DISCLAIMER: Mass Effect video game is the property of its respective owners and the author has no financial gain from it. Original Characters and story concept are mine though.

A/N: Here is the second part of Chapter 8 for your enjoyment. Still sorting out the whole Blue Suns situation and the Confederacy's bureaucratic machine rears its ugly head once again. This part is about 5,5k words long. Hope you enjoy it!

My beta is still the one and the only Redentor

The next month was a haze of activity. Zaeed and Tarak worked overtime trying to bring in various Blue Suns commanders into their sphere of influence. They have been traveling all over the Terminus Systems, meeting various people, reorganizing the chain of command and ensuring the nervous subcontractors that no, their lucrative and mutually beneficial contracts with the Blue Suns PMC will not magically end with the management change. Most had been happy enough to accept the change of guard, though. There were a problematic few that resisted initially, fearing that Zaeed Massani would try and downsize the Blue Suns by getting rid of non-humans, but the old mercenary was always quick to debunk such claims. It also helped when immediately afterwards he would present them with their new salary slips. Money truly made the universe go round, especially in the shady world of private military companies where everyone and everything had a price.

Solem Dal'Serah was another matter altogether. He learned about Vido Santiago's death relatively quickly and he arrived to Acheron with the Blue Suns' 2nd Patrol Fleet, augmented by a battalion of Eclipse marines and some second-rate freelance auxiliaries. The fleet was orbiting the planet and threatening to unleash their firepower on us. We were contacted by Dal'Serah himself via the comms. The batarian was not happy to hear about the changeover and he made his dissatisfaction quite vocal over the communication uplink, when talking to Zaeed. After our explanations he simply flung a few insults our way and ceased the connection. That left us hanging with not much to do.

It was a very tense moment. I suggested to Zaeed that I could take my squad and get rid of Solem. I also advised him that thanks to the wormhole technology aboard 'Coronado' we could easily board most of the ships in the 2nd Patrol Fleet with loyal troops and overpower their crews. We had already brought a couple of Blue Suns units into our fold and we had more than enough people to spare for an operation of this magnitude.

The old mercenary looked at me for a moment with a serious expression and said tersely, "This is the Blue Suns business, lieutenant – we'll deal with it ourselves."

What happened later is still difficult to describe and comprehend. Zaeed contacted Solem once more and requested to meet him face to face. To my astonishment, batarian agreed to it. They decided to meet in one of the smaller facilities away from the main production hub to negotiate. It was a no man's land and both mercenaries could discuss their differences there in a relative peace.

I arrived with Zaeed and our escorts and we met Solem outside of one of the buildings. Massani and Dal'Serah shook hands and they entered the building alone, while the escorts were left outside. It was a tense hour outside of the compound as us and Solem's mercenaries eyed each other across the courtyard, ready to engage at a moment's notice. By the time Zaeed and Solem finally left the conference room I'd had to restrain myself from biting off most of my fingernails.

Solem signalled his troops to lower their weapons and we all relaxed our guard. The two mercenaries approached me and Zaeed introduced me to the batarian.

"This is the Lieutenant Dubois that I told you about, Dal'Serah."

I saluted the batarian commander as he inspected me with his unreadable eyes. It felt as if I was being measured by Dal'Serah and found lacking. Yeah, like that had never happened before. After a moment or so he said without any sugar-coating, "Zaeed told me about these Reapers that you showed him. I believe him, because for all his numerous faults he's not the sort to panic easily."

Solem Dal'Serah's voice carried a haughty tone and a slight lisp – or what my translator considered to be a lisp – which I learned later, was a typical thing for the Hegemony's upper-class. The batarian looked at Zaeed and added.

"I understand you want us to withdraw our assets from the Terminus Systems slave trade agreements for which we will be reimbursed?"

"That is correct," I answered curtly.

"You humans and your useless scruples are the most curious things on this side of the Milky Way galaxy." Solem said haughtily. "It is an inalienable right of the strong to police the weak. When the weak are allowed to rule nothing is accomplished, as they only squabble and argue among themselves. Just like it is on Earth, lieutenant."

He was obviously just trying to get a rise of me, so I decided not to take the bait as I responded evenly. Besides, he wasn't completely wrong on that, even if I personally preferred at any given day the Alliance's internal squabbles over the jarring, ideology-driven inefficiency of the Hegemony's ruling establishment.

"I respect your political opinions, Executive Dal'Serah, but my superiors will not abide with the slavery or drug dealing and neither will I. That is not negotiable."

He shook his head, deeming me (rightly so!) a lost cause for the Hegemony propaganda.

"I have also been told that you will be investing in upgrading our manufacturing capabilities and increase our fleet exponentially."

He smiled with contempt at my silent acknowledgement.

"And what happens then, lieutenant? Do you want us to fight your battles against the killer robots from Outer Space for a few measly credits?"

I raised my chin challengingly.

"You won't be fighting my battles, Executive Dal'Serah – if anything it will be the other way around. The Reapers are coming and it's up to you and your men whether you will be prepared to face them. The Blue Suns as they are now, are woefully unprepared for the war that is sure to come in a few years. You will need our money to build-up your military arm and the whole logistic background to support it if you wish to survive. I am here to help you along the way, but if you choose to disregard my warnings and ignore the helping hand when it is offered, then it's your funeral, sir." I ended on an impertinent note.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Zaeed grinning widely, while the batarian snorted.

"Few people have dared to speak to me in that manner and lived to tell the tale, Lieutenant Dubois."

"No disrespect intended, sir, but this isn't about money or slaves or even the Citadel Council anymore. It's about survival, pure and simple. I prefer to tell the ugly truth rather than make up some pretty lies."

At least I used to, before I joined the Security Branch. Nowadays, the truth was a very relative concept to me, but in this case it would have to do. Just like they taught me, I just had to choose wisely which truths to reveal.

Solem turned to Massani and said, "I like this one; he's got some guts on him."

Zaeed made a great show of measuring me with his eyes as he responded.

"Well it's the singular good thing about him. In fact, his guts are like a diamond on a pile of pyjak dung."

I rolled my eyes at Massani's ribbing and responded with an amused expression.

"Whatever you say, old-timer. I think that your arthritis will get you sooner than the Reapers do."

Zaeed grumbled something about disrespectful youngsters as was customary on such occasions.

I admit that I enjoyed the light banter that I engaged in with the Blue Suns. The mercenaries in general were much less formal than a regular military and their teasing was genuinely fun, unlike with Security Branch where everything had a deeper, less-obvious meaning.

Despite their less-than-stellar reputation I found that I honestly enjoyed the easy camaraderie of the Blue Suns. Have you seen that episode of 'Family Guy' where they show Imperial Stormtroopers talking about your regular every-day stuff, only returning to their work when Darth Vader passes them by? That was very similar to my experiences with the Blue Suns mercenaries.

I remember sitting next to two troopers (a turian and a human) right before deploying into one of the Blue Suns bases where we expected some resistance from Vido Santiago's loyalists – there was no trouble, but we didn't know that at the time. These two men prepared their weapons and armour for what we thought might be a life or death situation, while complaining about the school tuition for their children. I distinctly remember the turian mercenary grumbling in his flanged voice about the price of the traditional turian dancing lessons for his daughter. You just don't expect anything like that from the soulless and cruel Blue Suns. Sometimes I had to force myself to remember that these were the people who had no qualms about trafficking slaves or fuelling local wars to sell more weapons.

All in all, I was glad that Zaeed managed to secure Solem's support. It meant that I could now use my considerable Bureau contacts to start upgrading the Blue Suns tech to a reasonable level and to maintain the cash flow from the Confederacy's coffers, which would have been impossible had the PMC been torn apart by the internal strife. The Confederacy's Interversal Law Department had their hands full with the Blue Suns, anyway. Their employment created a true administrative quagmire the likes of which were rare even for the Confederacy's intricate bureaucracy.

According to the Confederacy's existing laws the state could employ private military contractors (like the Blue Suns) in advisory, training and logistical roles, explicitly prohibiting them from partaking in combat. As such, the Confederacy's Executive Committee decided that the External Affairs Bureau of the Security Branch itself would employ the Blue Suns as their own subcontractors and the money would be paid from the Confederacy's budget. And that would be the end of it, but nothing can ever be that simple. In this case, one of the clerks working for the Security Branch noticed that 'the firm' as an organization does not in fact have the ability to employ private military contractors in any capacity – military or otherwise. Only field agents – like yours truly – as the men deployed in the universe could hire a PMC. It would be, generally speaking, considered as one of the means to accomplish the mission. So what in fact happened was that it was me who personally hired the Blue Suns, on behalf of the External Affairs Bureau and paid for it with the money from the Confederacy's budget. Is it funny, yet? It gets better, believe me.

Obviously, the whole issue was much more complicated than that, seeing as the Blue Suns were in fact eligible for the military draft in a situation of emergency. In this case, according to the Confederacy's Interversal law I would be in charge of them, as the Confederacy's only ranking officer in the Mass Effect galaxy. BUT, the military draft provisions would put the Blue Suns under the chain of command of the Confederate Armed Forces NOT the Security Branch. If the Confederate Armed Forces took over the Blue Suns and they were at the time taking part in combat, then that would put the whole Confederacy in a state of war (which nobody wanted), so special provisions and addenda had to be made. You could easily see how all of this was going to hell and fast. One bureaucratic headache generated another one and nobody wanted to step up and admit that we had no idea what we are doing.

The Confederacy's merry band of lawyers and bureaucrats completely ignored the small issues like the fact that no Blue Suns mercenary in their right mind would acknowledge my authority over them or that many of them enlisted with the PMC to avoid serving in the state military in the first place. The Confederacy's lawyers approach could be summed up as: 'It's on that displaced idiot's head, so screw the facts, my theory is sound!'

If it happened to anyone else, I would consider it funny. The end result was that I was stuck behind the desk in the 'Argo' shipyard on Acheron in the middle of the night. I sat there with my holo-tablet and my omni-tool activated and signed off numerous documents, invoices and slips, most of which were written in the convoluted Legalese which confused the hell out of me.

I was on my tenth cigarette this evening as I tried to decipher what exactly was meant by: 'Mult. Confederacy as a legal party in the forthwith mentioned agreement will supply a number of monetary assets for the assistance of the aforementioned party, which under the provisions of the agreement will provide the assistance which might constitute, under certain circumstances and provisions, the military aid including but not limited to conducting combat operations within approved parameters.'

That was the moment when my brain decided that enough was enough.

"Fuck this shit!" I cursed as I stood up and kicked the wheeled armchair to the nearest wall. It bounced off with a satisfyingly loud thud, but it did nothing to my rising frustration with the paperwork. I accessed my omni-tool and called 'Coronado'.

The glowing face of Artificial Intelligence appeared on my visor.

"How can I help you, lieutenant?"

"Lox get your metal ass down here, on the double!" I barked at him. I was in no mood for pleasantries today.

"Yes, lieutenant." He responded obediently.

I tapped on my omni-tool impatiently as a small black wormhole formed in the room and Lox in his Terminator chassis stepped out of it.

"You know, it wouldn't be a problem if you took the stairs once in a while." I grumbled, mostly because I wanted to complain about something.

As usual, Lox was completely unfazed by my behaviour.

"I understood that time was of the essence, lieutenant. What do you need me for?"

I waved my hand in the general direction of my holo-tablet.

"Congratulations mate, you've just been promoted to my personal secretary. I can't deal with the backlog on the paperwork and most of the documents are written in Legal English. I have no idea what half of it means, but you're a walking and talking encyclopaedia, so guess what?"

The 'T-800' tilted his head to the side in a very human manner, which I noticed he did quite often when he was puzzled or intrigued. It looked especially funny with his skull-like face.

"I do not believe that I possess the authority to put my signature on those documents, lieutenant. I was deployed to this universe in a strictly supportive capacity."

I shrugged my shoulders in a dismissive manner, but the truth was that I was desperate for his help.

"Look, Lox – I simply can't do it. I know fuck all about the legal matters and we need this cash to keep flowing, otherwise the Blue Suns are sure to rethink their alliance with us. We can't afford such a backlog now and it will be months before I'm proficient enough to deal with the legal paperwork as it comes. You will have my written permission to sign off any documents in my name. Contact me about the ones that you think might be mission critical, okay?"

Lox gave a barely perceptible nod.

"I see your point, lieutenant. Putting you in charge of the legal matters whereas you have no preparation whatsoever in that field is indeed counterproductive. To streamline the process I will take over the accounting duties and will contact you only in the most important cases."

I sighed in relief and nodded.

"That is all I ask, Lox."

I indicated my holo-tablet and the android picked it up.

"I assume that on 'Coronado' you have a direct access to the Confederacy's military info-network?" I asked.

"Of course, lieutenant."

"Alright then, if anything of importance should happen, please get in touch with me via omni-tool. I'm going with Mr. Massani to inspect the shipyards here. We need to determine the manufacturing capabilities of the local facilities before we request any additional help from the Confederacy."

I happily left the office to which I was confined for the last couple of hours. I was never very good at delegating tasks to others, but perhaps with Lox's help I will be able to make it work.

"It's certainly impressive, but it's not enough, Zaeed. How many facilities like that do the Blue Suns have?"

The veteran mercenary consulted his omni-tool and then turned to the Lieutenant-Commander Orelan who was showing us around the shipyard. The turian officer scratched one of his mandibles in thought for a moment before answering.

"The 'Argo' is our largest establishment. Here we do conversions, repairs and maintenance of the largest units of our fleet and orders from whatever clients we had from the Terminus. Apart from that there are two smaller shipyards – the 'Taetrus Fields' and the 'Bahak', but so far they haven't done anything larger than a private sail. Also, we'd never had any need to build a ship from the ground-up so our construction crews have zero expertise in that area."

From the company's perspective it made sense. The Blue Suns purchased old or decommissioned military vessels and refurbished them for their own purpose, so they hardly needed a large construction shipyard. From a financial point of view it was only reasonable for Vido Santiago to provide funds for a couple of smaller facilities that would conduct basic maintenance rather than invest in a gargantuan shipbuilding conglomerate, which would greatly exceed the Blue Suns' needs and which may or may not pay itself off.

But Vido's frugality left me with the problem at hand. The sad fact was that I basically had three partially automated machine shops, one slightly larger than the other two, whereas I needed a full military-industrial complex. I had hoped in the past that once we gain control of the Acheron Military District I would be able to start funnelling the raw resources from the mines directly to the processing plants and from there to shipyards. It would allow us to get a head-start on the military build-up in preparation for Sovereign and his metallic creepers. The Reapers, the creepers – you get the joke? Yeah, it wasn't very funny and my current situation even less so.

Lieutenant-Commander Loray kept a very tight order in her mining operations so they were a non-issue, and besides they generated steady profit by delivering raw materials directly to Valdorf Metalworks. The situation with the shipyards was much more intricate than that, seeing as the business itself was much more complicated.

All three facilities were managed by the Blue Suns finest. And by that I mean the meanest, the most greedy and selfish individuals on this side of the multiverse. Lieutenant-Commander Orelan in the true fashion of a former naval officer didn't concern himself with the particulars of running the shipyards and delegated it to his underlings. As long as his demands were met and the proverbial trains were running on time he didn't look into the invoices too hard and he left the lower tiers of management to numerous lower-ranked mercenaries.

These men and women were from three different races and came from different corners of the galaxy, but they had one thing in common – their love for office politics. They were constantly jockeying for the positions of power within the managerial ranks going as far as sabotaging 'competing' projects and waging battles over the resources from Vido's tight budget. It was the Confederacy's IDD and the Security Branch all over again, turned up to eleven with much more malice and much fewer false smiles. These were the people who saw nothing wrong with profiteering from slave trade so it didn't surprise me in the slightest.

My issue was that I had to step into this veritable Roman palace where backstabbing was the rule of the day and turn it into a well-oiled production line. It was to be the beginning of the military-industrial complex, which in few years' time had to be supplying weaponry for the Reaper War. And that was just the production of the starships. It would have been perfect if we managed to fight the Reapers to a standstill in space, but I had no illusions about it. They would make planetfall on multiple occasions and we needed to kick-start and expand the production of armoured vehicles, personal weaponry, tube-launched and barrelled artillery. Additionally, we would need all of the boring stuff that actually keeps the army running – technical support vehicles, lorries, communication equipment as well as steady supply of spare parts and Helium-3 for fusion reactors. Acheron was the best place for the production hub that I had in mind, being out of Citadel Space and their restrictive laws, but it was a long way from being one yet.

Having said all that, I had no doubt in mind that it would fall to Zaeed Massani and most likely Commander Tarak to manage the production, whether they liked it or not. I still had to maintain the Confederacy's espionage network, which I hadn't even begun to put together. Nevertheless, it was no use crying over spilt milk. As Major Sharpe once said: If I wanted everything on a silver platter I should have joined the Army – the Security Branch make-do.

I conferred with Zaeed Massani and Lieutenant-Commander Orelan and they called up the board meeting in the small conference room where we met previously. The word spread through the Blue Suns communication network that all managers from all three conversion shipyards are to be there at once.

Even the corporate ladder climbers have to stand and jump when their boss tells them, so soon they were all seated at the tables, looking apprehensive at Zaeed's and mine presence.

Zaeed stood at the head of the table, looking quite splendid in his brand new Blue Suns armour, which contrasted rather strongly with his rough face. He addressed the gathered mercenaries in a straightforward manner.

"Some of you might know me and some of you might not. My name is Zaeed Massani and I have recently returned to the Blue Suns to take the position of the Co-Executive Officer in Vido Santiago's place. Mr. Santiago is sadly no longer in our company but his wise decisions and valuable input will be sorely missed."

I looked around the room and saw that Zaeed had their full attention now, especially since Quintus Orelan stood by his side and nodded solemnly every so often. They weren't stupid and the word travelled fast – they knew what happened to Vido and they knew that Solem Dal'Serah accepted the changeover. Office jockeys or not, these men and women were battle-hardened mercenaries at one point or another and they respected Zaeed's strength. They also respected the money that Massani brought with him.

"With new management we will have new policies in place for the whole company and we aim, among other things, to reshape the current shipbuilding capabilities of our firm. There will be more money coming in to invest in your facilities as we wish to convert them to proper dry-docks that will be able to produce warships on a mass scale. I have already spoken with Lieutenant-Commander Orelan and he will explain it to you in detail."

I admit that I was surprised. The old man was much more cunning than I originally gave him credit for. He used the carrot of the money influx to gain their attention, but he also showed them that many things would stay the same, by including their direct superior in the meeting. It gave the mercenaries the impression that if they played by the new rules they have a strong chance to retain their cushy office positions that they worked so hard to achieve. Maybe the word 'worked' was not exactly correct in this instance. 'Plotted' was much more appropriate.

Orelan nodded with appreciation at Zaeed and cleared his throat.

"As many of you know, Vido Santiago's financial plan was to keep the repairs and conversion facilities for the sole purpose of maintaining our fleet and doing odd jobs for private customers. That in itself is changing completely as we expand our operations. The funding from the budget will be used for merging all three facilities into one conglomerate. We will be cooperating in it and receive new workers and equipment to improve our construction capabilities which will allow us to not only to construct our own ships, but also maintain our much expanded fleet. In the future we might find ourselves in a situation where we will need to use any means at our disposal to fulfil our ongoing contract and that requires a large fleet of warships, including dreadnoughts and carriers."

The gathered mercenaries were mesmerized by the vision Orelan presented, but I noticed that many of them seemed rather excited at the prospect of such a huge expansion. Meanwhile, the turian looked around with a severe expression and his flanged voice carried a tone of warning.

"I know that many of you had been demoralized by Santiago's cuts, but as he left the company so did his financial strategy. From now on there will be no helping oneself to the company's money or equipment. There will be no sabotaging other projects. All invoices and paperwork will be in order and accounted for. Each and every employee will be presented with the development plan, which will also allow him to choose the desired career path. Promotions will be secured within the company by the transparent assessment system and a committee decision."

Zaeed grinned at their now dismayed expressions and added to Orelan's speech.

"Anyone who finds these new conditions unacceptable may consider his or her contract terminated and is free to join Mr. Santiago in looking for the new employment opportunities outside of the Blue Suns."

Knowing Santiago's ultimate fate ensured that all gathered mercenaries clearly understood the double meaning of Massani's words. The turian officer shared Zaeed's predator smile and added to his warning.

"Of course, you will prefer to stay since the management is planning to give a significant raise to all its old employees."

Those two crafty buggers! I was fully prepared that I would have to enter this nest of vipers and convince and bribe everyone to finally start doing their work. It seemed like Zaeed's and Orelan's heavy-handed approach provided much better results, though. With the right mix of the carrot and the stick they convinced the gathered mercs that it was in their best interest to go honest with the company immediately, lest they risk sharing unlamented Vido's fate. Yeah, it was the approach more akin to the Soviet NKVD – do as we say or else we shoot you in the head – but I couldn't argue with the merit of such method, seeing who we were dealing here with.

All in all, the side effect of my meddling in the Mass Effect galaxy's affairs was that the Blue Suns were being effectively re-purposed. What was previously a galactic semi-legal conglomerate was slowly turning to be a quasi-state. It would take years before they became self-sufficient to any significant degree, but we had already taken the first steps toward it and the late Vido Santiago provided us with a solid base to build upon. To be completely honest I had no real choice in that matter. Someone had to police the Terminus Systems in the meantime to make sure that when the Reapers come the resources of the Terminus would be fully utilized in the war effort. It might as well be the Blue Suns, knowing that they are on my payroll.

I would have to tread carefully, knowing that it was sure to upset the balance in the region, especially if (or rather – when) the other mercenary groups and the Queen of Omega herself get involved. But that was for later and I was fairly certain that we could take them on when that day came. As far as I was concerned Aria could keep Omega to herself as long as we could keep the tabs on the Collectors there. And as for the other mercenary companies, they wouldn't be able to do jack shit against the Blue Suns after they received the Confederacy's funding and know-how.

There was still the issue with the Batarian Hegemony. I now had access to numerous Batarians and many of them could be persuaded with the just right amount of money and threats to spy for me in Hegemony space. That would provide me with valuable insight into their administrative structure, which then could be used by the Security Branch to destabilize the system and replace it with something more useful to my plans and to the war effort. In the Mass Effect games the Hegemony was infiltrated by the Reaper agents early on and subsequently conquered by the Reapers. The batarians failed to contribute in any significant quantities apart from the remnants of their fleet.

Believe it or not, but it was the manner in which they contributed that gave me hope for these people. Any other race that Shepard met on his or her travels had certain conditions that had to be fulfilled before they joined the Allied Fleet. Some of them were reasonable, others not so much but the matter remained that it was a barter exchange. Ashley Williams in the first Mass Effect was right all along – when push came to shove humanity had to stand alone until certain conditions were met. The only exception to this rule were the most unlikely people, who had no love lost for humanity – the batarians. The batarian commander hated Shepard for what he (or she) did at Bahak, but he hated the Reapers even more and he grudgingly committed his meagre forces to fight, showing that they knew that some things were more important than others.

The current situation with the Hegemony was untenable and something had to be done about it fast, otherwise the story will simply repeat itself. I had to find a figure that could rally the Batarians against their own incompetent leaders and replace them with people who would put their economy on the right tracks, remove the slavery system and find some sort of rapprochement with the Citadel so they could present a united front against the Reapers when the time came.

It was a grand plan and it had a very large potential for failure, but I was rather emboldened by the Blue Suns coup d'état that Zaeed and I pulled off. I was still afraid of juggling too many responsibilities, but something had to be done. I decided that I would use the means at my disposal to strike at the Hegemony from the shadows. But I needed someone who could lead after the batarian revolution started, someone that they could follow.

I needed my own Fidel Castro to lead the revolution. I needed someone resourceful and respected, but who could also understand the big picture and what was at stake. I needed a competent military officer and there was a man like that in the Hegemony's army. The downside was that he hated humans with a singular passion, which would drive him in a few years to drop an asteroid on Terra Nova.

I needed Ka'hairal Balak. Finding him would not be a problem, but convincing him to join me of all people was a whole different matter.

Of course, if he had any living family he cared about then it would make it much easier. People become much more malleable when they know that the lives of their loved ones depend on them.

END OF CHAPTER 8

A/N: The next stop is Citadel, where our hero will finally start working on his espionage network and he will meet a very important source of information. Stay tuned for the Chapter 9 of the Multiverse Effect!

If you have any questions or feedback, please do not hesitate to leave review.

Have a good one!