Disclaimer: I do not own the Mass Effect franchise. I only own this particular story idea and the OCs used.
Slag sprinted down the corridor, huffing and puffing as he practically dragged Anthia behind him as they ran. A banshee was hot on their trail, as well as a brute , three marauders, and at least two dozen husk. Anthia didn't know how much longer she could keep running like this and Slag could tell. He kept an eye out for anything that would help them lose these freaks and get the hell out of here.
Looking around, he noticed an unstable area up ahead. One lift grenade and the whole thing should come down and hopefully put these bastards of their trail. Speeding up, Slag tossed Anthia forward where she landed with a roll before tossing a lift grenade up to detonate and bring the whole roof down. Slag barely made it clear of the collapsing roof, more of it coming down than he originally thought. The risky move was made all the more sweeter as he turned back breathing hard and saw the disintegrating hand of the banshee as he heard her final cry.
After catching their breath, Slag received a light punch in the arm from Anthia as she laughed weakly. "That was close, good thing you're the one who jumped down to save me." Slag smiled and jokingly rubbed his arm where she had hit him and rotated his shoulder.
"Yeah, well, it was just dumb luck I haven't died yet." Slag looked around and spotted some stairs nearby, the stairs that hopefully led up to purgatory.
"Dumb luck is better than no luck at all, right?" Anthia smiled warmly towards her new Krogan friend. Slag lightly smiled back, yet it carried the same amount of weight and warmth as hers did.
"Welp, looks like it shouldn't be too much longer till we make it back to the others, so lets keep..." Slag and Anthia stopped cold as they heard a feminine moan coming from a nearby room. Looking toward each other for moment, Slag pulled out his Argus and Anthia pulled out the pistol that Slag had given to her and cautiously approached the door. Peaking in, They noticed a turian female trying to pick herself off the ground holding her head. Her armor was the same color as Slag's and had purple, nearly pink markings on her armor and painted on her face. On her back sat a phalanx assault rifle and a collector sniper rifle. Right beside her wer two very much dead Brutes and the ashes of few other enemies, probably husk or cannibals.
Slag stepped in with his gun still raised. It was obvious that this lady was most definitely one tough son of a bitch, but what was she doing here? That didn't really matter to Slag as he lowered his weapon and helped her to her feet and supported her, Anthia got on her other side and supported her as well.
"Hey, come on soldier, we're getting you out of here." After giving her a good look over to make sure she wasn't to hurt and taking a moment to let rest a little Slag and Anthia hauled her up the stairs. By the time they reached the top of them the turian could walk just fine on her own. What waited for them at the top wasn't exactly pleasant. A dozen husk were crouched in a circle and immediately turned to them.
"Awe crap." The moment a husk got close, it met the same fate as the first husk Slag had killed, only this time it was hit with such force that its body flew back and snapped the neck of another husk, a third husk being slung into the group before three guns went to work dropping them like flies. Slag noticed that for someone who didn't look to have ever held a gun in her life, Anthia fought with the precision and efficiency of a commando, even better than them actually, more like an N7 soldier.
"They're dead!" Yelled Slag before charging to the door on the other side of the room. opening it, the three were met with a wonderful sight, Purgatory. Wasting no time, the three began jogging over to the the exit. "Hey, by the way, who are you turian?" Slag questioned as they made their way, blowing the head of a husk off as it tried to climb up while retaining their leisurely pace.
"I'm Athena, a cabal vanguard and my partner was a Turian sabator." A moment of silence washed over the three aliens at this. Her speaking in past tense ment only one thing, he had perished recently.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I hope his death was an honorable one." Athena noded solemnly.
"Took out 3 banshees and 6 brutes with a nice big bang saving me and 34 civilians." Athena had to smile at that. "Even in death he has to be looking out for me."
"Sounds like a very honorable death indeed." said Anthia with a saddened smile.
Just then, the three of them made it to the exit and spotted the others. Bitch smacking a marauders and flinging a grenade to land in front to of it and two others, Slag and his two companions rushed over to the elevator, clearing the barricade and practically launching into it just before the doors closed, husk banging against it a moment later as did the bullets of a few marauders.
The three aliens that were the last to make it into the elevator were cheering, happy to have made it. The others began cheering as well, happy they were no longer fighting for their lives. The next thing that happened caught everyone off guard, leaving all in shock except for Athena who simply smiled and Anthia who looked to be rather bashful afterwards. Anthia pulled the krogan down and locked her lips with his in an unforeseen embrace, catching Slag and his friends off guard. When she finally pulled away, the world came back to her and upon realizing what she had just done Anthia blushed furiously and immediately avoided eye contact, trying to pretend like it hadn't just happened as she quickly turned to the door and stood still, looking around at everything she could without moving her head that wasn't the krogan.
Suddenly, Anthia found herself being pulled into another embrace of lips from a recently unstunned Slag. As she leaned into it and wrapped her arms around the Krogan's neck, three whistles came from the others before Andreas and Ra'merrius stepped up to say something. "Hey, look at him, he's finally being a-" Before they could finish what everything they were saying, two fists struck out knocking both humans into a deep sleep. The two lovers that threw the punches never even stopped for a second, in fact, it wouldn't be too far fetched to say they didn't even know they had threw the punches from being so lost in the moment they were having.
Athena, finding acts of romance to be her favorite subject, couldn't help but smile for the two. "Aw, that's beautiful!" She drew out the last words before pulling out an old somewhat non technological writing utensil and grinned down at the two unconscious bodies laying on the floor before looking up to James. and Jekerrian. "Now, do you two boys mind helping me mark up their faces? I do so enjoy doing this."
James and Jekerrian shared a look before looking back to the female turian. "Yeah, why not. I've got nothin better to do." Came the nonchalant answer of James, his friend eagerly grinning and nodding and finding it hard not to laugh as they accepted another writing tool and removing the two humans' helmets.
Meanwhile in the Presidium...
"Are we sure about this large list of approved candidates?" Asked the Salarian dalatrass as she looked over the names and species again.
"Yes, I think they'll serve the council well, just as they did during the war." answered the turian primarch Victus.
"I agree, these candidates look to be of the most trustworthy we've ever seen. According to their evaluations, they each kind of have that Shepard feel to them, and we know how well Shepard turned out." agreed the Asari councilor.
"They are the ones who held all those key positions no matter the odds stacked against them, with no more than four man teams no less." Said the new Krogan representative, a female whose blood helped cure the genophage for her people.
"I think we owe the hero of the entire universe this much, to give these people a chance. We took one on shepard, and it is only because of that we aren't currently just waiting around till the reapers come to kill us all." Chimed in the new Human councilor, an african american woman, ex military.
The Dalatrass sighed, admitting she had a lot to owe to that particular human. Nodding in agreement, she forwarded the message to each candidate. They were going to be in for a busy day. "We should all probably grab some coffee and chairs, it's going to be a long day." Stated the Asari councilor, receiving a nod from the primark and human councilor.
In C-sec Headquarters...
The group of seven ran toward the the head C-sec officer to alert them to the dangers still lurking on the citadel, not even caring when Athena completely tossed the Asari she was talking to out of the way. "Officer Hadvik, glad we found you listen..."
"No you listen," barked the angry turian as she walked over to help the asari up. "You don't just barge in here, tossing people around and doing whatever you want, underst-"
"Will you shut the fuck up already? We just barely escaped purgatory with reaper forces bearing down on us. Reaper forces are still active on the citadel and they don't seem to happy that they lost the war either." The Turian Head C-sec officer couldn't even speak, she just stood there frozen like a statue.
Slag growled, starting to get really pissed off with this turian and his military side took over again. "Do I have to do your job for you or are you going to do something about this other than stand there looking like a retard."
"Um, sorry, sir, right away sir." Without skipping more than a few heartbeats the C-sec Officer ran off gathering men and organizing troops to prepare for the fight with the leftover reaper forces. Within mere minutes she and Other C-sec commanding officers were already discussing how to go about this excursion and who all would be apart of what team.
Slag and the other grinned as they watched them frantically move about before laughing to each other. "Oh man, did you see her face? She looked like she was gonna crap herself for a second there." Jakerrian laughed even louder, his words making the others do the same.
Getting the laughter out of their system the group was surprised to see an Asari Commando running towards them. Without warning she wrapped Anthia in a bonecrushing hug, nearly crying as she easily hefted up the other Asari. "Sister, I was so worried. I just heard the reports about Purgatory. You weren't attacked were you?"
Anthia smiled at her sister despite having a hard time breathing. "Sister, please, I do still have to breath in order to live." The commando realizing she was hugging her to hard again released her sister and smiled sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head looking very apologetic. "Now, to answer your questions I'm fine thanks to my saviour here, Slag. He was kind enough to dig me out of a pile of bodies I had been trapped under, then we were attacked by husk. We had to fight our way around to make it back up to the others while they defended and fixed the elevator. That is also how we ran into this other turian, Athena. She and her partner got pinned down in a small room by banshees and brutes but sadly only she survived the conflict it would seem. That said, can you please ask C-sec to keep an eye out for survivors and to let us know if they find her partner to be alive Barbeta?"
Anthia's sister, Barbeta, Took a moment to digest all the information and nodded to her sister. "Yes, I can handle that. For now, let's get you all cleaned up, you guys look like shit." She grinned as the krogan, drell, and female turian looked themselves over noting that they did infact look like they had been through hell.
"That'll have to wait I'm afraid." Said a human woman recognized by all as Amanda, a former crew member of the famous Commander Shepard. Her appearance was a surprise for everyone. "The council wants to see you immediately. Trust me, you don't want to be late for this." She said with a smile. Not wasting any time Slag followed the woman out, the others quickly following his example and quickly catching up to them.
Citadel Presidium...
The council members debated on important business As they awaited the arrival of the first approved candidates to arrive. Alongside them stood the former crew of the hero of the universe, every member that was currently still alive excluding Maranda. They were to greet these new candidates and congratulate them, the other reason for the presence was left as a mystery even to them saved for when the candidates eventually arrived.
Just as they were wrapping up their discussions the doors opened to reveal maranda with an entire group of at least 16 trailing behind her. She smiled as she walked up to the councillors before stepping aside and motioning for them all to step forward.
"Each of you must be wondering why it is you are here. The reason I assure you is well worth your time." The Asari councillor stated allowing the krogan councillor to take it from there.
"You were all recently evaluated by a specter during the reaper war. Each specter approved you and now you have been called forth to claim the title of specter yourself." Her words shocked them all leaving them all speechless. How does one react to suddenly becoming a specter?
"Do you accept? It is completely your choice whether or not you become specters at this point." Came the Human councillor as she smiled down on the few humans that stood before her. Each of them took a moment to collect their thoughts and think about the decision. THe fact that none of them were quick to say yes pleased the council, helping to further assure them that they had made the right decision.
After a few moments one stepped out of the crowd, a krogan clad in orange armor. "I accept." His deep booming voice echoed throughout the room and he was soon followed by others one by one until just about every one of them now stood proud, confident in their decision to become specters. A few such as two drells and a Turian declined this offer, either not being interested or just not believing they were ready for such an honor.
"Then let it be made official then, let the record show this day, this very moment, 16 new specters were made. let the galaxy cry out in joyous celebration of this day." The owner of the new voice was Quarian walking out onto the council. Not just any Quarian though, the new Quarian councillor, Admiral Stokota Vas Nefarious. "Sorry I'm late, I was preparing the final touches of our little surprise. Have you told them yet?"
The other councillors looked to each other with for a moment before turning to the shepard's crew. It was the Turian Primarch who spoke first. "Actually we were just about to do so. As always, your timing is impeccable."
"To a certain few, the council has decided to give you your own ship to command. This is a gift for one of every species present. For the Krogans, Slag Ulkair. For the Quarians, Quatose Falkease ron Spearow. For the humans Amanda Wilson. For the Asari, Asoka Tallahassee. For the Salarians, Mirket Gortom, and for the Turians, Gallardo Virket."
"If you selected few will come with me I'll show each of you to your new vessels." Stated Miranda as she started for the door. Without questioning anything the new specters followed her closely. What surprises awaited them were well anticipated and some, like the orange armored Krogan and the Asari that walked beside him, seemed almost giddy. For them today just became the most awesome of days in a long time... besides the defeat of the reapers.