favored places for S-Sec officer to take their breaks. As it was time for Chellick's break, there was no other place he would be.

As Garrus entered the nightclub, he saw Chellick sitting at the bar nursing a glass of some, probably cheap and potent, alcoholic beverage. Beside him sat a turian that took a few moments to identify.

"Nihlus?" Garrus asked, surprised to see his old mentor. "What are you doing here?"

Both Nihlus and Chellick turned to face Garrus, though Garrus noted that Chellick still tightly clutched his drink, which was far larger than usual.

"Ah, hello Garrus," Nihlus greeted, "Chellick said you would be coming."

"So what are you doing here?" Garrus asked as he sat into the other seat beside Chellick.

"I was just congratulating Chellick here on his accomplishments today." Nihlus patted him on the shoulder. "This man here is one of the illustrious few who fought a protoform to the death and lived to tell about it." He looked Chellick in the eye, "and you fought and killed two."

Garrus added, "He's right you know, you have every right to be proud of yourself."

"It wasn't that great," Chellick mumbled into his drink, "I was just trying not to die."

"Intentions or not, the sheer lethality of these things have made it nearly impossible to gather any conclusive data on them. Three hundred years and you have acquired the best data we have ever had. That is more than most can say." Said Nihlus.

"Nihlus, what do you know about protoform?" Garrus asked, "I have a case which might involve them."

Nihlus sighed, "I don't know much more than anyone else I'm afraid. Many records I have found about them describe them as just appearing all over the galaxy like some kind of monster from our nightmares."

'"Monster' sounds pretty accurate to me," Chellick mumbled.

"Where do they come from?" Garrus asked.

"Official documents indicate that they came from the other side of Arcturus Relay 2, which was one of the many relays in the Arcturus Stream found mysteriously open," Nihlus replied, "When the Hierarchy's scouts found the active relays, they investigated and soon found a planet with an unknown alien civilization on it on the other side of Relay 2. The Council was informed and it was assumed that the newly discovered civilization was the cause of the open relays. As they are a species that had obviously only recently achieved space travel, the Council sent ambassadors."

"I imagine this is where things went wrong," Garrus said.

"Yes. The ambassadors sent a message asking for more personnel, an odd message, but it was not one of alarm. And then they asked for some representatives from the minor races, which was unusual but the Council complied. There had to have been thousands of people that the Council sent to that world. And then everybody who went to that world returned home without any fuss. Then the disappearances started." Nihlus paused to ask the bartender for a drink. "At first, nobody really noticed: a few custodians did not show up at work or at home, a few techs suddenly quit their jobs… Stuff like that happens all the time. Just not so much of it at once. A few complaints here and there about the disappearances being unusual, a few odd messages from various worlds about mysterious signs of attacks. The various governments did not start doing things about it until some VIPs went missing."

"Which VIPs?" Garrus asked.

"Many. All over." Nilhus replied. "VIPs of all races. None connected to each other, other than being important. But still the Council forces themselves did not get involved until the attack on the Citadel Council itself."

"I think I might have read something about that once, that the Council Chambers were attacked by a protoform posing as a Spectre."

"Salarian Spectre Molan. I saw the vid of that. You would think the Council security would suspect something was up seeing as his weight left footprints crushed into the floor."

"Yeah, the Councilors are a bit oblivious to the obvious sometimes." Garrus gave a sad smile at the old joke among the Spectres.

"Well, it attacked the Councilors openly after they refused his request to send more ambassadors across Relay 2. Asari Councilor Aerina died in the attack and the remaining Council put the majority of their military capital on the task of ending the Protoform Problem. Everyone that could be located who had been a part of that diplomatic party was revealed as a protoform in disguise and killed. Unfortunately, many of those people vanished, which is why we are still finding these things."

"Why haven't we destroyed their homeworld, since that is where they are from?" Garrus inquired, frowning.

"Because the Council is stupid," said Chellick.

"I don't really know," answered Nihlus, "I imagine we let be as a trap for other protoform. Arcturus Relay 2 has been blockaded since the Council Attack and all the Relays in the Arcturus Stream are monitored by Citadel patrols. Any who try to get through those relays will be shot by our dreadnoughts."

"What kind of abilities do the protoform have?"

"Tentacles. Big tentacles," answered Chellick.

"The tentacles are one of the worst offensive capabilities that the protoform seem to have," Nihlus explained, "They have excellent range and can tear though armor, shields, barriers and cover. Actually, all of the offensive abilities I have seen can tear though most defenses. I recommend you practice dodging. Avoid getting into melee range with them if you can: their arms can shift into blades that can tear through tanks. Their shapeshifting is their greatest threat as they can impersonate anyone from any race and these things are not stopped by the dextro/levo barrier. They can also form an armored exoskeleton at will to protect themselves from most small arms. Fortunately, no one has ever reported a protoform using biotics. Oh, and they can, and do, use all kinds of firearms, and tech attacks too if they get ahold of an omnitool."

"Damn, is this all we have?" Asked Garrus, who had become increasingly worried about the difficulties he might face.

"Unfortunately. The measures needed to kill protoform tend to not leave enough remains to get conclusive data from. The DNA of these things is one of the most bizarre things the STG has ever seen. When they are alive, they read as whatever person they're impersonating, and when they're dead, they read as a pile of cooked mystery meat. The only obvious difference between a regular person and them before they shift is their weight."

"Spirits, what do you recommend for killing these things?"

"Explosives. Big ones." Said Nihlus with a straight face. "And because of our friend here," Nihlus gave Chellick's shoulder a friendly shake, "electrical attacks stun them and disable their armor. From what data I've seen, you might want to try some ammo upgrades on all your guns. Most of the successful kills with small arms involve modified rounds of some kind."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Suddenly, Garrus's received omnitool made a quiet "bing". Garrus opened the device pulled up his messages. The tech's had found something. The data was mostly corrupted, but they had managed pull up information about the colony of Lorek, but also about a moon named Torfan. The analysis of the data suggested that communications with the Hegemony's probably illicit mercenary operations on Torfan have suddenly gone dark, and communications with the entire Fathar system, which Lorek is a part of, are completely dark as well. "Looks like I need to go. Chellick, are you still nursing that drink?"

Chellick raised his still half-full glass in response.

"Ah, I'll buy you one next time." Said Garrus as he got up.

As Garrus headed towards the exit, Nihlus called out, "Hey, no more of those 'Lone Warrior' heroics. You need a team to watch your back!"

"Yeah, Yeah." Garrus waved him off as he left.

******************** Inglorious Heroes: End *******************

Talk for Reader:

Sorry for the wait. I am my own beta.

The reason a Spectre is taking orders from C-Sec is because of the protoforms. The idea is that C-sec is having so much trouble with them, a few notable officers were made into Spectres, and have the authority of specters, but they still usually answer to the Executor instead of directly to the Council.

I borrowed the Council Races' terms for the shapeshifting enemy from Prototype, the scanners' inability to detect them except when shapeshifting, and the much of the circumstances behind the invasion from Palladius's Prototypes. I borrowed a lot from that fic, but I am not necessarily following that writer's setup. We just happened to have a similar idea and I am really lazy when it comes to coming up with terms and names.

Many characters mentioned are from Mass Effect canon. Any differences in their character is from 300 years of alternate universe.