A/N: I apologcze for any weird errors in spelling, as the Kindle Fire came out with a new software update and now half of spell check doesn't work properly. Also, it doesn't work well with Fanfiction anymore either, as the full screen and text selection is messed up. So sorry in advance.
~ I don't own mass effect, Bioware and EA does ~
14.03.0005 PRW
Omega System
Turian Batte Cruiser
Liara T'Soni checked her Omni-Tool, noting the separate incoming signals and their locations in the Galaxy. Both her and Zaire were in the Cruisers newly installed Communications Room, which had a state of the art QEC system and holographic projectors. It also allowed them to create 'chat rooms' where multiple people could speak to each other.
"Everything is ready Zaire."
Her bondmate nodded, and rolled her shoulders nervously. Her fingers fiddling with the hem of her new brown leather jacket. Liara had given it to her a few days ago, and she hadn't stopped wearing it since.
Of course, Liara noticed her bondmates nervous movement, and gently spoke.
"You'll be fine, Zaire. They'll be happy to see you again."
Startled, Zaire turned to her Asari, gave a deep breath, and calmed herself down before signalled her to enter the chat room, which was open and occupied.
All she felt was a slight tingle over her bare skin, then.
"-ong are we going fucking to wait?"
A bark of laughter, from Wrex no doubt. He always loved one upping people, whether in battle or in knowledge.
As her image appeared in the screens of her friends around the Galaxy, and Zaire braced herself for the inevitable anger and questions.
Instead there was complete and utter Silence, as those present stared at her, before finally, Garrus sighed.
"You just love surprising us, don't you Shepard?"
Tali, who wasn't wearing her suit, but instead tight but clearly removable clothing, was 'standing' next to him, and was clearly grinning, sharp teeth and slightly glowing eyes visible.
"Zaire!"
Around the 'room' her friends gave greetings and smiles, all clearly less surprised than the last time Shepard had returned from the apparent dead.
Garrus, Grunt, Wrex, Tali, Jack, Helen, Joker, EDI, Samara, hell even Javik.
"Hey, where's the Cheerleader?"
Shepard smiled, "dealing with my new ships upgrades."
Joker was the first to respond, "New ship? What, replaced the Normandy already Commander?"
Zaire's arm twitched at the title, though she managed to suppress the grimmice that wanted to emerge as Liara entered the room, her form materialising out of blue pixels.
"Noncence Joker, nothing can compare to the Normandy."
Shepard snorted, "except for a Battle Cruiser."
EDI seemed to perk up at the statement, stepping forward as she spoke.
"A Cruisers emissions were detected in the space around The Stop, yours then?"
Zaire however, grinned. "Not at the time EDI, it belonged to Orthius before I got my hands on it."
There was a bark of laughter from Wrex, and Grunt gave his signature slow chuckle as the rest of the people in the room grinned and shook their heads. Jack somehow looking both slightly impressed and annoyed at the same time.
"I've bumped into their goons over the last three years or so. They fight dirty, though after a while they get predictable" stated Garrus.
Wrex and Grunt nodding as well, voicing their own encounters with the splinter group.
"We've caught a few of their agents as well, trying to gain access to the main Geth Server Hub on Rannoch. They always commit suicide before we can question them. Ocular flash bang, blows their heads clean off."
Joker nodded his head as well, "the soldiers left on the space station did the exact same thing, over 100 of them, real creepy."
Liara nodded, "it was a old Cerberus tactic, though the Council have Agents dealing with them as we speak. It appears that Fleet Master Mikhailovich is behind the group, though his time is running out with the Spectre's closing in."
Jack grunted, "good, the Galaxy will be better off without them assholes pissing on it."
Zaire however, snorted in amusement, "I won't hold my breath, the Council has problems putting their credits where their mouths are."
There was a general rumble of amusement. It was a favorite past time of Zaire to insult the Council, though before Zaire and Jack could get carried away, Helen Chakwas spoke up.
"And how are you doing dear?"
With that Zaire sighed, "that is why I wanted to call all of you. You guys deserve to know before anyone else."
She turned and nodded to her Asari girlfriend, who typed something into her Omni-Tool.
"As a few of you already know, I have previously unknown cybernetics integrated into my body."
There was a rumble as those around the room looked to each other in an effort to see who knew what was going on.
In the center of the room, Zaire's cybernetics flashed into existence, slowly rotating as everyone checked Omni-Tools and data pads. Looking over the data Liara had sent them.
Chakwas spoke first, concern in her voice as she gave her personal analysis.
"Looks to me to be mostly advanced combat Cybernetics, your biotics will no doubt be different, and you have far more densely compacted muscle tissue. Skeletal reinforcement means your bones are stronger, and it looks like filters in you stomach and lungs are designed to stop toxic chemicals."
Zaire nodded in agreement, though Javik spoke up before she could continue.
"These look like nanites, I wasn't aware this cycle was capable of creating these yet."
Another flash of blue pixels announced Miranda's arrival, and she spoke even as her form was rendered.
"Oh we are, just not on a molecular level. These make the ones Cerberus used for Lazarus look primitive, which really, they were."
She ignored Jack when the convict turned teacher muttered something about barging in on their conversation. Though she did return the rude gesture the tattooed woman sent her.
Now fully rendered, she typed something into her Omni-Tool, and the skeletal figure that was slowly spinning stopped, enlarged itself, the split into three sections. The first was the skull, with the biotic amp and greybox.
The second showed Zaire's torso and arms, information on her subdermal armour, her cybernetic additions to her heart, lungs and stomach. As well as information on her new 'touch point' hacking capabilities.
The third section was on her legs and feet, and the information was on her enhanced muscles and bones, as well as the nanites that helped with both maintenance and boost her healing speed.
A fourth piece of information appeared separate to the rest, which depicted Zaire's 'cleaner DNA'.
There was a moment where everyone, including Javik, simply stared. Though EDI was the quickest to regain her senses.
"Intriguing."
Zaire gave a small snort. Personally, she thought that it was a waste. It wasn't as if she was going to be using any of her new abilities any time soon. Though with her new life span, who knew?
Miranda had her hands on her hips, looking proud of herself.
Helen however, wasn't looking at the data anymore, and instead was watching Zaire and Liara, how they interacted, how they looked at each other. And was happy at what she saw.
With both Human and Asari in the same place in the real world, they were holding hands calmly. Clearly any emotional problems that this news had caused was being dealt with properly. Which was a relief, as in the past Zaire had the habit of going off on her own when dealing with her emotional problems.
"Why is it Zaire who always gets the cool upgrades?"
The smile on Zaire's face turned to a glare, which was promptly aimed at Joker for the stupid comment.
"As much as I would like to say this is it, it's not."
"What else has been done, were you given wings or something?" Jack asked.
Zaire sighed, and instead held out her hand.
Next to the data in the center, a new person entered the call, the glow of blue pixels unable to hide the strange appearance of the alien as the 3D model rendered.
"This, is the Operating System, or OS for short. He's a AI, and he lives inside my new greybox."
There was another pause, which were becoming standard for whenever Zaire has something to share, and the shackled AI took the silence as his cue to speak.
-Greetings-
There was another pause before Javik spoke up, glaring at the shackled AI with irritaiion.
"What is it with this cycle and ignoring the dangers of Artificial Intelligence?"
Jack speaking seconds later, "that thing is inside your head? Jesus Christ! And I thought my head was fucked!"
EDI looked more excited than anything, probably hoping she had someone that could keep up with her when she was talking about her theories on organic behavior.
Everyone else had a face of concern to some degree. Though Zaire spoke up before they could get carried away.
"OS is shackled. As a AI it's self aware but it has restrictions in place to prevent the problems I'm sure all of you are trying to conjure up."
It took over half an hour for Zaire and Liara, with the help of OS, to explain everything from start to finish on how she got the upgrades, why OS was necessary, and everything that had happened since Zaire had woken up.
By the end of it all everyone was at least satiafied that Zaire wasn't about to be controlled by the AI, and Zaire could finally get to the topic she had wanted to discuss in the first place.
"The Asari Matriarchs are hoping to remove me to maintain the advantage of superior age in the Galaxy. I'm hoping that the Fucking Council will deal with it, but I won't hold my breath, so I need contingency plans. Thus, I decided to call all of you for help."
Naturally, Wrex was the first to respond, "whatever you need Shepard, I'll do my best to get it to you."
Zaire smiled, having Wrex and the Krogan on her side would be immensely helpful.
"Some Krogan muscle would be appreclated Wrex. You know how the most simplistic of operations can go, so some reinfoscements would be good."
Both Tali and Garrus pledged their aid if needed, and the rest added in their own support.
Samara however, surprised her by speaking up.
"The Matriarch's are using their power for personal gain, as well as using it against those who are innoceot. With your permission Shepard, I will have two Justicars escorte you on the Citadel."
Zaire was stunned, as was most of the people in the room. Samara seemed confused, though Liara spoke before she could ask why.
"They would be greatly appreciated, Justicar Samara."
Seeming to be happy with the response, the elder Asari drew back into the background.
Zaire sighed, feeling more tired than she had in a while, though she also felt as if a hundred ton weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
It was another 30 minutes of catching up with everyone before Liara noticed Zaire was swaying on her feet slightly. Though a quick meld revealed that she was simply exhausded. Deciding that everything was going fine, she asked through the meld if she would like to retire for the day.
Zaire was quick to answer, "Right, Liara can coordanate things, I'm in sore need of a few hours sleep."
Saying goodbye, and promising to Samara that they would tell her where they were planning on staying on the Citadel, Zaire let Liara guide her out of the communications room, and into the elevator.
By the time Liara had gotten her to their bed, she had fallen asleep before her head could hit the pillow.
13.03.0005 PRW
Sol System - Orbit around Earth
A large Human walked into the command deck of the small Frigate. The STG had loaned it to them for the mission. Pausing to check something on his Omni-Tool, the Human gave a small grunt of amusement, before continuing towards the Salarian in black and yellow armour.
"What have we got?"
Spectre Jondum Bau turned to greet the large Human N7 Commander. Nodding his head in acknowledgement of his presence.
"Judging from the new data tap, we now have the financial evidence needed to prove both Makhailvoch and two of the other admirals responsible for Orthius."
Vega frowned, "which one's being difficult?"
The Spectre frowned as well, "Admiral Silvia, she seemed to predict an investigation and was destroying evidence far before we got involved."
The large Human shrugged his massive arms, "from what I understand they pissed off someone, I imagine that Silvia was simply expecting retaliition."
The Salarian Spectre blinked once, before nodding his horned head. Clearly thinking over the small tip bit of information, "would explain increase security and overly cautious behavior. You wouldn't know who they had angered?"
Vega shook his head, lieing through his teeth, "nope, above my pay grade."
The elder Salarian sighed, "then that makes our job a bit harder then. Makhailvoch is getting restless, could run at any moment."
A ping on his console caused him to turn away from the N7, and Bau frowned at the message. It was from the Shadow Broker, tagged as relative to his investigation, which meant that there was another leak in Citadel Intelligence.
Opening the message, Bau read the text, and was surprised at the offering.
"Appears that the Admirality board angered the Shadow Broker, he has just sent us new information, could be useful."
Intriged, Vega walked up beside him to look for himself, and stared at the neatly organiaed files and documentations, as well as personal vid recordings between the board. The Human grinned, folding his arms as he reads one of the files on Orthius, how they had been Cerberus resources, and how they had been Alliance before that.
"Well, that's got to be helpful."
Instead of replying, the Spectre instead moved though the information and pulled up Admiral Silvia's file. There wasn't much there, but more than what Bau had before, which was an improvement if it turned out to be genuine. Though why the Shadow Broker was sending him classified intelligence on a target only the Council should know was an actual target was troubling. Broker Info was never cheap this high up.
Sitting back in his chair, the aging Salarian Spectre sighed. As the Human saying went, he was getting far too old for this shit.
Thank you for your continual support everyone, and thank you to those who Reviewed, as it seriously helps with motivation.
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