Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Mass Effect, or anything related to it. I make no claim of such.
A/N: How is everyone this fine night? I thank everyone who's taken time to read the story so far, and I appreciate the additions to the alerts/favorites list. I also really appreciate everyone who's reviewed so far, I like feedback and it makes me glad to write the story. Special shoutout to XRaiderV1 and Cf96 for the consistent reviews, I will respond to most if not all questions, and if something really bugs you just PM me and I'll try to help. Read and enjoy! Edit: cleaned up a couple things last chapter. I don't always check my work thoroughly enough, so please let me know if you spot any errors, and I'll correct them. Thank you. Also asked about possible/probable pairings again. I'm just trying to make everyone a bit more involved right now. My character may be friendly with someone, but I feel it's more about giving each character a bit of personality.
Presidium, Citadel.
It's a fairly short trip by rapid transit to the Emabassies, with two cars for the large group. I consider my possible squadmates as we head in. The two soldiers seem to be mistrustful, or downright hostile from what I've seen of Ashley. I've never been a fan of the Human race, though. Garrus seems like he's trying to place me from somewhere, Tali seems grateful for, but confused about my assistance. Wrex.. Is Wrex, though I get the feeling I'll have to prove my skill before I get any acknowledgement from a man who's been around since before Humans had even started questioning the universe as we know it.
As for Shepard.. I'm usually good at reading people, but he's not easy to understand. He watches all, while revealing nothing. It's similar to my only revealing what I want people to know, but some can see through that. Shepard reveals nothing, in any direction. It makes me nervous.
We start to move towards the Ambassador's office, and I'm wondering if I can not punch Udina in the face right off for simply being a pompous ass. 'We shall see'.
Pompous ass mode, go!
"Shepard, you're making my life difficult." I sigh a bit, opting to stare out onto the presidium than looking at Donnel. He seems to glance over at me before shifting focus to Shepard again. "Firefights in the Wards? An all-out assault on Chora's Den? and the people you're with. Krogan? Quarian? And I've got reports of.." He looks over at me, as if just noticing my existence. "Who are you, anyways?"
"Ambassador, I'm hurt." I reply, smirking under my hood. 'Time to be dramatic.' "I'm not even on a watchlist? I haven't been doing my job properly." I cross my arms, unleashing the blades that are synonymous with my name. The look on his face is absolutely priceless, and I only wish I could take a picture without ruining the effect.
"You!"
"Me."
"S-shepard, do you know who this is!? This is Epsilon! He is an assassin! And you brought him here?!" Ashley is edging her hand to her hip for a gun, but Shepard stops her, a peculiar smile on his face.
"I thought he might be.." He murmurs. "But he's also one of your best friends right now Ambassador." He gestures to Tali." He saved her life, and with it, evidence of Saren's actions." As they launch into what I already know, I watch the good Ambassador turn from ass to politician mode. With a small flourish, he's running off to present the evidence, with Shepard asking if I want to accompany him.
"I'll pass,"I say. "The Council has very mixed feelings concerning me. I'm assuming you're going to be tracking down this rogue Spectre?"
"Not sure, to be honest. Why do you think I'll be the one?"
"Call it a gut feeling." I respond. "I need to do some things, but I can meet you somewhere."
"Okay, SSV Normandy, Alliance docks. That's where most of this lot is going to wait while Tali presents the evidence to the Council."
"I'll be there."
I head back to the apartment, Delta greeting me with a smirk.
"Didn't make the cut?" He asks.
"I did, actually. Came by to pick up a few things." I reply, gesturing towards our armory.
"Wait, seriously?" I nod. "Wow.."
"Indeed." I say, packing things into their crates and getting them ready to move.
"So, you're going to be saving the galaxy, huh?" He asks.
"Probably nothing as dramatic as that, but you never know."
"Some would say you lead a strange life." I smile at this.
"I don't think our lives have ever been what you'd call 'normal'."
"Fair enough." He looks out the window. "This could be your chance to do something great, Cory. Try not to get your head blown off without me there to watch your back."
"Oh, you know me Dom," I say. "The bullets are my friends."
"Hopefully, they don't get too friendly." He says as I wheel my gear out of the door.
"That's a fair amount of gear there, Epsilon," Garrus remarks as I push the cart out of the elevator. "You're bringing all that aboard?"
"Nope, just to sit on. And I typically go by Cory, or Echo." I reply cheerfully, parking the cart and gesturing to one of the crates, which he sits down on. I sit down on another. "Where's Shepard?"
"Still with the Council, I would think." We shoot the breeze for awhile, commenting on the Normandy and our respective lines of work, which doesn't seem to bother him too much, until Shepard comes off of the elevator with Anderson, Udina, and Tali in tow.
"All good, Commander?" Kaiden asks as they approach.
"Better than." He replies with a grin as he relays the news I fully expected. The others crowd around him while they listen, but Anderson approaches me.
"A word, if you could, Mr. Weston." I nod. "Hackett has told me some things about you, and he believes you are trustworthy. I'm hoping you're not going to prove him wrong." He says.
"Wasn't planning on it, sir." I reply respectfully.
"I've read up on some of the work you've done for him too. A lot was classified above my pay grade until Hackett forwarded me the files, but I know you're skilled. If you can help Shepard with this, I'll make sure you're well-compensated for your work."
I look at him, surprised. "That's not necessary, Captain." I respond, looking at the surprise on his face. "I'm not doing this for money."
"Then why are you doing it?" He asks, more out of curiosity than trying to be rude.
"There is something huge here, sir. I can feel it." I respond. "What we do in the coming days will most likely affect everyone in the Galaxy, Whether Shepard's vision was true or not."
"Then I'm glad you're coming aboard, son. You get results, and get them clean." He walks away to speak to Shepard as I join the rest of the group.
"You know the captain?" Kaiden asks me.
"In a sense." I respond.
"Hmm." Kaiden looks as though he wants to say something, but Shepard walks up.
"Okay everyone, listen up." And without fail, attention turns to him. "We are going to be chasing one of the Galaxy's most dangerous individuals. Anyone who wants to back away is free to do so." Nobody does, and Shepard smiles." Our only lead as of now is trying to track down the daughter of Matriarch Benezia. There will be a small stop along the way, but we will arrive in the Artemis Tau cluster in about four hours. For now, settle in on the ship where you're comfortable, and welcome to the Normandy."
A gorgeous ship, indeed. I've been on a fair few ships in the last few years, but the Normandy was a cut above. A state of the art warship, with high-quality equipment and personnel. A quick walkthrough of the first decks shows navy personnel hard at work doing their respective jobs, the pilot in particular a bit too busy to bother. As I walk down the stairs, I see Kaiden busy... Doing whatever it is he does in that corner. 'I need to figure that out'. I see Dr. Chakwas, but that's not a conversation I want to have right now. To the elevator!
Ugh. Three minute later, I step out into the cargo bay, scanning the room. Wrex is casually leaning against some crates, Ashley looks hard at work stripping an Avenger, Garrus is at his spot, but conversing with Shepard, and the Requisitions Officer is dozing in his little niche. Pretty standard, so I walk into engineering.
Seeing it with my own eyes, I found myself mesmerized with the Tantalus Drive Core. It is surprisingly relaxing, and I only snap out of my staring upon hearing a diminutive Quarian nearly interrogating an engineer of the specifications of the ship, I smile, but walk back out.
With little to do, I go over my equipment again. My armor is in top condition, muted green with dark underpoints and equipment. Gotta respect the classics. As for weapons, a Mantis-style sniper, with much better balance than in-game, two modified Carnifex-style pistols with the firepower and fire rate, an Eviscerator shotgun, with less power than it's cousin but still more dangerous than most shotguns on the market, and the extended sinks give me five shots. The last crate reveals my favorites and some modified grenades.
Besides my monster rifle, It also holds my FN P90 and Five-Seven. Like my M-107, they are heavily modified and made with this-era's polymers, combined with the new style of ammo to work on most planets organics can function on. They took a sizable chunk from my funds to develop right, but they're more than worth it. Their accompanying crates contain more than enough ammo for each weapon for at least a couple of months. As I pull some empty pistol magazines from the crate to load, Shepard approaches me.
"So, Cory. I see you're settling in." He gestures to the crates I've set in the corner, as well as a workbench.
"That I have, need something?" I ask, loading the 5.7 rounds into the mag.
"Just learning a bit about my new crew members." He responds.
"Well what would you like to know?"
"For starters, I'd like to know your combat proficiencies."
"Well, I'm a sniper by profession," I chuckle. "I've gotten good at that sort of thing. But I do well in hand-to-hand combat as well. I've got armor for dangerous situations, as well as this." I gesture to my current clothing. "And it's durable. I've learned to handle most weapons well, but I prefer my P90 in situations I would need an assault rifle."
"P90?" Shepard inquires.
"This," I say, raising it in my arms. "Is the FN P90. I can use it in much tighter conditions than an assault rifle, but it still has the power and range you can't find with a SMG. As such, I call it a Personal Defense Weapon, or PDW."
"And this," He looks towards to ammo crates. "They take actual ammunition? That's a bit archaic."
"If they used the traditional Human gunpowder mixtures. But, Krogan know how to put together weapons, of any kind. Trust me, they'll be as combat effective as any of your own weapons. Plus, I have the advantage of impact."
"Impact?" He questions.
"As you know, today's mass-accelerated weapons function on the principle of launching a grain of sand at extreme speeds," I start to explain, and Shepard nods. "The problem with that is you either punch straight through, doing little damage, or it fragments on impact, spreading the force onto the target but this can be mitigated by armor. With my rounds, they move slower, but the actuall mass is far larger by comparison. Most Armor is developed solely to deflect those bits of sand, but.."
"A larger round would punch right through, and deal massive amounts of damage to a target compared to others." Shepard finishes.
"The trauma of it can deal so much damage to an organic target that you don't have to fire many rounds," I say. " And it can disrupt enough functions of mechs and the Geth you fought to be useful in that category as well."
"Some good gear," Shepard concedes. "But expensive."
"Very. But worth it for someone like me, who only has to handle small-scale combat situations."
"Well, I won't be able to provide you with this equipment," Shepard says. "But that doesn't look like it'll be a problem. Can I ask you something else?"
"Shoot."
It goes on like this for a bit, first talking shop, then giving a bit of background information on my life. I tell him some fairly vague information, not revealing what happened to me when I came here or much before that. Shepard too, is an Earthborn, and relates his story of growing up in what used to be L.A.
"The roads we walk." I say.
"Quite," Shepard nods. "Alright, I need to gear up. I'm heading planetside with Alenko and Vakarian to check out an Alliance distress signal. Don't worry, the Mass Effect field will keep the cargo bay secured."
"Good luck, Shep."
A/N: I apologize for the lateness of this chapter. Real life has a way of kicking you in the groin and telling you to run laps. More to follow soon, I promise. I'm not giving up on this story.