Chapter 11: Briefing

After treating himself to the most wonderful short and cold shower had ever had, Garrus reluctantly put on the clothes that were provided for him and immediately felt far less comfortable than he was before. His body felt so light and his movements were far too easy. Maybe that is what happens when someone wears armor for too long?

Then he set out to find the executor. Three wrong turns and four stops to ask for directions, he found the correct room and was greeted by an unpleasant surprise.

"Saren?" Garrus didn't expect, or hope, to see that particular turian for a long time.

"Garrus." replied Saren, the way the name passed through is lips seemed to give it an oily texture. Garrus felt like he might need another shower.

"If you too are going to start fighting at least do it in the Arena where I can claim the proceeds from the ticket sales," the executor drawled from behind Saren, "Spirits know C-Sec could use the money." Saren stepped aside. "Spectre Garrus Vakarian," said the executor, "how is you shoulder?"

"Perfect," replied Garrus, "Dr. Mordin Solus said he found no abnormalities aside from it looking like it had never been injured at all and it feels like it did before it got shot. I am awaiting some test results though."

"If it isn't hindering you, then it is good to have you fit for duty again," said the executor, "I suggest you be briefed by your fellow Spectres before the Council contacts us." At that Executor Pallin headed towards some datapads piled on a table in the middle of the room.

Garrus got a good look around the room. It was a pretty standard meeting room: lots of chairs around a big white table. Projectors for holographic displays built into both the table and the back wall. Saren and the executor were sorting through a pile of datapads beside a terminal, along with Nihlus and an unknown asari as well. Everyone was in armor, or in a nice suit in the case of the executor, and Garrus felt even more underdressed than before.

Garrus went over to Nihlus, "What did I miss?"

"A lot," Nihlus said, "you have been locked up for a little over a three weeks."

"That long?" That explained why he felt like he was going insane at least.

"Yes," said the asari, "A lot has happened while you were 'entertaining' STG."

"I don't believe we've met," Garrus asked, "you are…?"

"Spectre Tela Vasir," she replied curtly, "I usually operate near within or near the Terminus Systems."

That sounded odd to Garrus, "aren't the Terminus Systems outside Council jurisdiction?"

"Yes. It is my job to ensure the various independent and mercenary groups do not pose a threat to Council Space. It is tricky, considering they do not acknowledge Spectre authority, aside from painting a big target on ones face."

"Ah."

"Big things have been going on, Garrus," said Nihlus, "Humans are coming to the Citadel."

"What?! Why?! When did this happen?!" We're letting the shapeshifting monsters in now?

"Just a diplomatic party. Ambassadors and their entourages," said Nihlus, "We're placing them all under heavy surveillance the entire time."

"How did this happen?"

"The Hierarchy's Twelfth Fleet came across an unknown fleet of ships emerging from a formerly dormant relay. Human ships, apparently. According to these," Nihlus gestured to the stack of datapads, "the relay activated while the turian fleet was passing it. I can't believe the commanding officer originally wanted to fire upon them. Who picks a fight with an unknown military?"

"Fortunately, cooler passions prevailed," said Tela, "the fleet held its fire and proceeded to attempt communications."

"Probably because the flagship showed up." Nihlus said, "You need to see the scans the fleet got from that thing. It is huge."

"I'll look at them later," Garrus said to Nihlus then turned to Tela, "what do you mean 'attempted communications'?"

"The ships either wouldn't, or couldn't, respond to being hailed. The obviously have some kind of communication system or they wouldn't be able to organize their fleet. Anyway, the turian in charge called for a Council ambassador to make contact with the alien fleet since they were making no progress just sitting there."

"Next thing the Council knows," said Nihlus, "they're getting messages from the ambassador that confirm that datapad that was found beside you. And that the humans are insistent about doing their diplomacy in person."

Garrus groaned, "so the Protoform really are organized and spacefaring on their own then?"

"It looks more like this might be a divergent species of Protoform, or at least a subspecies," said Nihlus, "There are just too many differences listed by the both the datapad and the ambassador's own observations."

Garrus didn't think that was any better. There were too many shapeshifting monsters in the galaxy already. "So what are we doing now?" he asked.

"Right now? We're sorting through the reports from the Twelfth Fleet and waiting for the Council to give us our orders." Nihlus picked up and waved one of the many datapads on the table. Were all these reports from the Twelfth Fleet?

"Why hasn't somebody already gone through these and uploaded them onto a single terminal or something?" asked Garrus. The pile was just so impractical, he had a hard time understanding why important information would just be left in such a state.

"The Council wanted to keep this as quiet as possible for now." answered Tela. "We have never had a First Contact go like this. Usually, species are found by the Council either before or shortly after they achieve spaceflight and are carefully introduced to the galactic community. No species has ever snuck a recon force onto the Citadel itself before making diplomatic negotiations. We really only know what they have given us and they could know everything about us. We have never been in this position before."

"The Protoform don't count?" asked Garrus.

"The Protoform are not organized, that much is obvious. Their attacks are too random, too many missed opportunities to support each other. These humans in contrast, are very organized."

Garrus sighed. Wonderful. "So, what do we know about them?"

"Well," said Nihlus, "that terminal over there has the information from the datapad their agents left. It's mostly history though."

Garrus walked over to the terminal and accessed the relevant files. The first thing he noticed was the small size of the scroll bar. He scrolled down. Further. Further. A rushing stream of text passed by as he continued scrolling. "Uh, Nihlus?" he asked, "is there a condensed version? Or just, you know, important events?"

"Still scared of reading material, huh, Garrus?"

"It's a very scary wall of text."

Nihlus laughed. "I'll tell you the important stuff."

"Oh thank the Spirits."

"Alright, the Extra Short Garrus Version. They've were not always shapeshifting or had people absorbing abilities, they all fled their original homeworld, they've been a spacefaring race for about three hundred and ten years, they fought a lot of wars against each other before and after achieving spaceflight, they use genetic engineering casually, and so on."

"Wait. They were not always shapeshifters?" Garrus guessed that made since though. What kind of species evolved shapeshifting to begin with? That kind of ability just doesn't exist in nature, not like that anyway. Mimicry exists in many places, but true shapeshifting only existed within the Protoform and the humans. So, no surprises they're unnatural.

"According to the history they provided," said Nihlus, "the shapeshifting and absorbing is the result of two engineered viruses. Both seem to cause incredible mutations in their hosts, including the aforementioned shapeshifting and absorbing people."

"This should be taken as an object lesson on why it is good that genetic engineering is banned by the Council," Saren said suddenly. Garrus hated that he agreed with him.

"Why would anyone create a virus that does that?" Garrus thought the idea that this was intentional was… disgusting.

"Well, the human's history claims that it was an independent, and insane group that developed the viruses. And that the creators soon regretted it before they all died."

"They didn't regret it that much since they still use genetic engineering," said Saren. Garrus tried very hard to spontaneously develop telepathic ability so he could command Saren to go away.

"Considering that their entire population is infected with one of the viruses and they had to flee from their original homeworld to escape from the other," said Nihlus, "I would say they regret it."

"Alright," said Garrus, "so the Protoform are infected with one virus and the humans are infected with another? Which one has what?"

"They insist the Protoform are infected with something called the Redlight Virus, called that because of the characteristic red internal bioluminescence that shows when the Protoform shift forms. It seems to have been extremely contagious and quickly spread across the planet after Patient Zero, Pariah, escaped quarantine."

"What's the other one?"

"The other is the Blacklight Virus, which is so named because the original incarnation of the virus had the same red bioluminescence, but also caused internal pigment to blacken as well. The Blacklight Virus, in contrast to Redlight, was created to be a weapon: to be as lethal as possible, but to also be fairly safe to handle. It apparently killed most of the hosts it infected within minutes but it cannot spread without a special vector designed to transmit it or at least a blood to blood transfer. It was deliberately spread by its Patient Zero, Zeus, after Pariah escaped quarantine and Zeus learned that Blacklight grants a resistance to Redlight."

"Just resistance?"

"Blacklight infected and Redlight infected cannot infect each other, but both can absorb each other," replied Nihlus, "so that counts as resistance, I would say."

Spirits, neither virus sounded good in Garrus's opinion. "So, you said that they fled their original homeworld to escape the Protoform? Why? It sounds like they had a fighting chance to me."

"Yes. Their original homeworld, which they call Earth, is the infamous Protoform world beyond Arcturus Relay 2," replied Nihlus, "the text says that Pariah was the only Redlight infected to retain sapience, but was somehow able to direct the various people infected with its particular strain all over the entire world. With his direction, the Protoform were significantly more effective at subverting the uninfected human leaders. The Blacklight infected, dubbing themselves 'The Evolved,' eventually decided their homeworld was a lost cause and proceeded to put all their efforts into constructing a fleet of liveships to carry the remnants of their species to a new world. They then found Prothean ruins on the fourth planet of their original system, used what they found there to locate and activate their system's relay and then left to find a new world, which they named Dirt."

"And couldn't be bothered to clean up the mess they left behind for the Council to stumble upon years later," said Saren.

"Years? They had been in space for that long before the Council found Earth?" Garrus asked.

"About ten or so," said Nihlus, "but the text is somewhat vague about the years before, during and after the Exodus. I guess they didn't keep many records then."

Maybe they are hiding something, thought Garrus, but he didn't voice such thoughts aloud. Instead he said, "So they've been colonizing space for three hundred and ten years. Not a newly spacefaring race then."

"It looks like a technical definition of 'spacefaring'," said Nihlus, "Humans insist they have only been spreading out from Dirt in the last hundred and twenty or so years."

"How many worlds have they colonized?"

"They didn't say, but considering that they confessed to have just come out of a multi-system war with each other, I would say they have several," said Nihlus.

"It shouldn't be too difficult to destroy a few of their colonies and pin it on 'rebels'," said Saren, "it may slow their expansion."

"We'll keep that option in reserve, Saren," said Nihlus, "but first we need to know more about what we're dealing with."

"You mentioned wars," said Garrus, "how many wars have they had?"

"Many," said Nihlus, "I don't think they ever had much peace. Even the places where the historical record becomes vague assumes skirmishes between various groups of humans."

"They've detonated atomic weaponry upon their own worlds on three separate occasions," said Saren, "they probably wouldn't notice if another was dropped upon them. At least the krogan learned that nuclear war is a bad idea after the first time they did it."

"Three nuclear wars?!" Garrus had a hard time comprehending how someone could have more than one. One was plenty, after all, look what it did to Tuchanka. How could any species be insane enough to do that again?

"It looks like before the viruses," said Nihlus, "there was one war that ended with nuclear fire. Then, after the viruses began spreading across Earth, various human leaders tried to slow or stop the infection by bombing the infected areas. And one of the major wars after the Exodus had an exchange of nuclear fire."

"How many major wars?"

"Six wars after the Exodus stood out in particular," said Nihlus, "and countless others before that."

"They had three wars they called 'World Wars,' where a whole world was at war with itself, and they had many more wars could also qualify for that distinction," said Saren, "this species is a bomb waiting to go off."

"Saren," Nihlus chastised.

"If this species is so dangerous, why are we making any kind of diplomacy with them?" Garrus wondered aloud.

"The Council is hoping to limit the humans before they can decide to declare war on Council Space or at least bind them to some type of sane law and stop them before their ignorance does something everyone regrets," said Saren, "if it works then that is great, but if it doesn't, I say we should bombard their worlds with our dreadnoughts and be done with them."

"Saren, the Citadel Conventions cannot be enforced by ignoring the Citadel Conventions," said Nihlus, "otherwise, no one would follow them." Then he turned to Garrus, "the Council is looking for any way they can to deal with the Protoform threat, and is also very interested in the human's development of genetic modification technology. No one has ever gone so far, or has been so successful with it before."

"Why is the Council so interested in genetic modification technology?" asked Garrus, after all, it had to be banned for a good reason, right?

"After the deployment of the Genophage to end the Krogan Rebellions, there were worries that someone else could use something similar as a weapon against another species, so the Council banned all of it." Nihlus replied, "It never helped that most attempts at genetic modification end in death of the modified subject. That is how the Genophage functions after all: it kills most of the krogan."

"And so we want the human's technology because…"

"You've seen what it can do Garrus. Look at your shoulder," said Nihlus, "Not too long ago you were going to be stuck at a desk for the rest of your life. Now you can't even tell that you were ever wounded at all. Think about how many lives can be saved from that medigel stuff alone. Beyond that, imagine how many genetic illnesses could be cured."

"Curing alien illnesses seems to be a bit of a stretch, Nihlus," said Garrus.

"Considering that for the past hundred and forty years their species made genetic modification commercially available, it might not be that much of a stretch. According to the history provided, they even grow their spaceships and buildings. Their ships and buildings are living organisms and they can grow and reshape them to suit their needs. That's far beyond what anyone else has ever done."

Garrus quietly admitted to himself that a cure for incurable genetic illnesses does sound nice and a quick, permanent solution to the Protoform all over Council Space would be great as well. He imagined for a moment seeing Solana up and sparing, laughing as she sent him tumbling over and over. "So we're getting ready for the human diplomats then. Is this everybody?"

"Don't be ridiculous," said Tela, "we are just one group of Spectres that is going to be at the negotiations. There are other groups that are being briefed as well and C-Sec is going to be there. Any Protoform or human who causes any form of trouble will not live long to regret it."

"Spectres," the executor's voice suddenly called out, "the Council is ready to address us now."

Garrus looked to the back wall which became covered with a hologram of the asari, turian and salarian councilors.

"Executor Pallin, Spectres," the asari councilor began, "I trust you all have taken the time to go over the information gathered on the humans so far."

Executor Pallin looked at Garrus, "More or less."

"Good." said the turian councilor, "the human ambassadorial party will arrive at the Citadel tomorrow. Spectres, you will be monitoring the humans from any advantageous position you can find. Executor Pallin, C-Sec will be stationed around the area the humans will be confined to, which includes the route from the Presidium Docks to the New Species Embassy, around the embassy, Citadel tower and inside the tower as well."

"We need you to ensure no one from the Citadel or the human party can cause any sort of diplomatic incident," added the salarian councilor, "we warn you, the human diplomats refused to negotiate without both reporters and military guards on both sides. While all of the Council reporters selected were carefully vetted, and both C-Sec and the Spectres undergo frequent screening for Protoform infiltration, there is a chance one might sneak in as a member of the human party."

"Councilors', with all due respect," said Garrus, "if Protoform and humans have the same abilities, how can we tell if one is a Protoform in disguise?" It seemed like an obvious, pertinent question.

The turian councilor answered, "In case that the humans are lying about the distinction between their race and the Protoform, both the Spectres and C-Sec are to keep watch over every member of their party and keep them from wandering around the Citadel unsupervised."

"The humans are to be confined to a few blocks around the embassy usually used for diplomats from species petitioning for Council membership when not speaking to us in the Council Chambers," said the asari councellor.

"Under no circumstances should the humans, or any reporter covering them, be allowed to leave the Presidium. Nobody is to enter or leave the assigned diplomatic area without authorization." said the turian councilor.

"The humans will probably also trip every single type of scale used in the Citadel, so C-Sec and the Spectres will be granted authorization to bypass the scales within the area the humans may be permitted." said the salarian councilor, "The authorization codes will not work outside of the permissible area, and will not work at all on the transit car terminals outside of the designated times for the diplomats to come to and from Citadel Tower. The Transit cars are also being reprogramed at the moment to only travel between the New Species Embassy and Citadel Tower."

"C-Sec and the Spectres are to apprehend anyone who manages to circumvent our precautions." said the turian councilor, "these negotiations will be delicate enough without anyone from any species causing trouble."

"Spectres, Executor," began the asari councilor, "I trust you will ensure that these negotiations will go smoothly. A map of the diplomatic area will be sent to all of your inboxes." Suddenly, the hologram in the middle of the table flared to life, displaying strange forms Garrus had never seen before. One looked like a massive ball with small tentacles sticking out of it, another looked like it was just one long tentacle, another looked like a long tube with a bunch of tentacles sticking out of one end, and others looked similar to a turian ships but distinctly alien as well. Many of the ships had huge and very visible guns, while others had nothing he could immediately recognize as a mass accelerator weapon. "These are examples of the various human ships seen by the turian twelfth fleet," said the asari councilor, "tomorrow, ships like or similar to will be landing at the Citadel docks." Those are ships? Garrus thought they looked like stuff out of a biology textbook. The hologram changed again, this time showing three figures similar to what he had seen before, "these are examples of the true forms of humans as recorded by the ambassador called in by the turian fleet. Try to keep them from shapeshifting as much as possible, and certainly do not permit them to consume any members of the sapient races on the Citadel. That is to be considered a hostile act under all circumstances."

Garrus got a good look at the humans shown on the hologram. They looked very similar to that Commander Jane Shepard and his/her/its squad. They had skin in various shades of brown: one very light, one very dark and one in-between. The irises of their eyes ranged from blue to brown and looked disturbingly similar to an asari's. Two of the humans had four fingers on each hand but one humans had five fingers on its hands instead. One of the humans also looked slighter than the other two. The humans were all wearing what Garrus assumed was a uniform, considering that two of them were dressed identically and that the attire all looked fairly similar. The clothes worn by the two was sleeveless with what looked like dark gray armor guarding the shoulders, upper body, and middle of the torso and midsection, but not along the sides which were covered with only light gray cloth. The outer part of the legs of the uniform was also covered in dark heavy cloth that matched the armor and had what looked like several pockets and pouches within easy reach of the humans' hands. The inner part looked like a lighter material and had a gray camouflage pattern. The humans were wearing heavy gray boots in a shape like what he had seen worn by batarians before and both of these humans were wearing dark gray hoods over their heads. The third human however was wearing different outfit that Garrus could only assume meant rank. It was primarily a blue that he found disturbingly close to the color of turian blood with gold trim. The clothes also had sleeves covering the arms and the while it also had a hood, the human wore its hood down revealing a head covered by brown hair and very obvious round ears on both sides of its head.

"You all will be sent a message when the human ships arrive in the Serpent Nebula, so be ready for it. Good luck with this mission," wished the asari councilor, and then the holograms deactivated. Garrus and the Spectres gathered and stacked the datapads on the table for STG to go over again later and then proceeded to leave.

"Spectre Garrus," said Executor Pallin.

Garrus stopped in front of the doorway. "Yes, Executor?"

"As a Spectre attached to C-Sec, I'm responsible for you, you understand that right?"

"I'm not going to cause a diplomatic incident if that's what you're saying, Executor."

"I'm not saying that," said the Executor, "Garrus, you just had what was very nearly a career ending injury. Only an encounter with bizarre, completely unheard of technology from a new spacefaring species that decided to infiltrate the Citadel changed that. Many would declare that to be a miracle. You have a lot of potential Garrus, I don't want to see you not achieve it."

"Understood Executor."

"Send me the bill for a new set of armor. I trust you will find something reasonably priced before the humans arrive."

"Of course Executor." Garrus turned to leave.

"And Garrus, your guns were sent to your apartment. They should be on your dining table."

"Thank you, sir."

"Dissmissed."

******************** Briefing: End *******************

Talk for reader:

Look how long this chapter is! Yay! I had had a long streak of inspiration today! This is so awesome!

I came up with a rough timeline for a history of what happened after humans left Earth, but I soon realized that while I love history, writing out 300+ years of events is daunting. So I didn't do it. It is a lot and I don't want to do it. So I had the characters give a Cliff Notes version: Pre and Post Infection. Just so you know, any misinformation here on historical events is because the historical record is missing some information, and some information is assumed by various parties. And this is an AU-y crossover. And it has been a while since I played Prototype (and I didn't play P2 at all) so I am refreshing whenever I can with Youtube and Wikia. (But some of the wrong information is deliberate).

Since its formation, the Citadel Council is used to being the dominant part to all first contacts, using their advantageous position to absorb them and shove them into the "lesser species" role (words "lesser species" taken from Avina to describe everyone who doesn't have a seat on the Council). The game gave an impression that the various species the Council sends ambassadors to are observed for years before determining suitability for first contact, so I always wondered: what if a species successfully scouted out the Citadel and its archives first and so the Council is at a disadvantage instead?

Four species are specifically being described as being pre-spaceflight before being uplifted by the Council.

The two species that are granted Council seats after its formation both have large and skilled militaries prior to contact, achieve spaceflight on own, and one (turians) is the only species to have many colonies prior to contact and the other (humans) has technologies that cannot be replicated by aliens (medigel is just one example) and is noted by many characters to refuse Council aid in technological development whenever possible.

Nobody is going to list every single atomic test, or just random explosion in a first contact package. First, there's a lot of them. Second, many are classified. Third, while not classified, many important people would rather some of them brought up. Fourth, some are just forgotten. How many people know the reason why South Carolina does not allow nuclear weapons inside its borders was because of a South Carolinian town being accidentally blown up with a nuclear bomb by the US military in 1958?

Hey, have you ever thought about that "No activating dormant relays" law and thought: what's keeping somebody from activating the other end? It just seems like a poor security idea.