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 10 for your enjoyment. Balak is alive and now Dubois wants to talk to him. Believe me - he won't be pulling any punches in this one, so readers' discretion is advised. This part is about 5,6k words long. Hope you enjoy it!
My beta is still the one and the only Redentor
Acheron Shipbuilding Co. TAETRUS FIELDS facility
Planet Acheron (LV-426)
Hourglass Nebula
Earth Year: 2172
The Blue Suns were kind enough to provide me with a small warehouse for the purpose of keeping our 'guest' locked up and under constant surveillance. It was nothing fancy, but it suited my purposes just fine. The building was a generic pre-fab that you could find anywhere in the galaxy – it would keep Balak from identifying his surroundings. Additionally, the warehouse was soundproofed in the factory. No matter what we did with the batarian, nothing could be heard outside and the other way around, which suited me just fine. We had CCTV cameras installed inside the building to monitor our prisoner. An experienced and well-trained individual like Ka'hairal Balak would surely have undergone the batarian equivalent of SERE training so we wanted to look into his behaviour and find some sort of pattern in his daily routine when he was up and walking again.
When I entered the building the first person I saw was the Specialist Jean-Pierre Dessalines. I was rather surprised to see the dark-skinned doctor here, knowing that most of my squad was usually in Confederacy space.
"Hello there, doc. What are you doing here?"
Our medical specialist looked up from his terminal and, recognizing me, he stood up and saluted respectfully. The Security Branch rules still applied – when Dessalines attended in his capacity as a Medical Doctor I addressed him accordingly. When we were in the field, he was simply Specialist Dessalines.
"Good morning, lieutenant. Lox requested my assistance in dealing with the prisoner, seeing as he lacked the necessary expertise in that area. We worked together on waking up our esteemed guest."
His Haitian-like accent was as pronounced as ever. I knew that the good doctor could speak perfect English if he desired to, but I had a strong suspicion that he secretly enjoyed mangling the words and making the Anglos cringe with his French quips. I didn't really mind it, knowing that we all dealt with stress in our own way. As far as the personal quirks went, his were rather harmless especially when compared to my cigarettes and booze – I thought disparagingly.
"Thanks for dropping by, Jean-Pierre. Although when you finally accept an officer's commission I will be the one saluting you, I think," I said with a wide smile.
I approached him and we shook hands.
"I'm only thirty four, lieutenant. I won't let them put me behind a desk. There is still much good that I can do in the field, non?"
"Well, I'm definitely not sitting behind a desk, doc," I said wistfully, wishing for the job that I previously viewed with utter contempt.
I wondered sometimes about a cushy clerk position in the General Staff of some rear echelon unit. Just sipping on cappuccinos all day, wearing my Grade A dress blacks to pick up girls and counting the days until an early retirement. A disposable clone can dream, huh?
"Well, yes – you seem to hog all the excitement for yourself, lieutenant. But for people like me or Sergeant Polyakov promotion would mean placement in some Lord-forsaken base. Merci beaucoup, but I will pass."
I felt rather guilty that I didn't have much time to actually hang out with my squad like we did in the past back at Camp Bravo Two. They were a nice bunch, but my duties kept me in the Mass Effect Galaxy, so our meetings consisted mostly of planning and executing operations. It wasn't very often that we could talk about the more mundane stuff.
Still, the work as always comes first. We turned back to the terminal and Jean-Pierre used his omni tool to adjust the view. The screen showed us the feed from the camera installed in the batarian's cell. Ka'hairal was sitting on the hospital bed and thankfully he was looking better than I imagined. I smirked; Balak was one tough son-of-a-bitch and no mere coma would bring him down. I was elated nonetheless that my thoughtless manhandling hadn't left a lasting damage.
"How is he doing, doc?" I asked watching the batarian. He was aware that he was being watched and he didn't move at all.
"Our visitor extra-terrestre seems to be the quiet type. He doesn't move at all and he doesn't talk to anyone."
The doctor's casual tone put me on alert. I didn't want them to get too relaxed around Balak. He was an elite commando and was as ruthless as they came.
I turned to the dark-skinned specialist and said forcefully, "Do not, I repeat, do not underestimate our prisoner. He is a highly-trained Special Forces operative and he will not hesitate to capitalize on any weakness that you show him. Have you been following my instructions so far?"
"Yes, lieutenant. All personnel who enter his holding cell wear full body armour and cover their faces with helmets at all times. Helmets with four-eye pieces. Knowing the similarities in body silhouette between us and them it might as well be that he is not yet aware that he had been captured by humans."
I smiled.
"Good, I want to keep it that way. Give our prisoner food and water, but do not engage in any interactions whatsoever. I will be the only one that talks to him."
Dessalines nodded wordlessly as he typed on his computer terminal, his 'doctor-mode' in full swing right now. He wrote a short annotation in his opened document and asked me without looking up.
"Lieutenant, do you want me to prescribe any drugs to our prisoner?"
"Good question, I haven't really considered that until now. Have we got any mood-altering medication that can be safely consumed by a batarian?"
"There are quite a few pharmaceuticals that would produce similar effects on both batarians and humans. Batarians are levo-aminoacidic omnivores and they have iron-based blood just like we do, even if theirs is a shade darker. Despite the obvious phenotypic differences between our two species, like the number of eyes or the skin tissue, I would say that on a genetic level we have much more in common with the batarians than say, with the asari. I'm not a geneticist by trade, obviously, but it has the potential for a scientific prize at least. During my work on reviving Balak from his coma I also took time to forward some of my findings to Dr. Vassilevskiy from the Interactive Dislocation Department – I believe that you two are acquainted. He is a leading specialist on the Confederacy sanctioned genome research project and they were all rather curious about the specimen that we acquired."
Dessalines hesitated slightly, wondering whether he had said too much.
"We received no prior warning that this project was classified besides the obvious fact that we are unlawfully detaining a Batarian Hegemony's citizen. Have I overstepped my boundaries, monsieur?"
To be perfectly honest I didn't really care whether the information on the batarian gene-mapping was sent to IDD or not, seeing as it was probably common knowledge in the Mass Effect galaxy. The Confederacy's academic circles would get their hands on it one way or the other since, as per Confederacy's laws, as long as the information wasn't specifically classified then it was public knowledge.
"That's fine, doc. As long as the data that you gather is purely scientific in nature I have no problem with you sharing the information with your colleagues," I said amiably, desperately wanting to change the topic, as I knew that once you allowed Dessalines to talk about the minutiae of medical science then he would talk your ears off, and as much as I usually enjoyed discussing such things this was simply too much. I hoped that he and Mordin Solus never meet.
The good doctor seemed to catch my drift though and cleared his throat.
"Right… the drugs. Seeing as we only have a very basic understanding of the subject's physiology I would strongly advise against using the more invasive nanotech solutions. We simply don't know enough about batarian brain structure yet and I'm afraid that it could have unwanted side effects. Our nanotech is definitely the most potent in regards to mood-altering but I think it should be considered a last resort, lieutenant."
"What about Mass Effect drugs? Like Red Sand?"
"I'm afraid that Red Sand does not work on batarians, lieutenant. Red Sand in the Hegemony is used by the non-batarian population. As for the other drugs used in Sub-verse Number 524 I unfortunately do not have enough knowledge about them to safely prescribe them to our prisoner."
"Alright, fair enough. What do you suggest then, doc?"
Dessalines opened another document on his terminal and quickly scanned its contents.
"Lox and I did the preliminary examination of our subject, prior to Commander Balak waking up. It strongly indicates that he would be susceptible to anti-psychotic pharmaceuticals much like the human detainees. Small doses of such chemicals could put him in a state of confusion, which in turn would make him more malleable to emotional manipulation, lieutenant."
I pursed my lips in thought.
"Are you sure that there will be no side-effects, Jean-Pierre? I don't want Balak to go into anaphylactic shock or something, if batarians turn out to be allergic to our drugs. He is vital to the plans put together by the General Staff, and me putting him in a coma was already cutting it too close."
The dark-skinned medical specialist massaged his face with a sigh.
"I'm sorry lieutenant, but I can't give you a one hundred percent guarantee. The simulations that Lox and I have done so far indicate that everything should be just fine, but there is always a chance..." he trailed of.
Yep, I knew that Murphy could be an asshole like that. Once again, I had to make a choice that could make me or break me so to speak. A drugged Balak was a confused Balak and confused Balak was more likely to lead our little, batarian revolution. On the other hand we'd already nearly lost him once and it was entirely because of me. My previous failure could have been excused by the general chaos of our extraction, but now I had to take full responsibility for my decision. Two mess-ups in a row was damning evidence.
Fuck it. It had to be done one way or the other. I nodded to myself and said, "Dope him up, doc. Make sure that you give him small doses and keep monitoring his vitals at all times. The last thing I want is for Balak to get addicted to drugs while in our custody."
Dessalines responded promptly.
"Yes, sir. I will dissolve the medication in his drinking water. He won't even be aware that he's acting under the influence."
I nodded, acknowledging his answer and walked to the other room, which had the main control station. There we had a large screen that showed us the live feed from the various cameras installed inside Balak's cell.
It was rather cramped, roughly five by five meters, because we only had so much space in the pre-fab warehouse. It contained a small bed and an even smaller table. Neither of them could be moved as they were welded to the floor, because I wanted to prevent the prisoner from acquiring improvised weapons or attempting suicide with them. Perhaps that was going a bit too far, but I couldn't risk it.
The cell had only one door and it was shut. It also led to another room where we had two chairs and a small table, which would be our interrogation room. The prisoner's chair was again welded to the floor and it had additional protrusions that would allow me to tie the prisoner up if necessary. I'd prefer to avoid that if I could, but better to be safe than sorry.
I sat in the control room in a comfortable armchair and looked at the sitting Balak. I wanted to let him steam a little inside before talking to him and besides, I still had to wait for the good doctor to administer the drugs. We fed our prisoner at regular intervals for the time being, but should he prove to be less than cooperative that could very well change.
I stretched my legs and rested them on the control panel, taking extra care not to step on any buttons or holographic keys. Knowing that I had at least a couple of hours to spare I took out my holo-tablet and turned it on. A quick online search revealed a website, which was streaming assorted television series for a small fee. I recently got addicted to one of the asari soap operas – 'Hyetiana Hotel' – and religiously watched every episode. The plot was rather straightforward: it took place in a small hotel on Illium that was visited by all types of random characters. There was a standing cast that got up to various shenanigans and kept falling in love with each other and other people. The writing in it was so bad and cheesy that it actually felt good to watch it for some cheap laughs. Recently my life was so hectic and dangerous that this stupid television series gave me a much needed dose of normalcy. Well, if you counted getting pregnant or seduced every other episode normal.
And besides, I was strongly rooting for the asari waitress, Catriona T'Visah, to finally notice the, admittedly rather clumsy, advances of her krogan admirer. I agreed with her that krogan's choice of employment as a Blood Pack chief enforcer left much to be desired. But still, couldn't she see that Brax was the proverbial Jerk with the Heart of Gold, who truly loved her? He spent half of his salary to help the Illium orphanage, after all. All these love manoeuvres were rather embarrassing, but they made for a compelling story. Well... not really. But with everything that had been going around lately and with the long hours spent aboard the 'Coronado', the cheesy dialogues and the awkward lovemaking scenes were my salvation as they kept me from going completely insane.
'I can't believe that I used to hate soap operas. I was young and foolish.' I thought ironically as I sat comfortably and opened a can of soda. That was one way to waste a couple of hours.
I sat in the uncomfortable metal chair in the interrogation room. Thankfully, I wore my full Interceptor armour both to obscure my face and silhouette as well as to guarantee my protection in case Balak got any ideas. I was trained by the best, but the first lesson I learned as a Security Branch operative was: never underestimate any enemy. On a higher note, wearing my armour meant that I could inflate the padding under my bottom, while Balak would have to endure sitting in the metal chair. I knew it was designed that way to keep the prisoner on the edge, but I swear that an iron maiden was more comfortable.
'If I were truly the Gestapo he would be sitting on an upturned stool,' I thought wryly.
I put my holo-tablet on the simple table and tapped my fingers impatiently. To my silent relief the door to the cell opened and two Security Branch soldiers led our batarian prisoner into the interrogation room. They sat him down unceremoniously and strapped his limbs to the chair. When they were done Balak had enough room to stretch his arms and legs fairly comfortably, but he wouldn't be able to stand up or move towards me unless we removed the polymer flexicuffs first.
I signalled with my finger and two soldiers left without a word. I gave our prisoner a good look.
Despite his imprisonment Balak seemed to be fairly well off. We gave him the right amount of food to keep him stable, but not quite enough to make the hunger fully go away. Everything, from the uncomfortable chair to lack of food was calculated to keep our prisoner on the edge and make him more susceptible to manipulation. If I wanted to break Balak and have him spill the beans it would be relatively simple. But to convince him to join our side – that was much trickier.
"Your name, surname and rank," I said curtly. My voice was distorted on purpose by my armoured suit's speaker to hide my identity for now.
Batarian looked at me and responded.
"Ka'hairal Balak, Commander."
I jotted down the name on my report. While it was rather redundant since I already knew who he was, the formalities had to be observed. Carte Blanche was all well and good, but the paperwork had to be in order at all times.
"Commander Balak, your last place of deployment was the External Forces facility 'Aratoht Gamma' on the Aratoht colony world, is that correct?"
This time Balak didn't respond. Not that I expected him to, since the base officially did not exist.
"Is that correct?!" I raised my voice slightly to indicate my irritation.
"I can't answer that question," He said simply.
"You don't have to answer this question; we already know that you were there," I told him in a dismissive manner.
I typed in something on my holo-tablet and turned the display his way to show him the burned out ruins of the facility. It seemed that our infiltration-turned-sabotage went even better than expected when the External Forces fuel dumps caught fire. Of course, Balak was not aware of that seeing as he was unconscious most of the time.
"You have made quite a mess, commander," My tone was light, almost conversation-like. We might have as well been discussing the weather. "Your traitorous actions cost the Hegemony dearly, but you failed to get away."
Balak scanned the few pictures. He hid it well, but I noticed that he was shaken by the destruction. Aratoht was pretty much one of the Hegemony's core worlds and as such it was considered to be a relatively safe planet. Balak also seemed to think that I was a batarian, possibly an Internal Police Force officer – which was exactly what I'd been going for, by wearing full body armour and ordering others to do so as well. Still, when he answered his voice remained calm.
"I was assaulted by an NCO with an unknown accomplice who arrived with my marching orders. I was not aware that there was any damage done to the Aratoht Gamma facility, let alone that I could be the man behind it. Since I am with you would it be safe to assume that my captors were apprehended as well?"
I banged my hand on the table with a considerable force. It was rather satisfying to see that Balak flinched ever so slightly. Even army officers feared the Internal Police Force and it also seemed that the drugs were starting to take their toll on our prisoner.
"You do not get to ask questions, commander! We are here to discuss the treason that you have committed!" I yelled, my voice distorted by the speaker.
Treason, real or imagined, was one of the most serious offences in the Batarian Hegemony's military. With how paranoid the batarian establishment was, treason was a tool that was often used to get back at political enemies as it guaranteed a lengthy prison sentence at the very least.
"I did not commit any treason…" He started once again, but I interrupted him.
"Your traitorous actions were despicable. They resulted in the destruction of Hegemony property and the deaths of nearly a hundred of our valiant soldiers. You can rest assured that you and your family will pay for it."
Bingo! Balak's aura of calm nonchalance disappeared momentarily when I mentioned his family. I did some background checks on Ka'hairal when I got access to the files that the Batarian Internal Police Force had on him (to keep leverage, I suspected). They were all in agreement that Balak was very strongly devoted to his wife and young daughter. And being held responsible for indirectly killing a hundred men was a very serious offence no matter what position you held previously. When it came to betrayal, Batarian law was literally draconian.
"No, not my family, please…" he stammered, fear evident in his eyes.
"Your wife is in our custody at the moment as is your daughter. If you agree to cooperate with our investigation they will not be harmed. Should you fail to do so, your wife will be personally acquainted with the workings of the mining operations on Aratoht. After your direct sabotage of the Hegemony's efforts our department believes it's a suitable punishment for her. Your daughter of course will be branded and sold. His Excellency the Hegemon himself found her rather… interesting."
There were rumours going around that the batarian Hegemon had a taste for young children. I personally doubted that they were true, but for now it suited me just fine. Meanwhile, Balak's skin turned a rather interesting shade of light grey. The combination of diluted drugs and a threat to his family was getting to him.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, sir! Whatever I might have done, my family can't be held responsible!" he yelled, panic evident in all four of his eyes.
"You are a traitor to the Hegemony, commander! You are an abolitionist scum and a saboteur!" I shouted at the prisoner.
"But my daughter is only seven years old! She cannot be guilty of any crime!"
I stood up and leaned menacingly toward the shivering batarian. It seemed like our drugs worked even better than expected.
"Everyone's guilty until proven innocent." I said coldly, quoting the proverb often used by the secret police.
I snapped my fingers and the two guards from before dragged the cursing Balak away. He was threatening me one moment and begging me for mercy the second as they deposited him back in the cell. Even knowing with whom I was dealing with here, I still felt like the lowest scum.
'When are you going to stop, Dubois?' asked my treacherous brain, but I studiously ignored it.
Outside of the interrogation room I saw Jean-Pierre. While I spun our web of lies around Ka'hairal, the good doctor was busy monitoring our prisoner's vitals. I took off my helmet and gave him a quizzical look to which he responded with a shrug.
"Everything is in order, lieutenant. Balak is rather distressed, should I provide him with the sedatives?"
I shook my head as I went further, Dessalines falling into step behind me.
"No, let him steam a little bit," I said curtly.
"If you don't mind me asking, lieutenant, but how long do you intend to keep this fiction up?"
"For as long as it's needed, doctor." I responded sharply. "In the meantime I would like to get in touch with Lox and plant some evidence to link Balak to our sabotage effort on Aratoht. It is also imperative that we take his wife and daughter into custody. We will require some leverage in our negotiations."
"Of course, lieutenant. Although, I think that taking his family hostage will make him distrust us even more."
We entered the small control station where we could observe our prisoners. While Dessalines sat down at the control panel and started monitoring the situation in the prison cell I made a beeline towards the equipment locker to leave my cumbersome armour. As I took off my greaves I responded to his sceptical statement.
"We don't need him to trust us, doc. We need him to keep the Hegemony together when we overthrow the current government. I don't expect him to invite me to his daughter's birthday; I just want him to do his job."
Notice that I said 'when' not 'if' as I mentioned the rebellion that we were planning. For all its difficulty I had no illusions that we would prevail. Even if the Hegemony were ultra-competent and undivided (which they weren't) the resources and technologies that we had in our disposal so far gave us a distinct edge. Even in the worst case scenario, we could still funnel money and resources to keep the insurgency in batarian territory alive. Anything to keep the Batarians occupied and away from the Leviathan of Dis, although I couldn't be sure whether they already captured it or not.
I sighed again – so much to do and not enough time. I checked the screens that monitored the interior of the cell. Balak had already stopped trashing about and now lay on his bunk. He was still restrained, but I would soon send men in and take them off – for now I'd let him rethink my threats with the cuffs on. I checked the time on my omni-tool; it was already past 9pm. At that hour we usually turned off the lights in the cell to let our prisoner get some sleep. Not this time.
"Make sure that the main light in Balak's cell is turned on all night long. Increase the brightness to maximum around midnight and keep it up for three hours before you lower it again. I'll see you later doc," I said and left the control room without waiting for his response. I still had a revolution to arrange.
That was a fairly common interrogation tactic – it would keep the prisoner from falling asleep thus messing about with his day and night cycle. I would refrain from using more physical methods of coercion as long as we kept up with the charade of the batarian internal police.
The knuckledusters and thumb-screws would have to wait for now, but I was more than willing to use Balak's family against him. I had no intention of harming them… yet.
I probably should have expected that when I explained my plan to the Blue Suns command.
"You want to do WHAT?" thundered Solem Dal'Serah.
Perhaps I was imagining things, but it seemed like the sheer strength of his voice made the batarian figurines he kept on his desk shake in fear. There was no sign of the haughty lisp from before, because the batarian Co-Executive was positively livid.
"I don't think I misspoke and I'm sure that your translator is working just fine," I answered coldly. I wasn't about to be intimidated by some merc with delusions of grandeur.
"This… this… This is an OUTRAGE!" bellowed Solem. He put a strong emphasis on the last word. Solem's high-caste upbringing was showing now; the man was a natural orator.
He looked around for support, eyeing the people who sat around the table in Argo's now familiar conference room. Zaeed was the only man standing. He was, as always, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed and radiating his I-don't-give-a-damn attitude more than usual. Commander Tarak seemed more preoccupied with his omni-tool than with the proceedings. Lt. Commander Orelan was eyeing me as if I'd grew a second head, his mandibles hanging down in shock, while Lt. Commander Loray was, if it was even possible, scowling more than usual. Once again, she was the first to break the silence.
"Solem, he's going to fucking kill us all," Arien stated plainly.
"This is complete madness, lieutenant," added Quintus Orelan.
"You want to strike against the Hegemony? THE Hegemony?" Solem's voice was quieter now, but no less firm for it. "Commander Loray is right – you will kill us all. The Hegemony will not stand for a PMC fermenting a slave rebellion."
I eyed my detractors coldly before responding.
"Let's make something crystal clear – I'm not asking for your permission. I'm merely informing you of what is going to transpire in the following days. Our enemies are infiltrating the Hegemony as we speak, using the Reaper carcass that the Hegemony found a few years ago. Their personnel are being slowly indoctrinated and the only way to reverse that process is to gain full control of the batarian space and destroy the Leviathan of Dis."
There was no choice in the matter, because time was the only commodity that we didn't have. I had to act fast, and the only way to slow down the indoctrination process of the batarians was to force the Hegemony to divert their resources away from their study of the Reaper. With the forces I had currently at my disposal it could be done in one way only – starting an insurrection in Hegemony space and forcing the regime to shuffle their military forces. Of course, there was no guarantee that a mere threat of civil disobedience and war would make the batarians leave the Reaper for the time being, but I had to take this chance.
"The Hegemony's current political system is inefficient, unstable and in the grand scheme of things completely untenable. As you all know, decisions made by the Batarian Hegemony in the nearest future had resulted in a huge death toll when the Reapers finally struck. For that reason, after much deliberation, the decision had been made by the General Staff of the 213th Infiltration Brigade to engineer a regime change."
I let them chew on that for a moment. Orelan seemed more or less pacified – I guess that my utilitarian approach resonated well with his pragmatic soul. Zaeed already agreed to it, even if he had his own misgivings. Tarak would do as Zaeed said, because he trusted his better judgment. Loray and Dal'Serah were the wild cards still, but it seemed like Arien would support any decision that Solem made. I looked at the batarian Co-Executive as he was quietly steaming.
"Executive Dal'Serah, is there something on your mind?" I asked, making sure to keep my tone neutral.
While I paid all their bills now, sounding patronizing towards the Blue Suns command would have been deeply counterproductive. But despite my careful approach Solem was aggravated nonetheless.
"You seek to destroy the roots of batarian culture, lieutenant! And all of us will be caught in the crossfire, when it blows up!" he shouted.
I raised my hands in a conciliatory manner.
"You're wrong, Solem. I seek to preserve as many batarians as I can. If you have any better ideas, then let's hear them out."
"Tell the Hegemony's Council of Five what you know. Make them understand what a dangerous game they play!" he snarled in response.
"And then what? You know it and I know it that these spoiled idiots don't care whether the galaxy burns or how many of their people die. Even if they believe me that is no guarantee that they will do something about it, rather than save their own sorry arses. I can't take that risk. I need to have strong-willed and competent people in charge of Batarian Space, because in ten years it's going to be a front line."
In fact Solem's idea went through my mind more than once. Unfortunately, the simulations that we did back in Camp Bravo Two, based on our extensive surveillance of the Batarian Hegemony, clearly stated that their current form of governance wasn't flexible enough to stand against the Reapers in the window of time that we had. Besides, there was no way that the Confederacy would allow the slaveocracy like that to exist in their sphere of influence and Mass Effect galaxy was effectively considered one. So I pressed on:
"They were easily willing to throw one of their best naval officers to the wolves for the sake of political convenience, despite having numerous other options. The Council of Five does not think long-term, because they are too busy with their byzantine political games. If we want the batarians to survive as a species, then we need a strong executive power, which will have the support of the masses, not a barely competent autocracy."
That definitely sounded more to Solem's liking. I also noticed that Arien Loray's eyes perked up. I had their full focus now and decided to milk it for what it was worth.
"What do you have in mind, lieutenant?" asked Das'Maral Tarak, clearly interested.
I activated my omni-tool and it displayed a dark red banner with yellow markings. It had the logo of the Batarian State Arms Corporation in the middle, surrounded by four stars. This coat of arms was enveloped by a laurel wreath similar to the one on the long-defunct United Nations flag.
"Lo and behold," I said jokingly. "The Union of Batarian Solidarist States. Single-party, capitalistic technocracy using revolutionary and socialist rhetoric. This is the idea that will win us the support of the masses and will allow rapprochement with the Citadel Council and the Systems Alliance. When the time comes we will be able to not only present a united front against the Reapers, but we are sure to drive them back where they came from," I lied through my teeth with a million-dollar smile, akin to a used car salesman.
Solem sighed and nodded his acquiescence. He and Zaeed immediately started discussing the particulars of the deployment of their batarian assets, while I shared with them some files that I'd compiled so far. It included the information on the proposed government type, changes to the economic system, possible expansion of the military forces and political alliances that could be made in the future. While they sorted through the files that I gave them, I closed my eyes so they wouldn't see the cold terror that I felt.
The Blue Suns and Zaeed might have received bits and pieces on the Reapers and their capabilities, but I kept the full Intel on them in my newly-upgraded brain. Our chances were slim at best as it was, but I had to give it my best shot. As I frequently reminded myself – doing nothing was criminal.
'Shepard,' I thought grimly, still smiling an insincere smile as I nodded at Arien Loray. 'I will give you the fighting chance that you didn't have before. That is a promise.'
END OF CHAPTER 10
A/N: And thus concludes the Chapter 10 of our story. Hope you liked it and please stay tuned for some more of Multiverse Effect, which should come sooner than you fear and later than you hope.
Have a good one!
RosoMC